AndyG Posted July 4, 2007 Report Posted July 4, 2007 Hi there, I'm looking to mod my Strat to get the best of both worlds, 5 way selector switch for single coils, and 3 way switch for humbuckers. It's not exactly that...but the 2 pictures linked to below explain better. Firstly, the neck pickup is a custom job I picked up off ebay....it's the size of a humbucker, but one half is a Seymour Duncan hot blade pick up with 4 wires, and the other half is a single coil with two wires. In other words it's two separate pickups on a humbucker base plate. In the first picture, I have a push/pull tone pot; in one position the five way switch is engaged with the standard strat positions 1 - 5 selecting between the neck SC, middle SC and bridge HB. In the other position, the three way switch is engaged and the five way is isolated. Now you can select the neck hotblade HB, the bridge HB or both....like on a Gibson Les Paul or SG. I haven't written a value for the resistance of the push/pull tone pot, the capacitor on the tone or the resistance on the volume pot. I can't decide whether 250k or 500k would be better on each/either. The second picture is much the same as the first, but I have used a stacked or concentric pot for the volume. The same shaft turns both a 250k and a 500k pot. This means the single coils can be linked to the 250k and the humbuckers to the 500k. However, I haven't come across a concentric pot that also has push/pull functionality....so the same issue remains.....what value tone pot and capacitor to use? I could really do with your advice and points of view. I love the sound of my current setup....which uses single coils in the middle and neck and a humbucker in the bridge. I only really use the single coils as the bridge is too much of a contrast in tone and volume..... I have one volume pot (with a 22 uf cap as a treble bleed) and one tone pot (with a 22 uf cap across it according to the lace wiring diagram...not sure what it does) and use 250k for both....so I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm looking to preserve my single coil sounds but add the humbucker ones with the 3 way switch..... I hope this makes sense....I can provide any details I may have missed out, please let me know.... Hope to hear your comments on my ideas! Cheers, Andy Quote
Hugh Posted July 6, 2007 Report Posted July 6, 2007 (edited) If you find a concentric pot with a push pull function, its probably going to be really tall. I would guess its a little too tall for a typical Strat body. I would probably try tone with a 500K push pull and a .047uf cap... it will probably sound fine. I'm running a humbucker and single coil through a 500K volume with no tone pot, and the single coil is strong and sounds natural. I did raise it up closer to the strings to make it match the humbucker's output, though. Edited July 6, 2007 by Hugh Quote
AndyG Posted July 7, 2007 Author Report Posted July 7, 2007 (edited) If you find a concentric pot with a push pull function, its probably going to be really tall. I would guess its a little too tall for a typical Strat body. I would probably try tone with a 500K push pull and a .047uf cap... it will probably sound fine. I'm running a humbucker and single coil through a 500K volume with no tone pot, and the single coil is strong and sounds natural. I did raise it up closer to the strings to make it match the humbucker's output, though. Hi, Thanks. The concentric pot is maybe not the fullest description I could have given. It is a 'stacked' concentric pot so that both volume pots turn at the same time from a single shaft. The push pull would be on the tone pot....that is the single pot with the dpdt switch attached for the push/pull function. I'm assuming that the value of the pot is more important for the volume rather than the tone? I'm also concerned that the single coils might sound two harsh if they used a 500k rather than 250k pot on the volume but I really don't know..... Regards, Andy Edited July 7, 2007 by AndyG Quote
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