Super strat/HSS question

C

cheechi

New member
So I'm not building a 'true' super strat. I plan to put a HB in the bridge with a coil split. I plan to jumper the switch to allow tone control on the bridge pu also. Otherwise I intend to keep the wiring generally as stock. Or...

So I really only 'need' V & T like a super strat would normally have but since the PG has 3 holes I may as well use it. I am far from a guitar wiring genius but I am an advanced parts replacer in general.

So should I just do VT and use the third as a coil split switch? Should I keep VTT because of the reason that you say that I haven't thought of? Should I do some crazy fun stuff like play with phasing for the 2 & 4 positions?


The actual reason I came here was to ask, using HSS should I go 250, 500, or even 1meg and on which pots should I change if I go away from the stock 250?

Final question/thought. 3 Stacked VT controlling each pu independently? Seems cumbersome for someone like Vai that likes to play with them in the middle of a solo. I'm far from Vai. I just try to make noises that sound like the radio so I'd just set it and forget it, maybe change between songs at most.
 
Re: Super strat/HSS question

Well, it really comes down to how you like to work, and how fast you need to get to the sounds you want. I would decide on the settings you want on the switch, and then get a Super Switch to wire them in. For the pickguard,, you can have volume/tone/tone, with the first tone for the 2 singles (250k), and the last one for the humbucker (500k). Start with a 500k volume and go down from there if you don't like the sound of the singles.
Stacked VT for each pickup might work, but it would be cumbersome to go from one favorite sound to another. Personally something like that would bother me, but you have to decide how you work.
 
Re: Super strat/HSS question

Mincer said:
you can have volume/tone/tone, with the first tone for the 2 singles (250k), and the last one for the humbucker (500k). Start with a 500k volume and go down from there if you don't like the sound of the singles.
Click to expand...
I think this is what I need. Thank you sir.

Do you forsee any tonal weirdness with the neck/mid tones coupled like that?
 
Re: Super strat/HSS question

No, as I have done that very thing on several guitars. But try it, see if you like it.
 
Re: Super strat/HSS question

What pickup combinations are you after?

With your HSS setup I pretty much use two setups and the pot config and values suggested by Mincer but with a no-load volume pot from Stewmac that takes all of the pots out of the signal
at 10 and send it straight to the jack from the switch.

1 - Schaller E Megaswitch = bridge HB / B split + mid / B split + neck / mid + neck / neck
Note -positions 1 to 4 are hum cancelling and the neck by itself has "that" Strat sound.

2 - Normal 5 way switch with Bridge tone to split HB and Neck/Mid tone to activate neck in positions 1 and 2. Gives you 10 different sounds but a bit fiddly.

I prefer option 1 as I hardly ever use the middle pickup by itself, don't combine full bridge HB with
singles and it's easier to navigate the controls. I also get a nice Tele "thang" goin on in position 3.
 
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Re: Super strat/HSS question

One of the things I always suggest when someone has a knob or control space they don't know what to do with is the on-board distortion effect mod. There are a couple of different ways to do it, the simplest is to take one Shottky diode (with a relatively low voltage but high reverse leakage current), and wire it to a pot like it's the capacitor in a tone circuit. When you adjust that pot, you change how much current flows to ground though this diode, which because of its properties tends to square the waveform of current passing through it (which thus also squares the waveform of the remaining current going to the amp). Presto, you essentially have a primitive MXR Distortion Plus built into your axe. If you don't like the gain loss you get doing it this way, you can set the pot up as a voltage divider; bring the input from the pickups/selector switch to the center lug, then run one lead of bare wire and one lead with the diode inline to the volume pot; that way, if you have it on full clean or full distortion you're losing a minimal amount of voltage.

As far as your particular setup, though, I would recommend you keep the extra bridge tone pot, and up it to 500K ohms (and use a 47nF cap for this pot) so you can tame that bridge 'bucker. I'd also do the EJ tone mod (move the second tone pot's connection to the bridge position instead of the middle) so you don't mix the two tone pots. What you'll end up with is a pretty standard "Fat Strat" configuration; wiring-wise it's two thirds Strat, one-third LP/SG. The coil tap can be accomplished with a push-pull pot (Warmoth sells one that's a push-push, like a click pen, which is perfect for use with press-fit knobs like the skirted Fender knobs).
 
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