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Fender S-1 Switch System


woolyh

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Anyone using one of these in a Strat or Tele? Seems a really good way of getting more tones through changing the pickups to parallel, out of phase and series wiring with a switch.

 

[video=youtube;ZysmjZTfGek]

^skip to 4:25 for the different settings of the switch

 

The installation looks a little complicated with wires everywhere but you only need the S-1 pot and special 5 way selector to do it.

 

Anyone installed one and they work with any single coil pickups right?

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yea, i've got one in my 2004 Strat. i don't use it all the time, but its nice to have. i feel like under each pickup selector position, pressing the S1 switch delivers more beef and low end a bit.

 

i use it mostly when i'm playing into an octaver for bass simulation stuff or a microsynth or something. the extra beef it delivers gives it more punch and definition and lets the pedals track the sound better i feel.

 

its also good if you just want to switch to a bassier sound real quick with distortions or something. sometimes good for gilmourish stuff i find as a way to simulate his active pickups without actually having them :idk:

 

like i said though, i don't use it all that regularly, just with certain setups. probably wouldnt go through the trouble to wire it myself if my strat didnt come with it, but YMMV :)

 

thanks for the explanation vid though, i forgot what the s-1 switch actually does in terms of how the pickups are being used

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I had a burns marquee with strat configuration of pickups/controls, except one of the tone knobs was a pull-up switch that turned on the neck pickup independently of where the 5-way switch was, meaning you could get bridge+neck, and all three pickups. Once I figured out what the switch did (:facepalm:) those positions became my favourite sounds to get out of it.

I think the pickups in the burns were in series too, the 2 and 4 positions on that were much less 'thin' than the same positions on fenders.

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i used to have one, its great for muffling the tone and adding low mids, thats about all it does. i thought it was cool at first but it does not put the thing in humbucker mode, maybe more hollow sounding. its a gimmick is what it is

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i used to have one, its great for muffling the tone and adding low mids, thats about all it does. i thought it was cool at first but it does not put the thing in humbucker mode, maybe more hollow sounding. its a gimmick is what it is

 

 

This is a definite problem with some of these switching systems. Two single coils in series will be a lot darker since you're using 250K pots. Think of it like a humbucker with 250K pots, the sound is muffled. An EQ right after your guitar helps.

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i used to have one, its great for muffling the tone and adding low mids, thats about all it does. i thought it was cool at first but it does not put the thing in humbucker mode, maybe more hollow sounding. its a gimmick is what it is

 

 

meh. useful for some situations. doesnt change the normal settings on the strat, so why not have it? i doubt the price of the guitar is higher just because of the s1 switch...

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I like it, but all it really usually does is make the noiseless pickups usually associated with S-1 sound closer to actual real strat pickups. But overall the noiseless/s-1 combo sounds pretty cool - a bit sterile and a bit different but fun to play.

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i found hte scn's to be a god send if you wanted to use high gain without the hum etc,

but on clean/mid gain, they had some sort of noise gate quality to the way the notes fade out. not sure if this is in combination to the s1, but i couldnt stand it and much happier withouth them.

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I like noiseless Strat (Tele) Pups. My house wiring is old and induces lots of noise which annoys the {censored} out of me when I practice. I have plenty of other Strats with trad wiring. The only prob with noiseless Strat pickups is that the in between positions do not have the "quack".

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