All Pickups Combinations Stratocaster

This document describes the electronic modification of a Stratocaster guitar. It’s

complementary to the video that you can watch in my Youtube channel:

https://youtu.be/9z3XcO_yBwc

There, you can appreciate the different sounds of the different pickups combinations.

1. Introduction (and disclaimer)

For a long time, I’ve been thinking of adding more versatility to my Strat. At first, I
thought of the American Deluxe wiring, which adds 5 more sounds. But that circuit
doesn’t offer the bridge and neck pickups combinations together, nor some other
interesting combinations. So, I resolved to design my own circuit, with all this
premises (and I’ve succeeded):

- Keeping the 5 original Strat sounds on their original positions.

- Adding new sounds that include:
o Bridge and neck pickups combinations.
o Parallel and series combinations.
o The three pickups together combinations.
o Out-of-phase pickups combinations.
- Making the new sounds to be on positions easy to remember.
- Keeping the aesthetics: not putting more switches.
- When the pickups are in parallel (classical Strat sounds), they’ll have a
Volume/Tone circuit with 250K potentiometers and a 22nF capacitor.
- When the pickups are in series, they’ll have a Volume/Tone circuit with 500K
potentiometers and a 47nF capacitor. This way, the classical Strat sound is
kept intact, but I get a “more humbucker” sound when the pickups are in
series.

This document describes such a circuit, but I have to warn you that:

- I’m an amateur luthier. I do this just for fun. I don’t work for Fender nor for
any other brand mentioned herein.
- I’ve installed this circuit in my guitar (and I’m quite happy with it), but I do
not warranty anything. Use this at your own risk.
- Please, try to understand the circuit design so that you can customize it and
(more important), you can troubleshoot potential implementation problems.

2. Operation

This great versatility is achieved thanks to the use of two components, capable of
making several commutations at a time: a quite special 5-way switch (read further)
and a Fender S-1 switch/potentiometer (it’s the component used in the Volume
control of the Stratocaster American Deluxe).

Nonetheless, due to the fact that I want that my Volume and Tone pots to be double,
I’ve been forced to move the Fender S-1 to the second Tone control position. The
remaining tone control is now mater tone control, for all pickups.
This way, the Volume and Tone controls are nearer the playing hand, while the
switching third control is further.

The Fender S-1 has a double function:

- When it’s pushed, we change from the pickups parallel associations to the
series combinations.
- When it’s turned, we add an additional pickup, mixing its sound with the
previously selected pickups (it depends on the 5-way switch position). It’s
important to notice that when it’s completely turned at the Zero-position
(totally counter clockwise), this pot is out of the circuit, so it doesn’t make
any influence in the sound at all.

I wish I could have put the S-1 commutation in the Volume position, but only in this,
I’ve had to compromise.

Volume / push-pull:
250K or 500K depending on the S-1 state
The push-pull reverses the polarity of the neck pickup

Tone / push-pull:
250K-22nF or 500K-47nF depending on the S-1 state
The push-pull reverses the polarity of the middle pickup
S-1 Switch / potentiometer
When the switch is pushed, it adds 5 new
sounds.
When the potentiometer is turned, it adds
an additional pickup. It works like the fader
of a mixing console, adding the pickup in a
progressive way.

Next page shows all the possible pickups combinations:

 S1 switch up: S1 switch down:
Volume and Tone 250K. Volume and Tone 500K.
Tone Capacitor 22nF Tone Capacitor 47nF

Volume & tone-> Volume & tone->

0 10 0 10
Fader Fader

Bridge Middle Neck Bridge Middle Neck

Volume & tone-> Volume & tone->

0 10 0 10
Fader Fader
Middle

Bridge Middle Neck Bridge Neck

Volume & tone-> Volume & tone->

0 10 0 10
Fader Middle Fader

Neck
Middle Neck Bridge
Bridge

Volume & tone-> Volume & tone->

0 10 0 10
Fader Fader
Neck

Neck Middle Bridge Middle Bridge

Volume & tone-> Volume & tone->

0 10 0 10
Fader Fader
Neck

Neck Bridge Middle Bridge Middle

 3. Caveat about the background noise

Pickups are rather noisy with a “normal” Stratocaster. If the middle pickup is Reverse-
Wound Reverse-Polarity (RWRP), then positions 2 and 4 are hum-cancelling. It’s the
case of most current Stratocasters. Nonetheless, some guitars with vintage pickups
may have the three pickups with the same polarity. In that case, positions 2 and 4 are
noisier. This happens before the modification of my circuit.

In the case of my circuit, there are some combinations in which pickups with the same
polarity are used, even if the middle pickup is RWRP (bridge and neck combinations).
In that case the background noise will increase. The magnitude of the noise would be
similar to that of the non-RWRP guitars in positions 2 and 4. You may find it to be a
problem. If, furthermore, your middle pickup is not RWRP, the combinations of the
three of them would be even noisier than positions 2 or 4.

I’m not concerned about this problems because I’ve installed noiseless pickups, but
you are warned: if you use the bridge and neck pickups together the background
noise will be slightly higher.

Maybe that’s why Fender doesn’t offer the bridge and neck combinations with their
Stratocaster American Deluxe. Well, to be precise, I must say that some American
Deluxe Strats do feature a position with Bridge and Neck together, but the neck
pickup is out of phase (there is noise cancellation, but the sound is very different).

4. Caveat about pickups shielding

Many pickups feature a shielding, especially noiseless pickups. That shielding may be
a third lug contact in the pickup, but most usually it’s connected to the negative
contact of the pickup coil. For example, this typical Telecaster pickup has only two
contacts:

But if we flip it over, we can see the original three contacts, two of them joined
together, as it’s shown in the next image:
Since single-coil pickups are usually connected in parallel, the negative pole of the coil
is always connected to ground, as well as the pickup shield, and that’s why many
pickups are provided as in the photo. But if we want to install series combinations or
reverse polarity switching, the shield is to be kept to ground always, but the negative
pole of the coil must be accessed separately.

In some pickups (like in the photo), the shield and coil solder join is accessible and
can be de-soldered, although putting the soldering tip near the pickup is always risky
(you can melt the pickup wire).

In my case, when I ordered my Kinmans (I’m delighted with them, by the way), I
stated that I wanted my pickups to be compatible with Fender S-1 switches, so I have
three contacts for each pickup. They offer such an option as Fender S-1 compatible.

You can see it in these photographs:

If you’re going to buy noiseless pickups for this project, make sure that they have the
shielding contact separate.

5. Components

To achieve all the premises, it’ll be needed to acquiere quite special components, and
furthermore, some of them must be tweaked.

5.1: Pickup selector: I used a 5-way selector that holds 8 internal switching circuits
(technically, an 8-pole, 5-throw switch). This switch consist of two Megaswitches-M
stacked together with a common axis. Although it’s easy to figure out how to make
one selector out of two, Günter Eyb (from Eyb Guitars, in Germany) sells them
already made. I bought mine to him and everything was very easy: I paid him by
Paypal and in a week I had my selector at home. The selector costed 38 euros and the
shipment from Germany to Spain was 5 euros. This is the selector I bought:

And the website of Eyb Guitars is: http://www.eyb-guitars.de

The selector I acquired had a little trap: positions were marked in the opposite way as
I usually name them: for me, position-1 is the bridge pickup position, while position-5
is the neck one. They are named the other way in the selector. Be careful with this
and use a multimeter to check before starting to solder.

5.2. One Fender S-1 switch/potentiometer: there are 4 types of Fender S-1: with
knurled split shaft (for typical Stratocaster knobs) and with plain shaft (for typical
Telecaster knobs). In turn, each kind can be ordered with resistances of 250K-Ohms
or 500K-Ohms. For this particular project, the potentiometer is to be chosen only from
the shaft point of view (according to the knob kind that we want) because the
conductive track will be replaced. By the way, the knobs must be acquired separately
and your old knobs won’t do because they can’t press the S-1 switch. In this project,
this potentiometer will work like the fader of a mixing console, and that’s why the
anti-log (reverse-audio) taper is better. These reverse-audio taper tracks can be
found in some specific left-handed guitar potentiometers. I decided it after doing
some electronic simulation with my computer, but surely you know that the taper
thing is a matter of taste. I feel that with linear or log tapers the potentiometer will
work like an ON/OFF switch rather than like a progressive control. Furthermore, in
order to have this potentiometer absolutely out of the circuit when the knob is in the
zero-position, we’ll make an indentation in the track at the appropriate end (see
further): This is the Fender S-1 component that I bought:
Remember that the knob is sold separately. These components as well as their knobs
can be purchased at the typical guitar hardware spare parts stores (Thomann,
AllParts, etc.). When I bought it, it seemed to be out of stock everywhere and I
bought it at an e-Bay store. The price of the component and the knob is about 30 to
35 euros. If you want more information about the S-1 components, I’ve found a very
good video in Youtube, analyzing them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Vw_hKp-Ec

5.3 One CTS potentiometer for left-handed guitars: we’ll use its conductive track
instead of the S-1 original track. Specific left-handed potentiometers feature an anti-
logarithmic track taper. If you are following this project for a left-handed guitar, you
can save this component and use the original track of a 250K S-1.

CTS potentiometers have tracks of the same size of the Fender S-1 (I guess that CTS
manufactures the S-1 for Fender). Nonetheless, it’s advisable to make sure that the
tracks are of the same size. Unfortunately, most of the times we’ll have to trust an
Internet picture.

CTS Potentiometer

Fender S-1 Potentiometer

These are the parts of

the S-1 knob, to be
purchased separately.

As stated before, the 250K value and the reverse-audio taper were chosen after some
computer simulations. But it’s always a matter of taste. I’m quite sure that the 500K-
Ohm and 1M-Ohm are not suitable. Nonetheless, you may try a 50K-Ohm reverse-
audio potentiometer (CTS manufactures it for left-handed active guitars). If you use a
50K conductive track, a linear taper could be considered too. The choice between
250K and 50K is, again, a matter of taste. With the 250K, the variation will be smooth
from the beginning, and you won’t notice any abrupt change when you start turning
the knob. But you won’t have a lot of precision to adjust the tone. On the other side, if
you use a 50K track, there will be a change in the sound in the moment when you
start turning the knob (when you pass from the zero-position to the one-position). But
you’ll have more precision in the way from the one-position to the ten-position).

I decided the reverse-audio 250K and that’s what you can listen in the video.

I bought it at a Spanish e-bay Store with very inexpensive shipment costs within
Spain for about 11 euros:

http://stores.ebay.es/Electronica-Baile

But I guess that if you are reading this document in English, you’ll be able to find it
somewhere else.
For this part of the circuit to be out of the rest of the circuit when the knob is in zero-
position (being respectful with the original sounds of the guitar), we have to make a
cut in the conductive track before installing it in the Fender S-1, as shown in this
image:

Cut Track

5.4: at least two potentiometers of the series Bourns GTR-183: Those are the only
ones I’ve found having two gangs and a DPDT push-pull in the same unit. They can be
found with plain or knurl shaft. We need at least one of 250K and one of 500K. The
taper can be linear or logarithmic according to our particular taste. If we want the
volume to be logarithmic and the tone to be linear, we’ll have to acquire additional
potentiometers of the series GTR-182 or GTR-183 to exchange the tracks accordingly.
Reverse-audio tapers are sold as well, although they can be difficult to find.

All the options can be found in the Bourns documentation:

https://www.bourns.com/pdfs/PDB183-GTR.pdf

Since we want that one pot will be volume and the other to be tone but with different
tracks, we’ll have to open them to exchange tracks.

This picture shows a GTR-183. The right-hand picture shows a moment of the tracks:

In my case, I bought:

- One PDB183-GTR21-504A2

- One PDB183-GTR21-254A2
That means that they are dual-gang with 18-teeth knurl shaft (GTR-21). The first one
has 500K (504) and the second one has 250K (254). Both are logarithmic (A2), which
is the taper I prefer. I you want different tapers, you’ll have to purchase more
potentiometers accordingly. What you need to know is that Bourns uses this naming:

- A: stands for logarithmic tracks (Audio)

- B: for linear tracks
- C: for anti-logarithmic (reverse-audio) tracks
-

Linear double pots have two track of the kind “B”. But logarithmic pots have one gang
of the type “A” and another one of the type “C”. This is because one track is upwards
and the other is downwards in a mirroring assembly. For example, my PDB183-
GTR21-504A2, had its tracks this way:

Type “A” track, 500 K

Wipers contacts

Type “C” track, 500 K

I swapped one “C-type” track for the other, and that way I obtained the two
potentiometers I wanted:

Track “A”, 500 K Track “A” 250 K

Track “C” 250 K Track “C” 500 K

If you are working in a left-handed project, you don’t need to purchase left-handed
pots in order to have logarithmic tapers. You can simply swap the “A-type” track
position for the “C-type” track position
If you want a linear pot for the tone, you’ll have to manage to have a potentiometer
with one 500K “B-type” gang and another 250K “B-type” gang.

We’ll use the push-pull feature to reverse the polarity of the pickups.

I hate push-pulls. I feel the interrupt the natural movement of my right hand while
playing. But I’ve not been able to swap the mechanism of a push-push (latching) pot
of the series GTR-185. The GTR-183 shaft was too short to activate the GTR-185
mechanism. There are GTR-183 pots with longer shafts. PROBABLY, by using the body
of a double GTR-183, the long shaft of a single GTR-183 and the mechanism of a
GTR-185, it could be possible to mount a push-push latching potentiometer with two
gangs… but I didn’t want to invest more money just to find out. If someone is so
brave, please let me know.

I bought the bourns pots at www.mouser.com. I think I was lucky, because some
items are sold with a minimum order of 1000 units. But my pots were sold individually
for about 7 euros each. I didn’t waste the opportunity and I bought some other things
to reach the 50 euros sum and save the shipping costs to Spain. Their service was
extremely efficient and I had my components just 3 days before the order, without
duty problems (via FedEx). There are other online suppliers that you can check:
Farnell.com and RS-amidata are among my favorites. And of course, you can always
look for the pots in e-Bay.

I’ve uploaded a couple of videos explaining the tracks swap. Unfortunately the audio is
not very good, and so is the picture. But if you’ve read until here, it’s because you are
really interested. So I think they can be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=hz5RGG1RhoI

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=5BUBC8Mqvxo

6. Design

In order to design the selector connection, I found it very useful to use an Excel
sheet, so that I could edit each connection represented by one cell.

I used the naming of “N+”, “N-“, “M+”, “M-“, “B+” and “B-“ for the positive and
negative contacts of the Neck, Middle and Bridge pickups

The final design is according to this table:

This is the table representing the 8 circuits of the double Megaswitch-M

Pos-1 Pos-2 Pos-3 Pos-4 Pos-5 Pole (Common contact of each circuit)
Circuit 1 B+ M+ M+ N+ N+ Output to the Volume and Tone circuit (Switch S1-1)
Pole going to S1-3: when we are working in “parallel mode”, it
Circuit 2 B+ M+ goes to the output (circuit-1). When we work in series, it goes to
the pole of Circuit-7.
Circuit 3 N+ N+ B+ B+ M+ This is sent to the fader potentiometer
Circuit 4 B+
Circuits 4 and 5 are joined.
Circuit 5 N-
Circuit 6 N+ B+ When in series, it goes to Circuit-7. Open when in parallel.
It goes to switch S1-4. When in parallel it goes to ground. When
Circuit 7 M- M- N- N-
in series, it goes to Circuit-6
Circuit 8 N- N- M- M- Ground

“B-“ (the negative side of the bridge pickup is permanently connected to ground.

On the other side, the four switches inside the S-1 work this way:
Circuit S1-1: it receives the pole of Circuit-1 and it sends it to the 250K/22nF Volume and Tone circuit (when the S-1 is not
pushed) or to the 500K/47nF Volume and Tone circuit (when pushed).
Circuit S1-2: When the S-1 is not pressed it sends the 250K/22nF circuit output to the output jack. When pressed, the output of
the 500/47nF circuits is sent instead.
Circuit S1-3: switches between the parallel and series modes. When not pressed (parallel mode), the pole of Circuit-2 is sent to
the output. When pressed (series mode), Circuit-2 pole is sent to Circuit-7 pole.
Circuit S1-4: another parallel/series switch. When not pressed, the output of Circuit-7 is connected to ground. When pressed, is
connected to Circuit-6.
I strongly suggest you to try to understand and “read” the columns of the above sheet. The schematic and the wiring diagram are
shown in the next pages. In order to simplify the representation, the ground circuit is not fully drawn. Simply, remember that each
point with the ground symbol is to be connected together, and to the shielding and bridge too. Colors are not meaningful. I’ve
used them as a simple visual aid. The push-pull contacts, the pots and the 5-way switch are shown with their parts rotated or
spread, to facilitate reading.
 Double Mega-Switch
5 (Pos-1)
TONE (Bourns GTR-183 VOL (Bourns GTR-183 4 (Pos-2)
with exchanged tracks) with exchanged tracks) 3 (Pos-3) D
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

5 (Pos-1)
22nF 250K

500K
4 (Pos-2)

antilog
3 (Pos-3) C

250K
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) B
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
47nF 500K

250K
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) A
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) A Modified Fender S-1
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) B
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) C
Neck Middle Bridge 2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

- + - + - + 5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) D
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
 1
B+
2 N+

8 M+
3 7 n-

m-

4 6

5 VOL

TONE

1 2 3

4 S1-4 7

S1-3 5 8 S1-1
6 9
.047uF .022uF
10 11 12

S1-2
After testing this design, everything works as expected, but I’ve detected a light pop noise when I pass from position-1 to
position-2 in the series mode. I’m quite sure that this can be solved just by connecting one pole of the middle pickup to ground in
position-1.

I have not tried this improvement (maybe I will one day), but if you are to do this, I strongly suggest to use the improved version.
For sure nothing will be spoiled, and in the worst case everything will work the same. In that case, the sheet looks like this:

Pos-1 Pos-2 Pos-3 Pos-4 Pos-5

Circuito 1 B+ M+ M+ N+ N+ Pole (Common contact of each circuit)
Circuito 2 B+ M+ Output to the Volume and Tone circuit (Switch S1-1)
Pole going to S1-3: when we are working in “parallel mode”, it
goes to the output (circuit-1). When we work in series, it goes to
the pole of Circuit-7.
Circuito 3 N+ N+ B+ B+ M+ This is sent to the fader potentiometer
Circuito 4 B+
Circuits 4 and 5 are joined.
Circuito 5 N-
Circuito 6 Ground N+ B+ When in series, it goes to Circuit-7. Open when in parallel.
It goes to switch S1-4. When in parallel it goes to ground. When
Circuito 7 M- M- M- N- N-
in series, it goes to Circuit-6
Circuito 8 N- N- M- M- Ground

The schematic and diagram of the supposedly improved version are in the next two pages:
 Double Mega-Switch
5 (Pos-1)
TONE (Bourns GTR-183 VOL (Bourns GTR-183 4 (Pos-2)
with exchanged tracks) with exchanged tracks) 3 (Pos-3) D
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

5 (Pos-1)
22nF 250K

500K
4 (Pos-2)

antilog
3 (Pos-3) C

250K
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) B
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
47nF 500K

250K
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) A
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) A Modified Fender S-1
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) B
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) C
Neck Middle Bridge 2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)

- + - + - + 5 (Pos-1)
4 (Pos-2)
3 (Pos-3) D
2 (Pos-4)
1 (Pos-5)
 1
B+
2 N+

8 M+
3 7 n-

m-

4 6

5 VOL

TONE

1 2 3

4 S1-4 7

S1-3 5 8 S1-1
6 9
.047uF .022uF
10 11 12

S1-2
 7. A brief explanation on why the potentiometers value can change the
sound.

The S-1 switch has four internal switches. Two of them are used exclusively to switch
the input and the output of the two Volume and Tone circuits, as you can see in this
partial diagram:

The 250K-22nF circuit is typical for Strats. The intention after using 500K-47nF
components for the series combinations is to have the most similar sound to a
humbucker. If you wonder why, what follows is an (absolutely dispensable)
explanation.

Pickups generate a sound that is conditioned by a lot of factors (among others: strings
height, magnet type, coil turns… and of course the guitar itself and the guitar player).
But once the electronic signal has been generated, it has to travel though a circuit
that modifies it. This is due to the way that magnetic pickups were designed well back
in the 1930s. The elements of the circuit that modify the sound are the internal
parasitic effects of the pickup, the volume and tone circuit, the instrument cable and
the input impedance of the amplifier (or the first piece of gear the guitar is connected
to). The equivalent circuit of a pickup connected to an amplifier looks like this:

Where:

Lpu: is the inductance of the pickup coil

Rpu: is the stray resistance of the internal cable of the pickup
Cpu: is the stray capacitance that is created between the turns of cable inside the coil
Ct: is the tone capacitor
Rt: is the tone potentiometer
Rv: is the volume potentiometer
Cc: is the stray capacitance of the cable used to connect the guitar to the amplifier
Ramp: is the input impedance of the amplifier

All this elements together create a filter, so only a portion of the generated sound
actually reaches the amplifier. But, besides, with most of the passive pickups we
known a very curious phenomenon happens: the inductance of the pickup (Lpu) and
the parasitic capacitance of the cable (Cc) resonate at a very audible frequency. A
virtual amplification occurs. The amount of that amplification depends greatly on the
resistors of the circuit (Rt, Rv and Ramp).

If we use a computer to simulate that circuit we can trace the frequency response for
typical guitar values. For a single coil, we can simulate this parameters:

Lpu= 3 Henries
Rpu= 6 Kilo-Ohms
Cpu= 100 pico-Farads
Cc= 1nF (equals the stray resistance of about 5 meters of regular instrument cable)
Ramp= 1 Mega-Ohm

This graphic shows the frequency response of such a circuit when we use 250K pots
and 500K pots (if pots are fully open in the “10 position”, the exact value of the tone
capacitor, 22nF or 47nF, is perfectly negligible; the difference was smaller than the
trace line thickness):

For a single-coil pickup, the resonance with 500K pots is usually considered shrill.
That’s why 250K is the most usual option. With 250K pots we still have a good
resonance that is easily identified as part of the character of the instrument. The
amount of distortion created by the amplifier is well conditioned by this resonance.

Nonetheless, in the first Stratocaster design by Leo Fender, when only the bridge
pickup were selected, only the volume control was active, and there wasn’t any tone
control in the circuit. In that case, the load of only the volume potentiometer was
equivalent to the load of two 500K potentiometers. The frequency response was the
one with higher virtual amplification only for the bridge position. Most modern Strats
feature a tone control for the bridge pickup too, but some people didn’t like the loss of
that bright sound and that’s why the no-load pots came to our lives. In the circuit I’ve
made, the subtle difference between one sound and the other can be appreciated just
by pressing the S-1 with the 5-way selector in position-1.

On the other side, for humbuckers things are quite different. If we perform the
simulation with this parameters:

Lpu= 6 Henries
Rpu= 12 Kilo-Ohms
Cpu= 160 pico-Farads
Cc= 1nF
Ramp= 1 Mega-Ohm

Then the traces are like this:

Rt, Rv=500K

Rt, Rv=250K

Humbuckers with 250K pots create a rather dull sound. So, 500K pots are preferred.

All this analysis is for very particular conditions. In order to obtain the characteristic
resonance, the input impedance of the amplifier is very important. 1 Mega-ohm is a
very typical value, but some amplifiers (and sadly, many cheap computer interfaces)
don’t have such a high input impedance. The consequence is that the resonance peak
disappears. On the other side, longer cables can be used without so dramatic treble
loss.

It’s very usual to find amplifiers with lower impedances in their second input if they
feature two of them (Fender Hot Rod, Vox AC-30, Marshall JCM-800, etc.). The “High
sensitivity” input usually has a 1 Mega-Ohm input impedance, while the “Low
Sensitivity” input has only 136 Kilo-Ohms.

If we analyze the frequency responses of typical pickups circuits going into a 136 Kilo-
Ohm device, de differences of using different potentiometers are diluted.
 Humbucker
Rt, Rv=500K

Single coil
Humbucker
Rt, Rv=500K
Rt, Rv=250K
Single coil
Rt, Rv=250K

Therefore, if your sound is based on an amplifier (or pedal) with a not so high input
impedance, maybe you won’t appreciate the benefits of the double Volume/Tone
circuit. In that case, you may prefer to use a DPDT instead of the Fender S-1 to put
together this insane modification.

Furthermore, take into account that all those graphics are simulated for the case of
both potentiometers to be “fully open”. If you lower the Volume or turn the Tone
control, the resonance peak will disappear progressively. That’s why treble-bleed
circuits were born. One additional advantage of having two Volume and Tone sub-
circuits is that you can add a treble-bleed to one circuit or different treble-bleeds in
each circuit. Personally, I don’t like treble-bleeds, but you can put the one or ones of
your choice.

Finally, I must say that usual Strats with two tone controls connect both of them when
position-4 is chosen. In that case, it’s like having a 125K potentiomenter for the Tone
and a 250K potentiometer for the Volume. The resonance peak is more attenuated
then. My circuit doesn’t do it, so it’s not so respectful with the original Strat as I’ve
stated at first. But the good piece of news is that you can achieve the same original
position-4 sound just by turning down the Tone control a little bit.

8. Final advise and considerations

- After playing for a while, I haven’t found the mixed parallel and series
combinations to be very appealing. Probably you want to simplify the circuit
and remove them… or you may want to experiment with them and the out-
of-phase thing.
- For the same reason, I’m not going to try the only combination that is left
out in this design: two pickups in parallel and the third one in series. Yes, I
know I have lied proclaiming that all combinations were here. Don’t tell 
- Soldering the inner contacts of the 5-way switch may be tricky, due to the
lack of room. I suggest making all the internal 5-way selector connections
with the selector out of the pickguard in first place, and using those internal
connections. I suggest the use of audio flexible cable for this too. Cut pieces
of wire with the adequate length, pre-tin their ends and solder them in place
before installing the selector.
 - Do the same with the internal connections of the potentiometers. When all
the internal connections of the components are done, then cut pieces of wire
of adequate length to connect the potentiometers, the selector and the S-1.
Only then, you can install the components on the pickguard and connect
them. Save the outer contacts of the selector for the last connections.
- When you swap the tracks of the potentiometers, try not to touch the grease
inside. It’s a lubricant for them to work smoothly.

9. Contact and thanks

I’m not a professional luthier, but as long as my Youtube channel is not very big
and with few comments, I will try to answer the questions I receive. Nonetheless,
sometimes I can’t find the time. Other times, I simply don’t know.

I would like to thank to all those positive comments I’ve received in my channel,
although I don’t answer them individually (fortunately, there are many). I would
like to thank all the future corrections, likes, subscriptions and clicks on the
advertising on the channel.

THANK YOU

2017. Carlos Sanz