Mid Scooped, & Other Strat Pickups?

[Steve A.]

Yes I attempt to ground them, the best you can with the glue on copper foil.
The glue is conductive, but it doesn't always conduct...

I would only ground the pole rod magnets, if you're grounding the start lead, otherwise, it will probably make them noisier.
Mine are all Grounded start lead with the middle pickup RWRP.
Give it a try.
T

The Chromacaster switch (mentioned in my previous post) has positions with the bridge pickup out of phase and/or in series with the neck pickup in some of the linkages. The bridge pickup is a Lindy Fralin Hot Blues with his steel back plate installed. One of the pole pieces had major leakage to the innermost windings so it would hum loudly if I touched any of the pole pieces whenever the start windings were not connected directly to ground. Nowadays I check for continuity between the pole pieces and the windings and make sure not to ground the ones with any continuity to the windings.

Back in the old days when silver-bearing conductive paint pens were under $10 I would use them to ground the pole pieces that were showing no continuity to the windings. (Back then I bought GC copper foil in 4"×10" sheets at the local electronics store but they didn't use conductive adhesive like the rolls that StewMac sells.)

Steve A.

[Helmholtz]

Even perfect electrical shielding (Faraday cage) won't help against low frequency magnetic interference.
I would consider the foils on the bottoms of the pickups useless as the shielding of the guitar's cavity already prevents electric fields from entering the pickups' bottoms. In addition the pole pieces are already shielded by the grounded first layer of the coil.

[big_teee]

The blue guitar is dead quiet in position 2 & 4, but they still hum, in Single Coil positions, like all SC's do.
I had the guitar with the Eric Johnson tone wiring, with no tone on the middle pickup.
It was too bright, and I went back to strapping the neck and middle tones together.
Sounds great. IMO the guitar sounds absolutely perfect, but still has the Single coil woes with high gain.
IMO nothing sounds better than a Good Strat with Single coils.
I do like the 50s wiring on the tone pots, and no roll-off issues.
T
* As far as other pickups soundiing like Single Coils.
Some are ok, but only if you don't compare them to real alnico single coils.
I will put my Alnico 2/4, A5/A3, pickup set, up with any I've heard to date.
If you haven't tried, or made them, make a set and give them a try.
Strat Neck S.C. 4/2-A3/A5 N/U-CW-42SP, 5800-5850K, aprox. 7800 turns
Strat Middle S.C. 4/2-A3/A5 S/U-CCW-42SP, 6150-6200K, aprox. 8250 turns.
Strat Bridge S.C. 4/2-A3/A5 N/U-CW-42SP, 6650-6700K, aprox. 8900 turns.
Your wire type, bobbin height and TPL is varible and up to your tonal experimentation!
I use some fairly large diameter Single Poly for these.
All Rod magnets are .195 diameter, I use only two different length magnets, .685, and .710 magnets, vary, and adjust stagger of the length through the back.
.
My tone preference is 250K volume, 250K neck and middle tone strapped together, with .05-.075 uf disk cap.
For the Bridge, I like 500k Pot, & .1uf mylar Cap., the 500k give greater rolloff, and a no load pot would also work well. but I prefer the 500k pot in the circuit, even when rolled off!
I also like the 50ish vintage tone wiring scheme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=sojCy1OFA0E
YMMV

[Helmholtz]

Well, the parallel humbucking arrangement with the middle RW/RP pickup takes care of the magnetic interference in position 2&4. But for single SC pickups only a dummy coil could futher reduce low frequency hum.

[big_teee]

Well, the parallel humbucking arrangement with the middle RW/RP pickup takes care of the magnetic interference in position 2&4. But for single SC pickups only a dummy coil could futher reduce low frequency hum.

Then it is not a true SC guitar, and all coils added, IME change the tone.
I make low wound blade pickups that sound good, they are dead quiet, and are a bit stratty sounding, but still don't have that magic alnico SC sound.
T