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now do the same sound tests with out any effects. ??? effects alter the output. so when testing for sound ? remove all effects, Set the amp to clean . then play to test.. and that is how TO test SOUND. everything else's is noise introduction to the original sound. sound and noise are not the same . electronic tones and guitar body string tones are not the same. Quiet is the hidden secrete to tonal qualities. ... ... ...Enjoy , (not criticism).. just experience from MANY Stratocasters and others. since 1962. .. Connections == We listen with our ears , we feel with our bodies. WE control through our touch, ....WE...INCREASE, VOLUME AND NOISE WITH electricity . 62 strat. still playing , still my go to . been rewired etc many many times. sounds great for me , there are no rules in reconfigurations. .don't buy mods etc until you have expired every possible rewire set up. Tedious but worth all the frustrations.. . my last words when ever you do a little bit of tinkering with wires, switches components etc always use the same output input settings on your amp DO THIS THEN MAYBE begin alternatives etc, it is a long process. write down your favourite systems schematic,, so you do not lose that which you have found. good luck. .. oh by the by,... my old Strat pumps out all the strings and tones and delivers, and still has original pups .been abused, used, bashed smashed, thrashed and tortured . still my go to. so enjoy . ... Hope you find your sound,.. YOUR SOUND IS YOUR SOUND. BECAUSE YOU ARE UNIQUE, BECAUSE YOU ARE HUMAN.

Love my basic Classic 60's, but have torn the guts out of two Squiers doing mods. Its an addiction. One Squier ('89 Korean) got Vintage Noiseless in the old Deluxe wiring, no S-1. The other is more ambitious with an Elite neck and Ultra S-1 wiring using a Shawbucker for the bridge and Ultra Vintage Noiseless (8.9K) Mid and Neck. The Shawbucker splits very well. As for adding the neck, can do that with one wire to a push-push switch. The 'vintage' Ultras may not be 'hot' enough for the Shawbucker, but we'll see. May be able to balance their outputs with resistors. You nailed tones you work well with. The switchable bleed is a nice touch.

Just ordered some silver micas to see how they work.

Can't hear what's happening for all the distortion and noise.

the switchable treble bleed mod is sick! though I think I would do it as a push/push volume pot.

I recently installed a PTB tone circuit in one of my guitars and absolutely love how much I can effect the sound of my drive pedals and even the clarity of my amp on a clean setting. EQ is hugely powerful. You sound great, hope you are doing well and will post more new videos!

Absolute noob here. The 2nd mod where you control the bass, is that called the "greasebucket" mod?

Jay Leonard J shows what I feel is the best. 1/4 Blender Mod (not regular blender mod). It is the second mod of these two: th-cam.com/video/AKWhoPPOrEE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uwdr_61NxEq0BbR9

I think Eddie probably had it right: just a volume control.

You have camera mic on. Or something picking the acoustic sounds from guitar.

And there I go again, back to my Stew Mac wishlist...

Pretty cool. I'm an older beginner but also a life long electronics tinkerer. The bass control just makes so much sense to me. I'm planning to wire one up on a strat to see how it works.

This is a year old , why did you stop?

very cool! I did not know that a passive bass cut was possible on guitars, this is great! And I also love the possibility of having neck + bridge together, great sound!

What is the button below the middle and neck pickup tho? A killswitch?

Being an engineer it is very difficult for me to be a guitarist the communities understanding of physical and electrical concepts are so mixed up from tone woods to tremolos to pickups. Treble bleed doesn’t make sense, bleeding implies that part of the signal is a loss/ attenuated when what you are looking for is the exact opposite. Acts more as a high pass filter.

What is the button looking thing below the N/M pickups, a momentary kill switch?

man i would like to know how to do that mod.. sounds amazing

(REVISED:) First of all, a +/-150kOhm pot in a series with the parallel cap & other resistor, rather than a switch, is a better option for your treble bleed. (In fact, that combination of 2 resistors & a cap is a 4th treble bleed circuit that is better than any of the other 3 that people discuss.) At Volume of 10, the treble bleed is effectively cut out of the circuit so a switch is unnecessary. But, depending upon where the pot is in the circuit, it could also determine when the bleed occurs..effectively a variable treble bleed. V-Treb provides that pot, but it is usually buried under the pickguard, If accessible without removing the pickguard, the TB variance can be changed "on the fly" rather than the variable treble bleed "set & forget". Other TB option is the Mars-Tronic "Treble-Maker", which is under $20, and allows variation of both the series & parallel resistors, as well as letting you experiment with different values of caps, before settling on one to solder in place. In the same vein as treble bleeds on volume controls...are "grease bucket" circuits on tone controls. Whereas capacitors alone set the frequency level below which the low "muddy" tones are limited; the grease bucket balances out an excess of high tones that can be "screechy" with a slight mid-range resonance. The result is a balanced, full-bodied tone. Aside for Stew-Mac & some pickup makers' sites, a good place for clear diagrams of dozens of wiring mods is 6stringsupplies.com in the UK. You mentioned the Freeway 10 position switch, but similar options can be had with "push-pull" tone & volume pots. My suggestion, since you already have the Freeway...is to replace your bridge pickup with a humbucker, and use a PP tone pot to switch the two coils between serial & parallel connection. Since the Freeway generally uses 9 of the 10 possible positions, you might be able to use the 10th position for a split bridge pickup output. I presume you replace the two tone pots with one master tone, and that bass cut, but I think that a better option is to add two pots...returning to two tone controls, but with a full balance control between them, and, if desired, the bass cut in the circuit just before the master volume. Ultimately, the best solution is an onboard active graphic equalizer & pre-amp which doesn't have the inherent weakness of all passive mods, that each mod that effects tone in some preferred manner...brings with it some negative effect. In that regard, I'm building an HSS Strat guitar with a tiny 5 band equalizer on board...only a 2" x 2'5" board & a true balance control for the 2 tone pot outputs (...different than a bleed pot that has one pickup or tone output always on full, with a variable amount of bleed output from the other tone or pickup output.) The on-off switch will also switch the guitar to bypass the equalizer when it is shut off. Finally, while the 10-way will allow multiple combinations of pickups in parallel or series...Alternative to the PP pots is to add a 3-way slide switch to offer outputs from a the humbucker bridge pickup of the two coils in series (as is most common); parallel (as on some Les Pauls) or split. Because the output of both coils of the humbucker should have equal output, there's no need to be able to switch from one split/single to the other. The last thing I am still researching is how Richenbacker accomplishes compression/limiting sustain with a passive circuit in their "chimey" guitars! That is sort of an except to the rule that passive components can only deduct from output, not add to it. (In fact, increasing bass or treble is an illusion...what is happening is the more or less of one or the other is being cut.) Sustain is better with resonant guitars, because the pickups respond to sound vibrations from the strings & the body of the instrument. But...again, the bad that comes with the good...that resonance can also make the guitar, "microphonic". (Obviously, the inanimate guitar doesn't know the difference between string vibrations & sound vibration from the air.) Thus, like it or not, sustain should be achieved via active circuitry. (REVISED:) One neat passive trick, that's simple, is to add a couple of diodes (in parallel but opposite polarity "directions"), and a bypass switch, in the feed to the volume control...to be able to switch in some usable distortion without needing adding power supply or foot pedal. I hope these suggestions help.

do u have the tabs?

This is awesome, I've wired up my own strat very similarly and I love it. There are a couple extra things I added though, which make it even more versatile: - The bass cut pot is push/pull, wired to change the phase of the bridge pickup, means you can get some very cool out of phase tones, especially when using series combinations - The middle pot is another push/pull, wired to enable all 3 pickups in series in position 4 of the freeway switch - The volume pot is a push pull, when it's pulled up the pickups bypass every single pot and go straight to the output jack. This gives a significant boost in brightness and treble, which is great for solos, and especially great for the series pickup combinations I don't have a switchable treble bleed, I just have the kinnman wired in, and used the treble roll of to suck some tone out if I ever need to.

As discussed in my revised comment, above, for treble-bleeds, there is a 4th possibility in addition to cap only, cap & resistor in series or cap & resistor in parallel...and that is 2 resistors: one in series & one in parallel with the capacitor...probably the best arrangement,available as a Fender accessory. However, the best treble-bleed, for only about $15 (excluding the external pot) is by V-Treb. Rather than just an on-off switch, the V-Treb is variable, from off to full bleed which would be adjusted via a pot installed where you have a switch. I presume you have your treble bleed installed on your volume control...but you can also use bleeds with different values if installing 2 of them...one on each of the tone pots. You have a base cut, but not a mid-boost which gave Clapton's Strat its unique tone...which, from what I can tell, was actually a boost of both mid-tones & "presence" (...high mids). The ideal thing would be an on-board 4-band equalizer (bass, mid, presence, treble). A compact circuit board & the 4 mini pots would still fit under a standard Strat pickguard if the controls cabity is enlarged. This is an active control because it incorporates a preamp, and the 9 volt battery could probably fit under springs of the bridge cavity. You should also check out the Lekato PA-1 pre-amp plugin and the Ammoon Pockrock pre-amp. These give huge number of effects that end up at your fingertips, rather than your feet, and either costs less than $40...much less than half a dozen pedals. Both have the means to import (Lekato via bluetooth, Ammoon via wire) tracks to play along with; & both have headphone out jacks. The Pockrock even has 90 builtin realistic drum rhythms. The only things that would be missing is a noise gate & looper pedal. I'm designing a "Super-Dooper" strat with all of the above AND a built-in speaker. This will eliminate the need for most pedal, no need for a practice amp, etc. Thus, an entire "rig" will fit in a case or gig bag. Another possibility with today's software & electronics is to control everything possible with pedals or in a studio on an Android tablet loaded with full DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software installed. If a small tablet is rigged up to fasten to the guitar, it would be capable of far more than the most recent midi guitar models.

Who knew Ramsey Bolton could rock

What is that small circular silver thing on the side between the neck and middle pickups?

Could you these exact mods but with humbucker in the bridge? I have hss strat and this seems like something i would love in it😀

Contacted Free-Way and they emailed me a copy of their 10 way switch schematic using Bass/Treble Cut - so thanks. I can't figure out how to post it here ............ They recommend 250K pot for Treble and 500K/1Meg for Bass cut. Others show 500K pot for Treble - I will use 500K for Treble and 1Meg for Bass. .02uf capacitors for Treble and different .0022uF capacitor for Bass cut. Kirk

Sorry Luke, the Free-Way Switch schematic - SSS Parallel Series Scheme A2 1V/2T - did not download for you, but is on their website. This schematic as I said before ... has the Neck and Bridge connected/controlled separately - not Master Pots . These are not (PTB) Master Treble/Bass Cut Pots, but I would like to Mod them to be ... per your video. Kirk

Hey Luke, Very cool/interesting video! Got my Stratocaster wired with the same Free-Way switch. The Neck pickup is wired to the Tone Pot 1 and the Bridge to Tone Pot 2. There is no tone control on the Middle pickup, hence it's always at 100% or on 10. Here is a PDF of the schematic: file:///C:/Users/kirk_/Downloads/5B5-01%203%20Pot%20(N%20&%20B%20Tones)%20Part%201-12.pdf When looking for a PTB wiring diagram, most are not clear (for a newbie), but suggest a 500K pot is used for the Treble Cut and a 1Meg pot for the Bass Cut. Hence as you mention, we are now moving to Tone Pot 1 controlling Treble and Tone Pot 2 controlling Bass for everything. Question: Will both Master Treble/Bass cut pots control the Middle Pickup? I ask this because it's a known issue with the Free-Way switch - You can only control two pickups at a time and the other is at 100% or 10 (not adjustable). Question 2: Now that my strat is set-up with the Free-Way switch (per their above diagram) and works as it should; how do I modify the wiring of the Neck/Bridge pickup (hot) leads to the hypothetical 500K Treble and 1Meg Bass cut pots respectively? The Middle pickup is currently not connected to a pot per the schematic. Question3: Even if you can't get the middle pickup to be controlled by the Treble/Bass Cut pots, again - how do you connect the other two (Neck/Bridge) to get your mod to work? Not trying to press you on this, but I would really like to get all that you show in the video! Will wire my Volume treble bleed to a on/off Switch too! Thanks again, Kirk

you can do an Armstrong or Gilmour switch, and it all basically gives more pickup options. I put a Gilmour switch on my 81' Strat STD. I like using the neck/bridge (faux Tele) option

Mid boost!

The Dan Armstrong Strat Mod has been my fav and I have tried many many

It can take a lot of trial & error to find the right treble bleed for your guitar. I like the variable kits that you can install and tweak to perfection. I also have a switchable treble bleed for my middle pickup on my HSH axe. The humbuckers run through a tone pot but the single coil pup goes straight to output with treble bleed as an option. Bypassing the tone pot actually improves tone by setting up a better balance with the more powerful humbuckers. Turning off the treble bleed gives a darker tone when backing off the volume. A simple 2/way switch is all that’s needed.Good Job!

Personally, I’m liking the Free-Way 10-way switch, but I use push-pull pots, one to control the treble bleed, the other to pull the tone pots out of the circuit so the signal can go straight from the pickups through the volume pot to the output jack. Finally, I have a TBX control on the neck and middle pickups so I can roll off treble or bass, and a greasebucket tone for the bridge pickup.

dude ... my $150 unmodified squier sounds better lol

Without a wiring diagram this information is worthless, nice show and tell anyway.

One thing you missed: midrange cut+boost th-cam.com/video/Q73qRzugehs/w-d-xo.html

Dude, do you have a video on how the electronics is done? We wanna learn

Nice possibilities and great playing to boot! Rock on, greetings from Hungary. Budda is a great guy with a lot of cool information too.

How did you wire this? Can you show the insides of the wiring?

but where do you get a rev log 1 meg ??? i gave up, and my bottom end roll off is getting wired clockwise.

i have developed a slightly different ULTIMATE on a 3-way pup switch. ( all the goods i want, with no dud positions ) *but you're right on the power of bottom end tone control.* i also have a separate bass and treble circuit sketched out, with a hardwired 2-pos mid boost wired to my solo switch. my solo switch lifts the ground from the volume pot, boosts the mids, and darkens the top end. in one flick.

PLS WIRING DIAGRAM

the sound of your guitar is perfect pls how??? I changed everything in my stratocaster, but unfortunately I didn't get a sound like your guitar. Is it a guitar or an amp? I don't know what else to do to have a guitar sound like yours

On S-S-S guitars, I replace the 5-way switch with a row of three, 3-way, toggle switches. in-phase, off, reverse-phase, for each pickup. More versatile than the "Gilmore switch" or the Freeway, though it lacks any series modes. For regular "live" playing, I seldom go outside of the range of the regular 5-way modes (actually, only about 3 of them), but in recordings I love to have all the unusual out-of-phase tones, for creating specific guitar parts with distinctive sounds.

LUKE ROES, look into Phase Blender pot which you have to add a resistor and capacitor so it goes from in phase and transitions to out of phase. Make a YT lesson about it once your get the resistor value and capacitor values for the phase blender pot

Interesting video. A wiring diagram would have been a big help.

Here's a mod. TREBLE BLEED WIRED DIRECT TO OUTPUT JACK.

This is super sick! Been looking at cool mod projects & these are so cool, so thanks :)

With "modern" tone control wiring it's 1.2pf and 130K in parallel and a 20K in series to the volume input. Treble bleeds get squirrelly with 50s tone control (which often also solves the treble loss thing on its own.) But without any of this wiring sorcery we can all now understand the desirability of Rangemaster type treble boost pedals.

what kind of trem is on that guitar?