Members Faber Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Is this a good alternative to humbuckers in a strat? I've considered getting HBs in a strat of mine, but I rather like the stock strat sounds too much to do that (I think).So, given that two strat single, neck/mid or mid/bridge won't sound exactly like a humbucker, is it a useful, fatter sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 I wired up one of my strats with the three little toggle switches that give you 13 or so different combinations, including series. The series positions are much more powerful and meaty than the paralell... pretty HB like. I didn't leave that set-up on the guitar long (still have the wired pickguard) because of two problems. First it's complicated... I always had to refer to my little chart, and was cumbersome to change on the fly. Secondly, it was noisey. There was a hum I just couldn't get rid of. Apparently the way you have to wire the pickup leads, you lose some of your ground. Other than that it was fun and you could get a lot of "non-strat" tones out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members adrianb23 Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Aren't the pickups in series when using the in-between positions on a Strat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 I just crossed this bridge a few weeks ago. I have a '74 strat that looks stock but isn't (it was modded by the original owner, I've since returned it to a stock look, but not stock electronics). It plays like a dream, and if I'm playing blues it's just the perfect guitar. It has a set of bg-pups.com v60's in it and is easily my favorite sounding stratocaster. I play in a rock band though, and gig weekly. I really wanted to play this strat out, but I just couldn't get a beefy enough sound when I needed it (crazy train really doesn't lend itself to strat quack). The solution was to wire in a push/pull switch which turned on the bridge pup in series with whatever else was selected on the 5-way. With the middle pup selected it's very bridge humbucker like (and since the middle pup is RWRP, it actually is a humbucker). With the neck pup selected, it is pretty beefy, but still has that strat pop to it. I did have it so I could turn all three on in series, which sounded good in theory but turned out to be too muddy. The nice thing about push/pull switches is your guitar still looks stock. The mod I mentioned above can be found on the guitarnuts.com site. Edit: here is the address of the mod: http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/stratlovers.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Faber Posted September 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 I wired up one of my strats with the three little toggle switches that give you 13 or so different combinations, including series. The series positions are much more powerful and meaty than the paralell... pretty HB like. I didn't leave that set-up on the guitar long (still have the wired pickguard) because of two problems. First it's complicated... I always had to refer to my little chart, and was cumbersome to change on the fly. Secondly, it was noisey. There was a hum I just couldn't get rid of. Apparently the way you have to wire the pickup leads, you lose some of your ground. Other than that it was fun and you could get a lot of "non-strat" tones out of it. More hum? Interesting - I thought two coils in series would be hum bucking. Might not be my thing then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members adrianb23 Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 More hum? Interesting - I thought two coils in series would be hum bucking. Might not be my thing then. I think they'd have to be electrically out of phase for the hum to get canceled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Aren't the pickups in series when using the in-between positions on a Strat? No, they're in parallel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Faber Posted September 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 I think they'd have to be electrically out of phase for the hum to get canceled.Wouldn't that mean that a strat set with the reverse wound middle PU would be humbucking in series as well as in parallel modes? Or am I just showing my ignorance of electronics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Wouldn't that mean that a strat set with the reverse wound middle PU would be humbucking in series as well as in parallel modes? Or am I just showing my ignorance of electronics? You're correct.That's why pos 2/4 are hum-canceling on a rwrp strat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members adrianb23 Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 No, they're in parallel.Hey. I never knew that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Faber Posted September 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 You're correct.That's why pos 2/4 are hum-canceling on a rwrp strat. Good, thanks. Then I can expect hum free operation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Hey. I never knew that. Yeah, if you look at the way a 5-way switch is setup you can see it. The grounds of all pups in a stock strat are common. The 5-way turns on the hot lead for the neck + middle or neck + bridge for the 'tween positions. In series, the hot of one would go to the ground of the other (which wouldn't be connected to a common ground) and only one hot lead would connect to the volume pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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