SSH capacitor value

[JohnH]

Hey gang,

I'm waiting on the replacement SSH pickguard for my junk shop strat, and was about to order electronics when I realised I don't know what value cap to use?

I was working off this diagram...



Any ideas? Does it matter?

[ILRGuitars]

I did something similar with my strat copy. I think I used .22's for more treble but don't quote me. I have found that the cap value depends a bit on the pickup sound. Sometimes they are quite bright or quite muddy. Best thing to do is buy a few of different values (as caps are the cheapest part of any guitar) and play around until you get the sound and the amount of treble roll off you like. Use some jumper leads so you don't need to keep re-soldering. I find that it's better to have slightly too much treble to roll off than not enough.

[WeirdBits]

Also, the above diagram has a standard Strat-style tone layout of: Tone 1 (closest to volume) for the Neck pup, Tone 2 for the Middle, and no tone control for the Bridge. As such, the cap will only apply to the single coils or the Bridge+Middle combo.

That said, I very much agree with above of trying different cap types and values before committing. It's easy to use clip leads (best investment ever after a multimeter) to quickly swap and test caps before soldering one in. I too would go for a 0.022uF to start with and then go higher for darker tones if needed (0.033, 0.047uF). Also, capacitors in parallel sum their values, so using 2 x 0.022's side-by-side will give you the equivalent of 0.044 etc, if you need an in-between value.

[JohnH]

Excellent, thanks guys. I have about a million capacitors, so that should keep me entertained for awhile lol

[JohnH]

I picked up this 5 way switch from a local amp repair guy, but now I've looked at so many switch diagrams I've massively confused myself. Can anyone help with which way this should be wired into the diagram I'm working off?

Sorry, I feel dumb but I'm not getting it

[WeirdBits]

It should match up like this:

[ILRGuitars]

Just to add some more confusion for you, try looking at these options;

https://guitar.com/guides/diy-worksh...r-stratocaster

https://www.fralinpickups.com/fralin-wiring-diagrams

http://www.guitar-mod.com/strat.html

https://www.mojotone.com/support/Sch...-strat-blender

https://www.sixstringsupplies.co.uk/super-strat-hss

https://www.sixstringsupplies.co.uk/...rol-wiring-mod

And there are plenty of Dan Armstrong wiring options available too. If your humbucker has 4 wires like mine (and I assume by your wiring diagram it does), you can also add a push/pull or push/push pot for coil splitting. My start copy can now get 23 different sounds. Some more useful than others.

[JohnH]

Excellent, thanks guys. I'll have to spend some time with those links - hopefully I can get it to somehow make sense in my head.

I think the push pull pot should get here on Monday. Looking forward to having a crack at wiring it up