I have no idea why you don’t have 1 million subs. Your playing and enthusiasm towards music and guitar make me want to play so much. Please don’t stop!
I've got my Nashville style tele wired up with the 10 position freeway switch, bottom row just like a strat, top row n+m series, n+b parallel, n+b series, n+m+b parallel, m+b series. My control plate is on backwards, first is a "vintage inspired" 280k volume pot, second is a 1meg cts pot with a .0022uf cap for a passive bass cut, then the 3rd pot is a 250k no-load tone pot with a .047uf cap. I've found uses for everything. All 3 pickups with volume at 10 and tone at 10 (no-load) is a great extra quack funk tone and the series come in handy for huge fuzz tones and other fat gainy things. The bass cut is great for being able to dial in a little extra bass on the amp for the bridge pickup and then cutting some bass on the guitar to get that chimey neck pickup thing. Also the bass cut is great for adding some clarity back into a higher gain sound
Good thinking! I love my blender tones but also never found a use for the all 3 on position, you’ve got a super practical solution there, much kudos to you!
It does'nt matter what position you use cos you make it sound "Amazing" always!! Your enthusiasm is infectious and gives me a real boost, thanks MAN! You are on the money about the gizmos and treble bleeds etc etc , the Stratocaster needs a bit of darkness (mine does cos it's like surf sound scoop 60s dippy sound) so the tone goes down to 5 for banging the plank and bridge is perfect loud. Thanks again.
Love that blend mod, I had a squier strat many moons ago and had a similar mod done to it by Kent Armstrong and loved it, so I'll definitely be trying it out on my '96 USA standard, I never really got on with the TBX tone control so wont miss it. Glad to have stumbled onto your channel and subbed :)
Just watched this video again and found my way to your site that I see another diagram with both mods together. Awesome. I’m not really using the middle pickup alone so now I’ll give this mod a try. I’ve had the 1/4 blend in my Strat and very happy with it. Thanks for your helpful content.
You can also install the Freeway switch for the first layout. This way you can have the normal wiring on 1-5 and your wiring on 6-10 - which is the switch turned. Or something like that at least. If you've never heard of the Freeway switch, check it out and you get what I mean.
The Freeway 10 position switch, on their internet site, has free downloads ( in PDF) of many different wiring diagram configurations for various pickups configurations.. and different wiring for various pickup configuration on the two different upper or lower rows of the switch. It is having two blade switches in one switch, so you get 10 selections instead of only five positions of a usual blade switch. I have mine wired so that one blade row of selections is all single coils, and the other row are all humbuckers, plus I included Jays quarter blend mod.
Great mod -1/4 blend. I have a American pro II Strat w/push push pot but I’d like it better with the blend and not liking the all 3 on setting. Your mod is exactly what I’m after. Just a touch of neck with bridge I think would be great instead of both full on. I always find something useful on your channel even though I think I already know what yours gonna say. I usually am pleasantly surprised. Thanks
Did you end up doing it on your am pro ii? I have an am pro II as well and I just did the mod. It works great but I'm thinking of adding a treble bleed. Did you include one on yours?
Mind melted... just about got my head around standard wiring on strats, teles and les pauls and now... there are more options? You know that gif of Stewie from Family Guy rocking back and forth in the corner? That's me right now lol - but... awesome vidz Jay. Real food for thought in getting the most range of usable tonal variety out of one guitar. Not sure yet if you do one on Les Pauls as this is only the second of your vidz I've watched but if not, one would be fascinating with your way of explaining it all so clearly.
I should probably do a Les Paul one. One combo that is fun on a LP is standard wiring on the front pickup controls, 50s wiring on the Neck pickup controls, and a phase switch on one of the pickups for Peter Green inbetween tones :)
I did a similar mod (the first mod) but with an HSS Strat with a Super Switch. The neat thing about that is that not only could you get the Tele in-between sound, but it was also noise cancelling (with the outside coil).
It's so easy to just add a switch (or push-push) to link the neck and bridge pups together, so you can still get that tele tone in positions 1 & 5. And then in positions 2 & 4 flipping that switch gives you all pups at once. No need to sacrifice your solo middle pup tone (MY personal favorite on a strat). I like the blend knob idea. I think the two tone knobs on a strat are redundant anyway. In fact, I don't fuss with my volume knob either, so I turn all my vol knobs into bass-cut controls. Biggest thanks for informing me about no-load pots. I've never encountered those before.
Well explained. Now I know what to do with this new push push pot and this blend wiring. I will create a no load pot by opening it up and removing conductive material.
Six Strings Supply channel has the best videos for soldering his many wiring diagrams and he has great video quality close ups as he solders each wire connection, going one wire at a time.
Great video very cool wiring ideas. The truth is that two tone knobs for most configuration are not necessarily needed one master tone can work just as well so the thirds pot is available to do some interesting stuff. Cheers.
I've actually been doing a similar mod to my strats, although perhaps not as elegantly. I simply swap the wires for the middle and neck pickups around on the switch, so that what you get is the bridge in position 1, the bridge and neck in 2, the neck in 3, the neck and middle in 4 and the middle in five. This wouldn't have worked out for your love of the normal strat position 2, because I did sacrifice that to make mine work.
I totally disagree, I've fitted a push, push pot, wheather you are on the bridge or the neck pickup push it once, it switches the other one on, push it again and it switches either one off and you don't loose your middle pickup, you can still use all three pickups individually or any combination of the three, the best mod as far as I'm concerned.
Very cool 😎 I have been looking at getting a Tele, but a Base plate on the bridge, and this wiring would give me the two sounds I’m missing. I definitely like having a treble bleed option...I have a push/pull volume with a treble bleed wired in now. Appreciate your approach K.I.S.S. Fiddling around to get the sound you want SUCKS! I have more than a few projects do take care of first, but this might be a good one?
This is an great Mod. Is it possible to do the Quarter Blend Mod while having a TBX tone controller installed? This might be a dumb question but I'm just getting started in the work of Mods. Thank you
agree with the add neck via blend is better than just a add neck switch where it is full neck or none. I have removed the carbon on a 500k linear taper high friction pot at the 8-10 range and found it to be ideal for dialing in exactly what I want via blend and I have been pleased with a half out of phase mod for neck before the blend as well.
Would be very interested in your opinion of the ten position Freeway 5B5-01 (for SSS Strats), Freeway 5B5-02 (for HSS and HSH Strats) and six position 3B3 (for Teles) switches. I have fitted them on most of my S type and T type guitars and I am very impressed.
@@50kal44 the T-type 3x3 is great. Just as intuitive to use as the S-type 10 way, and two or three more tonal options over the more common 3 and 4 way wiring.
CTS 500k/250k Audio/Log Push-Pull Pot, Solder-Free, would this work in a strat regular wiring, with out without the wiring adjustments on your diagrams, which btw are pretty cool so cool it's goy me on a mad hunt for greater understanding of wiring snd parts the materials and their properties, all add and take away something, my understanding is tithe load of any strat from the jack hot in is the same depending on the amp, or I'd it the a.p settings I'm not sure as it's confusing to know that the behaviour of electricity is far different from water I'm a plumber, water is either pumped- forced through pioes/conduits, same as air conditioning, but electricity it's magnetic nature n'all is drawn, pulled from the magnets, the the electromagnetic field created by the pickups coils and magnetic pole pieces, when the string is close enough to be in the sweet spot if the magnetic field te coils individual magnets creat( I imagine the warp bubble from star trek beyond!) It's to e is at its best,. Any way thanks also for the link to the skill builer sharing site! Awesome I'm joined up already. My main question regarding that tone pot I mentioned, I meant would it work dyou think, in the blend at bridge pickup flowing tone from the warmer neck pickup? Learned so much just from one god vid! Thanks 👍
You can use that pot with a standard Strat wiring. What you would do it connect the 250k part of the pot as you would a basic tone knob and keep the push/pull selection in the spot where that 250K port of the pot is activated. You can also do it with the 500K side of it as well and the tone will be slightly different when at 10. That being said, I think that a simple 250K Audio Taper Pot would still be your easiest, most stress-free solution. Happy tweaking.
Great video, love the mods, especially the 3 way in between. I love the Tele in between sound and never use the middle alone, so I swapped the neck and middle pickup wires on the switch, which sacrifices the bridge middle position for a bridge neck
a 0.047uf cap is the same value as a 47nf. That being said, I definitely see it more frequently written as 0.047uf (or 0.047mf) on the internet. I just used the nf value cause it was a shorter way of writing it out. Thanks for writing and rock on!
Hello Jay, My question is, when in the blender position of neck and bridge, is it wired in series or parallel? I have a tele with a 4 way switch that does both and I really liked the extra position of the bridge/neck in series. Would be curious if there was a way to do both in this configuration. Or if only having one option can it be done in series rather than parallel?
Perhaps the very best video I have watched in years ! Including my own channel ! You saved my ass big league as I have three strats in build now and one is RoseWood.Thank you very much.
JLJ. I am building a hardtail strat with two Banning Filtertron pickups and a threeway roller switch with only vol and tone. I am thinking of blending tone at bridge position. I am using 500k pots but trying to figure out best caps to use? AND...have you ever played aguitar setup like I am doing? Thank you. Rob
I would start off with a 0.022mf cap but you can go to something like a 0.0022mf if you want something a little more subtle. Cool setup: It'll be like a Two Pickup La Cabronita with a little more versatility on the bridge. Good luck with it!
I have added a 6 position rotary switch (which has 2 gangs). I soldered 5 different values capacitors to the switch lugs for having various capacitor choices by rotating the knob a click for each position selection of a different value capacitor choice, The 5 capacitors used were the .015 uf, .022 uf, .033 uf, .047 uf, .068 uf. One rotary switch is for the neck pickup tone pot#1, and I also have such a rotary switch on the other tone pot#2 for the bridge and middle pickups.
I've been using the blend pot for years, simply life-changing having the 3 pickups blended and it sounds awesome even with non-expensive ones, and if I don't wanna use the blend I can just have a Standart, great tone without issues. My mindset always was that if I paid for all those expensive pickups I wanna use them all the time! 😅
you should put a link to the schematic diagram as an image, I copied it from the video, but my drawing skills are pretty feeble. I'm going to take this and apply it to an HSS setup where the humbucker will have a pull switch on tone 2 for series/parallel, and a mini toggle switch for in/out of phase for the humbucker against the two singles. This combination means I only have one extra visible switch which keeps a nice clean look and keeps me from getting confused like if I had three mini toggles lol plus it'll keep the control cavity cleaner. This video changed my whole project I was seriously stressing over having a bunch of mini toggles to position and keep track of. The only thing I've lost is I don't have the middle pickup isolated in any control configuration but I don't think I really need that. You really bumped this project up to the next level and I can have what I want without a ridiculous looking bunch of extra switches. The pickups are two Seymour Duncan Lipstick pickups neck and middle and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates covered bridge . . . if it turns out it should be pretty versatile, I have not counted the possible combinations, I'll figure that out playing it . . .
I bought an HHH strat pickguard off of Ali Express and it was completely miswired. Anyway I have to figure out what to do with it. So far I bought better pots and replaced the spdt switches to split the pickups into dpdt on/on/on that I can use to switch them between series, parallel and single coil. But I would like to also create that telecaster sound and that would require something different, maybe double pole 5 way.
If I went for a Strat, it would either be a 2 pickup setup (Neck and Bridge) or your layout or Jon Herington from Steely Dan with the Tele ish position, just love Teles so much Not me but heard a Rumour about Alex Lifeson Strats in the 80s (RUSH) He would have that Bill Lawrence bridge, with standard Strat neck and middle with that Gibson toggle Bridge, Bridge and Middle, Bridge and Neck for all hum cancelling I would try either one!
Great video. Really clear explanations and schematics. 👍👍 I tried that 4 pole Megaswitch once. It totally defeated me!! I just couldn't get my head around it, so pleased to see the simpler version here. I might go back and try again one day though 😂
That’s fantastic thanks, i wanted to make you a question, would you think that is possible to have a tele wiring with neck bridge and a blender in the middle?
Hey Jay... love your channel and your vibe... so uplifting! I just wired up my strat last night with your 3 way in-between mod, since I was installing new Tex Mex pups, pots and jack. Had to order the 2 pole 5 way switch (actually came as a 4 pole, but just I used the 2). So, what do I think about the mod? I absolutely love it, man! Best of both strat and tele worlds in one ax! I don't miss the mid pup on its own, as I rarely used it anyway. Thanks again... keep rockin'!
Great video Jay! but i'm still confused if i want to use the 4 pole super switch, does it only use half of the switch? then what about the other half, just leave it be? hahaha i'm so noob in this wiring things
The Professional ii strat has a push to connect the bridge to the neck pick up. It does sound very tele like. I actually love my Professional ii strat.
I was skeptical of the title, but it is true - your configuration is unique and I've never seen these exact implementations. Thank you for sharing, it was very interesting to see and hear. :)
I just want to thank you for showing me these mods! I used the first one for my Fender Pink Paisley, when I put a set of Lollar 64 Blackface pickups in it. Works great!
Jay - you are so-real man. I can feel your Passion & positive energy (for this stuff). I still get excited to play thru my pedalboard. Always enjoy your channel brother. You are a bad-ass player - too. oNe LovE from NYC
These are really cool Jay, thanks for sharing! I'm still debating on how I want to configure my strat type guitar because I was inspired by the Memphis wiring setup (saw it on Premiere Guitar via John Bohlinger). This is good food for thought though! Your playing examples were awesome too. I used to never use the position 2 for some reason but have always loved position 4. Recently though, I've definitely found some great sounds/vibe with 2. It's nice having those in between settings for sure but the neck and bridge together is something magical in your examples.
Thanks so much. I love both of these mods. Can you tell me why you use a .047 capacitor? Other tone people have said that 250 pots should use a .022 capacitor. Still learning :)
The .022 do a better job at retaining clarity as you turn down. However, I like the tonal response with a rolled off .047, a little less strident and more rich than a .022 at the same setting.
The way you have that 1/4 blend mod wiring is how the Strat should have come from the factory. It's exactly what I was looking for in a Strat. I'm just starting to learn to play again and I think you just gave me the perfect setup for my Strat.
For that Tele in a strat thing I finally broke down and put an actual Tele bridge pickup in a hardtail strat. It's definitely closer to Tele then any baseplate I've ever used. What I mostly like is it's a usable crunch tone in the bridge that I normally don't find on a strat. I've got the blender going, but might try your 1/4 blend. I like your logic behind it.
Really love your video and your playing is extraordinaryly amazing. Can you tell me what kind of pups you’re using on that GUITAR I love the tone and I do want to try some of your wirings.
Hello Mr. JLJ! I just want to ask about the 3-way in-between mod. Is it correct that the first tone knob controls neck and neck+middle, and the second tone knob controls bridge and bridge+middle, then both tone knobs control neck+bridge?
Very cool mod for position 3. I've never liked/used that position (middle pickup only) with stock config. and always loved that setting on a tele. thanks for sharing.
Ive been watching RU-vid videos re guitar for years…. Paul Davids, Pete Thorne, Brett Pappa, Matthew Scott, Tim Pierce….all of them great players and seemingly delightful people. I just came across your content last night. I was looking for info for doing a wiring on one of my strats. I have to say…i agree with what everyone else has said about you: your creative sensibilities, your infectious enthusiasm and of course your playing. Just amazing! Plus, you come across with such humility and as a genuinely friendly man. I spent hours learning from you last night and I can’t wait to dive back in..I didn’t mention Monica Valli. I subscribe to her channel as well… will probably continue over there, because….well, you know. Keep up the GREAT work.
This inspires me! My brother once created a similar bridge/neck switcher on an old Strat, and I adored it! Sadly, the switch broke, and I converted it to the standard 5-way. Now I am going to have to try the Tele/Strat combo back. Mahalo! 🤙
