Pot value and wiring hss fat strat

[StratMan]

Hi Everybody.

I have a question for the guitar techs and guitar fanatics in here. I'm struggling a bit getting te best sound out of my BKP pickups. Hope you can give me some advice..

I have a HSS Strat with 2x Mothers Milk and 1 Crawler humbucker in the bridge (also splitted with push/pull pot)

Problem is, I have used this configuration with 1x 500k volume pot and 2x 500k tone pots.  When using it this way, I found the crawler sounds good, but the MM pickups were a bit too bright in my opinion. The MM pickups are already bright pickups.. So I changed all pots to 250k pots. After tweaking the pickups for using with these pots, I found the singlecoils now much better sounding, but you can guess.. I dont like the humbucker anymoore. I've tweaked and tweaked for hours and hours, but I can't get it sound right. I think the crawler should have 500k to sound really the best. Not that it sounds bad, but just not it, not like with the 500k pot. And at first it looks like it sounds good with the 250k, but then in a band mix, the crawler misses the highs and the tightness with the 250k.

So ... I was thinking.

I can change pots to 300k for a nice in between value, or
Replace the tone pot for the neck pickup into a 2nd volume pot, which is 500k, only for the Crawler humbucker.

I don't use that tone knob very much. I use my volume knob very frequently. (constantly) I think this may can work for me, but .. when that tone knob isn't connected to those single coils anymore, does it also affects the way the pickups sound? I really have no idea? Or will it sounds just like there is a tone knob connected and is fully opened? Or can I  move the wires from the 'old' tone pot to the other tone pot on my strat?

How do you guys do this? I know there is a lot written about topics like this, but hopefully you can help me with this

thanks in advance!

StratMan

[Cpt_Gonzo]

I am no expert in this field, but I know that "ACY" has developed a wiring which automatically switches the Pot value when you split the humbucker/ switch to the single coils.

[Mr. Air]

I think you should be able to convert one of the tone pots to a volume pot controling the Crawler and have the other volume pot controlling the Milks. With some rearranging you can have the tone pot working for all three pickups. I'm not sure about this, but I can't see why it can't be done.

You could also try 300k pots. I got a strat clone with Apaches/Stormy Monday and 300k pots and it works well, but I don't know how the Crawler will react with a 300k pot.

[Philly Q]

I never got round to trying it, but you can use 500k resistors in the circuit so effectively the humbucker "sees" a 500k pot and the single-coils "see" a 250k pot.  Details here (thanks to HTH):

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=17594.msg235022#msg235022

With that setup I'd use a 500k volume but leave the tone controls as 250k, I guess.

[Bonamassive5150]

I have an Alder/ Maple/maple  HSS strat with a Floyd bridge and VHII/IT/IT and am using 500k Vol and 2 250k tone pots.  I've also wired the tone pots to Bridge and neck pickups only (middle open) with a 0.022f PIO cap

The VHII sounds increadible, but the IT's are bright with a 500k

i've seen this HSS configuration on the Suhr site using a 4pole 5way Mega Switch which places 470k resistors in the circuit to drop the 500k to 250k. 

I havent fitted it yet and i will lose the 0.047 cap and treble bleed mod.

Gotta be worth a try right?

[StratMan]

Wow, thanks everybody!
I will have a look into the possibilities for my guitar. There are a lot of options as I see..

For a long time I read lots op posts on the forum, this is my 2nd post. I see this forum is read by many people because of the quick responses  :lol: thanks everybody. The suhr wiring diagram looks great, but unfortunately they haven't used a push/pull pot in here for splitted humbucker.

Still, any other ideas are still welcome .. Thanks!

[StratMan]

.. when I look again to the Suhr wiring layout.. this layout is I think one of the best solutions for hss guitars I think. Very smart!

[Philly Q]

The Suhr wiring scheme looks good.  I don't quite understand the wiring of the switch itself, but I guess I could figure it out!

[Bonamassive5150]

..me neither  :) fully any way.  I know that pos 2 on the 5way is an auto split, so you get slug coil HB and mid pick up(auto tap)

[Philly Q]

..me neither  :) fully any way.  I know that pos 2 on the 5way is an auto split, so you get slug coil HB and mid pick up(auto tap)

Yeah, that's right, definitely a coil split there. 

My problem with five way switches (especially Super Switches) is that I don't really understand how the lugs on the switch inter-connect, so I need a wiring diagram that's easy to follow.  I like the Seymour Duncan diagrams which actually look like the inside of a guitar!

[PhilKing]

My problem with five way switches (especially Super Switches) is that I don't really understand how the lugs on the switch inter-connect

Hi Philly,  on the super switch the same lug is active on each bank of 6 lugs.  Lug 1 is common and then in positions 1-5, lugs 2-6 in each bank are active.  There is no interconnection between them.  You decide on the wiring.  I've done a few interesting ones, one where I used series connections (like the Brian May method), and one which gives me bridge HB series, bridge HB parallel, bridge & neck HB's, neck split and neck HB series.  It's easy to do auto splits with them and also to do PRS wiring (though a megaswitch P is even easier).  There is also a true 5 way (2 switch banks, like a Fender switch), which doesn't bridge lugs, which you can use for coil split too.

[StratMan]

That is interesting. Thanks everybody.
I think I will wire my strat using the Suhr schema. But,.. my Crawler has a 4 conductor wiring and I'm using a push/pull switch to switch from full humbucker to splitted.

I'd like to wire it just like the Suhr schema, but then also using the splitted humbucker sound using my push pull switch. I can't find a schema like that, and I'm not that technical that I can read te schema and adding the extra wires to the schema. Maybe PhilKing can help with that or has a kind of schema? Or can someone describe where to connect what :-) ?

[Philly Q]

My problem with five way switches (especially Super Switches) is that I don't really understand how the lugs on the switch inter-connect

Hi Philly,  on the super switch the same lug is active on each bank of 6 lugs.  Lug 1 is common and then in positions 1-5, lugs 2-6 in each bank are active.  There is no interconnection between them.  You decide on the wiring.  I've done a few interesting ones, one where I used series connections (like the Brian May method), and one which gives me bridge HB series, bridge HB parallel, bridge & neck HB's, neck split and neck HB series.  It's easy to do auto splits with them and also to do PRS wiring (though a megaswitch P is even easier).  There is also a true 5 way (2 switch banks, like a Fender switch), which doesn't bridge lugs, which you can use for coil split too.

Thanks Phil, but I think you're fighting a lost cause!    I'll stick to following diagrams.

By the way, I noticed last night that DiMarzio seem to have a lot more wiring diagrams on their recently updated site.  Might be worth spending some time perusing those.

[StratMan]

 :D sorry
I will also folow the schema, but the push/pull split would be great.
Otherwise, when not using the split, I don't know where to leave those extra 2 wires that comes with the 4conductor pickup. (Suhr uses 2 wires of the humbucker. Mines got 4) I can cut them loose but that's not the way I think  :P

[Philly Q]

Otherwise, when not using the split, I don't know where to leave those extra 2 wires that comes with the 4conductor pickup. (Suhr uses 2 wires of the humbucker. Mines got 4) I can cut them loose but that's not the way I think  :P

Just solder the green and white wires together and wrap some tape round the connection so it doesn't short out against anything.