easy five way mod.

[chuckocaster]

this is a simple mod that i do quite a bit. and it is player specific.

what i do is swap the wire leads on the switch so that the mid and neck wires are swapped on the switch. so what it does is allow you to access the bridge/neck combo without having to buy a new switch or anything else. i like it cause it gives a decent tele mid position sound on a strat. for those of you however that still want to access the mid/bridge position, you will need to flip the bridge and middle leads on the switch instead of the neck and mid. try it you might like it.

the first way you get bridge, bridge/neck, neck, neck/mid, and mid

the second way you get mid, mid/bridge, bridge, bridge/neck, and neck

be forwarned that you won't have humcancelling in the neck/bridge position unless you swap your mid pup to the neck. but then you will lose humcancelling when combining bridge/mid. and make sure if you swap the pups to get a different humcancelling arrangement, that you remember where to hook the leads up to.

[Skip]

chuckocaster my bean's spinning from that post - I'm going to ask you some advice on (what might be) a simpler wiring task.
I have a MIM 96 w/ Fat 50's...I want to control the tone of the bridge - Fez Parker wrote a post indicating how to do the switch but didn't seem to match my switch. Essentially on the 5 way switch my #3 pole is open (Fez mentioned that it would be 4- perhaps he was referring to American switch - who knows). So I am curious how to rig a jumper to give me tone control on the bridge - I would like to use the neck tone control for the bridge and neck as I will not combine those pickups leaving all that as it is now as stock, you know - neck - neck middle - middle - middle bridge - bridge. If you got the solution I would be grateful - with this time off from work through the holidays my fingers got blisters!
Thanks - and Merry Christmas to all FF Folks!

[Skip]

Marcando sent me the American Strat wiring diagram via email - many thanks - I believe I will get a new 5 way switch and start it from scratch - off to GC Thanks again Marcando - rookie question I am sure....DA signing off

[chuckocaster]

sorry i missed your post. i was out of town. these guys are great here aren't they?

[Skip]

The Fender Forum folks are quite amazing, and of course Marcando is a Fender encylocpedia unto himself! Finished the wiring and soldering day before yesterday and it is working like a champ! Tone control on the bridge with the Fat 50 is imperative - I still do not understand why MIM units come as they do -
And thanks to a previoius post by Photoweb man I purchased a 30 watt soldering iron to work with as well as my 15 and that made grounding to pots so quick and painless.

[chuckocaster]

make sure to sand where all the connections are (back of pots and the tabs) it makes for a very clean connection. glad you got your guitar working the way you want it to.

[Jumping@Shadows]

Can I do a simple wiring job with the switch so I can get
bridge bridge/neck middle middle/neck neck?
I'd like the bite of the bridge (set high up near the strings) with the fullness of the neck. I tend to knock to the bridge for certain solos and the bridge/neck would be a handy inclusion. Kind of want it in those positions for ease of use in the field, cant hit those inbetweenies too sure under stage lights and sweat etc.
Thanks all always enjoy the read

[chuckocaster]

the way you want it, switching wise would be impossible on the standard five way. i've heard a lot about super switches, but i don't have any experience with those. another thing you might want to look into is taking out the stock five way and wiring in individual on/off switches. i think it is on this site

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/menu.php

there are a lot of options there. but i would suggest first to try mine. it seems a little tricky at first, but trust me, it works fine in a live application. i have used this for several years now, and love it.

good luck with whatever you choose.