Re: Talk to me about SSS Strat tone controls...
I like the PTB; I haven't taken it out of my Legacy (yet). But I do think that Strats (and all multi-pickup guitars, really) lose a lot of great tones when they have a master tone setup. Some of the best "cocked wah" tones to be had on a Strat come from combining the wide open bridge pickup with the middle pickup with its tone rolled down. Or a wide open middle pickup with the neck pickup with its tone rolled down. More importantly, with a master tone, you also lose the ability to switch between one pickup with the tone all the way up, and another with a very different different tone setting. Master tone controls are not for me (except, of course, on a one pickup guitar).
Here is my sketch for the home-brewed wiring scheme I applied to my Mexican Strat. I love it. You can omit the neck on push/pull if you want, and just go with the one push/pull.
Here are the combinations you get:
- Both push/pulls down: standard "vintage" Strat wiring, but with a 5-way instead of a 3-way.
- Neck on push/pull only: same as above, but adds neck pickup in parallel with all positions (independent tone control of neck and middle pickups is retained)
- Neck on push/pull down (off), and the other push/pull up:
1. bridge pickup with no tone control (as stock)
2. bridge pickup controlled by middle pickup's tone knob
3. bridge and middle pickups in series, controlled by middle tone control
4. bridge and middle in series controlled by middle tone, in parallel with neck pickup with tone control
5. neck pickup with tone control (as stock)
- Both push/pulls up:
1. bridge pickup with no tone, in parallel with neck pickup with tone control
2. bridge pickup controlled by middle pickup's tone control, in parallel with neck pickup with tone control
3. same as 4 above
4. same as 4 above (yes, two adjacent redundant switch positions – only way to make everything else work right)
5. neck pickup with tone control (as stock)
Notes:
1. There are some "sketch" lines that I drew connecting some of the lugs on the main (leftward) push/pull in the diagram. I put them there to show me how the contacts connect when I was designing the wiring. It should not be wired with those connections; they are internal to the switch and will depend on the position the switch is in. If the lugs are numbered left to right and top to bottom,
only 1/2, and 3/5, should be connected by external wires. The end trimmings from your capacitors will do the trick.
2. In the picture, I drew the pickups on the wrong side of all the other electronics...however the pots and switch are oriented correcting to each other. Inside the guitar, the hot pickup wires that connect to the switch lugs actually end up going
over the center line of the switch to the lugs on the opposite side, not to the lugs on the side closest to the pots in the guitar as shown in the picture.
3. I also (obviously) separated the DPDT switches from the pots in the picture, for ease of design. If you don't care about keeping the stock look, I'd go with separate toggle switches instead of push/pulls. That is more convenient IMO, but I didn't do it because I wanted the thing to look pretty stock.
4. The ground wire for the strings/vibrato is not shown in the diagram. That goes from the claw to ground somewhere inside the guitar.
