Metropoulos Forum

Does the strat tone circuit effect the treble when the knobs are on ten? I ask because I just put a strat together using .022 tone cap and the bridge pickup sounds normal (out of the tone circuit) but the middle and neck sound kinda dull. I have the pots wired correct.

How do you have it wired? Can you post a diagram?

There's no tone pot for strat's bridge pickup. Only for the neck and middle - master volume, middle tone, neck tone

Yes, that's what I meant. The bridge pickup sounded normal (there is no tone for the bridge) it's the other two that have a tone control that sound "dull". here is a diagram of what I got.

500 or 250K pots? single coils sound best IMO and stock value is 250K. 500K IMO makes a little flat sounding

Yes, the tone control(s) have an effect even when they are on 10. How big that effect is depends on the value and type of cap and the value of the pot used. Bigger value cap = more effect, lower value pot = more effect. With the stock strat wiring the effect is cumulative in the neck + middle position where you have both tone controls in parallel.

Leo wanted the bridge pickup to be real bright, hence no tone control there. Personally I prefer one master tone control.

Cheers Stephan

How do you guys like to use the tone controls musically?
I've always disabled them because I always found they would just sound muddy.

Thanks for the response guys. Since my last post, I ended up cutting the wires that connected then to the tone circuit. It made minimal difference. I guess they just aren't going you sound as single coily as real single coils. I'm using the Dimarzio Area pickups by the way ...

I personally like the Tele tone circuit on strats, cause I really dislike the 2 and 4 positions on a 5 way blade.That sound was SO over done by the '90's era SRV clones. I just dont like the middle pu. Both pu's are wired to a tone control.I like a .022 cap. I leave the middle pu in there,but it isnt wired and is down flush to the pickguard. The volume is moved to the middle position with the tone being at the bottom. I just dont like how close the standard volume on a strat is to my picking hand. On other strats, I've used this same scenario, except I have a hb'er in the bridge spot.The cool thing about the Tele set up is that both pu's are on the tone pot, enabling you to get a duller ,warmer jazzy tone, when using a clean amp tone or rolling the volume knob down. On these guitars I have an empty single coil cover in the middle spot set flush to the pick guard,rigged with a couple springs, screws and washers.
My next strat build is gonna have a push/pull volume to split the coils on the bridge hb'er, along with a neck single coil.That way,I can get the true tele sound of both single coils togather. That IS the jazz sound to me. And different from the Gibson dual hb'er set up, the single coils sound much better when rolling the tone control down. They retain more tooth and clarity, but get that warm burnished tone. I will be setting my main single coil strat back up to stock strat spec though (3 singles on a 5 way), cause I do use the 4 position every know and again for certain funk rhythm sounds.

The wiring I use for my strat let's the "middle " tone knob also work for the bridge. I think it is called the 50's wiring.

darkbluemurder wrote:Yes, the tone control(s) have an effect even when they are on 10. How big that effect is depends on the value and type of cap and the value of the pot used. Bigger value cap = more effect, lower value pot = more effect. With the stock strat wiring the effect is cumulative in the neck + middle position where you have both tone controls in parallel.

Leo wanted the bridge pickup to be real bright, hence no tone control there. Personally I prefer one master tone control.

Cheers Stephan

Yes, and don't forget those "no-load" Fender pots

FL6 wrote:How do you guys like to use the tone controls musically?
I've always disabled them because I always found they would just sound muddy.

On my Fenders (and Les Paul's)
At home, not so much, but gigging I'm always adjusting the Volume knob on the guitar.
I use the Volume to cut back and focus on a sweet spot for a use in a particular song (and/or guitar) and utilize the volume
like a boost. On 10, for either lead-work, or on a snarly rhythm, or backed off for soulful dirty cleans. Also for swells and delay-work.
I like Audio 500k-300k-250k respectively matched up to the pickup. Or to either tame or brighten some characteristics.
I like Linear for the Tone and a very transparent cap to shave high's if I need.

My fav config is my current SuperStrat. (Thanks to fillmore nyc)
1 Hum/1 Sing/1 Volume/1 Tone
It sports a 3 position blade switch dedicated for the Bridge Humbucker for Series/Cancel/Parallel and
a 3-way toggle (Les Paul switch on top horn) to switch normally from Bridge to Neck.
w/.05 for the Tone.

I had one of my strats wired with a no-load volume pot which allowed me to get all three single coils if I went past 9 on the volume pot. I was also able to get neck and bridge positions together. I had the mod reversed, but noticed the "notch" at 9 afterwards (like it was the new 10) and the wiring that was done gave me a tone pot for the neck and middle positions which actually works quite well such that I've left it that way.

Tone Slinger wrote:I personally like the Tele tone circuit on strats, cause I really dislike the 2 and 4 positions on a 5 way blade.That sound was SO over done by the '90's era SRV clones. I just dont like the middle pu. Both pu's are wired to a tone control.I like a .022 cap. I leave the middle pu in there,but it isnt wired and is down flush to the pickguard. The volume is moved to the middle position with the tone being at the bottom. I just dont like how close the standard volume on a strat is to my picking hand. On other strats, I've used this same scenario, except I have a hb'er in the bridge spot.The cool thing about the Tele set up is that both pu's are on the tone pot, enabling you to get a duller ,warmer jazzy tone, when using a clean amp tone or rolling the volume knob down. On these guitars I have an empty single coil cover in the middle spot set flush to the pick guard,rigged with a couple springs, screws and washers.
My next strat build is gonna have a push/pull volume to split the coils on the bridge hb'er, along with a neck single coil.That way,I can get the true tele sound of both single coils togather. That IS the jazz sound to me. And different from the Gibson dual hb'er set up, the single coils sound much better when rolling the tone control down. They retain more tooth and clarity, but get that warm burnished tone. I will be setting my main single coil strat back up to stock strat spec though (3 singles on a 5 way), cause I do use the 4 position every know and again for certain funk rhythm sounds.

I use the Fezz Parka or Ted Greene mod on all of my Teles as it basically "unloads" the tone pot from the equation.

planetjimi wrote:Does the strat tone circuit effect the treble when the knobs are on ten? I ask because I just put a strat together using .022 tone cap and the bridge pickup sounds normal (out of the tone circuit) but the middle and neck sound kinda dull. I have the pots wired correct.

If your sound is still too bright with the .022uF tone cap, then go with a .047 or .050uF tone cap.