Had a new strat wiring idea...

Paolo_M

Have the bridge (humbucker sized single coil) wired straight to the output jack a la Van Halen.
Two independant volume controls for the neck and middle pick ups.
I use the volume on the guitar for gain control so I'd wire it for minimum outout (clean tone even with amp heavily overdriven) at 0 rather than the more usual completley off. This means that when rolling back the volume I can't accidentally turn myself off completley. Obviously this would have no control on the bridge, it would be wide open whenever it's selected.
No tone control, I usually have it at ten anyway.
Latching kill switch in the second tone hole, doubles as a mute.
Pick-up switching as normal.
Shielded properly.

Ideally the guitar itself would then have clean (neck or middle at 0), overdrive (neck or middle at 4) and big, f*ck off lead sounds with the bridge.
The set up would be just guitar => wah => overdriven amp, might still use an overdrive pedal as a boost though.

I think it could work, been working out the wiring in my head.
Have time and a squire with a DiMarzio bridge pick-up already fitted to try it out on tomorrow, will let you know how I get on.

Anyone else done something like this?
Any suggestions, any reason why it wouldn't work?

68 lost souls

Yep I see a flaw. If you have normal sqitching how do you wire the bridge straiht to the output? Surely it will be always on? Will this not eliminate any benfits?

Doctor J

Not if it's wired to the switch. The other two pickups get wired to their respective volumes and then to the switch. The switch gets wired to the kill switch which is the only thing wired to the jack.

TBH, I wouldn't do it myself, I don't really see the point of two pickups getting their own volumes and one not at all. Once it's engaged it's a full on face melt if the others are turned down in any way.

Paolo_M

What I'm looking for is three gain settings straight from the guitar that utilise the amps overdrive setting. I've been never completley happy with the overdrive from any pedal I've tried.

My band is a funk/metal type of thang. I love sound of the neck pick up with the volume rolled back a bit and the amp set at full on overdrive for riffing. Think Rage but more metal. I'd set the neck vol on 4/6 ish for this. Set the middle to 0 for the few clean tones there are. Then, as you say, the bridge is wide open face melt for solo/leady parts. This doesn't require me to have any overdrive/distortion pedal between guitar and amp just the pure tones from the guitar and amp.

Another side effect, that I thought of afterwards, is that for guys who use the in between settings you'd be able blend the amount of each pick up in the mix. This would only work on the neck/mid setting.

If the wiring works the way I'm hoping the two volume controls should have no effect at all on the bridge no matter what they're set at.

I was gonna wire the kill switch across the output jack so it's a true hot to ground switch, rather than in series with the hot wire.

Anyways about to plug in the old iron, I'll report back later.

Paolo_M

All done and hey what do ya know, it works!!
Made a vid clip which will make it clearer how it works/sounds etc.
I've loaded it on my uTube page but it's not available yet. Will let you know when it is.

Paolo_M

That was quick, vids here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgChlezHlRw

Let us know what ya think.

The Boarder Man

Looks interesting. Might do something like that with my Squire. What pickups are you using? Also, is that kill switch not unlatching rather than latching? I wouldn't have thought you could switch it so quickly with a latching one.

Yakult

thats a great idea.

me likes it alot!

jrodd