Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

[roundededges]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could link me to a diagram or inform me of how I could wire my strat so that both the bridge and middle pickups are controlled by the second tone knob. Thanks! Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, this is my first post.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

Welcome to the forum.

I am too lazy to furnish a hyperlink to a diagram. Instead, I shall write instructions.

Regardless of type, your five-way selector switch will have one unused terminal.

Visualise the selector switch terminals numbered as follows:

1234 5678

or


5678
1234

In either example, make a jump wire link between terminals 6 and 7.

 

[Liko]

Re: Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

Welcome to the forum.

I am too lazy to furnish a hyperlink to a diagram. Instead, I shall write instructions.

Regardless of type, your five-way selector switch will have one unused terminal.

Visualise the selector switch terminals numbered as follows:

1234 5678

or


5678
1234

In either example, make a jump wire link between terminals 6 and 7.

Be aware this wire jumper will be the worst of both worlds tone-wise; you'll have a duller bridge tone in the bridge-only position because the tone pot even at max resistance will allow some treble to go to ground, and a darker neck-mid position because the two tone pots will be in the circuit in parallel.

Several solutions exist:

• Use a small-value capacitor instead of a wire jumper on the 5-way switch. A lot of people use a treble bleed cap (.001uF) for this. The capacitor will reduce the amount of "presence"-range frequencies (high mid, low treble) that take the path to the tone pot from the pickup position that isn't directly wired to it. This reduces the treble loss in either the bridge or neck-mid positions (depending on which position is still directly wired) while still allowing some tone control in the position that normally wouldn't have it, while retaining a completely stock external look and operation.
• Use a "no-load pot". At max tone, these disconnect the wiper, removing the tone control from the signal circuit entirely. This allows you to "turn off" the bottom tone knob when you don't want it (to get stock bridge-only sounds, or to have only the neck tone control in the circuit in the neck-mid position).
• Use a push-pull pot to disconnect the bridge tone control. This has the same purpose and end result as the no-load pot, but some people like the push-pull or push-push pot operation better (you can, for instance, turn it off from any setting, so it'll "remember" where you had it before you flipped to a position where you didn't want it).
• Rewire the guitar for master volume and tone. Instead of switching between tone controls, wire one of them to the common terminal on the pickup selector. Switching tone controls along with pickups is often a solution looking for a problem; if you tend to run the guitar wide open, or find yourself constantly tweaking the tone knobs anyway, there's little benefit to having different controls for the neck and mid or bridge sides of the switch. You can use the third knob, now no longer a tone control, for some alternate purpose (neck blender, phase blender, on-board fuzz/distortion circuit, etc).

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

True but some vintage style electric guitars only sound "right" with the imperfect circuitry.

I happen to use a Fender No-Load pot for the lower tone control on several of my Stratocasters but, on this occasion, I confined myself to answering the OP question in as simple a manner as possible.

Some Admin will eventually chance upon this thread and move it to the correct forum room.

 

[roundededges]

Re: Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

Thank you very much, Liko! Very much appreciated.

 

[roundededges]

Re: Strat Wiring Bridge and Middle Tone

Thanks a lot, Funkfingers! Very nice of you to reply, especially with such a simple solution for a beginner like me. Thanks again.