Your Favorite Strat Wiring Setup?

[Benlostforyears]

In the next month or so I will be replacing the pickups on my VM 70's Strat and want to upgrade the electronics while I'm at it. However, there's so many options I wanted to see what people had experience with and what they preferred. I know I want the bridge pickup to be wired to a tone control at least. Wiring types:

• Standard + bridge tone control
• Greasebucket
• PTB
• Eric Johnson
• 7-Way (Gilmour Style)
• Blender

I know I want 250k pots but also can't decide if I want a .47uf or .22uf capacitor. Any thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

 

[dbrian66]

I did the 7 way mod on my yellow Strat and absolutely love the neck/bridge combo. I don’t get along great with single coils, and that combo seems very humbucker like to me. On another guitar, I wanted the option of the neck/bridge, but wanted to try something different, so instead of the mini toggle, I did a blender pot. Master volume, master tone, and blender. It works great being able to blend in as much of the neck pickup as I want, but just being honest, it’s normally all on or all off. I think I prefer the mini toggle over the blender.

 

[WinkyKitty]

Having played guitars with a one volume, one tone for like ever, I still do the same thing to my strats, i do play a hot rails in the bridge position and Fender noiseless in neck and middle...which is my main dealio.
I went with 500k pots as I rarely play with a pick and prefer a little more brightness, caps I rarely put any thought into...might be a 47 might be a 22, in most cases they are 47 as i always have leftovers from doing gibson things (for others)....I hardly touch my tone however...I run all pickups through the tone and a on/off switch

 

[AcrylicSuperman]

I like my strats HSS, although that's not exactly accurate because I like to use noiseless single coils. But HSS set up with a moderate humbucker and mojotone quiet coils. I like to use 3 mini toggles, one for each pickup. Bridge is wired Series/off/Parallel, middle and neck are wired On/off/Out of Phase. 500k pots, master volume, tone 1 wired to neck, tone 2 wired to middle and bridge. .033 capacitors prefered.

 

[SheelBeel]

I like my 50s wiring in 50s reissue but if I get another Squier then maybe DG 7 way wiring next.

To save space due to family tragedy then maybe I could build a DG loaded pickguard and ditch the second strat idea.

 

[IronSchef]

Big fan of the blender wiring on strats - love the ability to dial in the pickup mix

 

[Kinnon09]

I have one of my strats
Neck.. Rail Humbucker. middle.. single alnico. Bridge.. Rail Humbucker. 5way Switch. Middle tone is a pull pot that turns the neck on and adjusts neck tone.. bottom tone is pull pot that splits the bridge Humbucker and adjusts bridge and middle tone. I like it.. But a lot of people said that's not the way to go.. Not the best one I have done but sounds ok to me.

 

[DoctorBB]

Don’t know what it’s called but it’s stock, except the bridge pickup and middle pickup wired to the middle pickup tone pot together.

 

[MrYeats]

Here is a video of one way of doing it. FF to 6:15 to see the wiring.

 

[Toddcaster64]

I swear by this. Quality components, super easy, great guys.

https://obsidianwire.com/custom-blender-wiring-for-strat/

 

[strat_strummer]

Standard for me. I don't need any of the fancy stuff and my modding days are over honestly.

 

[Benlostforyears]

Anyone ever try Eric Johnson style wiring? 300k pots, .1uf cap, and middle pickup wired no load from tone control. Jimmie Vaughan apparently also uses this no load middle pickup wiring as well. Sounds interesting.

 

[Conghaille]

Standard wiring but I move the mid tone to the bridge and leave the mid open.

Unless it’s HH, then I do VN, VB, global tone. And I use a Tele 3 way switch because daddy don’t split.

 

[drewcp]

The only non standard wiring I've ever wanted is the Gilmour mod on a push pull pot, with GM pickups. But I apparently don't want it too much because I've had that loaded pickguard for about 3 years and never installed it in anything.

So, I suppose my real favorite would be "stock"

 

[Conghaille]

The only non standard wiring I've ever wanted is the Gilmour mod on a push pull pot, with GM pickups. But I apparently don't want it too much because I've had that loaded pickguard for about 3 years and never installed it in anything.

So, I suppose my real favorite would be "stock"

Yeah I did the push-pull 7-way thing once and barely used it. Not for me I guess.

 

[Shaytan]

I swear by this. Quality components, super easy, great guys.
https://obsidianwire.com/custom-blender-wiring-for-strat/

I run that on my Squier for several years, it was my very first mod ever done. I'm very glad I've came across that custom wiring, as it's the most useful and versatile thing ever.

Not only the tones you get are amazing clean, but also the inherent master tone conversion is super useful and a good addition for a Strat. I've used a no-load CTS pot from Fender, it wasn't intentional but it so happens to be one of those that "clicks" on 10, which considering it works reversed on the blender wiring, means you can feel it when the feature is turned off.

 

[Radiotech]

Neck (or bridge) on is nice to have, but all I really need on a Strat is standard wiring, with 2nd tone added to the bridge pup.

 

[MrYeats]

with 2nd tone added to the bridge pup.

That is what my video explains how to do. One wire on the switch to connect post 1 and 3 on a 5 way switch. I am surprised that Fender hasn't always done this.

 

[Radiotech]

That is what my video explains how to do. One wire on the switch to connect post 1 and 3 on a 5 way switch. I am surprised that Fender hasn't always done this.

I concur, it’s the only wiring mod currently on both my Strats.

 

[spanker63]

Shared tone between bridge and middle, with a neck on/off toggle switch to allow for all 7 combos. In my opinion, the best way to wire a strat.