Hugh

Can you do me a favor, and take a bunch of pics of the inside of the thing? I've been looking at the three I own for a while wondering what it looks like in there. Are the coils separate and just really skinny? Whatever you do, don't trash the thing. Somebody like me is always willing to buy stuff like that and try to fix it.

Well, that switch on the strat there is a push on/push off, right? I'm pretty sure I played with one of those at GC before. You want a momentary switch most likely for a killswitch, if you plan to do that buckethead stuff with it.

Be SURE you get a soft touch button for a killswitch. I have a momentary switch here that clicks when you push it, like a stomp switch or something. It's one of the radio shack ones with the metal shaft and plastic button on top of it. Radio Shack does sell normally off momentary soft-touch switches. This is the one used by MANY a guitar player. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search Wire one side to your ground, the other side to the hot wire at the volume pot. Oh, and if you find a knob with a push button built in or build one, let us know. I'd like to see that.

Nice, it sure is fun to learn as you build your first couple of them, ha?

No, its simpler than that. It's just a Squier stock humbucker that has a three conductor output wire on it. Here's a diagram I made of whats going on: I've been discussing this elsewhere and have come to the conclusion that I need to spin the magnet. (done it, need to install and test) I did this method and got out of phase in the middle: I'm thinking that diagram with the magnet spun may do the trick. EDIT: I spun the magnet and kept wiring diagram #2. It works.

Yeah, I can't see passive diode clipping being very effective at all. It's whats found in the later stages of a distortion circuit, following an amplifier. The two diodes make a big difference following a powerful signal, but make a very small difference after something like typical guitar pickups. They will also cut your output a bit, as they definitely weaken the gain of a distortion pedal noticeably. Now if you preamp your guitar and put the diodes in after the preamp, it would make more of an effect. I would keep looking for the right tone in an overdrive or distortion pedal, though. The sounds in Say it ain't so seem like a nice vintage style overdrive to me. Cut your volume back a third or so in the soft parts, and then crank it for the grungy chorus sounds. What distortion or overdrive does he use? That would be the best investment you could make, I think.

OK, I went back in and flipped the wiring on the neck pickup. In the center position, it started humbucking with the coil split turned off. When I turned on the coil split, it would quit humbucking once again. When the humbucker is split, it must be selecting the wrong coil to work together with the neck. The problem is this is a 3 wire humbucker, and I don't know how to get it to change coils without reversing the polarity... which I've found loses the humbucking in coil split mode again. I've also spun the humbucker and swapped its wiring just to see what would happen, but its the same always. Either its out of phase, or it doesn't buck in split mode. I guess I will have to see what I can do with one of the HB's to make it switch to the other coil.

I don't see it making a massive change either way. If you like the sound of 1 Meg, then put it in there. It should all work together fine with either one. For the tone control, are you planning a contour setup, where the hot signal hits the center lug of the pot and the two outer lugs bleed to ground through the two different caps? In my experimenting with a contour control, I've found it clipped my output volume a lot. (I've only done it in an active system, never in a passive system like inside the guitar) It will be interesting to hear if it works well like that. My guess is it will clip some of the treble all the time, though. Might be cool to use a 500K linear tone pot and etch away the center portion of the contact area... making it a no-load pot at the center. Then you could adjust in either direction to use either cap and a 250K linear sweep. Cool idea you have there. Anyone use it with any luck yet?

Obviously the best solution is to order the correct part. Even the tutorial mentions that this should only be done on a Sunday when nobody is open. The problem with increasing the resistance is there will be no way to turn it down. If you add 250K in series, you're volume will never go above half. You can cut resistance in parallel and still adjust it... but it probably messes with the log formula, too. I wouldn't do either one, really... I'd rather just use what I had laying around until the new part comes in.

Between and Cts? Stock and CT's? Stock on what? You left out a word or two in there.

The number of poles refers to the number of isolated circuits available on the switch. Each pole has that number of positions, but they switch at the same time in parallel with each other.

Well, give it a try both ways.

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.

My guess is the lower set of lugs (furthest from the knobs) will be connected to the center set of lugs in the down position. When its up, the upper lugs should be connected to the center lugs. Switches like that usually follow logic when you look at them. Sometimes they will surprise you, though.

Yeah, that was going to be the next step. I was thinking since that pickup was supposed to be the better of the two, I wanted to install it according to SD's instructions. Hopefully that solves the problem! Thanks.

Hello, all. I installed a Seymour Duncan STR-1 Vintage Telecaster neck pickup in my Squier '51. It is not reverse wound/reverse polarity. The bridge pickup is the stock humbucker (decided to keep this one, as its a decent pickup) The Squier '51 stock setup comes with a coil split on the volume pot. With the stock setup, I like the middle position both in humbucking and coil split mode. Split in the middle is my favorite, and it also humbucks really well. Now that I've put the SD STR-1 in the neck, it no longer reduces hum at all. My guess is the stock neck pickup was RW/RP and thats where the problem came in. The middle position was out of phase, so I tried a couple tricks on the humbucker to fix it. I flipped the wiring, then flipped the whole pickup. The way I have it now, the sound is in phase... but very noisy in the middle position. When I pull the coil split, it hums like crazy. Anyone have a clue how to fix this?