strat mods

[mustangman]

what fairly simple mods could i do on a american stock strat?
like what would adding 2 (making it 5) more springs in the back for the tremlo do for the sound?
adding a pushpull pot?
and what ever other mods i can do

*one more thing, i have seen some people with a little toggle switch in between the 2 tone pots and some times in other places, what does that do? is it like S1 switching?

thanks in advance.

[alderbody]

+1 to what Keithrick mentioned.

I would add the RS electronics upgrades and if you want to go further into mods, get rid of the two-pivot bridge and get a Callaham retrofit kit and vintage style bridge...

this would require a fret job, so you'd better think about it...


it's definately going to be fun anyway!...

[bungalowbill]

I just did this mod to my Strat and I don't know how I lived without it and it is inexpensive. Buy a double wafer superswitch ($15.00 or so) and wire it so the pick up combos are:
1.bridge
2.bridge/middle
3.bridge/neck
4.middle/neck
5.neck

And wire the 2nd tone control so it works on the bridge pick up.
Position 3 on the switch ( neck & bridge) will sound like the middle position on a Telecaster and IMHO sounds way better than the normal middle Strat pickup by itself. Shoot me a P.M. if you would like a wiring diagram........Joe

[alderbody]

[i]Position 3 on the switch ( neck & bridge) will sound like the middle position on a Telecaster and IMHO sounds way better than the normal middle Strat pickup by itself[/B]

the neck+bridge sound is indeed nice, but if you have really good pickups(like WCR SRs for instance...), then the middle pickup sounds very good by itself.

btw, there are simple mods that allow you to have this sound plus all the stock ones and it's very easy if you use a push-pull pot or a small DPDT toggle switch.

[rjpilot]

It looks like Bungalowbill beat me to this but....
But this mod is even easier...

Wire your Bridge pickup to the mid pickup's tone control to take off some of that shrill edge. Very simple...You will need to solder a capacitor to your pickup selector switch...thats it. Five minutes including taking alll the screws off the pickguard.



The mod described...
http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/simplebtone.php

A picture of the mod complete on my strat...
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ostid=12690683

A really good site.
http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.php

I bought a pawn shop Fender Strat. The guitar came with a Dimarzio humbucker in the bridge position and 2 single coils for middle and neck, and an original Floyd Rose. The dimarzio was wired to a push/pull tone that made it single coil by shorting one of the coils - it hummed really badly. It is not an American Strat, I think it is the overseas version of the "Ritchie Sambora" model. I'm not a Bon Jovi fan, but since I learned to play in the 80's, the whammy was a must. I replaced the 2 single coils with Seymour Duncan stacked humbuckers (humbuckers that fit in a single coil cavity and pickguard). So, the guitar has 3 humbuckers in it, even though it still looks like a H/S/S configuration. I removed the 5 way Strat switch. The tricky part is that I wired each pickup with a 3 position mini toggle for humbucker/off/single coil. But the single coil is really humbucking in parallel mode (sounds thin like a single coil, except without the annoying hum). There is a fourth switch (on/on) that bypasses the 3 toggles and sends the bridge pickup in humbucker mode directly to the volume knob. This allows me to have any of the pickups on (in either a humbucking, thick sound, or simulated single coil thin sound while still being hum-free) then immediately go to the humbucker for lead work and back again to my mini toggle presets with the flick of the 4th switch. Sounds complicated, but without that 4th switch I might have to turn off 2 or 3 of the minis then make sure I turn the bridge mini back on - otherwise with all the minis off, I have NO SOUND. The 4th switch allows me to preselect pickups for clean, then go straight to lead and back again without fussing with any of the minis in the heat of the moment. The best thing is, any strat or les paul sound - never any humming.....