What Quality "Innards" Should Go in my Strat??

[jokerjkny]

Sorta a noobie question, but...

i'm sorta new to the whole idea of improving upon your strat's electronics. so, what pots, wiring, etc. should i have my tech solder into my strat's guts? thx.

[Yelly]

I always add a treble bleed cap in parallel with a resistor across the hot and wiper of the volume controls. I also like to add a wire to connect the bridge pu to a tone control. That and some extra cavity shielding (copper best) is pretty much all you need.

You could add a push/pull (or a yamaha push/push) switch to get series combinations of pickups. It gives more output without sounding "unfender". Myself I've never found the need. It kind of destroys the strats working simplicity.

Most important is the amp. For my money matching a strat to the right amp is far more critical than many guitars. It's all to easy to get whimpy sounds out of the wrong choice.

[Chris Kinman]

Being somewhat of a traditionalist I prefer CRL switches (Ernie Ball. They have a litttle diamond shaped logo stamped into the metal frame). These are what was originally used on Strats and Teles and for my money are still THE best.

As for pots, again the original CTS are pretty good, but make sure they are pretty much 250K ohms by measuring them with a meter. I have seen pots actually measuring as low as 180K with disastrous consequences on the sound and performance of the pickups.

Switchcraft output sockets, again the original choice, are hard to beat.

All the above can be purchased from Allparts in Texas.

Don't ask me about pickups :tw59 but many others here will no doubt want to express their preferences.