From Teleologis–(at)–orry.NoEmail Fri Sep 13 11:08:59 CDT 1996
Article: 107863 of rec.music.makers.guitar
Path: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!nntp.primenet.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!usenet
From: Teleologist
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar
Subject: Re: Strat rewiring questions
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 08:19:50 -0500
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Graham Duncan wrote:
>
> I’ve read about Don Grosh and Callaham guitars using a blend pot in
> conjunction with the usual 5-way switch to allow all 3 pickups to be used at
> once (or blend in the neck w/ the bridge or vice-versa).
>
My Strat is wired close to that. I have Texas specials & use a TBX tone control
for all switch positions, so I had an ‘extra’ pot plus half of the contacts on
the 5 way switch un-used(the TBX is wired to the volume pot, like a Tele). I
wanted to be able to fade either the middle or neck pickups into the bridge &
retain all stock Strat tones. Getting all three was a ‘nice, but…..’.
What I did was take apart a 100K linear pot with a centering detent & cut thru
the resistance film diagonally at the ‘center’ position with an Xacto knife.
This pot has 3 internal wiper contacts, so when it’s centered, the center/wiper
terminal is connected to the film for both end terminals(the pot’s internal
wipers ‘bridge’ the cut). Otherwise it acts as a switch – the center contact
connects to either end terminal, but the end terminals are not connected
together(open circuit after the cut).
The center terminal of the pot is connected to the 5 way switch’s ‘middle’
pickup terminal & the middle pickup wire is moved to one of the pot’s end
terminals. The other end terminal is connected to the 5 way switch’s ‘neck’
terminal, as is the neck pickup wire.
With the pot fully clockwise, the switch works like a stock 5-way Strat. In the
bridge/middle switch position, turning the pot down toward half fades out the
middle pickup. At the detent, all 3 are on(but with 50K extra resistance for
the neck & middle). Turning it down further, the middle is cut off & the neck
pickup is faded in(pretty good Tele imitation!). With the pot turned down, the
switch positions were – B B/N N N N .
In order to save the Strat’s Neck-Middle sound with the pot turned down, I used
the 5 way switch’s unused terminals which would corrsepond to the neck & middle
tone control wires on a stock Strat. These 2 terminals short together in the
neck/mid position. The common or wiper terminal should be disconnecetd on this
side of the switch. I jumpered the ‘neck tone control’ terminal to the neck
pickup terminal & the ‘mid tone control’ terminal to the end terminal of the
pot where the middle pickup wire is connected. In the N/M position, the 2
contacts connect the middle pickup to the neck pickup. This gives –
B B/N N N/M N with the pot turned down. With the pot turned up, it’s still
a stock Strat! Best of all no mini-toggles, extra holes, etc.!
