Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

  • · Blender Wiring: master volume / master tone / blender

    Votes: 17 35.4%

  • · Vintage Wiring: master volume / neck tone / middle tone

    Votes: 9 18.8%

  • · Modern Wiring: master volume / neck tone / middle+bridge tone

    Votes: 9 18.8%

  • · Master Volume / Master tone with phase switch for parallel-series control

    Votes: 2 4.2%

  • · Jimmie Vaughan Mod: Master volume / neck tone /bridge tone with middle pickup hot/not controlled

    Votes: 11 22.9%
  • Total voters
    48
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

I wld deffiintly like full tonal controls. I find my self abit handy capped with no tone controls on the bridge of my strat.I turn the tone totaly off on my neck, set the middle to blend with the tone of the neck and bridge.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

FretFire said:
Oh yeah, the blend pot I got for my project strat isn't a Fralin, it's actually made by CTS.
Click to expand...

Lindy is not a pot manufacturer. He orders the Fralin Blender Pot from CTS and it is made to his specs.

Before that, he disassembled CTS pots, created a no load pot and made them himself. Now CTS makes them for him by the 1000's.

Lindy is the sole inventor of the Blender Pot.

As far as the concept applies to 3 pickups guitars, it is 100% his invention. If it's patentable, he should patent it.

Lew
 
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Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Not a problem and no need for an apology. My names not Lindy! :laugh2:

It did seem like a patentable idea though and it's probably to late now...
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Kyuss_Rock said:
but for a normal strat, im a vintage man myself. I think Leo got it right first time.
Click to expand...

+1. I like being able to roll off the tone on the neck & middle pickups, and then switch to a hot, loud, bright bridge pickup.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

JB_From_Hell said:
+1. I like being able to roll off the tone on the neck & middle pickups, and then switch to a hot, loud, bright bridge pickup.
Click to expand...

+2

Good enough for Magic Sam, good enough for me. :)
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Lewguitar said:
The most versatile Strat I've ever owned is the one I came up with yesterday:

neck and middle SSL-1 or Surfer single coils
bridge Tapped Tele Hot.

Master volume and push/pull master tone pot to select vintage or hot output from the bridge pickup.

Schaller 5 way mega switch. Neck and middle combined in the #3 position instead of middle pickup alone.

I get 8 killer tones from this guitar and can combine the 6.6K bridge pickup output with the neck or middle pickup for classic Dire Straits and Bell Bottem Blues tones and then switch to the 9.5K output for a hotter, thicker tone for soloing and for pushing my amp into overdrive more easily.

Highly recommended!
Click to expand...

I really like my JV set-up...I am not a big fan of the blender pot set-up, I do not like any type of knob to turn on pickups in any way...im just strange that way. But this set up Lew has mentioned here sounds like a good one, I have been thinking about doing something like this in my Tele with the tap on the bridge pup, so I can just go back to a 3 position switch...I do like this though!
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Lewguitar said:
No he didn't. :laugh2:

Mistake 1: Three 6K - 6.3K pickups results in a thin and ice picky bridge pickup.

Leo should have gone with a 9K or hotter bridge pickup like Seymour uses in the Surfer set.

Mistake 2: Leo should have used a 5 way switch and not a 3 way switch right from the get go. Leo never used a 5 way during the time he owned Fender...always a 3 way.

Mistake 3: Leo should have gone with a RW/RP middle pickup for humcancelling in the #2 and #4 switch positions.

Mistake 4: Leo should have connected the second tone control to the bridge pickup...not the middle pickup.

Mistake 5: This is personal preference but .047 is to big for a tone cap. .02 leaves more mids in the signal when the tone control is turned down and I much prefer the .02 value.
Click to expand...


I couldn't have said it better myself!
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Looks like we're on the same page tone and taste-wise Lew!
Good tone at that!

Lewguitar said:
All you need to replace your current 5 way with a Schaller Magaswitch to get the neck and bridge combined. You won't have your middle pickup alone anymore but hardly anyone uses the middle pickup alone anyway.

All three on at the same time can be acheived with a Fralin Blender Pot, but all three on is not a great tone, IMO.
Click to expand...

I could do this with a push pull volume pot right? Where can i get the schems for that? I actually love my middle pickup tone! Snappy, but smooth with the tone rolled down....
 
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Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Then go for the master volume, master tone and Blender pot.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/blendschem2.jpg

Use a .02 cap instead of the .002 cap shown. If you want to try the "volume kit" you can buy the resistor and cap for $1. from Radio Shack.

I don't use the "volume kit". To retain highs and keep the guitar from getting muddy when the volume control is turned down I do the "50's Mod": just connect your tone control to the output jack or middle terminal of the volume pot.

Lew
 
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Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Yep, that's what I have wired up in my Strat body right now Lew. Master vol/tone/blend and the 50's mod.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Lewguitar said:
Mistake 4: Leo should have connected the second tone control to the bridge pickup...not the middle pickup.
Click to expand...

I see your point with some of the other mistakes, but really disagree with this one. Of course, I've never liked any bridge pickup with a tone knob.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

What I'd really like is Neck Vol/ Bridge+ Mid Vol/Master Tone. Is this doable?
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

I don't have one favorite exactly, but I really like to have the neck & bridge pups combined somehow. Also, single coils in series can be really cool.

Here's one approach:

Master Volume/Master Tone (aka treble cut) / Master Bass Cut like G&L's

Pos 1: Bridge
2: Bridge & middle in parallel
3: Bridge & neck in series
4: Neck & middle in parallel
5: Neck

I've got more complicated control layouts in both of my Strats, but these are the positions I use the most. Simple is good too. If you scroll down here: http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/hastings/index.php to the last mod by Hastings, you'll see a really elegant way to get these pickup selections with a standard Strat selector switch.

The bass cut is really nice, especially if your guitar has 1 or more humbuckers in it.

My MIM Strat is wired with Master Volume/Master Tone/Dial-A-Tap, with the last pot controlling the amount of tap off the Quarter Pound in the bridge. That's really useful too.

Chip
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

XSSIVE said:
where can i find more info on the EXG or buy one? this looks like something i'd like to try. can that be wired...master volume, master tone and EXG?

-Mike
Click to expand...


EMG sells the EXG control seperately and can be used with pretty much any EMG pickup and control set.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

I'm putting together a Warmoth Strat using the old Fender Jeff Beck setup. S,S,H, with a push push dpdt splitter. The pots are CTS 250kOhm with the above mentioned Acme volume mod, Sprague caps and a TBX. So it's Vol/Tone/TBX. The push/push splits the humbucker into s-coil bridge, s-coil bridge/mid, bucker, bucker/mid etc. So you can be chunking along in outta phase chop and hit the button to pop the second coil back in for solo's without touching the volume knob. JB knew what he wanted as well as what worked.
 
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Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

I've been praising the master volume/ master tone/ blend schem for a while and to me it does pretty much everything I could ask for.

Great poll and I learned some things along the way! The only thing I can add is that Eric Johnson has his own unique knob setup too... it goes master volume/ neck tone/ bridge tone.
 
Re: Most popular Strat Controls Schemes

Another trick that is easily accomplished if you have a master volume and master tone is to solder the connection to the tone control to the middle terminal of the volume pot or to the hot terminal of the output jack. When you turn down the volume control you will retain more highs and your overall tone will be clearer and less muffled. Lew
 
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