Wiring Diagram for HSS Strat with auto-parallel in position 2

[bassface732]

Hey, I'm so sorry I didn't see your response--technical glitch on my end! Thanks for getting back to me!

I'm with you: Let's do one tone control for N/M and the other for the bridge! Thanks so much!

 

[Artie]

Cool. I'll make that mod to the drawing, and get back to you before the day is over.

 

[Artie]

Ok, so here's where we're at. It works fine, but has one oddity. It requires two of the quadrants of the superswitch to do series/parallel on the Lil Demon. It takes one quadrant each to select the neck and middle pups. That doesn't leave a quadrant to switch tone controls. But it's not really a big problem. We can have master Vol / Tone, and then the bridge can have it's own tone when in the #1 bridge position. I would use some standard value for the main tone, like 0.033uf or 0.022uf, and then use something more subtle, like maybe 0.001uf or 0.010uf for the bridge only tone just to be able to tweak it's high end.

We get this:

 

[Artie]

I would add the red, blue, and green jumpers to the superswitch, then connect all the other wires. The bridge appears to be connected to the "neck" side because the contacts work opposite the handle position.

Make sense?

 

[bassface732]

That’s awesome, thank you so much!! And no worries, the volume/tone layout you described sounds great Thanks so much for all your help with this!

 

[Artie]

No prob. Let us know how it works out.

Oh yeah . . . and don't forget to ground all the pots together. I didn't actually show that in the diagram.

 

[Artie]

It's funny. While I'm working on your project, I didn't even think that I'm doing my own project that's very close to yours. But I'm taking a little different tack. I'm going to do master vol / tone, and then a "blower" switch, that bypasses the 5-way, and makes it a quasi-Tom DeLonge Strat. I say "quasi" because I still like having the vol / tone in the circuit.

So I'll do:

5. Neck
4. N / M
3. M
4. M + Invader split.
5. Invader parallel.

The switch bypasses the 5-way and goes direct to the Invader series. We'll see how she goes.

 

[Mincer]

^That is one cool lookin' guitar!

 

[Artie]

^That is one cool lookin' guitar!

Thanks. The good ole Vintage Rails doesn't get the love it deserves. Warm, smooth, hum-free. That's my Zhang RWRP single in the middle.

 

[Mincer]

I always liked the Vintage Rails. I am not sure why it doesn't get the love, other than it is on the quieter side.

 

[Teleplayer]

It seems like naming is an issue. Warm and smooth pickup should be marketed as “Texas blues rails”. A strat pickup called “Vintage rails” is expected to bright and chimy. If pickup differs from the marketing it is more likely to get bad reviews.


Even SSL-2 pickups are thick and bluesy to my ears, so different players may have different perceptions. They could also have a thick sounding Marshall amp, which might contribute to differences, compared to other people who only play clean.

 

[Artie]

It seems like naming is an issue. Warm and smooth pickup should be marketed as “Texas blues rails”. A strat pickup called “Vintage rails” is expected to bright and chimy. If pickup differs from the marketing it is more likely to get bad reviews.


Even SSL-2 pickups are thick and bluesy to my ears, so different players may have different perceptions. They could also have a thick sounding Marshall amp, which might contribute to differences, compared to other people who only play clean.

Part of the problem is "me." I'm playing at home studio volume. Maybe using a half of a watt of my 40 watt amp. Spanked hard on the stage of a smokey bar would probably reveal different results.

 

[jeremy]

im just the opposite. i basically dont use an amp at home, only on stage at that volume. there hasnt been smoking in bars up here forever lol

 

[Mincer]

See, I never thought the VR was 'warm & smooth' at all. It is chimey. But it ain't warm to me.

 

[Artie]

See, I never thought the VR was 'warm & smooth' at all. It is chimey. But it ain't warm to me.

You're right. It's hard to describe tone. I'm more describing the neck position, than the pup itself. The VR definitely has a nice vintage-ish chimey single-coil tone. Maybe warm-ish as opposed to a true single coil.

Bottom line . . . it's a sweet Stratocaster neck pup. Combined with the middle, even better. (In fact, in this guitar, I may put another in the middle. I have one in a drawer.)

 

[bassface732]

That is a sick looking guitar indeed! Definitely curious to hear how that comes out... I considered doing the rails set to try to get rock capability in the bridge while maintaining Stratty goodness and quack in the other positions, but ultimately decided on a different tack... Do you guys find that you get plenty of quack and chime out of the hot rails + vintage rails + cool rails?

On a somewhat-related note, I'm with a friend trying to wire up the humbuckers on his HSH tele to toggle between series and parallel with a push-push pot. 1 volume, 1 tone, 5-way blade selector switch. I thought this would be an easier wiring diagram to find, but I haven't found one yet--plenty that do coil split, but otherwise the best I've been able to find is one diagram that just shows wiring for HSH with 1 volume, 1 tone, and the 5 way, and then another separate diagram that shows how to wire a single humbucker for series/parallel with a push-push pot. Can I just sort of "combine" these 2 diagrams to get it done? Or is there a single diagram out there for this type of set up?

I'll keep looking on my own, but thought I'd check and see if anyone knew of one somewhere...

 

[bassface732]

To clarify, he has just one push-push pot to control both humbuckers

 

[Artie]

I love the HR / CR / VR series. I have one Strat that's just three Hot Rails. I used to have one that was three Cool Rails, but it keeps morphing to try new pups. I think it has STK-Plus's in there now. The CR's are my favorite of the bunch, but I like the VR's somewhat because so few people seem to use them. (Or talk about it.) The Cool Rails have a nice "spank" and punch to them.

One push-pull pot can only do one humbucker parallel. However, an S-1 switch will do both. And yes, you can combine diagrams. You'd wire one humbucker to a push-pull, then take it's hot wire to the 5-way. You need to be careful though. Stuffing HSH wiring, with one or two push-pulls, or an S-1 switch, is going to be real tight in a Tele control cavity. You especially have to watch that the "bare" ground wires don't touch a "hot" terminal as you stuff it all back in there.

Hopefully, I'll that Strat done tomorrow. I move slow these days. Especially Sunday.

 

[Mincer]

The Duckbuckers are sorta related to the Vintage Rails. I think they are the same pickup but for the rails. They remind me if you took a cool single coil pickup and put it through an AI algorithm, you'd get the Vintage Rails. That isn't a bad thing (lots of people look better with filters on). I've always liked the Duckbuckers, and all the Rails. The neck Hot Rails is not a bad jazz pickup.

 

[Artie]

The neck Hot Rails is not a bad jazz pickup.

Yup. I've always suspected that the difference between a Hot Rails neck, and a Cool Rails bridge, is the sticker on the bottom. I could be wrong.

That, also, is a good thing.