Strat Tone control modification question

[Fatcat]

This could be subjective but here goes anyway. I used to play my strat a lot but never really found the tone controls to be useful. It always seemed to me that my tone deteriorated with there use. Along came my first Epiphone Les Paul and I found the tone control did not deteriorate the tone at all it just added more bass or treble like I expected it to. This seems to be true also for my new Telecaster. What is it about the Strat that makes it so different or more importantly is there a way to modify it to have the same characteristics of the Les Paul or the Telecaster?

[pdf64]

Though analysing them (and their effect on the frequency response) is complex, guitar tone control circuits are as basic as can be. A capacitor and a control potentiometer (wired as a variable resistor) connected in parallel with the pickup/s). The only variation is the component type and value.
It doesn't help that the standard arrangement on a strat has no tone control on the bridge pickup. Changing that is easy if you have the basic technical skills.
The capacitors are generally either 0.022uF, 0.047uF or 0.1uf. Rarely 0.01uF, 0.033uF.
The controls are generally either 250k or 500k. Some modern Gibsons and Yamahas use 300k.
Any of your guitars may use any of those values (though humbuckers tend to use 500k controls).
Compare and contrast those used in your guitars - try swapping the capacitor and control out of the telecaster into your strat, and see if that helps.

[Ronsonic]

My experience and perception is that the tone controls on Strats, just plain aren't that useful. Whenever you get your amp and rig set up so that the bridge pickup is not too piercing painful bright there's no need to ever use the tone controls on the other two pickups. If you do, it just turns them wooly and muddy.

The single greatest, bestest, usefullest strat mod I know is to move the wire on the switch so that the back tone control works on the bridge pickup, and jumper the other one to work on both the neck and middle pickup. The other variant of this mod is to just use a small cap (like .005 - .010) to jump between the unused bridge lug at the switch to the middle pup tone connection.

Either way, now you've got a tone control on the pickup that needs it bad and maybe, just maybe you can dial in enough treble that the other tone control is useful now.

[ES350]

One thing I've done to a few Strats is to wire the two tone pots as master tones with two different value caps; a small value on the first pot (250-750pF, suit to taste) to mellow out the icepick, and the .05 stock value as a bigger cut on the third pot...there's a little more loading, but it is a versatile alternative to the stock circuit.

[David Schwab]

This could be subjective but here goes anyway. I used to play my strat a lot but never really found the tone controls to be useful. It always seemed to me that my tone deteriorated with there use. Along came my first Epiphone Les Paul and I found the tone control did not deteriorate the tone at all it just added more bass or treble like I expected it to.

Both tone controls are the same except for the cap value. They don't add bass or treble. They remove treble.

[thumbs]

Strats can be difficult to EQ. If you set your amp bright to get that classic Knophler sound in positions 2 and 4, positions 1,3 and 5 will probably be on the ice-picky side. If you set it to get a fat tone from the bridge pickup, then positions 2 and 4 will be muddy... and so it goes. A bridge pickup with enhanced midrange will help. As far as the tone controls go, I think I get the most flexibility out of using one control to tame the bridge pickup and the other on the neck pickup for a jazz tone. With this setup I can use either tone control and still have three switch positions that are unaffected. I also set the EQ on my amp extra bright, then roll off some highs from the guitar to get my tone I'm going for. This enables me to "add" some treble from the guitar when I need it.

[dougw]

Wish I had a great answer for you. Generally the stock Fender arrangement does not work that well. I use a smaller tone cap than stock, and I run a series cap-resistor across the volume pot to keep the tone alive when I roll the volume back. I EQ my amps to be just a bit bright on the neck pickup, and then use the guitar tone control set set the overall EQ where I want it. This gives me a useful neck pickup, nice quack on II-IV, and a bridge that is not overall bright (my bridge pickups are most HB though). I prefer to have the tone control common to all pickups and I usually have the last spot set up as a "blend" control to blend the bridge and neck pickup. Overall I am pretty happy with this arrangement. Try going smaller on the tone cap, don't hesitate to go down to something like 470pf as it will give you a lot more useful range. If you don't have a bypass cap on you volume, do that. If you are running any of the noise canceling pickups, the work much better with a volume pot of around 330K (500K pot with a resistor across it). Since just about every pickup/guitar combination is is different, you need to do a bit of experimentation to find whats works for you. Hope this helps.

[David Schwab]

Generally the stock Fender arrangement does not work that well.

Don't forget that at the time the Strat was made, you could only use one pickup at a time, they did not have 5-way switches. So the two tone controls worked OK for doing preset tones. The bridge didn't have a tone control because the tone used at the time was bright and thin.

I wire my personal Strat style guitars up with one master tone and volume. I also move the volume knob farther away from the strings to where the middle tone is.

[dougw]

Yeap. My first strat was a 1967 that I bought new. I think I gave the unheard of sum of $300 for it. Learned all about finding those I-IV positions with a standard 3 way switch.

[thumbs]

It's worth mentioning that some players will jump the tone control off the center (output) lug of the volume control rather than the input lug or the switch. This minimizes the loss of highs while rolling off volume when the tone control is not in use. The disadvantage is that the tone control becomes more interactive with the volume control setting. A lot of these folks say that they're able to dispense with the treble-bleed cap and also get a little bit hotter signal from the pickups. I've tried it on a couple of guitars and think it may be a pretty good mod for players who don't use the tone control much. On the other hand, players who use the tone control a lot might find the extra knob-twiddling tiresome.

[RedHouse]

...I wire my personal Strat style guitars up with one master tone and volume. I also move the volume knob farther away from the strings to where the middle tone is....

Same here.

Being raised on Gibsons, I never got used to the volume ctrl being so close to the strings on a Strat. Many times I end up turning myself down/off right in the heat of the tune. The one in this pic uses Tele knobs because they are pull-pots and the shape of Strat knobs doesn't lend well to pulling when you have any sweat going on.