Stratocaster and humbuckers

[Valeriy]

Hi fellows,

 

I hope you enjoy my new guitar, finally, I completely finished it. In fact, it is an experiment and it seems it is successful, I think. At first it was a cheap Korean Stratocaster ($140). I bought it because I wanted to experiment with a Strat. As you know, Strat model has its own convenience in game. Also, my Japanese Les Paul guitar, with good sound, but is a little heavy, made of plywood. Well…, for a while I played with the single-coil pickups with adding active electronics into the Strat (this is the same Strat described in the thread about shielding in 2012: http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/90256-single-coil-guitars-empty-can-of-beer). But nothing happened with those pickups what I wanted from them as regards the sound, only the shielding was successful.

 

So, despite my efforts , I did not achieve the sound necessary for me and finally I replace those single-coil pickups by humbuckers. So, now that became as you can see on the photo . The design may be as black and white in the pots and the plastic, or 2 push/pull pots may be metallic.

 

Well…, 3 pots, now they are as 3 volumes for the 3 humbs accordingly. And 2 of them are with push/pull functions because I made an additional switching for mixing Neck and Bridge humbs without the Middle (as that is in classical Les Paul guitars with Neck & Bridge pickups). In turn, Middle humbucker, after some adjustment, it turned out to be perfectly suitable for out-of-phase with Neck humb (similarly to Peter Green pickups). And such combination, with Middle humb and 3 pots volumes, turned out enough to get different tones in the absence of tone pots .

 

I of course cannot put my signature here because I did not invent anything new, the body from Strat, and the humbuckers from Les Paul, but I play with great pleasure for a couple of weeks after as finished this know-how model and it does not get still boring.

 

 

 

[Izzy]

It looks so wrong! But if it plays well, that is all that matters.

[Valeriy]

Hello Izzy, thank you!

 

Yep, I understand, it looks a bit strange. But with 3 single-coil pickups, only Neck pickup was relatively normal in sound, this was with 5 switch-positions, and that of course not quite normal. Plus, some traditional hum from single coil that I also do not like. Well… eventually, this new update was made for my home studio where there will be no audience.

 

By the way, a certain find that may be of interest to manufacturers or private master , I think. When I was making Neck humbucker, - selection of coils, the addition of active electronics etc., I caught an excellent tone with it (there were only Neck and Bridge humbuckers on the guitar). And the fingers were easily extracting a beautiful sound, I was not even making an effort. So it should be with a normal guitar. But when I put a 3 humbucker in Middle position, to my surprise, the said beautiful sound of Neck pickup disappeared somewhere :( .

 

More precisely, the tone was generally the same as before, but my fingers could not easily extract that beautiful sound. There was not that lightness and beauty in the guitar sound. As it turned out, this was NASTY (!) magnetic field from said Middle humbucker which began to further inhibit the vibrations of the strings.

 

The problem was solved, generally speaking, simple. This Middle humbucker was moved away as far as possible from the strings, and the attenuation of the signal from it was compensated by additional amplification in an active circuit of this pickup. And so, Neck humbucker again became easily manageable to get the beautiful sound in playing . Although probably in usual guitar with passive pickups, this problem will not be easy to solve.

[brad1]

I think it looks really COOL!

Good Job

[Drog]

Cool, I have a strat that I am changing as well. Just waiting for parts to get here. To me, this is what Leo had envisioned, for the guitar to be easily modified.

[Valeriy]

brad1, Drog, thank you!

 

If anyone is interested, I played a little (from Pink Floyd and Beatles) when I put a Nek humbucker, it was a first test. Now on the Strat is another humbucker in the neck position, even better in sound than in the next track .

 

 

Maybe in a week, I will record something else.

[Tman]

Valeriy I think it looks really cool. Great job!

[merciful-evans]

It sounds better than I expected.

 

It wouldnt suit me, but you made a great job with your project :)

[Valeriy]

Hello fellows! Tman, I'm glad to see you.

 

Yep, that track, it's also so-so for me. That was a year ago and the record was made by means of an integrated (into motherboard) audio card. I’ll try to record something else soon. Now I bought a new separate audio card with 24 bits of ADC conversion. Probably, I will put it into my computer and a new record will be closer to the weekend.

 

By the way, something else for private masters. It seems often, supply switching-on is done by means of output stereo connector in active guitars. But such connectors are not very reliable. So, I saved the usual mono jack-connector due to its longer life. Moreover, Fender’s connector is unique in its own way, i.e. comfy. Therefore on the body there appeared an additional toggle for battery switching-on/off. It is red (on the 3rd photo) and in principle, it does not spoil the look.

[NHTom]

That's the beauty of a strat...........you can really do just about anything with them.

 

I recently did one with two mini-humbuckers........it's weird, but fun!!!

 

 

NHTom

[Valeriy]

Yes, a Strat with the plastic allows almost any update. Only, I made 2 сutouts on the back side of the body for battery and preamps. Although if you do not use the vibrato arm, the battery may be located on the back side in a gap near the vibrato system.

 

By the way, I received rar-photos from NY, I hope you know whose birthday here , a Stratocaster guitar is also present: