This month, we again dive into parallel/series pickup
switching for your Stratocaster.
As you may recall from last
month’s column [“Stratocaster
Parallel/Series Switching,”
December 2011], an individual
single-coil Strat pickup cannot
be wired in parallel or series by
itself—you need a minimum of
two pickups for this. To benefit
from the series option, you need
to use your Strat’s dual-pickup
settings—bridge + middle or
neck + middle.
Fig. 1 shows how to wire
two pickups in parallel with the
option of running them in series.
Here, both pickups are
wired to a normal DPDT (aka
2PDT) switch. In the down
position, both pickups are connected in parallel—the standard
Stratocaster configuration. This
setting yields maximum chime
and twang. With the toggle in
the up position, pickup No. 2’s
ground is lifted and no longer
connected to ground. Instead,
it’s now connected to the hot
output of pickup No. 1, with the
red jumper wire on the toggle
switch making the connection.
Note: With normal Strat
pickups, this works right from
the start, but be careful when
using humbuckers with only
two wires (shield + hot), or one-conductor pickups, in which
the pickup ground and the
shield wire are not separated.
If you’re working with humbuckers, be sure to use a unit
with a 4-conductor wire that
has the pickup ground separate
from the shield wire, or let
someone who knows what he’s
doing convert your standard
humbucker. Desoldering the
metal case and working with
the super-thin internal pickup
wires requires the right tools and
some experience to avoid ruining the pickup. Ungrounding
the shield will work, but you’ll
hear a buzz when you touch the
Fig. 1
pickup’s metal casing, because
the metal case will be included
in the pickup circuit. The same
holds true for single-coils with
a metal casing that is connected
to the pickup ground—and this
includes all standard Telecaster
neck pickups! We’ll discuss this
topic in detail in future columns.
So how can we add series
switching to a Strat? There are
many ways to do this, and if
you do a Google search you’ll
find several approaches to series
switching. Unfortunately, some
of them are simply wrong. Most
use two additional switches or
complicated rotary switching,
or wild combinations of these
elements—sometimes even
in conjunction with a 5-way
super-switch.
Yes, we have to move more
wires for this mod than we’ve
done before, but after more
than three years of Strat mods,
you’re no longer a novice,
right? Series wiring is one of
the supreme challenges in Strat
modding, but you can do it!
My favorite Strat series-switching scheme only uses one
normal DPDT switch and only
affects the dual-pickup positions.
Fig. 2 shows the schematic in all
its glory. (To see a larger version
of this wiring diagram, simply
go to the online edition of this
column at premierguitar.com.)
As always, you can use an
additional mini toggle DPDT
switch for this mod. Or, if you
don’t want to alter the stock
appearance of your Strat, you
can use a push/pull or push/
push pot of your choice. Most
push/pull and push/push pots
include a DPDT switch, so this
shouldn’t be a problem.
Fig. 2
the middle and neck pickups,
something I highly recommend
for series wiring. You should
lower the standard values a little
bit, to prevent your tone from
getting muddy in the series
settings. Try 0.015 µF for the
middle and 0.01 µF for the
neck pickup.
As you can see, I chose to
connect the middle pickup
to the DPDT toggle switch.
Because the middle pickup is
involved in both dual-pickup
positions, you only need one
switch to give you two new
tones. (This also explains why
this wiring won’t work for the
seven-sound mod’s combination
of bridge + neck pickup. The
middle pickup isn’t active in
this setting.)
On this note, we’ll close
out our Stratocaster mod series
and shift over to Telecaster and
Esquire mods next month.
We’ll start with a brief inspection of your guitars and look
at some cool mods to enhance
their primary tone. Until then,
keep on modding!
DIRK WACKER lives in
Germany and is fascinated
by anything related to old
Fender guitars and amps.
He plays country, rocka-
billy, and surf music in two
bands, works regularly as a
session musician for a local studio, and writes
for several guitar mags. He’s also a hardcore
guitar and amp DIY-er who runs an extensive
website— singlecoil.com—on the subject.
