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Strat Mod
For a YouTube video of this mod, click here.

This modification allows a 3 single coil guitar to switch from neck and middle in series to middle and bridge in series. In essence, it is switching from something similar to a neck humbucker arrangement to a bridge humbucker arrangement.
S2 is the switch that changes the switching from regular 5 way single coil switching to series switching. In this case, S1 switches from neck and middle in series to middle and bridge in series.
IMPORTANT: The series sound will only work if the 5 way pickup switch is in positions 1, 3 or 5.



Stereo Guitar Wiring

This diagram shows two pickups wired in stereo.
The switch is a Single Pole Double Throw Center ON type.



2 Capacitor Tone Control

This diagram shows a tone control that has a switching option for choosing 2 capacitor values. The switch is a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT). Suggested values for the capacitors would be .02 and .047 mfd.


3 Pickup Guitar

Switching for Neck / All 3 / Bridge
The switch used is a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) Center On switch. Go to this page, scroll down to DPDT Switch, and look at Diagram C. This is the type of switch you want to use.
The wires shown from neck pickup, etc are the "hot" wires. The ground wires are not shown but they would be connected to each other and connected to the output ground.

Look at this diagram to see how this works:



3 Pickup Guitar

Switching for Neck / Middle / Bridge
The switch you want to use for this circuit is a DPDT on/on/on switch. Go to this page, scroll down to DPDT Switch, and look at Diagram D (a totally different type of switch than the one used in the previous diagram).
Look at this diagram to see how this works:


94 Sound Wiring Option

This modification requires that the guitar have 3 humbucking pickups, each of which is wired with a series/parallel switch.
Yes, it really has 94 different pickup switching arrangements.
Granted, each of the 94 sounds do not sound totally different from each other.
However, recently, "compound" pickup arrangements are becoming popular (for example, one pickup in parallel with the other 2 in series). This switching arrangement allows you to try all possible arangements (compound and otherwise). In this way you can decide which ones you like.


Variation on the 94 Sound Wiring Circuit

Someone named Jeff submitted his variation on the 94 sound wiring option. His wiring uses single coils instead of humbuckers and 5 SPDT center off switches in place of the 9 SPST switches.
He also added 2 DPDT switches for "out-of-phase" tones and a single pole triple throw rotary switch for selecting different capacitors.
This results in 17 different pickup combinations(see table below), with 22 additional sounds enabled by the phase switches on the neck and bridge pickups and all of that multiplied by the 3 tone circuits, producing an incredible tone monster.


Phasing For All 3 Pickups

The above diagram shows a 3 pickup guitar with a phase switch for each coil. (These could either be single coils or humbuckers.) This drawing is based on John Atchley's "Individual Pickup Selection" modification.
Each switch is DPDT center OFF. (Actually, at most, you'd just need 2 phase switches to get all possible phase combinations and you could replace any one of the switches with an SPST. Just something to think about.)
Since, the switches are center off, you get the 7 choices of each single coil, middle & neck, middle & bridge, neck & bridge and all 3.
Out of phase sounds have their place, but being able to get all possible in and out of phase combinations may not be worth the effort. Even John Atchley, the designer of this circuit has said "I've quit building these particular modifications because I didn't find the phasing to be that tonally useful."
It does seem to be overkill regarding phasing, but the idea of using 3 SPST toggles to control the pickup selection is very convenient. If you want to see those diagrams, go to Page 1 and look at "3 Single Coils Wired In Parallel" and "3 Single Coils Wired In Series".


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