Members gardo Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 I'm considering this for a future mod. Does anyone have experience witth this and what do you think of it? Can this be done with an HSS configuratin? Would it be better to simply put the middle pickup on a volume conrol It was copied from an article called "25 Ways to Upgrade Your Fender Stratocaster" http://www.guitar-bass.net/features/25-strat-tips/ Dan Armstrong Wiring Dan Armstrong devised a parallel/series wiring mod for Strats that uses the ‘middle’ tone control as a blender/mixer. With the blend control at 10, you get all five regular pickup settings. When it’s rolled fully back you get a H/S/H configuration – the middle pickup combining in series with the neck and bridge in the front and back positions. These pseudo-humbucker settings are fatter and louder while settings 2 and 4 are genuinely out of phase. You can explore semi-series and semi-out of phase tones as well, because there’s a blender rather than a switch. The new layout is simple to operate and if you’re content with master volume and tone, it’s a great way to use that spare control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 I did something similar using a push-pull. First of all I flipped the middle and bridge on the 5-way, which gives me the neck-bridge option, but eliminates the neck-middle position (I seldom use the standard 2 and 4 positions). You lose the quack, but it adds sparkle to the way the neck sounds by itself. With the push-pull I get the middle-bridge in series. Very fat "humbucker" tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greennn01 Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 hmm thank you for give info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Floyd Rosenbomb Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 Sounds like it would be cool mod to have on a strat. I might have to try it, too.One of my Strats has the greasebucket circuit which makes the tone knobs roll off the highs but leaves the mids and lows in place. I like much better then the standard tone knob operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 I confess I've always found the way the controls on a Strat work to be a bit odd so any mod would probably be a good one IMHO. . . . One of my Strats has the greasebucket circuit which makes the tone knobs roll off the highs but leaves the mids and lows in place. I like much better then the standard tone knob operation. You can achieve something similar by replacing the capacitor with one with a lower value. Half the value will move frequencies the tone control affects up by one octave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted October 24, 2014 Members Share Posted October 24, 2014 I'll just leave this here: http://www.deaf-eddie.net/chromie.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted October 26, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 26, 2014 I'll just leave this here: http://www.deaf-eddie.net/chromie.html Looks like I have another option to consider.although it seems compicated to use.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted October 26, 2014 Members Share Posted October 26, 2014 Looks like I have another option to consider.although it seems complicated to use.. It's not really complicated. Outside of the standard 5 strat positions, I have about 5 additional tones I regularly use (all of them are either humbucker type, super quack" out-of-phase strat sounds, or fatter out-of-phase tones). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 5, 2019 Members Share Posted March 5, 2019 Its simple to do so its no big deal to try it. What I did on my one Strat is remove the blade switch then install three DPDT mini toggels there instead.If you use the right size washers on the switches, you can cover up the slot completely. You can put the screws that hold the blade switch back in using nuts to fill those holes too. I wired each pickup so the switch is off in the center, then normal toggled in one direction, then reverse phase when flipped the other way. Between the three switches you get about 16 different tonal combinations (if I remember right) It excludes the settings which are polar opposites and simply sound the same whether they are normal or reverse phase. Each pickup is wired like this. [ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Click image for larger version Name:\t200811_phasingout_1.gif Views:\t1 Size:\t25.8 KB ID:\t32485866","data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"32485866","data-size":"full","title":"200811_phasingout_1.gif"}[/ATTACH] Having three switches allows any pickup combinations including running all three and running the neck and bridge only which gets you closer to a Tele tone. The real magic is in the out of phase tones you can get. Some can be quite thin sounding when only two pickups are used out of phase. Running two in phase and one out can be super tuneful cutting through with some really talkative notes. On the one Strat I also run it using a master volume, a pot connected to a treble bleed so I can adjust how much bleed there is when I turn it down. The third knob I installed a secret weapon called a BCU which is short for an active Band Control Unit. Its essentially as active midrange boost/cut unit that maintains signal strength as the color is changed. you can vary it from having no change in the center to boost or cut in either direction. It can give you the Clapton's woman tone in one direction and a more scooped tele tone in the other. Works excellent with the Phase switches and TX Special pickups I have in that one. Batteries last forever too. I left the cord plugged in one time for 3 weeks, and it not only kept working normally but I got another 6 months out of it before deciding I should change the battery. Even then, it was still working properly and I only changed the battery because it was an opportune time to do it when changing the strings.The battery consumption is rated for 4000 continuous hours which is 167 days. You can leave it plugged in and active for 5 months before the battery dies. I should also add, I'm not a huge fan of active electronics in guitars because the battery always seems to go dead when you least expect it. This unit is and exception however. The battery never seems to die and the tones it produces are more then worthwhile. Artech sells many different types and the ones I've tried aren't bad. No noise at all, very transparent and best of all, most sell for less then $10. Even if you didn't mount them in a guitar you could mount several of them in a single pedal. http://artecsound.com/pickups/index.html [ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Click image for larger version Name:\tZZZ01.JPG Views:\t1 Size:\t163.9 KB ID:\t32485862","data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"32485862","data-size":"full","title":"ZZZ01.JPG"}[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 6, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Its simple to do so its no big deal to try it. What I did on my one Strat is remove the blade switch then install three DPDT mini toggels there instead. If you use the right size washers on the switches, you can cover up the slot completely. You can put the screws that hold the blade switch back in using nuts to fill those holes too. I wired each pickup so the switch is off in the center, then normal toggled in one direction, then reverse phase when flipped the other way. Between the three switches you get about 16 different tonal combinations (if I remember right) It excludes the settings which are polar opposites and simply sound the same whether they are normal or reverse phase. Each pickup is wired like this. [ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Click image for larger version Name:\t200811_phasingout_1.gif Views:\t1 Size:\t25.8 KB ID:\t32485866","data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"32485866","data-size":"full","title":"200811_phasingout_1.gif"}[/ATTACH] Having three switches allows any pickup combinations including running all three and running the neck and bridge only which gets you closer to a Tele tone. The real magic is in the out of phase tones you can get. Some can be quite thin sounding when only two pickups are used out of phase. Running two in phase and one out can be super tuneful cutting through with some really talkative notes. On the one Strat I also run it using a master volume, a pot connected to a treble bleed so I can adjust how much bleed there is when I turn it down. The third knob I installed a secret weapon called a BCU which is short for an active Band Control Unit. Its essentially as active midrange boost/cut unit that maintains signal strength as the color is changed. you can vary it from having no change in the center to boost or cut in either direction. It can give you the Clapton's woman tone in one direction and a more scooped tele tone in the other. Works excellent with the Phase switches and TX Special pickups I have in that one. Batteries last forever too. I left the cord plugged in one time for 3 weeks, and it not only kept working normally but I got another 6 months out of it before deciding I should change the battery. Even then, it was still working properly and I only changed the battery because it was an opportune time to do it when changing the strings. The battery consumption is rated for 4000 continuous hours which is 167 days. You can leave it plugged in and active for 5 months before the battery dies. I should also add, I'm not a huge fan of active electronics in guitars because the battery always seems to go dead when you least expect it. This unit is and exception however. The battery never seems to die and the tones it produces are more then worthwhile. Artech sells many different types and the ones I've tried aren't bad. No noise at all, very transparent and best of all, most sell for less then $10. Even if you didn't mount them in a guitar you could mount several of them in a single pedal. http://artecsound.com/pickups/index.html [ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Click image for larger version Name:\tZZZ01.JPG Views:\t1 Size:\t163.9 KB ID:\t32485862","data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"32485862","data-size":"full","title":"ZZZ01.JPG"}[/ATTACH] Thanks for the idea. Might be a good setup .This thread is over 4 years old,I don't know how it got bumped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 6, 2019 Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Thanks for the idea. Might be a good setup .This thread is over 4 years old,I don't know how it got bumped Got me, I simply opened up the site and this one was at the top of the list. I didn't look to see if it was current however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 6, 2019 Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Thanks for the idea. Might be a good setup .This thread is over 4 years old' date='I don't know how it got bumped [/quote'] There was a spam post just before WRGKMC's. It's since been deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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