Trying to understand Strat "grounding"and tone cap placement

[darkcyde]

Im trying to understand why over the years, fender changed the grounding and tone pot/cap wiring and why?
In case I am asking multiple questions, Ill try to break down what I am trying to understand.
Ive notice things like the way they wire the tone circuit. Sometimes series, sometimes parallel. Some times the cap is in between the tone pots, other times its grounded directly to the tone control for the middle pickup. What is the reason for these changes and how do these changes affect the over all tone?

[newey]

Hey, darkcyde, welcome back!

The V and T controls on a Strat are ordinarily wired in parallel. I don't think I've ever seen Fender wire them in series, although I'm sure some Nutz around here probably have. But if we're talking stock wiring, then they're in parallel.

Fender wires the tone cap between the two tone controls so as to use a single cap for both, thus saving a few cents per guitar. A common mod is to give each tone pot its own cap, so that a different cap value can be used for each tone control. But no matter how it's wired, the cap(s) ultimately have to have one end grounded for the tone control to work. It doesn't matter whether the end of the cap is wired directly to ground, or whether it gets there indirectly.

There will be no difference in tone regardless of which way it is wired, the various wiring schemes are all electrically equivalent. What will change the tone is, first, changing the value of the pot(s)(which will affect the overall tone even with the pot(s) at "10"), or second, changing the cap value(s), which won't affect the tone at "10" but which will change the frequency curve as the tone control is turned down.

Hope that answers things for you . . .