Strange wiring job

[Brimst0ne13]

A few weeks back I picked up what appears to be a mid 90's MIK Strat from a local pawn. After finally cracking into it, I found its been heavily modded. Its been shimmed with old Guitar Center ads, a switchcraft jack, 500k pots (idk why. It still had the el cheapo single coils) and 2 switches added along with 3 different caps. My question is... what are these switches wired to do, and why are there 3 different caps here?

 

[freefrog]

Re: Strange wiring job

Hi & welcome onboard.

500k pots are used when a bright tone is desired.

The round cap on the volume pot appears to be a treble bleed circuit, avoiding a duller sound when the volume is lowered.

Each switch seems to enable / disable a general tone pot and each of these tone pots is fitted with a different capacitor. It can be useful if the two caps are of vastly different values.

That's all I can say on the basis of these pics seen from a small laptop (but I see enough of it to say that I'd redo the whole wiring if this pickguard was mine).

 

[Brimst0ne13]

Re: Strange wiring job

Wow thanks! I never would have figured that out on mt own! My knowledge of wiring extends as far as a basic rewire, coil taps, and momentary switches. Ive never heard of this type of a wiring job and yea, if i do keep it wired the same, im definitely cleaning it up. The electrical tape alone annoys me to no end!

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Strange wiring job

Some of those cheap ceramic-backed Strat pickups aren't half bad. I've played MIM pickups that sounded surprisingly good.

 

[Brimst0ne13]

Re: Strange wiring job

I'm probably gonna try the Texas loco set from irongear in the UK

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Strange wiring job

Completely redoing the wiring is not a bad idea. That looks like some pretty poor soldering. I agree with freefrog's assessment of the wiring.