'Single Coil' is NOT a Dirty Word! (My Strat Mod)

[JakeAC5253]

I just finished my Strat mod which takes it from a single bucker mo-fugga, to a three pickup multi-genre capable beast of a guitar. I removed the original pickguard along with the Duncan Invader pickup and left everything wired up in case I want to swap it back or put it in a new guitar in the future, and I installed a new pickguard along with three new pickups. The pickup selections were Duncan Custom Trembucker bridge, DiMarzio SDS-1 Middle, and DiMarzio Area 58 Neck. I wired it in Strat Standard configuration except for the tone circuits which I wired similar to a Les Paul tone circuit because I wanted them to be completely isolated Mid and Neck tone circuits. I may or may not change this.

Here are the pics!!!

 

[JakeAC5253]

Bump

 

[Code001]

I see you got the resistor thing sorted out.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I see you got the resistor thing sorted out.

Yepp, it may or may not be causing conflicts with the tone sweep, but I haven't figured that out yet. So far the singles are warm and tasty though, not jangly at all which, is exactly where I wanted to be!

 

[glpg80]

Hell yeah looks great, glad you like the 58

 

[JakeAC5253]

Hell yeah looks great, glad you like the 58

Yeah dude, it's exactly what I was looking for in a neck single, so thanks for the rec. The middle position is really honky and woody, but I don't want to blame the pickup for that. I think I'm just not that much of a fan of middle pickups, but having it gives me lots more tonal options. One thing I've had to do was lower the middle pickup all to hell because that's right where I pick and rather than try to change the picking habits that I've built for 7 years, I'll just lower the pickup for now anyway. I'll try and get a clip up soon, as soon as the strings stop sounding clanky and I can intonate it.

Total brootz, total brootz

 

[JakeAC5253]

Very cool. How do you like it with the resistors?

I like it. Unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to. I mean I've played Strats with singles hooked up to 500k pots before, but I've never owned one. It's a cheap as hell mod, I just wish the Strat electronics were easier accessible It's impossible to mod/change anything without swapping strings

 

[JakeAC5253]

The clips are in! These were just quick and I didn't even bother to make it a mix test, but here they are.

https://soundclick.com/share?songid=9743554
https://soundclick.com/share?songid=9743553
https://soundclick.com/share?songid=9743552

 

[RockStarNick]

Very cool. How do you like it with the resistors?

I like it. Unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to. I mean I've played Strats with singles hooked up to 500k pots before, but I've never owned one. It's a cheap as hell mod, I just wish the Strat electronics were easier accessible It's impossible to mod/change anything without swapping strings

What kind of resistors are those? They actually look like single black-band 0K resistors, which are in turn, just metal wires....

Very cool mod overall. I dig it. What made you decide to put the SDS1 in the middle, and the 58 in the neck? The SDS1 probably would make a killer neck pickup too.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Very cool. How do you like it with the resistors?

I like it. Unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to. I mean I've played Strats with singles hooked up to 500k pots before, but I've never owned one. It's a cheap as hell mod, I just wish the Strat electronics were easier accessible It's impossible to mod/change anything without swapping strings

What kind of resistors are those? They actually look like single black-band 0K resistors, which are in turn, just metal wires....

Very cool mod overall. I dig it. What made you decide to put the SDS1 in the middle, and the 58 in the neck? The SDS1 probably would make a killer neck pickup too.

Yellow Indigo Yellow Gold. They're 470k, you probably see the Indigo stripe only and the rest blends with the body color. If it was a 0 ohm resistor, it would short the pickups and I wouldn't get any output at all LOL.

Basically I went with the recommendations on placement. And also because the Area 58 is A2 and low output so I put that in the neck because I'll use the neck for cleans and warm leads. I decided on the middle pickup because it's a hot wound single which would probably work better with high gain rhythms (what Jimi did).

I'm planning a clean clip test where I do the same thing with The Wind Cries Mary, but I can't do it yet because I haven't intonated the guitar yet and it sounds pitchy. As you can see Hendrix was a big influence lol. I may cover the lead for Comfortably Numb as well if I can find a decent backing track, I remember someone on here doing it and I think they had the actual album backing track minus the lead track. That would be cool.

 

[blackba]

Nice change. I modded my strat to have a super switch and use all 500k pots. I thought you needed the super 5Way switch to do the resistor mod correctly. Mine works well, though the Fender CS '54 neck and middle pickups see about 250k volume pot and the bridge has the 500k. The Tone pots are a little more interesting at 500k, I can't get them at the usual 250k positions, but they work fine.

I do have my bridge humbucker split, which is nice. I put the push-pull pot in the 2nd tone pot position.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Nice change. I modded my strat to have a super switch and use all 500k pots. I thought you needed the super 5Way switch to do the resistor mod correctly. Mine works well, though the Fender CS '54 neck and middle pickups see about 250k volume pot and the bridge has the 500k. The Tone pots are a little more interesting at 500k, I can't get them at the usual 250k positions, but they work fine.

I do have my bridge humbucker split, which is nice. I put the push-pull pot in the 2nd tone pot position.

That's interesting, I am not satisfied with the tone pots as they are now to be honest. What do you get with a larger resistance tone pot?

 

[blackba]

Nice change. I modded my strat to have a super switch and use all 500k pots. I thought you needed the super 5Way switch to do the resistor mod correctly. Mine works well, though the Fender CS '54 neck and middle pickups see about 250k volume pot and the bridge has the 500k. The Tone pots are a little more interesting at 500k, I can't get them at the usual 250k positions, but they work fine.

I do have my bridge humbucker split, which is nice. I put the push-pull pot in the 2nd tone pot position.

That's interesting, I am not satisfied with the tone pots as they are now to be honest. What do you get with a larger resistance tone pot?

You get some more sweep. For example, I usually run the first tone pot all the way up if it is a 250k, but on this guitar, I run it about 7 or 8. Then 2nd tone pot, I usually run on 7 if its a 250k pot, but I run a 500k on about 5.

Splitting the bridge Duncan Custom is highly recommended. I have an Anderson H2+ in the bridge of my strat and really liked the tone when it is split, I actually prefer the Anderson H2+ split to the Suhr FL Bridge SC pickup alone.

 

[stratotone]

Nice wiring. Check your intonation, it looks off.

Pete

 

[JakeAC5253]

Nice wiring. Check your intonation, it looks off.

Pete

Thanks. Since when do you check intonation with your eyes LOL

 

[JakeAC5253]

Update: I've taken the secondary load (470k resistor) off the middle pickup to brighten it up a bit. The SDS-1 is a really really powerful wind and I think I prefer it with a 500k load. It's actually more along the lines of a humbucker output level. I've also got the tone circuit wired as a non-loading tone circuit, so that gives the middle pickup a little different tonality than a standard strat with a loading tone circuit (the layout that only uses a single capacitor). Dimarzio sent me a white cover for the SDS-1 and I'm going to swap the tone pots out for audio pots as well.

This thing is freaking fun to play!

 

[Code001]

Did you buy a no-load pot, or did you make it by scraping off the carbon?

 

[JakeAC5253]

Did you buy a no-load pot, or did you make it by scraping off the carbon?

No I didn't mean loading like that. If you look at the wiring of a standard Strat circuit you will notice that the Middle Tone is wired as a variable resistor, so that when you roll it down you are actually increasing the load on the output of the pickup. I have it wired using separate tone circuits with the input on the wiper so that the highs get shunted to ground without loading the pickup.

 

[Random Hero]

I didn't read the whole thread but how is single coil ever a dirty word? SC > HB.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I didn't read the whole thread but how is single coil ever a dirty word? SC > HB.

Because a good amount of metalheads won't ever consider owning a single equipped guitar because they have the preconception that they're "not brutal". It's a play on a stereotype thing. The SDS-1 is as fat if not fatter than a humbucker and I wouldn't hesitate using it as one if the guitar had a single spot in the bridge.