Strat tone knobs

[pieterh]

Hi there!

I was reading another post about electric guitar hacks where one contribution talked about adding a switch or bridging the existing in order to get tone control on the bridge pickup.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it mentioned that many guitarists are frustrated that the bridge pickup doesn’t have a tone control and can be perceived as too bright. This has always puzzled me as my Strat, a US Standard from 1992, has a tone control for the bridge (TBX to be exact) and middle pickups, if I remember correctly.

So my questions are: is it the vintage reissues that have middle and neck pickup tone controls? What do the current US models do?

(Edited to change info re which pups are controlled by tbx knob)

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by pieterh

Hi there!

I was reading another post about electric guitar hacks where one contribution talked about adding a switch or bridging the existing in order to get tone control on the bridge pickup.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it mentioned that many guitarists are frustrated that the bridge pickup doesn’t have a tone control and can be perceived as too bright. This has always puzzled me as my Strat, a US Standard from 1992, has a tone control for the bridge (TBX to be exact). It’s the middle pickup that is tone control free if I remember correctly.

So my questions are: is it the vintage reissues that have middle and neck pickup tone controls? What do the current US models do?

I mentioned that. I’m not sure how’s the wiring on vintage re-issues sorry. But for the most part, most Strats do come with the bridge with no tone control. It’s a very easy mod to do if your Strat has no bridge tone control.


The other mod I explained is a bit more involved because it requires rewiring two pickups to a toggle switch.

[pieterh]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

I mentioned that. I’m not sure how’s the wiring on vintage re-issues sorry. But for the most part, most Strats do come with the bridge with no tone control. It’s a very easy mod to do if your Strat has no bridge tone control.


The other mod I explained is a bit more involved because it requires rewiring two pickups to a toggle switch.

Thanks for noticing! My point wasn’t to question the need for a mod if players want the tone control on the bridge. It was just I’ve noticed so many posts recently mentioning the lack of tone control and that for that reason many players don’t use the bridge pup very often. This came as a surprise to me as my 1992 US Strat does have a tone/tbx control on the bridge so it never occurred to me that it might not be the norm across the range!

[raysachs]

I think the Jimmie Vaughan strat has no tone on the middle and the two knobs are for neck and bridge. I have my Robert Cray Strat wired with the neck and bridge pickups sharing the first tone control and the middle pickup is controlled by the second. Since the neck and bridge are never engaged at the same time, this gives me total control of each pickup in any switch position. I also have no load pots, so when either is wide open on 10, it’s like there’s no tone control wired onto it at all. I tend to leave the middle pickup wide open a lot because I don’t spend a lot of time on the middle pickup alone, and with it wide open, it tends to quack more in the 2 and 4 positions.

There are a million ways to wire a strat, including a switch or a blender to be able to run the neck and bridge together or all three pickups on. My wiring works for me, but might not work great for a gigging guitarist who’s moving between lead and rhythm settings on the fly a lot...

-Ray

[rmp]

my 2014 American Standard has the wiring set so that the second tone control works the middle and bridge pickup.

Not sure what the new prod. lines do.

[C-ville Brent]

1neeto, it looks like the mod you're describing would allow the first tone pot to work with both the bridge and middle pickups with just a wire bridging the two posts indicated on the selector switch. Please confirm this is so if you get the chance. Thank you for your help.

I have 3 strats, one is a Squier with a DiMarzio prewired Area pickguard that has the first tone on the bridge instead of middle - I like it. The other two guitars, the tone just works for the middle. I really like the idea of it working for both the bridge and middle.

[bsman]

Player strats have T2 wired to the bridge (page 5):

https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/O...ster_Rev_A.pdf

As does the American Professional strat: https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/O...10-17-2016.pdf

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by C-ville Brent

1neeto, it looks like the mod you're describing would allow the first tone pot to work with both the bridge and middle pickups with just a wire bridging the two posts indicated on the selector switch. Please confirm this is so if you get the chance. Thank you for your help.

I have 3 strats, one is a Squier with a DiMarzio prewired Area pickguard that has the first tone on the bridge instead of middle - I like it. The other two guitars, the tone just works for the middle. I really like the idea of it working for both the bridge and middle.

Yes it basically becomes a master tone for bridge and mid pickups.