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.
Google “freeway switch” and you’ll find the switch manufacturer’s website which shows the wiring. There are different ways you can wire it up. The treble bleed is just a capacitor and resistor wired in parallel across the two lugs of the volume knob that don’t go to ground. The bass roll off mod is wiring a wire from the output of the volume knob to the middle lug of the bass roll off pot. This is then wired to lug 3 and then a 0.0022uf capacitor is wired from lug 3 to lug one of the bass roll off pot to the output.
My guy killin it! What a wealth of knowledge you have and some serious skills. Can’t wait to see what comes next on your channel. As a strat player, this video is super informative. It shows how versatile a strat can be and what you can get out of it. Great job!!!
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.
Came here to say that. I've tried just about every interesting Strat mod I've come across and Dan was super smart but also practical with a wealth of real-world implementation experience. This mod sounds cool, though and I'm inclined to try it out. I like the 'freeway' switch thing....
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!
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
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.
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.
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!
Google "A more versatile Strat" by Dan Armstrong. His mod only changes the bottom tone pot from 250K to 500K and totally changes the wiring to let it blend another pickup out of phase or in series , depending on the position of the 5 position switch. I did it to a guitar, I love it. It's the most "wow" thing I've ever done with wiring mods, and I've done many. But the Strat works normal except for the bottom tone knob, turn that and things definitely change! Great with fuzz and octave fuzz. Try it!
Yeah, that one is great, but how would you add the bass cut to that. That option seems very useful. And you don’t get the bridge+neck Gilmour/Tele position.
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.
You can get 12 different sounds by adding push-push tone controls and wiring phase and series parallel wiring for middle pickup. ACTUALLY I'm happy with a wiring scheme that lets me gig without pedals: 5-neck; 4-neck half phased, in parallel with bridge; 3-bridge; 4-middle out of phase, all-in-series; 5-all-in-series, in-phase. Position 4 is like the cocked wah sound, position 5 is like kicking on a boost.
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
It's been so long but I think I used the diagram for a 2 pot setup (which assumes master Vol, master Tone) and then set up the third pot as the PTB bass cut (it doesn't have to be integrated with the freeway switch, it just interacts with the volume pot output I believe
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
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
@@lukeroesguitar That is just an on/off phase control. I meant going through all the HALF out of phases using a blender pot that uses capacitors and resistors. You can get all these blues guitars used out of phase tones
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.
For sure, to be honest the most useful thing of all has been the low cut which is what most of those pedals do. Really nice to have it at the finger tips & variable though
@@lukeroesguitar Switched is best if you can't clean up your fuzz face with the guitar volume like you could pre-treble-bleed. An S1 pot in the volume control is nice. I also like 1/4 blend wired as a hard switch, turns the neck pickup on in position 1 only, needs a super switch, at least 2 poles but the common 4 pole is good esp. if you have 2 separate tone controls. I like TBX tone controls, not everybody does, half the sweep works like a normal tone, the other half is a high pass filter like your bass cut. A Tele bridge pickup in the strat bridge can be really great. All this stuff depends how you want the guitar voiced, really. I have a late 50s HSS, an early CBS-ish SSS and a Hot noiseless stacks SSS. The hot noiseless was the trickiest one, I couldnt get hf to sit a little more forward. So I gave up, lol. They all do a particular thing, if I get frustrated dialing in tones I'll grab a Tele (or something w/P90s if Im about to jump the hedge...)
(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.
Holy smokes you’re going to a whole other level, thanks for the info! That mars-tronic thing sounds cool. Would love to hear some sounds when you’ve got it built ✌️
@@lukeroesguitar The point of this is that I think it is ridiculous that some "tone hounds" have two dozen guitars, costing thousands of dollars, because each one sounds different than the others. That's becomes crazy if one guitar has the capability to sound like any of the others at the flip of a switch. Ultimately, the best option is an onboard active equalizer, which replaces all of the crazy wiring mods & added switches, etc, because it can both add to, as well as cut, multiple frequency bands. And, as I said, I found one that is no bigger than a humbucker pickup. One other thing I am trying to do is to build in a 10 watt amp & speaker into the guitar...such that even a practice amp in unnecessary. Thus, with the Lekato PA-1 preamp, no pedals, NOTHING will be needed except guitar & power amp. In fact, with a wireless connection, even a cable becomes unnecessary! And, with a Bluetooth-out adapter to the PA-1, you can even eliminate the amp by feeding wireless speakers that are available to 50 watts or more! Even more amazing is that you can now hang a tablet or phone off the guitar, with full DAW software & looping capability built in...so the guitar itself has the capability of an entire studio! Pretty amazing what new technology now allows!
Interesting mods and the freeway switch is excellent quality and very versatile(too many options really).....personally iam happy with the master volume master tone blender pot setup.....apart from the stardard strat positions when i want to "mellow" the bridge i add a little bit of neck(or all the neck) and vice versa for the neck position adding various degrees of the bridge....its simple,effective and you dont need anything other than a no load pot to act as the blender....i like it cause its simple and also that you can add only degrees of the pickup and not just full on but its a preference thing...and also when you start to have too many options i just know that i ll keep forgetting where iam at...lolol... I dont know much about the kinman tremble bleed but as far as kinman pickup sets go..i swear by them.....
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
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.
That’s cool! I’d love to hear a demo of that solo switch. I’m pretty sure I just wired a 1 Meg pot backwards to get that reverse log action, as long as it’s an audio taper it should work
@@lukeroesguitar still waiting on parts for my guitar...but i just got done wiring up my bass with a modified version of the same EQ circuit, and it sounds way tough....it has noisy jazz bass single coil pickups, so i wired them in series hubucking and put the treble and bass EQ knobs where the pickup volumes where, and put the volume where the "tone" knob was.
@@lukeroesguitar i have to actually get to the point that i can record audio tracks, before i do any demos. i stated as a guitarist for two decades, then got drawn into synthesis for a couple decades... so just getting back into it.....i love synths and samplers for drums, nice compact trigger kits, and no mics or isolation to record.
Move your body side to side and find a quiet spot?😅 I actually shielded the inside of the pickup cavity but at high gain like that you're always gonna have a bit. I used to sweat it and tried lots of hum cancelling pickups but in a recording you barely hear it and I've actually grown to miss it when it's not there.
Try putting copper shielding (w/conductive adhesive!) inside the cavity and pickguard.wont completely eliminate the buzz but reduces it alot, and the hum too
So much distortion, for a demo like this is best clean IMHO. (Kids learn to play with overdrive full no matter what) It´s ok I like overdrive or distoriotion, but used in the proper context
If I can see clearly, this pickguard is made of brass? if so, then that has a lot of influence on this kind of stratocaster tone. I love brass on guitar, I've done it on mine as well as this PTB mod, nice. PTB mode is something similar to a Wariton switch. and with that mode, bass and treble are cut.
nice, I've never heard of that kind of switch. I'd be skeptical about how much the pick guard effects the tone but it definitely makes it easier for shielding (I believe they're anodized aluminum)
@@lukeroesguitar BB King had a Wariton switch on his guitars, as did many others. It is a rotary switch with several capacitors of different values and resistors with which you achieve the effect of cutting high, medium or bass tones, independently of other tone pots. Oh yes, and how the pickguard affects the tone of the guitar, the best example of that is Paoletti guitars.th-cam.com/video/g7_ScKipYa4/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/vwUHS4JlUsU/w-d-xo.html anyway, it is important to have a desire for experiments, and to play. Cheers.
@@0Imtheslime0 An ordinary tone pot has mostly one caps, and its function is limited by its value. It cannot be the same at all. Variton is a more functional thing because it gives the possibility of using more capacitors, and therefore different tones. That's something this guy is talking about in this video, just in a different way.
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.
If you're going to write a pedantic post bragging about being an "engineer", you should at least know the difference between "communities" and "community's".
Hey buddy. Subscribed. :) You remind me of my neighbor and childhood friend. Hes a good dude. Lol Got a question: I'm wanting to basically do ALL the shit you've got going on to my strat. But I'm wondering: 1. Can I make the switchable bleed push pull ( no new knob)? 2. What kind of pots caps would I need to have MY strat, with ALL THE MODS YOU HAVE LISTED, be a lil brighter, but still able to roll it back for warmth? Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for the sub! I’m pretty sure a push pull would work but I’ve never wired it up myself. I think the biggest effect on brightness would be to go from 250k to 500k pots but I don’t think that’s common on strats. Gotta experiment cause only you will know when you’ve got the right sauce
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.
how you put pickups in series with a push pull?
Interesting video. A wiring diagram would have been a big help.
Yeah, no kidding. lol. I got to about halfway through and realized this guy wasnt gonna even touch on HOW its wired. Probably didnt do it himself...
Google “freeway switch” and you’ll find the switch manufacturer’s website which shows the wiring. There are different ways you can wire it up. The treble bleed is just a capacitor and resistor wired in parallel across the two lugs of the volume knob that don’t go to ground. The bass roll off mod is wiring a wire from the output of the volume knob to the middle lug of the bass roll off pot. This is then wired to lug 3 and then a 0.0022uf capacitor is wired from lug 3 to lug one of the bass roll off pot to the output.
He mentions at the end of the clip that the wiring diagram can be found in the description ;)
Have you gone to the site? Have you figured out which one it is?@@martijn_yt
If y'all had an adult attention span and not a gen z not sure of your gender this week type add, you'd realize it's linked in the description.
My guy killin it! What a wealth of knowledge you have and some serious skills. Can’t wait to see what comes next on your channel. As a strat player, this video is super informative. It shows how versatile a strat can be and what you can get out of it. Great job!!!
thank you sir pumpy
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.
And there I go again, back to my Stew Mac wishlist...
And Mouser...
The Dan Armstrong Strat Mod has been my fav and I have tried many many
Came here to say that. I've tried just about every interesting Strat mod I've come across and Dan was super smart but also practical with a wealth of real-world implementation experience. This mod sounds cool, though and I'm inclined to try it out. I like the 'freeway' switch thing....
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!
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
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.
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.
That’s a really cool way of doing it!
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!
Google "A more versatile Strat" by Dan Armstrong. His mod only changes the bottom tone pot from 250K to 500K and totally changes the wiring to let it blend another pickup out of phase or in series , depending on the position of the 5 position switch. I did it to a guitar, I love it. It's the most "wow" thing I've ever done with wiring mods, and I've done many. But the Strat works normal except for the bottom tone knob, turn that and things definitely change! Great with fuzz and octave fuzz. Try it!
Nice I bet that sounds sick 👌
Dude. You just added years to my life and yours. 🍻
Yeah, that one is great, but how would you add the bass cut to that. That option seems very useful. And you don’t get the bridge+neck Gilmour/Tele position.
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.
I’d love to see that setup! Separate tone for the bridge would be awesome
This is super sick! Been looking at cool mod projects & these are so cool, so thanks :)
You can get 12 different sounds by adding push-push tone controls and wiring phase and series parallel wiring for middle pickup. ACTUALLY I'm happy with a wiring scheme that lets me gig without pedals: 5-neck; 4-neck half phased, in parallel with bridge; 3-bridge; 4-middle out of phase, all-in-series; 5-all-in-series, in-phase. Position 4 is like the cocked wah sound, position 5 is like kicking on a boost.
Very cool, didn’t think I’d get much use out of the out-of-phase positions but the pseudo wah thing sounds useful!
Nice possibilities and great playing to boot! Rock on, greetings from Hungary. Budda is a great guy with a lot of cool information too.
Thanks! Ya his channel is great
Without a wiring diagram this information is worthless, nice show and tell anyway.
You have camera mic on. Or something picking the acoustic sounds from guitar.
That is awesome !!! Do you have links for the parts ??
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
It's been so long but I think I used the diagram for a 2 pot setup (which assumes master Vol, master Tone) and then set up the third pot as the PTB bass cut (it doesn't have to be integrated with the freeway switch, it just interacts with the volume pot output I believe
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
Could be the amp, it was pretty driven here
I think Eddie probably had it right: just a volume control.
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
Sounds cool! I don’t have room for it unfortunately but looks like Fralin pickups has a good vid on it
@@lukeroesguitar use it instead of your tone control
@waynegram8907 I use it way too much!
@@lukeroesguitar That is just an on/off phase control. I meant going through all the HALF out of phases using a blender pot that uses capacitors and resistors. You can get all these blues guitars used out of phase tones
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.
For sure, to be honest the most useful thing of all has been the low cut which is what most of those pedals do. Really nice to have it at the finger tips & variable though
@@lukeroesguitar Switched is best if you can't clean up your fuzz face with the guitar volume like you could pre-treble-bleed. An S1 pot in the volume control is nice.
I also like 1/4 blend wired as a hard switch, turns the neck pickup on in position 1 only, needs a super switch, at least 2 poles but the common 4 pole is good esp. if you have 2 separate tone controls.
I like TBX tone controls, not everybody does, half the sweep works like a normal tone, the other half is a high pass filter like your bass cut.
A Tele bridge pickup in the strat bridge can be really great. All this stuff depends how you want the guitar voiced, really. I have a late 50s HSS, an early CBS-ish SSS and a Hot noiseless stacks SSS. The hot noiseless was the trickiest one, I couldnt get hf to sit a little more forward. So I gave up, lol. They all do a particular thing, if I get frustrated dialing in tones I'll grab a Tele (or something w/P90s if Im about to jump the hedge...)
but where do you get a rev log 1 meg ???
i gave up, and my bottom end roll off is getting wired clockwise.
(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.
Holy smokes you’re going to a whole other level, thanks for the info! That mars-tronic thing sounds cool. Would love to hear some sounds when you’ve got it built ✌️
@@lukeroesguitar The point of this is that I think it is ridiculous that some "tone hounds" have two dozen guitars, costing thousands of dollars, because each one sounds different than the others. That's becomes crazy if one guitar has the capability to sound like any of the others at the flip of a switch.
Ultimately, the best option is an onboard active equalizer, which replaces all of the crazy wiring mods & added switches, etc, because it can both add to, as well as cut, multiple frequency bands. And, as I said, I found one that is no bigger than a humbucker pickup.
One other thing I am trying to do is to build in a 10 watt amp & speaker into the guitar...such that even a practice amp in unnecessary.
Thus, with the Lekato PA-1 preamp, no pedals, NOTHING will be needed except guitar & power amp. In fact, with a wireless connection, even a cable becomes unnecessary!
And, with a Bluetooth-out adapter to the PA-1, you can even eliminate the amp by feeding wireless speakers that are available to 50 watts or more!
Even more amazing is that you can now hang a tablet or phone off the guitar, with full DAW software & looping capability built in...so the guitar itself has the capability of an entire studio! Pretty amazing what new technology now allows!
What is that small circular silver thing on the side between the neck and middle pickups?
A momentary kill switch that I never use 😂
What is the button looking thing below the N/M pickups, a momentary kill switch?
Yep it’s a kill switch. Looks neat but I don’t really use it
@@lukeroesguitar I never use mins on the wolfgang either.
Interesting mods and the freeway switch is excellent quality and very versatile(too many options really).....personally iam happy with the master volume master tone blender pot setup.....apart from the stardard strat positions when i want to "mellow" the bridge i add a little bit of neck(or all the neck) and vice versa for the neck position adding various degrees of the bridge....its simple,effective and you dont need anything other than a no load pot to act as the blender....i like it cause its simple and also that you can add only degrees of the pickup and not just full on but its a preference thing...and also when you start to have too many options i just know that i ll keep forgetting where iam at...lolol...
I dont know much about the kinman tremble bleed but as far as kinman pickup sets go..i swear by them.....
Nice mods well explained!
cheers, thanks for watching ✌
Bridge n neck in series done with a tone control
Like a tele on steroids!!!
Master volume
Master tones
BxN blender
Nice!
Here's a mod. TREBLE BLEED WIRED DIRECT TO OUTPUT JACK.
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
So you have the schematic for what is shown in the video?? Could you send it to me please?
What is the button below the middle and neck pickup tho?
A killswitch?
Yep it was cool for about 5 minutes 😅
I think you may be right, that is meaty tone...you dont need more pedals except a wah-wah so we can hear more !
Thanks! I’ve got one but I don’t use it enough to have it on the main board. Lots more vids & tones on the way ✌️
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😀
I’m pretty sure it works, I remember seeing diagrams on the freeway website
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.
That’s cool! I’d love to hear a demo of that solo switch. I’m pretty sure I just wired a 1 Meg pot backwards to get that reverse log action, as long as it’s an audio taper it should work
@@lukeroesguitar still waiting on parts for my guitar...but i just got done wiring up my bass with a modified version of the same EQ circuit, and it sounds way tough....it has noisy jazz bass single coil pickups, so i wired them in series hubucking and put the treble and bass EQ knobs where the pickup volumes where, and put the volume where the "tone" knob was.
@@lukeroesguitar i have to actually get to the point that i can record audio tracks, before i do any demos.
i stated as a guitarist for two decades, then got drawn into synthesis for a couple decades... so just getting back into it.....i love synths and samplers for drums, nice compact trigger kits, and no mics or isolation to record.
One thing you missed: midrange cut+boost th-cam.com/video/Q73qRzugehs/w-d-xo.html
oh dang that's pretty cool!
What's the purpose of the button near the neck and middle pickup?
It’s a kill switch, not something I’ll use a ton but cool to try
any mods to kill that buzz?
Move your body side to side and find a quiet spot?😅 I actually shielded the inside of the pickup cavity but at high gain like that you're always gonna have a bit. I used to sweat it and tried lots of hum cancelling pickups but in a recording you barely hear it and I've actually grown to miss it when it's not there.
Try putting copper shielding (w/conductive adhesive!) inside the cavity and pickguard.wont completely eliminate the buzz but reduces it alot, and the hum too
@@DarkoP9.13 I did that actually, I’m just sitting in a terrible spot in the room 😂
@@lukeroesguitar I can't believe your strat has EVERYTHING but a dummy coil 😆. Really interesting video tks
I can always open it back up 😎. Thanks for watching!
So much distortion, for a demo like this is best clean IMHO. (Kids learn to play with overdrive full no matter what) It´s ok I like overdrive or distoriotion, but used in the proper context
Won’t be the last time it’s featured on the channel 🙂
If I can see clearly, this pickguard is made of brass?
if so, then that has a lot of influence on this kind of stratocaster tone.
I love brass on guitar, I've done it on mine as well as this PTB mod, nice.
PTB mode is something similar to a Wariton switch.
and with that mode, bass and treble are cut.
nice, I've never heard of that kind of switch. I'd be skeptical about how much the pick guard effects the tone but it definitely makes it easier for shielding (I believe they're anodized aluminum)
@@lukeroesguitar BB King had a Wariton switch on his guitars, as did many others. It is a rotary switch with several capacitors of different values and resistors with which you achieve the effect of cutting high, medium or bass tones, independently of other tone pots.
Oh yes, and how the pickguard affects the tone of the guitar, the best example of that is Paoletti guitars.th-cam.com/video/g7_ScKipYa4/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/vwUHS4JlUsU/w-d-xo.html
anyway, it is important to have a desire for experiments, and to play.
Cheers.
@@bluesman5049 A Varitone for me is just a step-adjust tone feature.. A regular tone pot sweeps the capitance and is the same thing basically..
@@0Imtheslime0 An ordinary tone pot has mostly one caps, and its function is limited by its value. It cannot be the same at all.
Variton is a more functional thing because it gives the possibility of using more capacitors, and therefore different tones.
That's something this guy is talking about in this video, just in a different way.
what kind of trem is on that guitar?
That’s a Vega trem, I dig it!
PLS WIRING DIAGRAM
I don’t have one sorry, it’s a combination of things but mostly you could use the freeway switch diagram
Who knew Ramsey Bolton could rock
Mid boost!
dude ... my $150 unmodified squier sounds better lol
Sick, let’s hear it
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.
If you're going to write a pedantic post bragging about being an "engineer", you should at least know the difference between "communities" and "community's".
@@joeltunnah your comment is non sequitur but if it made you feel good well good for you Nancy.
Loud is NOT OK !! Fo*l
what does that mean?
Hey buddy. Subscribed. :) You remind me of my neighbor and childhood friend. Hes a good dude. Lol Got a question: I'm wanting to basically do ALL the shit you've got going on to my strat. But I'm wondering: 1. Can I make the switchable bleed push pull ( no new knob)? 2. What kind of pots caps would I need to have MY strat, with ALL THE MODS YOU HAVE LISTED, be a lil brighter, but still able to roll it back for warmth? Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for the sub! I’m pretty sure a push pull would work but I’ve never wired it up myself. I think the biggest effect on brightness would be to go from 250k to 500k pots but I don’t think that’s common on strats. Gotta experiment cause only you will know when you’ve got the right sauce