# Strat Wiring



## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

ok...so i'm working on an old Ibanez Silver Cadet strat copy...three single coils...one volume, one tone...

i'm trying to figure out the best way to rewire it...and i've found these two diagrams...










and now the pickups won't be active...but i can't see why the wiring would change









but then i look at this one with the normal three pots and i see that rather than feed the tone pot from the Volume pot, its coming directly from the switch...









anyone have any ideas or suggestions? a little confused here!


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## gtract (Jan 18, 2008)

The bottom diagram is standard strat, with no tone control for the bridge. Therefore, the path has to come from the switch. Hope this helps.
Dave.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

gtract said:


> The bottom diagram is standard strat, with no tone control for the bridge. Therefore, the path has to come from the switch. Hope this helps.
> Dave.


yup, what gtract said-
wiring it off the switch allows you to select which pups get tone control-
for a single tone control, its not necessary to make them switchable.
fwiw, all my strats are 3 passive single coils, sharing a master tone- 
i wire just like this-









simply run both those wires off the switch, to the first lug of the volume pot, and join the wire for the tone control to that-
or follow the diagram for the active pups you showed- does the same thing.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Here you go. From Seymour Duncan. exactly what you are looking for.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/support/schematics/3s_1v_1t_5w.pdf


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

Ok...I'm pretty sure I know the answer...but...

I opened the strat up...it was wired like the first diagram I posted...oddly enough the guitar had 500' pots...anyways...I took the pots out and wired the new ones in the EXACT same...but

Now the volume doesn't shut off...it'll get quieter, but doesn't come close to shutting off...

So

Could I have soldered something wrong OR have I got a bad pot? (I figured pot but thought I would ask those smarter than me)
What do you think?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

1) Check to make sure that all ground points do indeed go to ground. If the ground lug on the volume pot did not go to ground then it would behave as if it was busted, and not result in volume changes.

2) A .047uf tone cap is way larger in value that you likely want. We're talking muffled, rather than simple treble cut.

3) 500k pots will make a bit of a difference in tone when turned all the way up, but once you turn down to 8 or 7, all tonal differences between 250k and 500k disappear. If this is an Ibanez from the "superstrat" era, I gather that the pickups are overwound, in which case the 500k is needed to extract whatever treble is possible.

4) If you like a rounder darker tone from a Strat, to feed an overdrive, then leave any volume bypass cap off. But if you like to play clean, and occasionally want jangly tone, consider adding a bypass cap to the volume pot so that you keep your highs when turned down a bit.

The Duncan diagram in the middle provides an idea for having the tone disabled when you use the bridge pickup alone. You can see that the lead from the "common" on one side of the selector goes to the "common" on the other side, and to the volume pot. The tone pot is also wired to the input of the volume pot. If you desolder the wire from the tone pot to the volume pot and instead connect it to the two middle lugs on the "unused" side of the selector switch, what you will get is a tone control that is in circuit whenever any of the middle or neck pickups is used, but which is disengaged completely when the bridge pickup alone is selected. The tone control is still engaged in the bridge+middle position. You may or may not find that a useful tweak to go from a rhythm sound with preset tone to an instant lead sound. certainly, you will notice a lot more top end than simply having the tone control all the way up.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

That is the wiring I will be using on my build (Seymour Duncan). The one difference being, my tone control is a push/pull pot and the bridge PU will have a feed going to it so I can have all 3 on, or neck/bridge combo.


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