Thank you miles away from any guitar tech but thank God for you and RUclips. I'm working on a 86 57 ri model 85 made in Japan have that black wier dis connected runs threw a small hole in the pot cavity I took it apart to install those round orves to keep the pick up at th right hiegth then desired to shield I had an issue wee the model ir one of the 3 position don't make no sound I guess you can say unning on 2 calenders but I'm not attempting that fix yet ..Great vedio and I sure your a great musician..thank Roland J Gutierrez aka RocknRollflat5 from Magdalena New Mexico usa...
I glad you brought this up. I'm getting ready to convert this same guitar to a new MJT body with Musikraft neck just for fun to see what happens and since this video, I have switched to using VIP pots. I think I have one or two left but not three. It seems to be a real crap shoot as to what you get and what tone you are going to get. And the taper, for me, is important mainly in the way my fuzz and other effects clean up when I turn the pot.
Also highly recommend Emerson Custom pots (made by CTS) with a tolerance of +\- 8% and a custom audio taper that is so incredible, there’s a useful tone across the entire range
Can you do a video where you compare 250k and 500k tone and volume pots? How about a blender tone knog, is this the same as a Series/parallel tone knob set up? Did you ever try a KIngtone switch, if so is this the same as a blender tone set up? I want to know a lot about all this pots, caps and wiring stuff, and I got no one to ask that knows about it.
A = Audio pot, it has a logarithmic taper that sounds more natural when you turn it up, it doesn't do that thing where you turn it up to 5 and there's no volume and at 5 it jumps up to full volume.
Yikes. And i thought i was the only one that wired up my strats on my kitchen table the hard way. I feel your pain brother. And “they” say you shouldnt sand the case of the pot before you tin. Im sure thats going to start a massive debate on here..
Yes. Correct. Don’t sand the back of the pot. Here’s how it’s done..... Take a drop of liquid rosin to the back of the pot where you want to solder. Then hit that spot with your hot soldering iron (at least 60 watt).... this will burn away any contamination that will hinder a good solder joint. The pot is now clean and ready to accept solder with minimal effort. You will find how really easy it is to solder a pot when you use that method. Once done, admire your work. You should have a nice shiny small clean solder joint that looks factory. Lastly, for OCD, take a Qtip with rubbing alcohol to remove any residue that didn’t get burnt away. This solder joint should last for decades....
Hi Mills, Brilliant Video👍👍👍. One of my Favourite things to do with a Strat is doing my own Electronics! Nice job on your Upgrade, I have been having Trouble getting high Quality Pots, I think I have found a person finally on EBay who is a Luthier. One seller wanted $25 per Pot, they are Emerson, but that's ridiculous, also wanted $25 for an Emerson 0.47 Capacitor. I finally found some Vitamin Q Caps for $15 which are square and Flat, they sound Great, If you have any other suggestions, or anyone else, I am always Greatful for advice on Guitar Electronics. Take care mate♥️🎸👍. Melbourne, Australia.
Matt Fields (comment above) said the Mojotone pots are the best but are not always available. I might look into getting a few of those to compare. I really need to double check the 1964 Strat. It has a replacement volume pot in it and it may not be a very good one.
The ViPots mentioned do look interesting but their 280K pot won't be available until November. With a 15% tolerance though, it could put them as much as 29% off from a 250K pot. I'm not sure that was a good idea. They analyzed a bunch of old pots but who knows if they had drifted. I know the old volume pot in 1964 had drifted pretty high. I think I am going to go find it and measure it again. If I remember correctly, it was in the 340K range.
The ViPots mentioned do look interesting but their 280K pot won't be available until November. With a 15% tolerance though, it could put them as much as 29% off from a 250K pot. I'm not sure that was a good idea. They analyzed a bunch of old pots but who knows if they had drifted. I know the old volume pot in 1964 had drifted pretty high. I think I am going to go find it and measure it again. If I remember correctly, it was in the 340K range.
millstapHi Mills, Believe it or not Mojo Tone Pots are my preferred Pot as you said they have a 10% or Lower tolerance. I think I Will stick with the Mojo Tone 250k Pot, I Know you said the round ceramic Caps, what brand do you suggest? Take care my new Friend, Thank you for all you help and advice, I am Greatful ! Melbourne, Australia.
It's probably not a huge deal but Strats have always used 250K. I think what started it for me is I was losing a lot of volume as soon as I turned it down to 9 and I wanted a little less drastic taper. It is sounding great now.
I'm not positive on the Nash but this is a .1uF whatever brand that orange one is. May be Sprague, I'm not sure. I think all of my Strats have a .1 uF cap in them. I read that Fender didn't start putting the .05 uF until later but I may be wrong. All of my schematics show .05 but all of mine are .1. The 1964 has that standard 50V ceramic disc, .1 uF.
@@millstap ok thanks. Really appreciate all the feedback - just a sent a small donation. BTW, one more question, how are you micing your amps? Close mic, room mic? What type of mic? Thanks
@@millstap So check it out! I just got a 56 hardtail strat, and the pots are unfixable, tried everything deoxit, alcohol soak, swabbbing they are done. What would be the best replacement? I love doing swells, and really enjoy the even taper of the vintage pots, what would you suggest? the VIP's?
@@billygunn1535 Wow, that sounds like a very collectable, epic Strat. My friends has a 1959 Hardtail that was once owned by SRV. It is a very loud Strat, almost Tele'ish. The VIP pots have a very abrupt jump between 10-9 but pretty slow from 0-5. I have never tried swells on them so I can't tell you. I have heard some people going to linear tapers but not sure if they do swells on those. I can say the VIP's are pretty close to the old 1964 pots I had on my Strat. I think you can get your pots refurbished but I can't recall who does that type of work.
You should use a buss bar to connect all 3 pots as a ground.....and the last pot with the ground wire going to the jack. You actually should not bend the ground lug for the volume pot because on the late model pots...the crimp for the terminal on the pot connecting it internally can always be suspect....and if you stress the solder lug bending it back it can mess with the internal connection with the crimp on the pot...…..you are better off just using a straight piece of solid copper wire to ground it to the pot body......along with the buss bar ground for the pots. And by looking at the tone cap.....the grounded leg looks kind of like a blob of solder. its always good to scuff uf the pot body surfaces where you are intending to solder so it gets a nice even flow so it fuses good to the metal body...you shouldn't get a blob of solder with raises margins.....it may not have gotten hot enough to fuse the lead to the metal of the pot body. You will probably have a ground but it will act up in time....or add resistance to ground in the circuitry. AND that big shielding plate for under the plastic pick guard......if its not aluminum.....you should run a wire to that for a solid ground tied to the buss bar ground and the jack ground. You shouldn't rely on mechanical grounds as they tarnish and oxidize in time so they add resistance to ground in the circuitry. And you should try a .02 cap for the tone cap. The ideal value lays between .02 and .01.....which would suggest a .015....but it depends on the pickups...….you want to roll off the highs but not go really dark and muddy at full travel. Sometimes a .01 is perfect and sometimes a low reading .02 can be the one. You kind of want to tailor to the full travel response and how much low it brings on by the high roll off. A .05 rolls too much into the dark zone where its not useable....., so in the worst case.....to might have to parallel 2 caps to dial in the right value. ********************where is the base plate for the bridge pickup ????????*************************and if you haven't done it......you should reverse the wires on the middle pickup so the in-between positions on the 5 way switch don't go to the thin sound.....you'll get the thick humbucker sound if the middle pickup wires are reversed. But if you favor that thin sound.....you could keep it for one of the in-between positions on the 5 way.....by keeping the middle wires normal and either reversing the bridge or the neck.....considering which of the 2 you prefer for the thin sound. But I usually just do the middle so its thick on both^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Here is a trick for the volume pot ground......you have to know where the pot drops out and you get no signal to the amp......which might be like dialing down to 3 on the knob. Once you determine the sweep of the pot to where signal drops out.....you can substitute a resistor in for the direct ground......you'd have to measure the remaining resistance in the pot where the sweep drops out the signal......and select a resistor just under that measured value and that would give you the full sweep of the pot and have the signal drop out at the extreme travel rather than at like 3. *************That 500K volume pot would have given you more gain out of the pickups. You could also mess with the Q of the pickups since they are actually inductors in the electronics sense. if you wanna try a trim pot inserted between the pickup and ground wired as a rhetostat…..a linear trim pot between maybe 1 k or a 500 ohm.....but run leads out and under the pickguard so you can easily dial the pot to find a value per the tone shift......and then use a fixed resistor......you could adjust all 3 pickups.
Holy poop Mike. I just want to play my guitar, lol. It would take me months to figure this stuff out. The Strat was created perfect from the start. I am going to crank it and play the crud out of it. It sounds amazing. Oh yeah, the base plate. I actually do have a plate for that pickup but never put it on. I forgot about it but I am not sure it really needs it. Maybe next time.
The point with a buss bar ground......basically the easy way is to use solid core copper wire. I use that and cut a long enough piece and strip the insulation off......saving the long spaghetti tube of insulation for use on other lead legs of resistors or caps, and the bare copper wire is what I solder to the bodies of the pots once they are in place and correctly spaced in a pickguard. For amplifiers I solder more of a longer lead between pots so I don't have to use a spacer jig so there is slack between the pots with the buss bar. The buss bar also allows you to ground other items in the circuitry by "J" hooking on to the buss bar to make a connection for ground as opposed to having to heat up and ground to a pot body......you can just use a low watt iron to solder that connection as opposed to needing high heat to solder to a pot body. Hahahahaha, its all about good grounds
If you wan to one up on a strat,......and this is in the Bill Kirchen school of guitar.....but also carries over to Roy Buchanan and Jeff Beck and Hendrix if you think about it......but I'll mention Hendrix at the end of this. Kirchen played a tele and its quite easy to do this on a tele as its just flipping the control plate around opposite of the way it should be so the tone pot is is first and you can hook your pinkie on it to do swells with rotating the pot as you play notes and chords as you pick. SO on a strat, you might want to switch positions with the volume pot and put it at the bottom of the 3 and have the tone pot for the neck and bridge the top tone control so you can hook your pinkie on it to manipulate it as you play. With Hendrix being a left and reversing a right handed guitar......there is no verification but he may have had his pots done like this. The peculiarity of the fuzz face pedal is that the input of the circuitry when the FF is plugged directly to a guitar is that the guitars volume pot and tone circuitry becomes part of the FF circuitry as to how it works at the input of that ff circuitry......the guitars volume pot becomes part of the operation for fuzz effect and the gain of the first transistor in that design. That is why there is a problem when the wah pedal was put in front of the FF which made a high pitched squeal happen when the wah was activated......where as that doesn't happen if there is a guitar plugged in directly first to a FF......its a resistance situation with the input of the ff and the guitar volume pot. SO a lefty playing a righty and flipped guitar.....he may have had his volume pot switched in position. Rolling back the volume with the fuzz face on cleans up the effect and gives less fuzz or a clean fuzz with very little fuzz....and then as you dial up to wide open on the guitar volume pot.....it fuzz's out in that transition of the pot sweep. Critical ears will hear it in the live recordings of Hendrix .
incidentally, as in one of my recent past posting to you, I mentioned an output buffer on the wah. The 535Q wah has a volume switch and control, but this is not an output buffer in that pedal. The output buffer I mention is a transistor and the output of the circuitry is a trim pot going to the jack......thus it is similar to a guitar volume pot in the relation to the fuzz face input circuitry......the same interactive relationship. When Hendrix used West Coast Organ/Amp Service.....this was one mod they did to the fuzz face units was to add a trim pot to the input of the FF.....I think they used a 50K pot as a rheostat.....so there was a means to dialing in resistance at the input of the ff when Hendrix put the wah first......so when he switched the wah active with the FF on...there wouldn't be that high pitched squeal when he activated it. Its often sited on live Cat Fish Blues where you can hear the squeal happen when he does it......before they got control of it by modification.
@@massimofamularo1976 They look interesting. I may get one for my 1964. Unfortunately, I see some experimentation in the future and I really don't like taking that 1964 apart. The main reason is it is so tight in the routes to get all the wires stuffed back in, I struggle getting the pickguard back in place easily. The 1964 has a replacement pot in it but when I bought it years ago, I didn't know anything about pots so who knows what quality or taper is in there.
@@massimofamularo1976 I just found out they don't have pots for Strats yet. Just 550K pots for Gibsons. They will offer a 280K Strat pot in November of this year. You can preorder them but they are $16.99 each, ouch.
Ill tell you right now, the Mojotone pots are the best you can buy IMO. The Art of Tone pots are high quality(amazingly tight tolerances)and are second only to the Mojotone pots. It’s all in the taper and the amount of torque required to turn. Only bad thing about those Mojo pots is they’re often out of stock. These pots can take a bit of heat, just don’t crank the iron to nuclear explosion hot. Good lord, 500k in the Strat must have been ear piercing! Don’t go out and get those Mojo pots if you like these, they turn really easy. It’s amazing how so many people forget about pots while spending thousands on pickups. They need to be as close as possible to 250k/500k/1meg, or the guitar won’t sound right.
Exactly. I wish I would have checked them 20 years ago. All this started with acquiring the new neck and using the old neck on this guitar. I'm so glad I did because it is like getting a new guitar. And also, I started playing the 1964 last night and it sounded so good. Unfortunately, I will probably need to change the volume pot in that guitar too. I put in a replacement pot years ago but have no clue if it is a good one. I might check into those Mojo pots for that guitar, at least for the volume. Hopefully the tone pots are okay but maybe not. There were some suggestions about using a standard audio taper (these are not standard, but "vintage") pots on the tone pots or some people use linear tapered pots. What is you opinion on using something different on the tones?
Matt, the Mojotone pots look almost identical to the Art of Tone pots. Would you get the vintage taper for both volume and tone? I see they are very low torque so you may be right. I like a little resistance and there is hardly any in the Art of Tone pots. You could probably blow on the Mojos to turn them.
millstap Yeah, all pots get replaced with the same taper. And come to think of it, I had to add grease to the Mojo pots I used on my Fender guitars. The 500k’s I used on the Gibsons didn’t need it because of the location.
@@matthewf1979 I just measured the 304 (Stackpole) pot from my 1964 Strat and it was 333K ohms. I wonder if that would still work okay. I can't remember why I changed it. I think it was very scratchy or something. But, maybe just because it was reading 333K. I should put it back in once just to see.
@@matthewf1979 I see the Vipots new Strat pot will be 280K +/- 15% based on checking a bunch of old Strat pots. That could put it as high as 322K which is close to what mine is.
Thank you miles away from any guitar tech but thank God for you and RUclips. I'm working on a 86 57 ri model 85 made in Japan have that black wier dis connected runs threw a small hole in the pot cavity I took it apart to install those round orves to keep the pick up at th right hiegth then desired to shield I had an issue wee the model ir one of the 3 position don't make no sound I guess you can say unning on 2 calenders but I'm not attempting that fix yet ..Great vedio and I sure your a great musician..thank Roland J Gutierrez aka RocknRollflat5 from Magdalena New Mexico usa...
Props to you for doing this while filming...I wired up two new strat builds tonight and its a big enough pain in the butt just getting the work done!
Thanks for sharing this video and some good info; it's seems we never give up our search for the tone in our head.... maybe one day......
Really enjoy watching you talk guitars. Rock on man!
Actual POT reading (value) and taper make a big difference to tone. I have found this after many decades of tinkering with guitars....
I glad you brought this up. I'm getting ready to convert this same guitar to a new MJT body with Musikraft neck just for fun to see what happens and since this video, I have switched to using VIP pots. I think I have one or two left but not three. It seems to be a real crap shoot as to what you get and what tone you are going to get. And the taper, for me, is important mainly in the way my fuzz and other effects clean up when I turn the pot.
Nice operation Doctor ! Chico, Detroit
Good video,very informative.I will also make sure not to use any rotating tools next to my fingers....
Also highly recommend Emerson Custom pots (made by CTS) with a tolerance of +\- 8% and a custom audio taper that is so incredible, there’s a useful tone across the entire range
I've seen those. I think StewMac sells them. I should try them.
Can you do a video where you compare 250k and 500k tone and volume pots? How about a blender tone knog, is this the same as a Series/parallel tone knob set up? Did you ever try a KIngtone switch, if so is this the same as a blender tone set up? I want to know a lot about all this pots, caps and wiring stuff, and I got no one to ask that knows about it.
I had a kingtone, it's treble bleed circuit with several differences like a variatone
A = Audio pot, it has a logarithmic taper that sounds more natural when you turn it up, it doesn't do that thing where you turn it up to 5 and there's no volume and at 5 it jumps up to full volume.
Is a bone stock Dunlop Fuzz Face any good? I’m looking for an inexpensive, decent fuzz pedal.
I think it is. I used the red FFM2 for a long time and I'm thinking of going back to it because I had some really good feedback back then.
Yikes. And i thought i was the only one that wired up my strats on my kitchen table the hard way. I feel your pain brother. And “they” say you shouldnt sand the case of the pot before you tin. Im sure thats going to start a massive debate on here..
Fernando Barrera I forgot to sand my CTS pot before soldering, and the solder fell right off, fuck what “they” say
Yes. Correct. Don’t sand the back of the pot. Here’s how it’s done.....
Take a drop of liquid rosin to the back of the pot where you want to solder. Then hit that spot with your hot soldering iron (at least 60 watt).... this will burn away any contamination that will hinder a good solder joint. The pot is now clean and ready to accept solder with minimal effort.
You will find how really easy it is to solder a pot when you use that method.
Once done, admire your work.
You should have a nice shiny small clean solder joint that looks factory.
Lastly, for OCD, take a Qtip with rubbing alcohol to remove any residue that didn’t get burnt away. This solder joint should last for decades....
So to tone caps really make a difference? You go with orange drop?
Hi Mills, Brilliant Video👍👍👍.
One of my Favourite things to do with a Strat is doing my own Electronics!
Nice job on your Upgrade, I have been having Trouble getting high Quality Pots, I think I have found a person finally on EBay who is a Luthier.
One seller wanted $25 per Pot, they are Emerson, but that's ridiculous, also wanted $25 for an Emerson 0.47 Capacitor.
I finally found some Vitamin Q Caps for $15 which are square and Flat, they sound Great, If you have any other suggestions, or anyone else, I am always Greatful for advice on Guitar Electronics.
Take care mate♥️🎸👍.
Melbourne, Australia.
Matt Fields (comment above) said the Mojotone pots are the best but are not always available. I might look into getting a few of those to compare. I really need to double check the 1964 Strat. It has a replacement volume pot in it and it may not be a very good one.
The ViPots mentioned do look interesting but their 280K pot won't be available until November. With a 15% tolerance though, it could put them as much as 29% off from a 250K pot. I'm not sure that was a good idea. They analyzed a bunch of old pots but who knows if they had drifted. I know the old volume pot in 1964 had drifted pretty high. I think I am going to go find it and measure it again. If I remember correctly, it was in the 340K range.
The ViPots mentioned do look interesting but their 280K pot won't be available until November. With a 15% tolerance though, it could put them as much as 29% off from a 250K pot. I'm not sure that was a good idea. They analyzed a bunch of old pots but who knows if they had drifted. I know the old volume pot in 1964 had drifted pretty high. I think I am going to go find it and measure it again. If I remember correctly, it was in the 340K range.
Also look at the Mojotones. They look almost identical to the Art of Tone except 7% tolerance.
millstapHi Mills, Believe it or not Mojo Tone Pots are my preferred Pot as you said they have a 10% or Lower tolerance.
I think I Will stick with the Mojo Tone 250k Pot, I Know you said the round ceramic Caps, what brand do you suggest?
Take care my new Friend, Thank you for all you help and advice, I am Greatful !
Melbourne, Australia.
What’s the issue with 500k pots in s Strat? If you think it’s too bright, turn it down to like 7-8 where it reads 250k
It's probably not a huge deal but Strats have always used 250K. I think what started it for me is I was losing a lot of volume as soon as I turned it down to 9 and I wanted a little less drastic taper. It is sounding great now.
millstap sounds like you had a linear volume pot, I can understand wanting to change that
@@voxpathfinder15r It was definitely audio but anything 100% out of spec can't be functioning as it should so it was out of there.
Knob Stoppers , yeah .
I don't think I'm going to need it but we'll see. I have a few sitting here.
Which tone caps are you using in this and your Nash?
I'm not positive on the Nash but this is a .1uF whatever brand that orange one is. May be Sprague, I'm not sure. I think all of my Strats have a .1 uF cap in them. I read that Fender didn't start putting the .05 uF until later but I may be wrong. All of my schematics show .05 but all of mine are .1. The 1964 has that standard 50V ceramic disc, .1 uF.
@@millstap ok thanks. Really appreciate all the feedback - just a sent a small donation. BTW, one more question, how are you micing your amps? Close mic, room mic? What type of mic? Thanks
best pots for old strat replacement?
I eventually changed to VIP pots and they are better and also at vintage resistances of +/- 280K ohms. www.vintageinspiredpickups.com/vipots
@@millstap So check it out! I just got a 56 hardtail strat, and the pots are unfixable, tried everything deoxit, alcohol soak, swabbbing they are done. What would be the best replacement? I love doing swells, and really enjoy the even taper of the vintage pots, what would you suggest? the VIP's?
@@billygunn1535 Wow, that sounds like a very collectable, epic Strat. My friends has a 1959 Hardtail that was once owned by SRV. It is a very loud Strat, almost Tele'ish. The VIP pots have a very abrupt jump between 10-9 but pretty slow from 0-5. I have never tried swells on them so I can't tell you. I have heard some people going to linear tapers but not sure if they do swells on those. I can say the VIP's are pretty close to the old 1964 pots I had on my Strat. I think you can get your pots refurbished but I can't recall who does that type of work.
You should use a buss bar to connect all 3 pots as a ground.....and the last pot with the ground wire going to the jack. You actually should not bend the ground lug for the volume pot because on the late model pots...the crimp for the terminal on the pot connecting it internally can always be suspect....and if you stress the solder lug bending it back it can mess with the internal connection with the crimp on the pot...…..you are better off just using a straight piece of solid copper wire to ground it to the pot body......along with the buss bar ground for the pots. And by looking at the tone cap.....the grounded leg looks kind of like a blob of solder. its always good to scuff uf the pot body surfaces where you are intending to solder so it gets a nice even flow so it fuses good to the metal body...you shouldn't get a blob of solder with raises margins.....it may not have gotten hot enough to fuse the lead to the metal of the pot body. You will probably have a ground but it will act up in time....or add resistance to ground in the circuitry. AND that big shielding plate for under the plastic pick guard......if its not aluminum.....you should run a wire to that for a solid ground tied to the buss bar ground and the jack ground. You shouldn't rely on mechanical grounds as they tarnish and oxidize in time so they add resistance to ground in the circuitry. And you should try a .02 cap for the tone cap. The ideal value lays between .02 and .01.....which would suggest a .015....but it depends on the pickups...….you want to roll off the highs but not go really dark and muddy at full travel. Sometimes a .01 is perfect and sometimes a low reading .02 can be the one. You kind of want to tailor to the full travel response and how much low it brings on by the high roll off. A .05 rolls too much into the dark zone where its not useable....., so in the worst case.....to might have to parallel 2 caps to dial in the right value. ********************where is the base plate for the bridge pickup ????????*************************and if you haven't done it......you should reverse the wires on the middle pickup so the in-between positions on the 5 way switch don't go to the thin sound.....you'll get the thick humbucker sound if the middle pickup wires are reversed. But if you favor that thin sound.....you could keep it for one of the in-between positions on the 5 way.....by keeping the middle wires normal and either reversing the bridge or the neck.....considering which of the 2 you prefer for the thin sound. But I usually just do the middle so its thick on both^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Here is a trick for the volume pot ground......you have to know where the pot drops out and you get no signal to the amp......which might be like dialing down to 3 on the knob. Once you determine the sweep of the pot to where signal drops out.....you can substitute a resistor in for the direct ground......you'd have to measure the remaining resistance in the pot where the sweep drops out the signal......and select a resistor just under that measured value and that would give you the full sweep of the pot and have the signal drop out at the extreme travel rather than at like 3. *************That 500K volume pot would have given you more gain out of the pickups. You could also mess with the Q of the pickups since they are actually inductors in the electronics sense. if you wanna try a trim pot inserted between the pickup and ground wired as a rhetostat…..a linear trim pot between maybe 1 k or a 500 ohm.....but run leads out and under the pickguard so you can easily dial the pot to find a value per the tone shift......and then use a fixed resistor......you could adjust all 3 pickups.
Holy poop Mike. I just want to play my guitar, lol. It would take me months to figure this stuff out. The Strat was created perfect from the start. I am going to crank it and play the crud out of it. It sounds amazing. Oh yeah, the base plate. I actually do have a plate for that pickup but never put it on. I forgot about it but I am not sure it really needs it. Maybe next time.
The point with a buss bar ground......basically the easy way is to use solid core copper wire. I use that and cut a long enough piece and strip the insulation off......saving the long spaghetti tube of insulation for use on other lead legs of resistors or caps, and the bare copper wire is what I solder to the bodies of the pots once they are in place and correctly spaced in a pickguard. For amplifiers I solder more of a longer lead between pots so I don't have to use a spacer jig so there is slack between the pots with the buss bar. The buss bar also allows you to ground other items in the circuitry by "J" hooking on to the buss bar to make a connection for ground as opposed to having to heat up and ground to a pot body......you can just use a low watt iron to solder that connection as opposed to needing high heat to solder to a pot body. Hahahahaha, its all about good grounds
If you wan to one up on a strat,......and this is in the Bill Kirchen school of guitar.....but also carries over to Roy Buchanan and Jeff Beck and Hendrix if you think about it......but I'll mention Hendrix at the end of this. Kirchen played a tele and its quite easy to do this on a tele as its just flipping the control plate around opposite of the way it should be so the tone pot is is first and you can hook your pinkie on it to do swells with rotating the pot as you play notes and chords as you pick. SO on a strat, you might want to switch positions with the volume pot and put it at the bottom of the 3 and have the tone pot for the neck and bridge the top tone control so you can hook your pinkie on it to manipulate it as you play. With Hendrix being a left and reversing a right handed guitar......there is no verification but he may have had his pots done like this. The peculiarity of the fuzz face pedal is that the input of the circuitry when the FF is plugged directly to a guitar is that the guitars volume pot and tone circuitry becomes part of the FF circuitry as to how it works at the input of that ff circuitry......the guitars volume pot becomes part of the operation for fuzz effect and the gain of the first transistor in that design. That is why there is a problem when the wah pedal was put in front of the FF which made a high pitched squeal happen when the wah was activated......where as that doesn't happen if there is a guitar plugged in directly first to a FF......its a resistance situation with the input of the ff and the guitar volume pot. SO a lefty playing a righty and flipped guitar.....he may have had his volume pot switched in position. Rolling back the volume with the fuzz face on cleans up the effect and gives less fuzz or a clean fuzz with very little fuzz....and then as you dial up to wide open on the guitar volume pot.....it fuzz's out in that transition of the pot sweep. Critical ears will hear it in the live recordings of Hendrix .
incidentally, as in one of my recent past posting to you, I mentioned an output buffer on the wah. The 535Q wah has a volume switch and control, but this is not an output buffer in that pedal. The output buffer I mention is a transistor and the output of the circuitry is a trim pot going to the jack......thus it is similar to a guitar volume pot in the relation to the fuzz face input circuitry......the same interactive relationship. When Hendrix used West Coast Organ/Amp Service.....this was one mod they did to the fuzz face units was to add a trim pot to the input of the FF.....I think they used a 50K pot as a rheostat.....so there was a means to dialing in resistance at the input of the ff when Hendrix put the wah first......so when he switched the wah active with the FF on...there wouldn't be that high pitched squeal when he activated it. Its often sited on live Cat Fish Blues where you can hear the squeal happen when he does it......before they got control of it by modification.
I should have included this link - www.jonesyblues.com/stratocaster-wiring-options.html
An amazing amount of details and thing to learn at this site.
try vipots...and let me know. amazing stuff man
Vipots? I'll see if I can find them.
@@millstap highly recommended
@@massimofamularo1976 They look interesting. I may get one for my 1964. Unfortunately, I see some experimentation in the future and I really don't like taking that 1964 apart. The main reason is it is so tight in the routes to get all the wires stuffed back in, I struggle getting the pickguard back in place easily. The 1964 has a replacement pot in it but when I bought it years ago, I didn't know anything about pots so who knows what quality or taper is in there.
@@massimofamularo1976 I just found out they don't have pots for Strats yet. Just 550K pots for Gibsons. They will offer a 280K Strat pot in November of this year. You can preorder them but they are $16.99 each, ouch.
@@massimofamularo1976 Actually, you can only order a set of three for $24.99. That is a little better. $8.33 each.
Ill tell you right now, the Mojotone pots are the best you can buy IMO. The Art of Tone pots are high quality(amazingly tight tolerances)and are second only to the Mojotone pots. It’s all in the taper and the amount of torque required to turn. Only bad thing about those Mojo pots is they’re often out of stock.
These pots can take a bit of heat, just don’t crank the iron to nuclear explosion hot.
Good lord, 500k in the Strat must have been ear piercing!
Don’t go out and get those Mojo pots if you like these, they turn really easy.
It’s amazing how so many people forget about pots while spending thousands on pickups. They need to be as close as possible to 250k/500k/1meg, or the guitar won’t sound right.
Exactly. I wish I would have checked them 20 years ago. All this started with acquiring the new neck and using the old neck on this guitar. I'm so glad I did because it is like getting a new guitar. And also, I started playing the 1964 last night and it sounded so good. Unfortunately, I will probably need to change the volume pot in that guitar too. I put in a replacement pot years ago but have no clue if it is a good one. I might check into those Mojo pots for that guitar, at least for the volume. Hopefully the tone pots are okay but maybe not. There were some suggestions about using a standard audio taper (these are not standard, but "vintage") pots on the tone pots or some people use linear tapered pots. What is you opinion on using something different on the tones?
Matt, the Mojotone pots look almost identical to the Art of Tone pots. Would you get the vintage taper for both volume and tone? I see they are very low torque so you may be right. I like a little resistance and there is hardly any in the Art of Tone pots. You could probably blow on the Mojos to turn them.
millstap Yeah, all pots get replaced with the same taper. And come to think of it, I had to add grease to the Mojo pots I used on my Fender guitars. The 500k’s I used on the Gibsons didn’t need it because of the location.
@@matthewf1979 I just measured the 304 (Stackpole) pot from my 1964 Strat and it was 333K ohms. I wonder if that would still work okay. I can't remember why I changed it. I think it was very scratchy or something. But, maybe just because it was reading 333K. I should put it back in once just to see.
@@matthewf1979 I see the Vipots new Strat pot will be 280K +/- 15% based on checking a bunch of old Strat pots. That could put it as high as 322K which is close to what mine is.
does demo with f/x on so you can not tell what the guitar sounds like
That tape truly is useless. I've never managed to do anything useful with it either.
Lol. I've been trying to figure that stuff out for 20 years. I refused to throw it away. I'm going out and throwing it away right now.