Tele-LIKE-Strat by JLB (crunchypotato)

[UnklMickey]

this is one of those threads that raises the age-old question:

what's the best way to wire a strat with a stock 5-way switch?

after numerous discussions with my friends, we've come to the conclusion that there is no best way.

at least not universally so.

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this mod has you move the bridge to the middle position on the 5 way so your choices are:

• 1 neck
  
• 2 neck + bridge
  
• 3 bridge
  
• 4 bridge + middle
  
• 5 middle
  

so far, so good.

in trading away the neck + middle, for neck + bridge, the positions on the 5 way are not as intuitive, but it wouldn't take long to get used to the new positions.

but the overlap between the tone controls exists in the neck + bridge position.

if you use the neck and (new) middle tone lugs with the pickup switching of tele-like-strat, you end up with separate tone controls, and no overlap, but with no tone control for the bridge only position. with the "ice pick in the ear" crowd this may be a feature. for the rest of us, not so much.

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with a stock sequence on the pickup half of the switch, moving the middle pot to the bridge lug makes it possible to have one pot for neck and neck + middle. the other serves bridge and bridge + middle. this results in no overlap. it also results in no tone control when the middle only is selected. and some folks do like it.

so how else can we twist this around?

we could also use the neck pickup in the middle position.

that would give us:

• 1 middle
  
• 2 neck + middle
  
• 3 neck
  
• 4 neck + bridge
  
• 5 bridge
  
  assuming that we used the end lugs on the tone side of the switch, we get no overlaps, and the neck only is the position with no tone control.
  
  all in all lots of good things here, but to get the neck + bridge combination you had give up the bridge + middle.
  
  that's a real deal-killer for many. for those who prefer the neck + middle to the bridge + middle, this is a fair trade.
  
  
  as always, any pickup connected to the center position of the 5-way, is the one that should be rwrp.
  
  also note that may be some difference in the "heat" of your pickups. usually the bridge pickup is the hottest. the middle and neck are either the same as one another, or the middle is a bit hotter.
  
  so when you move your pickups from one position to another, your "natural" scaling of the output of the pickups has been changed.
  
  that can be compensated for by height adjustments. (although a relatively hot pickup moved from the bridge to the middle will need to be set very low.
  
  another thing to mention as a possibility for the tone switch is to have a "master" (always active) tone, and a control that is only active in any switch position that the bridge pickup is included. this tends to be reasonably manageable.
  
  the last is: forget the tone side of the switch completely. remove the volume pot and put in a hole-cover. the neck tone gets wired as a volume and the middle is wired as a master tone. (people who hate the location of the volume control LOVE this idea.)
  
  make no mistake, having a neck + bridge combination won't make your strat twang "just like a tele". there are too many other differences between the two.
  
  nonetheless, it is certainly worth adding it to your arsenal.
  
  now that you know some of the "costs", you can make a more informed decision on what you want to get, and what you're willing to sacrifice.
  
  or you could just spend a few bucks and buy a superswitch.
  
  and get any combination of the three pickups (in parallel in phase) even all three in parallel. in whatever order you want. with your choice of tone pots in each of the positions.
  
  it all comes down to choices.
  

[lechatnoir]

I posted a thread about making my old strat sound more tele-like, this sounds like it might be my best option... please could you help me out? What I'd like to do is remove the central pickup, rewire it so that there's just 1 volume and 1 tone control, keep it simple. I also read somewhere that putting a metal strip under one of the pickups would change the sound, so I might try that - or perhaps I sohuld cave in and buy a set of Tele pickups too. Any advice is greatly appreciated!