variation of s-tastic

[cintidude04]

Hello All,
Hopefully someone can help me out. (Who am I kidding', I know you can lol.)
I just recently picked up a mexi strat and would like to try the s-tastic mod with a few differences; mainly using a humbucker in the bridge (dimarzio super distortion), taking the mid pickup out of the equation altogether, and transferring the tone that was designated for the mid pup to the bridge.
In essence, it would basically be just 2 pup (neck single/bridge hum) no need for the coil splitting on the hum; master volume and two tone, one for neck and one for bridge.
If some one could show me how to do this I would be grateful.
I am not very adept at reading traditional schematics yet (don't know what all the symbols and whatnot are) so please dumb it down for me lol. Also if you could give me advice on potentiometer values and capacitors I will need, I know I will also have to pick up a new 5 way.

Much appreciation in advance,
FT. Bogey

[newey]

cintidude-

Hello and Welcome!

Ah, the love/hate relationship Strat players have with their middle pickups! Personally, I love the middle pup on a Strat so much, I'm building a Strat with 2 of 'em. You, OTOH, apparently don't care for it. Well, to each his or her own, whatever floats your PWC, etc . . .

When you say you are "taking it out of the equation" and that the guitar will "effectively" be a 2-pickup guitar, I'm not clear if this means that you are physically removing the middle pup from the guitar altogether, or just controlling it elsewhere. I mention this because the "S-tastic" mod does just that- the middle is removed from the 5-way switch and controlled with a volume knob of its own.

Now, John Atchley's "S-tastic" is a Stratty variation on a previous mod he called the "T-riffic", for 2-pickup Tele-style guitars. Take a look at that mod- he shows a wiring diagram for a variation with separate tone controls just like you specified. It looks to me like that diagram will work for you given that you are not using the middle pickup.



You are also adding a humbucker, but since you specified that the coils are not being split, for your purposes you treat the HB just like a 2-wire Strat pickup as far as the wiring diagram is concerned. The other 2 wires are permanently connected together in series (SD's instructions with the pickup will show you how to do that). So adding the HB changes nothing on the diagram.

The only other difference between the "S-tastic" and "T-riffic" is that positions 2 and 4 on the switch are swapped around. This is just a question of where on the switch you want the out-of-phase position to be. Take your pick, it's just a "mirror-image" thing on the wiring between positions 2 and 4.

As far as capacitors are concerned, since you'll have separate tone controls, you can have separate caps for each. Conventional wisdom would dictate a 0.022 µf for the neck SC pickup and a 0.047µf for the HB, but that's not written in stone. You can vary those values to suit your tastes. For pots, again, conventional wisdom would have a 500K pot for the HB tone and a 250K for the SC tone. For volume, I'd go with a 500K in view of the HB, but again, it's largely a matter of choice. 500K may make the SC brighter than you like, but since you have a separate tone knob for it, you can back it off a bit to suit your taste.

I know I will also have to pick up a new 5 way.

Yes, these mods require a 4-pole Superswitch (or its equivalent). Atchley's diagram is based on a "plastic Yamaha switch", but all the "Superswitches" are the same electrically, the only differences are in the physical locations of the terminals and their numbering, which can easily be worked out once you have the switch in your hand.

Anyway, take a look at the T-riffic diagram and report back if you have any other questions or if you can't follow the diagram.

[cintidude04]

Thanks for the welcome, quick reply, and the tips.
I didn't think to look at the t-riffic diagram. Yea I never use the mid pup in any of my guitars, just not the sound i prefer.
Really appreciate the help, off to radio shack.