opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

tone4days

tone4days

Heel Whacker
i have become quite happily addicted to using the 2 volume knobs on my H-H (2T/2T) guitar to make the volume/gain switching between lead/rhythm parts as simple as flicking the 3-way switch

so much so that when i play my EJ strat, S-S-S (1V / 2T), i miss the convenience

so i am considering (3) dual-concentric pots to give each of the single coil pickups its own volume and tone control

if i wired each pickup to its own V/T pots then the output of those to the 5 way switch, would i get any weird interactions that would make this suboptimal?

thoughts?

thanks
t4d
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

The way that the CRL five-way selector switch works has a bearing on which volume pot(s) will be operating for any given selector switch position. If both volume controls are in circuit simultaneously, whichever is rolled off the more will determine the overall output level of your guitar. (Just like the middle selection on some Gibson Les Pauls.)
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

Funkfingers said:
The way that the CRL five-way selector switch works has a bearing on which volume pot(s) will be operating for any given selector switch position. If both volume controls are in circuit simultaneously, whichever is rolled off the more will determine the overall output level of your guitar. (Just like the middle selection on some Gibson Les Pauls.)
Click to expand...

yeah, just like on my H-H guitar now

kinda expected that ... will have to think through if that is a problem or not ...

thanks

any other thoughts?
cheers,
t4d
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

tone4days said:
any other thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yes. Just this.

The older I get, the more I appreciate how much that Leo Fender, Ted McCarty et al got right in the first instance.

On the EJ Strat, the bridge PU gets a tone control. The only other things that I might want to change are the tone control capacitor value and the bridge pickup. (My taste is for something slightly hotter.)
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

My biased suggestion, as someone who appreciates the Strat V-T-T layout, is to forget this idea. However, if you're intent on pursuing it, I have a few thoughts.

Dual concentric controls have quite a different feel to them, one which you may not like if you reach for the volume knob quite often (which is what I do). If you're more of a "set it and forget it" person, this probably won't matter to you.

If you want to maintain the Strat knob feel and also allow for some tone sculpting, I have an alternate suggestion: use the Gretsch tone switch instead of a tone knob. This is a three-way toggle switch that has two caps on it. Middle position is no tone control. Switch down has a low-end cut (this may not be useful in a Strat). Switch up has a treble cut like a standard tone control. You could add one or three of these to your pickguard, depending on how much tone control you need.
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

thanks, guys ...

yeah, your points are what has kept me from 'just doing' it

the thing that keeps me coming back to it is how much i have adapted the 'pickup switch as gain control' approach on the H-H 2V/2T guitar ... it is so cool to me to be able to set the volume knob of one pickup to the 'sweet spot' and control clean/dirty tones for rhythm playing with just picking hand dynamics and then have the other volume knob way open to just flick it to take a solo ... so my V and T knobs become 'set and forget', making concentric not an issue as i envision it ...

with a strat, i have to flick the switch and adjust the 1V knob all in the space of a beat to do the same

we'll see ... i tend to use the notch positions for both rhythm and lead, so i fear the limitation described above would be the fly in the ointment ...

good points so far - anyone else have opinions on this kinda thing?

cheers
t4d
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

tone4days said:
thanks, guys ...

yeah, your points are what has kept me from 'just doing' it

the thing that keeps me coming back to it is how much i have adapted the 'pickup switch as gain control' approach on the H-H 2V/2T guitar ... it is so cool to me to be able to set the volume knob of one pickup to the 'sweet spot' and control clean/dirty tones for rhythm playing with just picking hand dynamics and then have the other volume knob way open to just flick it to take a solo ... so my V and T knobs become 'set and forget', making concentric not an issue as i envision it ...

with a strat, i have to flick the switch and adjust the 1V knob all in the space of a beat to do the same

we'll see ... i tend to use the notch positions for both rhythm and lead, so i fear the limitation described above would be the fly in the ointment ...

good points so far - anyone else have opinions on this kinda thing?

cheers
t4d
Click to expand...

Hey, if nothing else, you'd have a truly unique instrument that exactly meets your needs. Plus it's very simple to undo if you decide you don't like it.
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

I think it would be very simple to wire up.
Just take the output wires from the individual
stacked V/T pots to their normal positions
on the 5 way switch and directly out from there
to the output.

Theoretically it should work:cool2:
 
Re: opinions welcome on a strat wiring idea ...

There are countless ways to hook up pickups and controls...it is just what you want to have for settings and controls. So, if you have to choose exactly what you want....what is it?
 
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