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Cool Strat Mod


WRGKMC

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Nice.... Might I suggest a mod there? Add a switch that allows you N+B, and N+M+B. Replace the second tone with a on/off switch, wired to the input of the N and B on the 5 way. With a flick of a switch, you'll get that 2 mini hum tone of a Gibsonish guitar.

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Nice.... Might I suggest a mod there? Add a switch that allows you N+B' date=' and N+M+B. Replace the second tone with a on/off switch, wired to the input of the N and B on the 5 way. With a flick of a switch, you'll get that 2 mini hum tone of a Gibsonish guitar.[/quote']

 

Why replace the second tone control? You can get a pot with a push/pull DPDT switch built-in; just wire the switch for the pickup on/off and keep the tone control. :)

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I'd likely go with three mini DPDT Toggels with an on/off/on config instead of a blade switch. The center is off, one direction is normal, the other direction can either be coil tap so you can get single tones, or possibly parallel wiring. Parallel coil winding can add some cool flavors compared to a normal series HB wiring.

 

I might go with two volumes and a varitone pot. I normally run my bridge full up and like varying amounts of the other pickups blended in. Mini Humbuckers express their stuff best between 7~10 on the volume knob. There's a bump there where the pickup goes from clean and warm to smoothly gaining up at 10 and its within that narrow range where you get all those cool drive tones.

 

The third pot can be either a passive or active Varitone switch. http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/qdd.html I have one of these in another Strat and it greatly expands the tonal ranges.

 

I do have several of these mini Artec circuits and the current drain is super low. I get maybe 2 years out of a 9v battery. I once left a guitar plugged in for 2 weeks straight and the circuit was still working.

 

I have their BCU which is another cool circuits that boosts or cuts mids. Another preamp will boost the gain up and add presence. I have that one in a Casino Copy with P90's and it sounds fantastic.

 

If I go with a simple Bleeder I'd use a "Push/Push" pot instead of a Push/Pull. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1718995...chn=ps&lpid=82 Pulling up on a knob is an unnatural act playing and the knob looks weird sticking up. A Push/Push works like a Bic Pen and tapping it down to change positions is a no brainer.

 

I need to look and see if someone makes a pick guard with the mini humbucker cuts. I have the pickups available and it would be easy to slap one together. I do have pick guard material and could cut one myself but its a tricky job using a dremmil. I usually use metal hack saw blades taped to the material to act as template barriers and prevent cutting too far then finish it off with files. It can be difficult getting the edges factory smooth.

 

I know they make some soldering iron type devices with knife blades for cutting plastic with heat. I'm experienced using a regular soldering iron on plastic. An iron with a razor type tip might cut through that plastic like butter.

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I prefer to run the coils in parallel rather than split them. Guitsr electronics have diagram for on-on-on dpdt switches to have single , parallel or series. Clever mod but I preferred to just to series parallel.

Out of phase would be good too?

I'd be tempted to have a switch to reverse the phase of the middle pup, then another switch to put the middle pup in series or parallel with the other selected pickup.

Instead of a switch to have all 3 on, I would have master volume, master tone and no load blend to mix neck with bridge and vice versa. About to do that on my strat...

But with mini humbuckers I can't think how many tonal options you would have.

I got series, parallel, phase reversal and bright/normal tone capacitor switching on a guitar with 2 mini filtertrons and got 20 possible selections! I used volume and tone controls with push pull do had to choose between coil split or parallel and prefer parallel. If it were possible to do all I would ....

 

But add another double coil pickup to the mix, I can't even do the math, especially if you added cool splitting! Phew!

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Cool if you're a Strat guy but in the end it would still be a Strat. I figure by the time I put all humbuckers in a Strat and blocked the trem it would start to be a Strat in name only, kinda like some of the Tele mods we've discussed. I'll pass, thanks.

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Nice!

 

For switching in this case I prefer to have a push/push tone pot that turns the bridge pup on in addition to whatever the 5-way is selecting. Opens up the N+B combination.

 

Add a little mini switch that splits the pups (and makes the volume pot 250K) and you're good to go.

 

I found swapping tone caps does quite a bit to keep the tones either humbucker or single coil, and is probably easier to do than changing the value of the pots.

 

When I wired my P-Rails, which go from Bucker to P-90 to Single Coil, I used push-pulls that swap the tone cap when switched between bucker and P-90/Rail. While most people complain P-Rails only sound good as P-90's, I've found all settings work great when wired like this. It's not that difficult to add since most push-pulls are DPDT with one side usually left unused in most applications.

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Allot of Strat bodies have a swimming pool routes under the pick guard so you can use any pickups without having to route it out more. It simply needs the pick guard. I have 4 Strats of varying Grades. The oldest does have the single pickup routes. I wouldn't attempt to mess with that one. It sounds fine already with the TX Specials I put in there.

 

I do have Squire Strat I may try this on. Its been a good player with its stock pickups. Its really not much of a mod to reverse back. 3 wires soldered takes seconds. I'd more likely do it on one of the extra builds I have around. I have 4 extra bodies and necks I've collected and I do have 6 extra Mini Humbuckers left over from other builds. Slapping one together wouldn't take more then a couple of hours.

 

I'm not looking for conventional tones. I'm looking for a change of pace. Something you can pull out and sound different. I've learned a guitar keeps its tone so long as you don't gain it up too much. You could hear in the beginning of that video with cleans dialed up its does sound very Strat like. When cranked it takes on more of a Les Paul Deluxe tone. That's the magic of Mini Humbuckers and why I like them.

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I definitely feel ya on the nonconventional tone thing. I mean that's the only reason I have a small collection of electrics - to get different vibey tones.

 

If you're serious about it, love to see a build thread or a video of the finished product. I have to admit that the tones in the vid you posted are different enough to make it a pretty appealing mod.

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