Nooby questions about Strat wiring (Gilmour/Johnson mods)

[Guitar Gear Reviews]

Hey all, it's been a while since I've taken out the soldering iron so I wanted to get some advice from your collective wisdom before f***ing things up  



I'm working on two really simple wiring mods at once here, the David Gilmour switching mod to allow all bridge/neck or all three pups in parallel, and the Eric Johnson mod  to hook up the bridge pup to the mid pickup tone control.



I'm getting a bit confused though because the switch doesn't match up with most diagrams (for higher end Fender switches) and only has seven, not eight connection points.  I'm thinking to add the tone control to the bridge I just need a little link to the empty lug at the far right, does that look right?

And to add the neck pickup in parallel, I would simply hook up the far left connection on the 5-way to the mini toggle, to the volume pot, right?  Sorry for the nooby questions haha, it's been a while.



The guitar in question , for the curious-minded among you:

[Ben N]

Not 100% sure, but I think you may need to replace the switch with a standard Fender 5-way.

[jimilee]

I googled it.


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[robthequiet]

Yup. I haven't worked with that particular switch. Did you want to have the middle pickup also go through tone control? What I might suggest is throwing yourself to the wolves head over to our sister site also, plenty of expertise on all things guitar tech. Feel free to follow up here of you like, though.

[Guitar Gear Reviews]

I googled it.


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Congrats.  I did too but found all diagrams for different style switches with more than seven lugs as this import has.

[Guitar Gear Reviews]

Did you want to have the middle pickup also go through tone control?

Yup, that's the plan.  Thanks for the heads-up about the sister forum, never seen it before.

[jimilee]

As long as one wire goes to the volume and the same lug as the bridge pickup and the other wire goes to the lug with the neck pickup, the location is less important.


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[robthequiet]

Yes, I had a similar mod, except instead of neck-add I had bridge-add. "Deluxe Player" configuration, iirc. If you can map the hot end of the neck pickup and run a switch between that and the main volume lug, you should be good to go.

[Guitar Gear Reviews]

Thanks Rob, I decided to go with bridge-add as well since it makes soldering a bit easier and wiring cleaner, as long as the empty lug goes to the bridge pickup both mods are good to go, I'll post an update in about an hour.

[stallik]

Interested to know what the attraction of a tone control on the mid pickup is. I imagine it would make the pos 2&4 a bit dull on my strat. Is it intended for use only in position 3?

I currently have a push/push switch on the volume which sums the neck and bridge. That gives all 3 in pos 2&4 when engaged. Standard blade switch but I can't recall the exact wiring and I'm away so can't look. Sorry

[ashcat_lt]

The original Strats had 3-way switches, so there were no combinations, so the MT was pretty much completely independent.  They left the T off the B so you had one "full treble" position when needed.

I'm pretty sure the OP will work as stated. Those 7-lug switches usually have the two common "pole" lugs tied together internally.  Works fine for standard wiring since they're generally jumpered anyway.  It'll work for this, too, and that empty lug is most definitely the B position on the "tone side" of the switch.

[Guitar Gear Reviews]

A little misstep or two along the way but she turned out sounding great:

http://mattwins.blogspot.com/2016/05/adventures-of-squier-strat-episode-ix.html

The treble bleed is great all around for the bridge position, and the Gilmour switch is fun to play with.  The neck/mid/bridge sounds nice for some warm but clear rhythm, and I love the neck/bridge position for the clear bell-like tone.  Thanks for the tips, on to see what mods to do next!

[MaxPower]

May as well try those Dan Armstrong series/parallel wiring mods.

[robthequiet]

Did the Eric Johnson mod include the EJ .1uF cap? I found it a bit heavy, but in a rig where you have your fuzzface etc. the guitar mods may be tailored to the specific pedal chain you're using. I went to the Greasebucket tone circuit which doesn't do much for the guitar sound itself but seems to affect the breakup of the amp a bit differently, a bit more gradual and "sandy" open tone.