My "ultimate" HSS Strat Wiring


  • I thougt I share my finalized wiring done for my heavily modded Squier Deluxe Stratocaster (stainless steel frets, bone nut, massive steel block, Graphtech Ratio tuners...).


    The SD Black Winter is one of the best and most versatile pickups ever created (my opinion ;)). I love it!


    In my wiring it has a "low output mod" - done with a voltage divider circuit - that I use as my main bridge humbucker tone. Because of the l-pad and treble bleed circuits there is no noticable treble loss.


    Switching to regular high output, this acts like a (completely passive!) 6db "boost".


    The Black Winter works great in split mode too - see wiring notes for details.


    I am also very pleased with the absolutely humfree single coil tones I get from the pair of DiMarzio Area 58! The support and the people from DiMarzio are really great by the way.


    It took quite a while (try and error included) to get all the parts and wiring right - but the result was worth it for me.

  • The only thing I think I'd like to do differently would be to have the middle position engage the neck and the coil closest to the bridge of the humbucker, in parallel, tele style. That would be my ideal. Even better if it was only if the switch was in the “low output” position, so the other was à la Strat.

  • The only thing I think I'd like to do differently would be to have the middle position engage the neck and the coil closest to the bridge of the humbucker, in parallel, tele style. That would be my ideal. Even better if it was only if the switch was in the “low output” position, so the other was à la Strat.

    this is exactly what the "EYB-Megaswitch" is doing ;)

  • The only thing I think I'd like to do differently would be to have the middle position engage the neck and the coil closest to the bridge of the humbucker, in parallel, tele style. That would be my ideal. Even better if it was only if the switch was in the “low output” position, so the other was à la Strat.

    I had to stop somewhere ...before my mind exploded ^^


    By the way: The voltage divider only affects one humbucker sound. I wanted a 6db volume drop in "vintage" mode here, but still with same load on pickup (2x500k pots) as in high-output mode! The result is lower output, (almost no) treble loss despite a passive circuit (but a different resonance peak?).


    The split to inner coil of the humbucker uses a 500k volume pot and 250k tone pot. It sounds very single-coily this way...maybe like a powerful tele-strat hybrid :S Volume knob reacts beautifully here and almost morphs through different tones.


    The split parallel with middle pu has no volume drop from voltage divider. But all pu see classic 250k single coil pots for volume and tone now.

    Edited 4 times, last by Ibot39 ().

  • Well, my head just exploded. Nice job, well designed and executed. Did it work on the first try?

    Actually I startet with a 1 master volume, 1 master tone wiring (Ibanez AZ style), but I didn't like the result (and optic). It took me weeks trying out different components and values.


    It was fun, but at some point unscrewing the pickguard AGAIN was just annoying ^^


    I have a big box with pots and usually experiment with different pot values to get closer to the sound I envision.


    For this project I decided to use pots with exact values (for better calculating ;)). I did this by disassembling CTS pots and scraping off the edge of the carbon track very carefully with a razor blade (angled to the track) to increase pot value - for example to exact 500k.

  • Wow...I like tinkering with set ups but this is way beyond me :)


    Can we see the guitar as well as it sounds like a monster..love the "massive steel block" :)

    I make some new photos from the guitar - maybe tomorrow.


    Here you can see the original Squier vs the "massive" rolled steel block. Was really an improvement soundwise - not subtle, big difference!


  • My Squier Deluxe Stratocaster in pearl white metallic was my heavy used and beaten up main guitar (SSS with Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1B in bridge) for many years. It already survived a refret and several fretjobs before I decided to finally install stainless steel frets and upgrade ...everything else too ^^



    Looks a bit Suhr style now ;)

    New HSS pickguard, Gotoh steel saddles, cold rolled steel block, tremolo blocked with 5 springs, Fender parchment knobs and tip, Schaller security locks, Pure Tone multi-contact output jack



    Customized neck profile, smoothed out joint area and all treated with "Scherell Schaftol"



    Bone nut and Graph Tech string trees



    Graph Tech Ratio tuners


    Edited once, last by Ibot39 ().