No Tone Ctrl with Strat Bridge Pup

[Gtrplyr]

I just noticed that the tone control for a Bridge pup in a Strat has no effect on it. The bottom tone does work for the middle pup and the top tone control does work for the neck.

If I pull the pickguard what should I look for? Btw, the Strat has a 5-way toggle.

[Sven]

That's the way it is supposed to work. There is no repair needed.


...but some guys opt to change it so the bridge pup goes through one of the tone controls.

[OneL]

That is a typical tone setup for a strat. Here is a schematic that may be of some help.



If you would like to have a tone control on the bridge you can link the empty lug on the five way to the lug for the mid tone.

[Gtrplyr]

Thanks guys! I saved the schematic for reference just in case. It's weird that my '87 Am Std Strat's bridge pup does work with the tone control but since the standard wiring doesn't use it nothings really broke and I can live without it.

[photoweborama]

You can also put a jumper in that makes the bridge and the middle work together. Fender does this on some of the strats.

I prefer to put the jumper on the neck and bridge pickup. That way, with standard switching, you always have two tone controls for every active pickup.

Here is the Fender mod:


Here is the Photoweborama mod:

[Gtrplyr]

The jumper schematic is good to have as well.

What was Leo thinking when decided not to have a tone control for the bridge pup? In my mind that would be the most important pup to have a tone control for since it can be the most biting and bright of all 3.

Even though I rarely use the guitar tone controls if the guitar sounds a bit ice picky in a live situation that would be the first and most convienient place to make a quick adjustment.

Oh well, at least its an easy mod and can be taken care of.

[deepman2992]

Does just a wire work here, or is a capacitor needed? what's the difference between doin' it with the middle or neck pot?

[Jim Collins]

One should consider the state of amplification at the time the Strat was first produced, when questioning the wisdom of having no tone control on the bridge pickup. Fender's amps were tweed amps, at the time (1954). The tweeds, particularly the smaller ones, were not known for their brightness, unlike later blackface amps. The bridge pickup without tone control certainly helped compensate for that. Take a tweed Deluxe, and play a Strat through it, using the bridge pickup, and you might like that tone. Take the same guitar/pickup, and play it through a blackface reverb amp, and it is a different story.

[Gtrplyr]

Put in that context it does make more sense but I can only imagine how muddy the middle and bass pup would have sounded if the tone control was rolled off.

[Kap'n]

Originally posted by Gtrplyr
Put in that context it does make more sense but I can only imagine how muddy the middle and bass pup would have sounded if the tone control was rolled off.

Think of the original Tele wiring...mud was good back then.

[photoweborama]

All you need to do the jumper mods is a wire. It's 22-gauge wire. I've done it with thinner wire also.

If you do the Fender mod, when in "B" the bottom tone control works. When in "B / M", the bottom tone works for both of them.

If you do the Photoweborama mod, when in "B" the top tone works. When in "B / M" the top tone works for the "B" and the bottom tone works for the "M".

All Neck combinations work the same because the bridge is never cut in.