Super Duper Wicked Awesome Strat Rewiring

Below is a diagram for the wiring I currently run in my Stratocaster which allows a lot of switching possibilities beyond the standard 5-way switch. The diagram is a further modification of a Strat wiring diagram I came up a few years ago which is in turn based on the Guitar Nuts' Strat-Lover's Strat diagram with the addition of a "Neck-On" switch also available from Guitar Nuts. The circuit also includes a phase switch for the middle pickup. My starting premise for wiring mods in all my guitars is that I want the guitars to look stock rather than to drill holes or rout for new or additional switches. This is best achieved by using either a Fender S-1 switch (which are expensive and the knobs don't look stock), or push-pull pots. All that is required to do this modification is the purchase of three 250K push-pull pots (Fender part 0992257000) available online from parts dealers for about $12 each, extra wire, and soldering equipment. With all switches down the circuit functions as a normal Strat with 5-way switching. Pulling up volume knob adds the bridge pickup in series to whatever pickups are selected via the 5-way switch. Pulling up the tone 1 knob puts the middle pickup out of phase. Pulling up the tone 2 knob adds the neck pickup in parallel to whatever pickups are selected via the 5-way switch. The switches do work in combination, but there are several combinations which are redundant. The new pickup combinations that this circuit allow are:

1. neck and bridge pickups in parallel (tone 2 switch on and 5-way switch in position 5).
2. neck, middle, and bridge pickups in parallel (tone 2 switch on and 5-way switch in position 4).
3. bridge and neck pickups in series (volume switch on and 5-way switch in position 1).
4. bridge and middle pickups in series (volume switch on and 5-way switch in position 3).
5. bridge pickup in series with neck and middle pickups (volume switch on and 5-way switch in position 2).

The middle pickup phase switch can be used at any time to add to the variety of tones selected above, or with standard 5-way switching (think Jimmy "Chicken Stratch" Nolen and the JBs). It would be relatively easy to modify this circuit by swapping wires so that the volume switch adds the middle pickup in series rather than the bridge pickup which would result in the combinations of bridge and middle pickups in series and neck and middle pickups in series. You could also swap wires to add the bridge pickup in parallel rather than the neck pickup. If your middle pickup is reverse wound reverse polarity then you will have humbucking in both series and parallel. I really like the sound of the neck and bridge in series and in parallel, however, and the diagram below allows both. The circuit may seem like overkill, and more importantly like bowl of spaghetti in your wiring cavity, but it's fun to try different wiring schemes. Leo Fender's original Strat wiring included only a three-way switch, selecting each single coil individually, but there are many more possibilities.

Original Mustang Dynamic Vibrato Setup Instructions from 1967 Fender Service Manual

Available here.
"The Mustang Dynamic Vibrato provides extremely smooth vibrato action and wide pitch variation. The correct position of the vibrato bar is when the vibrato spring posts at either end under the bar are straight up and down. When lighter or heavier gauge strings are used, the tension may vary, causing the bar to move out of normal position. The adjustment to bring the bar back to correct position may be made by inserting an Allen wrench into the holes on the top of the bar and turning in the appropriate direction. Turning clockwise will move the bar toward the neck and counterclockwise will move the bar away from the neck. It may be necessary to make this adjustment more than once; retuning the strings after each adjustment.
 
If extremely light gauge strings are used, the tension may vary more than may be compensated by the bar tension adjustment screws. Correct tension may be restored by removing the strings and then the entire vibrato unit from the body. Remove, then, the two springs attached to the lower slot at the bottom of the vibrato posts and re-attach them to the slot immediately above. Replace the vibrato unit to the body, string and tune to standard pitch. It may be once again necessary to adjust the spring tension at the two posts with the Allen wrench. When not in use, vibrato handle may be removed by loosening the screw at the end of the bar."

Compare this with my setup tips available here. Fender's original instructions call for the trem bar to be parallel to the strings and for the posts to be perpendicular to the strings. This allows both upward and downward pitch bends. My setup instructions don't allow upward bends but better overall tuning stability. YRMV. Let me know what works!

Stratocaster Wilkinson Nut Replacement

About a year or so ago I came to the realization that my 1988 Strat Plus sounded like crap. Of course my playing sounds like crap, but so did the guitar. A friend who plays the bass and keyboards had been thinking about buying a guitar and I convinced him to buy a Fender Standard Stratocaster (made in Mexico). He picked one up for around $450 which seemed like a good deal, especially since he wasn't sure how much he was going to play it. I visited him later that summer and tried out the guitar and was shocked at how good it sounded, even unamplified. I told him that it sounded amazing, better than my American-made Strat. He didn't believe me. Over the next few months I tried to think about why his Strat sounded better than mine. One thing is that I firmly believe that manufacturing everywhere has gotten much, much better in recent years. Certainly his Mexican-made Stratocaster is high quality. I also tried to think about what seemed to sound the worst about my Strat and I realized that the low E and A strings had very little sustain. I began to wonder if this was the pickups, the refret I had done a few years ago, the neck, or the body. The Strat Plus also had a "swimming pool" rout which purist argue degrades "tone." I realized that the low strings had very little sustain amplified or not, so then I began to think it could be the nut or the trem. I never use the trem and have it setup with all five springs tightened down so this seemed not to be the problem. I then started to think that it was the Wilkinson roller nut that came standard on the Strat plus in the late 80s and into the 90s. It was part of the super-Strat approach that Fender was taking with the Plus to try to appeal to players who were buying Jacksons or an Ibanezes with a Floyd Rose and a locking nut. The Strat Plus had a rolling nut, a dual-pivot trem system and the noiseless Fender-Lace pickups.

After doing a little internet research, it seems that the Wilkinson roller nuts tended to corrode and stop working well, as any mechanical part would after more than 20 years, creating problems with friction, sustain and tuning. This seemed like the answer. Unfortunately these nuts are not made anymore so you cannot just buy a new OEM replacement as with just about every other part for Stratocasters from any era. The solution is to replace the Wilkinson nut with a Fender LSR nut, a more recent and efficient design that uses ball bearings rather than needle bearings. The LSR nut has the added advantage of allowing you to use a wider range of string gauges, which you could not do with the Wilkinson nut (.010-.046 gauge strings were about the limit). The LSR accepts strings from .008-.056.

There's one problem, however, which is that installing the LSR nut requires plugging the old screw holes for the Wilkinson nut and drilling new holes for the LSR nut. If you are like me, I don't really relish the thought of drilling holes in my beloved guitar. The LSR nuts that Fender sells through various retailers comes with instructions for installing the nut as a replacement for the Wilkinson nut. This site steps you through the process and has good pictures as well. Note that the LSR nuts that are sold now include the plastic adapter. The essential tool that you will need to drill the new holes is a #51 .067" drill bit, which most hardware stores and even Home Depot do not carry. I ordered one from Amazon. In the end the installation was really easy, once I got over drilling into the neck. After I installed the nut and adapter and restrung the guitar, it sounded amazing again, especially the low E and A strings. The tuning has improved as well. This is a pretty easy fix for those who want to improve their old Stratocasters equipped with Wilkinson nuts. Bear in mind that some drilling is necessary and that you aren't going to have a pristine guitar after you are done.

The Problem

The Solution

O Tannenbaum by Vince Guaraldi

Here's a guitar arrangement of Vince Guaraldi's O Tannenbaum. Some chords rely on the use of the thumb on the low E string, and even on the low A string one or twice. Not everyone will be comfortable with this, but you can work out your own fingering based on what I have suggested. I didn't try to follow the exact voicing in Guaraldi's version. I find that when I play solo guitar I really like to hear the root of the chord as the lowest note.

Fender Mustang Dynamic Vibrato Setup

Here are a couple tips on setting up the Fender Mustang Dynamic Vibrato. My '65 reissue came with no instructions and I had to use the Great Gazoogle for guidance on setting up the vibrato. This vibrato unit is unique to the Mustang. Note that the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jaguar vibratos are referred to as "tremolos" or "trems." I'll do the same here. The Mustang vibrato consists of a base plate, two threaded posts which go through two holes in the plate and screw into a stop bar which anchors the strings and the vibrato bar. Underneath the base plate are two springs that connect the posts with the plate and provide tension against the strings. There are two adjustments that the user can make to the vibrato.

The first is the height of the stop bar, which is raised and lowered via two Allen screws accessible through the top of the bar. Counterclockwise turns will raise the stop bar, clockwise turns will lower the stop bar. When I bought my Mustang the stop bar was raised pretty high, which resulted in an uncomfortable hand position (I was used to a Stratocaster tremolo which I have set up flush with the top of the body of the guitar). The stop bar can be adjusted up and down to adjust the position of the vibrato arm to make it more or less parallel with the top of the guitar body. Adjusting the bar up will decrease tension, adjusting the bar down will increase tension. You will have to re-tune the guitar after the adjustments are made.

The second is to increase or decrease the spring tension. This is accomplished by moving the springs from one groove to another on the posts. This can only be done by removing the tremolo. I usually make this adjustment when I am putting new strings on the guitar. After you have removed the five screws that hold the base plate, examine the posts. The posts from a '65 reissue have three grooves and thus three choices for adjustment. The groove furthest from the baseplate will produce the highest tension to counter string tension, the groove closest to the baseplate will produce the lowest tension to counter string tension. Usually this adjustment will be necessary if you change string gauges. If you use .11s or up, use the furthest grove, .10s or lower use the middle or closest groove. The springs can be tricky to remove. I needed to use needle-nosed pliers to get them off and to secure them again to the post.

Since I rarely use the vibrato, my preference is to have the highest tension on the vibrato as possible. I have adjusted the springs to give the most tension even though I string my guitar with .10s. This is akin to using all five tremolo springs in a Stratocaster and screwing in the trem claw as far as possible. This has the effect of increasing the sustain. Since I rarely use the vibrato, this is definitely a plus with the Mustang as the light body produces less sustain than a Strat or a Tele. I also screw the stop bar down until there is barely enough room for the strings to pass under it. The disadvantage of this approach is that you really cannot use the vibrato bar. Since the stop bar is screwed down the vibrato bar will be really high and the tension will be very high as well. When the stop bar is higher and the tension lower, you can use your palm to rock the bar for a gentle vibrato, a nice effect.

A couple final tips. On the posts just below the threads there is another groove similar to the ones for the tension springs. This groove serves as the knife edge for the base plate. Make sure that the edge of the base plate is resting in this groove and not on the post threads. I usually have to pull up on the stop bar before I start bringing the strings up to tension in order to make sure that the base plate is in this groove. Finally, when you reassemble the vibrato, use a tiny bit of grease on the post threads to ensure easy adjustment.

Best Promo Shot Ever

Fender Jazzmaster Exploded View

Fender Jaguar Exploded View

Fender Mustang Exploded View

Joe Pass plays a Jaguar

From The Jazz Guitar Blog here's a video of Joe Pass playing a Fender Jaguar. Apparently he played a Jazzmaster during rehab and this was not long after. It's very unusual to see a Jazz player use a Jaguar (or a Jazzmaster for that matter).

Fender Jaguar Wiring

Here's a diagram of the original wiring for a Fender Jaguar.

Fender Jaguar Wiring Mod

Here's a schematic taken from the offsetguitars.com forum for rewiring a Jaguar such that you have series/parallel switching and out-of-phase switching using only the three DPDT switches on the lower bout. You can choose to keep the strangle switch or replace it with and out-of-phase switch. The rhythm circuit on the upper bout is not affected. This is a great mod that allows all switching possibilities for two pickups.

Fender Stratocaster Rewiring

Here's the wiring I'm currently running in my Stratocaster. It is based almost entirely on the Strat Lover's Strat wiring available at GuitarNuts here. The basic premise is to use a push-pull pot on the volume knob which adds the bridge pickup in series to whatever you have selected via the 5-way switch. It only works for the first three positions, neck, neck and middle, and middle. Positions 4 and 5 just select the bridge pup by itself. This creates some really interesting humbucker-like sounds. I especially like the combination of the neck and bridge pickups in series. Not a sound that you can usually get out of a Strat. The other change is to use a push-pull pot on the tone knob to allow switching the middle pickup out of phase, which works both in positions 2 and 4 in normal switching and when the bridge pup is added in series. I always like the out-of-phase sound and this offers, in my opinion, the most flexibility. The only other major wrinkle is that I have used the Fender Samarium Cobalt noiseless pups and there is an extra ground wire coming out of each. Purists might balk at these pickups, but I love the lack of noise and they sound a lot warmer that the Fender-Lace pups which were standard on the Strat Plus in the late 80s and early 90s.

Fender Mustang Wiring

Here's a diagram of the original wiring for a Fender Mustang.

Fender Mustang Rewiring I

Here's another diagram for rewiring a Mustang. This layout has the advantage of not requiring the Fender S-1 switch which is not cheap. You can get by with rewiring the switches only. The neck switch positions are off, on in-phase, on out-of-phase while the bridge positions are off, parallel, series. The one aspect of this layout that I don't like, as with the original Mustang wiring, is that you can't select the pickups with one switch.

Fender Mustang Rewiring II

Here’s a diagram for rewiring a Fender Mustang. The original Mustang wiring included two DP3T switches which allows both pickups to be turned off and on, either in phase or out of phase. With a two pickup guitar I have always like having the additional option of putting the pickups in series or parallel. It is possible to have all these options with the stock DP3T switches, and I will eventually post a diagram which shows how to do this, but after playing my Mustang for a year I realized that it is more convenient to be able to select the pickups from one switch rather than two. The diagram above allows this. The switch above the bridge pickup allows you to select the bridge pickup (neck position), both pickups (middle position) or the neck pickup (neck position). The switch above the neck pickup, as with the original wiring allows you to turn the neck pickup on in-phase (neck position), off (middle position), or on out-of-phase (bridge position). Series/parallel selection is located on the volume pot by way of a Fender S-1 switch which I bought from Darren Riley’s Guitar and Amp Shop . Use the S-1 Jazz bass knob to match the Mustang knob. These switches are 4PDT. Up is parallel, down is series. When the pickups are in series, the DP3T switch above the neck pickup still functions to allow phase selection while in series. I have only found one schematic of the S-1 switch online, located here. This diagram, while for a Stratocaster, shows the functioning of the S-1 switch clearly.

The other modification I made was to swap out the stock Mustang pickups for Fender-Lace sensors I salvaged after rewiring my Stratocaster. The original Mustang pickups are low output. I have tried both silver (modeled on a 70s single coil) and blue (modeled on a 50s humbucker) and settled on a silver sensor in the neck position and blue in the bridge position. These mods have the advantage of retaining the stock look of the Mustang. In rewiring the Mustang I also removed all the original brass shielding which was located in the control and pickup cavities and hard-wired the ground lead from the volume pot to the output jack.