2 pickup Strat?

[mover]

I want to mod an old Mexican Strat, even though I'm not a mod-guy; I know how to use a soldering iron, but not how to read schematics- only simplified drawings. Maybe someone can tell me if this is possible. I want to use the bridge pickup where it belongs-(bridge), and the middle pickup-RWRP- in the NECK position. Will this give me hum-cancel? Can I use one of the tone pots as a separate volume control so that each of the 2 pickups has it's own volume, and they're both always 'on', kind of a "blend' situation? How about the 5-way switch- do I even need it? I'll put the unused pickup in the middle just to fill in the hole. I want to use this for slide only. Man, this is tiring me out- sorry it's so convoluted.

[sydsbluesky]

Mmhm. Welcome to the nuthouse, firstly.

Start off by saying yes, it will technically be hum-canceling... the only problem here, is that these pickups are probably quite different from each other tonally, and the distance apart is only going to exacerbate that. This may cause them to be a little LESS hum-canceling than one would expect...

BUT, there is a nifty way around that noise if you're willing to throw down on some copper tape and shield that guitar! Mind you that this will not be perfect, but it will help.

Check out this link for details on that.

And as far as the two volume pots go, yeah this is also done easily, but what are you going to do with the tone pot you have left over? Tone and volume pots are the same thing, really. What they do depends on how one wires them. Are you going to do a master tone and two volumes?

Assuming that you do, then it's true that you don't NEED the five-way at all... However this is GuitatNutz 2, and something about an unused switch just doesn't seem right.

Check out the SeymourDuncan wiring diagrams under the Support section, or some other reputable source for information, or wait for someone else to SHOW the differences between the vol and tone wiring. It's very simple, but I don't get down on that drawing-stuff-up thing so much.

[newey]

Mover-

Hello and Welcome!

Maybe someone can tell me if this is possible.

Yes.

Now, why you would want to do this is another question entirely. I understand you wanting a neck + Bridge pickup combo, and for it to be humcancelling. But I don't understand why you would want both pickup to be always on, even though you can turn one down with its volume control. And I don't understand why you would want no middle pickup. You've already got both the switch and the pickup, why not use them?

There are 2 ways to get the N+B humbucking combo, depending on whether you can live with a different sequence of selections on the five way switch. The easy way is to leave the switch as is, and move the middle pickup to the neck position, and the neck to the middle pup position. Your 5-way will then switch M/M+N/N/N+B/B.

Position 4 (N+B) will be hum cancelling. Position 2 (M+N) will be, too.
No soldering needed, assuming the wires will reach from the mid pup up to the neck position.

If the wires are too short, or if you want the original switch order, then you'll have to use the second option, which is to swap the middle and neck hot wires on the five-way switch. Solder the middle pup to the neck lug, and vice versa.- and swap the locations of the middle and neck pups as above.

Now, the volume and tone controls are a separate matter. If you keep the middle pup, you could have a vol for the neck and mid both, and a separate one for the bridge, or use one for the neck, with the B and M combined on the other.

A master tone with twin volumes presents a problem of interaction between the pots. Some may not care about that, but if it's a concern, a dual-gang pot can be used for the tone control. This allows wiring just like an LP, with 2 volumes and 2 tones, except both tone pots are on a single knob.

Once you decide exactly what you want, we'll walk you through the rewiring. It's not terribly difficult to do- if you're new to modding, rewiring your pots is a good first project.