Hi folks,
I recently bought a classic series 50s MIM strat and was hoping someone could advise about the pickup config.
As I understand it the three single coil pickups are identical.
The selector switch is standard:
1 bridge
2 bridge/middle
3 middle
4 neck/middle
5 neck
The bridge pickup is RWRP meaning that position 2 is noise cancelling, but position 4 is not.
I'm thinking, if the above is all true, I could physically swap bridge + middle pickups and swap their wiring points too, giving me the more conventional RWRP in the middle and noise cancelling on positions 2+4.
Can anyone confirm this is right, or tell me why it's not?
Is there any disadvantage or reason I wouldn't want to do this.
The guitar is exclusively for studio use so having the two noise cancelling positions would be a real benefit.
Many thanks in advance.
On modern Strats (regardless of whether they say 50s or 60s style), the neck and middle pkup (though RWRP) are usually the same as far as alloy and output are concerned.
Bridge will usually be different. Generally slightly hotter with either more windings or even a different alloy (A5 as opposed to A2 or A3 or maybe even ceramic). Also, the bridge pkup, most of the time, is not wired to a tone control.
Both positions 2 and 4 should be hum-cancelling as the middle pkup is RWRP.
*A 'real' 50s (and 60s) wired Strat only has 3 positions - neck, middle, bridge.
**A really common mod on a Strat is to wire the bottom tone control to the bridge pkup and let the middle and neck pkups share the middle tone control.
I believe you, but that's bizarre. Good to know.
As I said, in the 50s and early 60s there was no position 2 or 4 (you could place the toggle in between and sometimes get that in-between sound, Hendrix did this a lot). When Fender started wiring to get 2 and 4 (in the 70s) they very quickly reversed the middle pkup.
Classic 57/62s that are in the MIM classic 50s strats, are all A5 mags. Bridge is usually 'slightly' hotter.
*I've never played a Strat with a 5-way that had the bridge pkup reversed - ?
Thanks for the link. I think a switch is worth a try. If your bridge pkup is only a little hotter it shouldn't affect the classic in-between tones too much.
*Fender does some weird stuff. It says "period correct from the the 50s, 60s and 70s".
In none of those eras did Fender ever RWRP a bridge pkup. Go figure - ?
Hi again folks,
I got my replacement scratch plate and had a look at the pickups.
It looks like maybe two are original and one is aftermarket -the RWRP bridge one.
I took a chance and just popped in the middle to see how it would play and it all seems good to me.
Thanks for the advice.
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