A tale of two STs

[wokkaboy]

yes agreed nice repair job Weirdy, the crack repair should look fine with a couple coats of vintage yellow

[WeirdBits]

Change of plan. The 'client' has requested a change of colour, so my brother's Blackie will now be known as Blondie... well, Natural-ie or Colourless-ie actually, but Blondie sounds better.

So, instead of Black Magic Woman, 'Blondie' will now be finished in Wudtone Colourless - maybe with a coat of Honey or Goldenrod first then rubbed right back to add some subtle character to the grain. Not sure yet.

[Brendan]

Natural on wood - can't go past it...

[WeirdBits]

With the extreme heat this week I decided to restrict myself to air-conditioned comfort, and did the pickguard wiring for these two beasts. Blondie is getting GFS pickups and chrome hardware, while Brownie is getting Toneriders and gold fittings.

Pickguards shielded (the copper is on Blondie)




All the bits in place.

[WeirdBits]

Time for the wiring… first up, Blondie.

The specs:

GFS Lil' Killer pickups (calibrated set - bridge 15.41K, middle 10.33K, 6.14K)
Orange Drop 0.047uF cap
Treble Bleed mod
Push/pull coil split (all pickups)
Push/pull bridge on
Grigsby 4 pole 5 way superswitch

Here's my wiring schematic/sketch/abomination:



I wanted to have coil splitting on the pups, as the bridge in particular is pretty hot, and I also wanted to have the "bridge on" option (7 sound mod). Originally, I was going to just use a CRL 5 way, but that would have meant the splits wouldn't work for the the 'bridge on' option. So, I opted for a Grigsby superswitch, but still had to make a compromise. The split works for all pickups and with the bridge on mod, but the bridge doesn't split for the "bridge on" in position 4. So, if you are in pos 4 with the middle and neck split and turn the bridge pup on the bridge (only) won't be split. You still get all the normal Strat options, plus those same options with the pickups split, and then the "bridge on" option allows all 3 pups on in position 4 and "bridge + neck" in position 5. Easy to use and pretty versatile. The front tone controls the neck, and the rear tone controls the bridge. Thus, in position 3 the middle pup has no tone control.

The series link for the middle pickup has been switched from red & white to green & black, so that when the pups are split it's hum cancelling with either the bridge or neck, just like a normal strat would be.

This is actually the less complex wiring of the two ST's, but the 4 conductor plus shield wires for each pickup made it quite messy to wire as there was just so much going everywhere.

[WeirdBits]

Brownie's wiring can be described as… kitchen sink.

It has a blender circuit for blending the bridge and neck in positions 1, 2, 4 and 5. It has parallel/series switching for the pickup combinations. And, it has another switch that adds a bit extra for all the other options. It also has tone controls by position, with the rear tone controlling positions 1 and 2, and the front tone controlling positions 3, 4, and 5, and the tone is wired vintage style, post-volume control.

The specs:

Tonerider Pure Vintage pickups (bridge 6.53K, middle 6.32K, neck 6.04K - measured values)
Paper in Oil 0.047uF cap
Grigsby 4 pole 5 way superswitch
3 push/pull 250KA (log) Alpha pots
Position specific, post-volume, tone controls

Because the wiring is pretty complex, it would look like spaghetti if I tried to draw it. So, I've done a 'simplified' schematic where rather than drawn each wire it instead lists each connection by its identifier. So, MVS1 = master volume switch, terminal 1. T1S3 = tone 1 switch, terminal 3. T23 = tone 2 (pot), terminal 3 etc. Doing it this way means you have to think more to trace the connections for each position, particularly when I was devising it, but drawing all the wires would make it entirely unreadable.


Note: Terminal 0 of the (C) pole of the superswitch (lower left of the diagram) should connect to MVS3, not MVS2 (wired it right, wrote it down wrong).


This gives 8 different settings with the push/pulls (2^3 = 8), plus the 5 way… so, lots of options. To make it easy, I'm calling the Master Volume push/pull the "Plus" setting, the Tone 1 push/pull the "Series" setting, and the Tone 2 push/pull the "Blender" setting.

Ok, here's the list of settings.

+ = parallel connection
X = series connection
Push/Pull up is ON, down is off.
Blend (parallel), Fade (series) is controlled by rotating the tone 2 pot.
When tone 2 is operating in blender/fade mode, there is no tone control for position 1 and 2 (life is full of compromises).

Standard (Plus off, Series off, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge + Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle + Neck (tone 1)
5. Neck (tone 1)

Blender (Plus off, Series off, Blender ON)
1. Bridge + Blend Neck (no tone)
2. Bridge + Middle + Blend Neck (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle + Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)
5. Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)

Series (Plus off, Series ON, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge X Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle X Neck (tone 1)
5. Neck (tone 1)

Plus (Plus ON, Series off, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge + Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Bridge + Middle) X Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Neck (tone 1)

Blender Plus (Plus ON, Series off, Blender ON)
1. Bridge (no tone)
2. Bridge + Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Bridge + Middle) X Fade Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Fade Neck (tone 1)

Series Plus (Plus ON, Series ON, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge X Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Bridge X Middle X Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Neck (tone 1)

Series Blender (Plus off, Series ON, Blender ON)
1. Bridge + Blend Neck (no tone)
2. (Bridge + Blend Neck) X Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Neck + Blend Bridge) X Middle (tone 1)
5. Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)

Series Blender Plus (Plus ON, Series ON, Blender ON)
1. Bridge (no tone)
2. Bridge X Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Bridge X Middle X Fade Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Fade Neck (tone 1)

Excessive (or maybe cRaZy), I know, but it'll be fun to experiment with

It actually went together pretty easily, and the amazing thing is… it all worked the first time.

[WeirdBits]

The end result, ready for when the bodies are finished.

[WeirdBits]

And, here's a pic of my one string pickup/wiring tester… tuned to A

[pablopepper]

Whoa, I don't know how you come up with something like this, my brain is toast just reading about it.

[lawry]

Bleedin' he'll. you'll be spending more time driving it than playing it! Can't argue against the tone variations you'll get though.