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Maybe you guys know all about this but anyway, here's a demo of a 10-way switch which may be of interest if you're seeking beefier "jazz" tones on your Strato. I installed a twin-blade on mine and it gets me in the ball park, but this could be a better solution.
At 4:10> in the below vid you can hear the dirty "humbucker" neck tone vs single. At 7:15>, an all-too-short demo of cleans.
There are other videos talking about 10-way Strat switches. I haven't heard them due to distortion/effects fatigue.
By the way, if you have experience with one of these doohickeys, feel free to share.
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04-24-2022 01:52 PM
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interesting, thanks !
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Does anyone know if that needs a RWRP middle pickup to work like this?
Nice demonstration. A few years ago I looked hard at one of these for a Strat project, but I was looking to solve a very different problem for which this it wasn't suitable. I don't recall hearing any good demonstrations of it, however; had I heard this, I very well might not have gone the way that I did. This sounds really good.
My approach was a Strat pickup in the neck position (actually a Strat sized stacked humbucker), PAF-size humbuckers in the middle and bridge, wired so that the neck pickup sees a 250K circuit and the humbuckers see a 500K circuit. It was inspired by Jerry Garcia's Tiger schematic without the buffered preamp/OBEL and without coil splitting (yet, anyway- I have to work out the schematic to send the split signal to the 250K controls because I hate the sound of split PAFs going through the 500K controls). The solution was to keep the sides of the switch electrically separate- one side is for the 250k circuit using a stacked 250/500 volume pot and 250K tone pot; the other is for the 500K circuit with stacked concentric 500K tone pots. Complicated, which adding coil splitting would make even more so.
But this setup has at least one more useful sound available than mine, even once I implement splitting, and is much easier to wire. Nice innovation. I am tempted to switch (no pun intended).Last edited by Cunamara; 04-24-2022 at 03:39 PM.
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I have a series/parallel switch on my strat. It does thicken the sound some, and I think mid/bridge make for a nice sound with distortion. It's useful. It doesn't sound like a regular humbucker though.
Mine has a rwrp middle pickup, but I don't know whether that is necessary
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I assume the “jazz tone” you’re referring to is neck/middle pickups in series. I’ve only tried them in parallel and that works. But humbuckers are typically in series, so it makes sense that a series connection would get you closer to the tone and output. Separating the coils will inevitably create phasing artifacts though. I think the tone would be identical whether or not the two coils have reverse windings and magnets—you’d lose the humbucking feature, but the signal should be the same either way (in phase).
I’m happy enough with my five way switch plus a pull switch on a tone pot to connect the neck and bridge pickups in parallel, but I can see the attraction of a 10-way switch for someone who wants to explore a lot of tones.
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As far as I gather, the in-between positions (2 & 4) are usually parallel, which is apparently what affords the quack. With this switch you're also getting a series option, which kind of makes neck + middle sound like a non-quacky HB. Hard to tell regarding phasing artifacts with all the effected tones you get in YT reviews.
The truth be told, I don't know a lot about reverse wound pickups.
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I'd be very interested to hear some neck + middle in series sounds.
Originally Posted by Average Joe
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On my Strat, if the neck pickup hums, I can eliminate the hum by going neck/middle.
So, I assumed that means that those two pickups become a humbucker when used together.
Is that right?
On my Strat copy, I have a Lil 59 HB in the neck position. I use the middle position by itself for a single coil sound. I've AB'ed neck vs middle.
They don't sound the same, but they permit to cover the same musical ground. That is, for something funk rhythm, I might prefer the neck single coil, but the middle single coil is okay.
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Quack is an artifact of the way the pickups are spaced. Some of the harmonics each pickup detects are out of phase with each other. I don't think wiring the pickups in series would change this, but maybe the fact that there's higher impedence changes the frequency response of the pickups and makes the artifact less noticeable? Originally Posted by Peter C
As far as RW pups are concerned, they're not just RW. They're also reverse polarity, which renders the 2 and 4 positions humbucking (but with the coils farther apart than on a 2-coil pup.
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Yes. The middle pickup on most modern Fenders is reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Thanks for the info John, I'm keeping this thread for future reference.
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That's because the aperture is different. (the aperture is the distance between the two coils) If the aperture is too wide or too narrow it will sound thinner. If the aperture is exactly like Gibson has it, it will hit the "sweet spot" and you'll have the rich sound of the Gibson. Originally Posted by Average Joe
More on apertures over here:
Guitar Pickup Theory #8: humbucker-specific coupled inductance peculiarities and more magnet myth-busting | alexkenis
Cheers - Avery Roberts
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There's also the S1 switch that some strat variants have, as explained by Fender
"Here is the configuration when the S-1 switch is off:
Position one: bridge pickup only
Position two: bridge and middle pickups wired in parallel
Position three: middle pickup only
Position four: middle and neck pickups wired in parallel
Position five: neck pickup only
When you engage the S-1 switch on the American Elite Strat, you have even more tone alternatives that you don't get to hear every day.
Position one: all three pickups wired in series
Position two: bridge and middle pickups wired in series
Position three: middle and neck pickups wired in series
Position four: bridge and neck pickups wired out of phase, with a special tone capacitor
Position five: bridge and middle pickups wired in series and out of phase, in parallel with neck pickup"
I tried one of these a long time ago, but I don't really remember how the alternative settings sounded.
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I'm afraid I don't have recordings, but I will say that I'm less enthused with the neck + middle in series than the middle + bridge. At least for real time, bandstand use. If I dial in a sound I like on the neck pickup, the neck and middle in series will have have a boomy bass. I can and have used that series position for clean jazz, but then I have to set the amp specifically for it, and then I find the other positions to be off. Originally Posted by Peter C
Otoh the added bass/low mids is more help than hindrance in the mid + bridge position.
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It is possible that this is the "sweet spot" mainly because it's the first humbucker sound we heard, back in 1957. Good tone is a matter of personal and cultural evaluation, more than anything else. For example, what some people describe as the "rich sound of Gibson," other people describe as muddy and indistinct. Originally Posted by Avery Roberts
More than 40 years into playing guitar, I have yet to find a Gibson guitar that I think I sound good playing despite loving the sound that many other people get out of G branded instruments (Jim Hall (P90), Tal Farlow (CC, PAF), Jimmy Rainey (CC), Jonathan Kreisberg (PAF), etc.). Those folks sound great; when I play Gibsons, I just find myself being really frustrated with the sound. There is some phase cancellation that I often hear in the PAF that bothers my ears when I play with one (that I usually don't hear in others). My hope is I just haven't found the right Gibson yet, but I've also stopped looking; if I find one, it will be accidental. The best Gibson I have found was an Epiphone Casino.
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What do you wind up playing through that makes you happy, gear wise? Just the Epiphone, or are there other guitars as well? Originally Posted by Cunamara
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