Strat wiring question

[cue311]

Hi, thanks for looking! Any help would be appreciated!

So, I have a strat. Ideally I would like to be able to control volume for all three pickups, plus have some tonal options. I was wondering if there was something I could buy, or have made, that was maybe a small three position switch which would give me two selectable high end roll-off settings. This way I could replace the tone pots with volume pots, to have three, then have three small switches for tonal variety.

Also, any way all this would fit in the control cavity?

Thanks!

 

[fumbler]

If all you want to do is blend pickup tones, then I recommend instead master volume/master tone/blender wiring. This allows you to blend any amount of the neck and bridge pickups together (not the middle, though).


But if you still want 3 volume knobs, this could be done but I can imagine some problems: for example, you wouldn't be able to just shut it off quickly by rolling down one knob. You'd have to remember which knob(s) to roll down.

And would you still keep the the 5-way blade switch for normal pickup selection? You'd need to keep the switch if you want to EASILY switch pickup settings and ALSO in order to wire the volume pots normally. If not, then you'd have the mud associated with 3 pots always loading the circuit and you'd ALSO have to wire the volume pots backwards (input on center/wiper lug) which causes other problems.

Plus, your new "tone switch" wouldn't give you predictable tones in all cable/pedal/amp configurations. Tone capacitors are very interactive with the rest of the electronics. You'd lose all ability to make micro-adjustments with a tone pot.

 

[cue311]

Hey, thanks for the information!

The ideal would be 3 volume pots, 3 tone pots, 5 way selector and a master kill switch! I don't want to blend the pickups, I want control over each one.

 

[fumbler]

Just kidding.

You could do 3 volumes, a 5-way switch, and a master tone pot. Or use mini-toggles (or push/pull pots) to switch in tone caps instead of the tone pot. You can fit a lot in a standard strat cavity if you're careful.

Decide exactly what you want and I can draw up a diagram pretty easily. But keep in mind that "more flexible" usually means "more complicated." A few good tones are better than 20 mediocre (and barely distinguishable) tones.

 

[cue311]

Hey!

Muaha, I'll bet half the playing time on that guitar is spent fiddling with knobs and stuff.

Basically, I bought a Tornita! KS and I want maximize my usable possibilities with it. With my LP Studio, things can get hectic on some settings using one pickup, generally when lowering the volume knob. The feedback changes but there is little playability there. But if I use the two pickup setting, lowering one still gets me the changes in the feedback, but the pickup with the maxed volume cuts through. At lots of settings it works awesome by itself, but there is other useful stuff in there if I can access the sounds properly!

So... I want to have options in volume control, but I also use my tone controls a lot. I thought that the mini toggles would give me *some* tonal options, if not always exactly what I want.

I dunno, just doing some pondering. Thanks for the information and the offer