MOD GARAGE
DIRK WACKER
Bridge Pickup Tone Control
Welcome back to the world of
Stratocasters. Originally, I wanted to start
by talking about the anatomy of our new
friend, the standard Stratocaster 5-way
pickup selector switch, because I think it’s
important to understand how this switch
works in developing your own mods, and
of course to really understand what we’re
doing here each month. But I received
tons of emails asking for some more easy-
to-do mods, so I will show you two more
very easy mods for your
Stratocaster before we start
talking about the anatomy of
the pickup selector switch.
This month we will talk about
the easiest—but very effec-
tive—mod I can think of:
giving your bridge pickup a
tone control. Next month we
will talk about how to rewire
your Stratocaster for a mas-
ter tone plus master volume
configuration.
the good old days of the fifties there was
simply no need for a tone control for the
bridge pickup.
In the last fifty-four years, tastes changed
a lot, and now few Stratocaster players use
the bridge pickup alone because the sound
is too trebly and shrill to them. This is also
the reason why a lot of people are buying
replacement pickups for the Strat’s bridge
position: they’re looking for a warmer tone
The Mod
Simply solder a piece of wire between
the two terminals shown, as shown in
red, and your rear tone control will affect
the bridge pickup as well as the middle
pickup—easy, no?
This mod is really easy to do.
It’s invisible, reversible in ten
seconds, and all you need is
a short piece of wire and a
soldering iron—so this mod
is also one of cheapest ever.
But as you will see, it’s still
a very effective, useful and
flexible modification.
If you want to add even more flexibility,
you can route this connection to a simple
On/Off SPST switch, or a push/pull or
push/push pot with an SPST or more com-
mon DPDT switch—the same
as we did with the seven
sound mod. This way you’ll
receive an additional tonal
possibility, because you can
switch between the stock
tone (without tone control)
and the new option (with tone
control). If you want to con-
trol your bridge pickup using
the front tone control, along
with the neck pickup, simply
connect the piece of wire one
terminal further to the one
labelled “to neck tone,” and
you’re done. The effect is the
same. Naturally, you can also
use an additional switching
device with this method.
The History
As you know, the standard
Stratocaster has a master
volume and two tone controls, one for the
middle and one for the neck pickup, but
none for the bridge pickup! To understand
why Fender did this, you have to take a
look at the past. The Fender Stratocaster
showed up around April 1954 as a follow-up to Leo Fender’s first genius strike:
the Esquire/Telecaster guitar. At this time,
Western Swing was very popular, and not
just in California, where Leo Fender lived
and worked. He was a confessed Western
Swing fan, so this was the sound he had in
mind when he developed the Stratocaster
concept. Leo Fender liked the pedal steellike lead tone; he described it as “bell-like
with shimmering highs” (today you’ll often
hear “penetrating highs”). This was the
lead tone for Western Swing, and back in
with decent high-end. So adding a tone
control for the bridge pickup is a good
idea because it has a double effect:
I hope you’re encouraged now
to try this simple mod. I’m
sure many of you will find what
you’ve chased for so long.
Next month we will talk about
the master volume and master
tone wiring in a Stratocaster.
Until then, keep on soldering and always
remember: play LOUD!
1. You can dial in a lot of different tones
with the tone control, especially when
using a tonecap with a much smaller value
than the stock 0.022uF.
2. Even with the tone control fully opened,
a little load is added to your bridge pickup,
especially with the standard 250k pots, to
smooth things out.
Try this mod before you replace your bridge
pickup. Chances are good that this will do it
for you, and save you some bucks!
Dirk Wacker
Dirk Wacker has been addicted to all kinds of guitars
since the age of five and is fascinated by anything that
has something to do with old Fender guitars and amps.
He hates short scales and Telecaster neck pickups,
but loves twang. In his spare time he plays country,
rockabilly, surf and Nashville styles in several bands,
works as a studio musician and writes for several guitar
mags. He is also a hardcore DIY guy for guitars, amps
and stompboxes and also runs an extensive webpage
singlecoil.com about these things.
