I converted my stock, lower Tone Pot to a blender pot, which is another great mod and it costs $0. You can get the Neck+Bridge combo, all 3 at once, any amount of blend and no matter where your 5-way switch is, it will always blend in the missing N or B pup. Cheers.
This is a solid Mod as well. I don't have it build into a blender pot, but that Mini Toggle I have above the switch is my 7 way switching. I love this Mod too!!! 👊
Thats actually the best mod out there for strat bar none....and its the best mod cause not only can be free(or cheap if you install a no load pot),not only its easy to operate and you dont have to remember a lot but its also the most versatile cause you dont bring the neck or bridge pickups full on to the mix but parts of them......is you bridge a bit ice picky in a particular scenario?Just roll the second tone pot a hair and you added 10% of that neck pickups warmth and presto problem solved....want more...roll off some more...it doesnt get any better than this....
@@TheSoundCoop Was going to ask ,since you mentioned it ,could you elaborate on how that works ? Not sure what 7 way is .Figured it might be a B/N switch .Thanks .
@@STRATMAN1969 a typical Strat has 5 way switching. But there are still two other positions that are possible. You can add a Neck + Bridge position, which is basically a Telecaster type sound. And you can also add all 3 pickups together. When I flip my Mini Toggle down, it adds the neck pickup to Positions 1 & 2. This makes Position 1 Neck + Bridge, and makes Position 2 all 3 pickups together. There's a lot of different ways to achieve 7 way switching. The Mini Toggle is just how I have mine setup.
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks ,I have Strats with coil taps wired to toggles, none that add pickups ,I was just interested what your toggle did to achieve the 7th position .I like how you have it wired .Also a Strat Neck + Bridge doesn't come close to a Tele Bridge + Tele Neck which is why I had to build a Strat with Tele guts ; ) Love the Mule shirt tho ,represent Saginaw Mi
I had a very similar tone circuit in my Hohner Revelation RTX. It was in their by stock. You could get this guitar either with a standard Strat PU combination or with bridge humbucker and neck single coil. I have the version with the humbucker. You could deactivate the tone circuit (called Advanced Tone Network) by a push-push-poti. I re-wired it to split the humbucker entirely removing the tone circuit. Gave me much better sounds and higher output. Passive tone controls will always add resistance and thus take something away from the original sound and reduce volume. Even if it feels like it was adding mids, it will for sure reduce the overall volume to make this possible. Great you love this. But it's not for me.
I'll have to look into the RTX. It sounds like fun! One thing I can assure you, there is no tone or volume loss when you add in mids by turning the pot up above 5. Same with the cut below 5. It doesn't "feel" like it's adding mids. It's actually adding mids for sure. I don't know exactly how Andy achieves this, but one obvious way is to blend a high cut version of the signal back into the original. This Mod isn't reducing the highs and lows to bring the mids forward. It's leaving the highs and lows completely intact, including the volume (level), and only bumps or cuts the mids. Regardless, I completely respect that fact that it isn't for you. Luckily we all have varying tastes 🙌
I like having that knob as a passive bass control like in g&l. Really let's you tighten the bass as gain increases or dial it in on the guitar instead of having to mess with an amp you have setup for a different guitar
@@TheSoundCoop Is really cool and works wonders for guitars with a lot of bass. I have a G&L strat but it is a pretty treebly one so i don't use it a lot. But i installed this in my japanese fender tele and that one has a LOT of bass, so i use the tone pretty much all the time
@@ubdejones1 I'm kicking around putting one in a Humbucker guitar of mine. I tend to mostly use it for darker, heavier tones. And the bass can often run away from me. I usually just EQ it out after in ProTools. But this got me thinking maybe my amps would respond better if I tamed some of those lows before hitting the amp. Will report back soon 🙌🏻
It's funny you say that. Andy also makes a Varitone replacement. I've never actually used one before. Makes me wonder if some of the idea of this Mid Control Mod came from his Varitone circuit.
The Stratocaster's tone with the mod sounds fantastic. Based on your demonstration of this mod and listening you play I've been achieving similar results with a parametric EQ pedal, specifically the Pettyjohn Filter. Typically, I use it to attenuate mid frequencies around 460hz or 780hz, adding “sparkle” and “definition” to my clean tone. My Strat-style guitar is a Novo Serus S equipped with Lollar Dirty Sixty-Four pickups. However I’venoticed that the EQ pedal performs exceptionally well across all my guitars. Having tried several other EQ pedals the Pettyjohn Filter is actually the first EQ pedal I've truly enjoyed. I place it as the first pedal in my signal chain, right after the guitar.
Thanks for watching and commenting 🙌🏻 A very similar sort of tonal variation can totally be achieved by using an EQ pedal. Or an on-board amps EQ, provided one of the bands has a center frequency around 850Hz. I'm not a big pedal guy. But the Boss 8 band EQ pedal is absolutely top of my list. So helpful. It takes a little work to recreate the bell curve but is totally doable. For me, there's just something about having it on the guitar. It has the immediacy of the pickup position switching. It gets most of the tactile delay out of the way. Fast boosting AND cutting. I never really got much out of the two LPF tone posts on a Strat. The 7-way blender Mod is also a fun one. But for the style of music I write and play, this passive Mid Control gives me the most usable versatility.
@@TheSoundCoop I completely agree. Incorporating a mid cut/boost directly into the guitar offers unparalleled convenience, eliminating the need for an external EQ pedal that consumes space and power. There's no longer a requirement to bend down on the pedal board to tweak mid frequencies. While an external EQ pedal has the advantage of universality across guitars, it serves as a straightforward method to experiment with this modification. Trying to attenuate/boost at around 800Hz first with an EQ pedal can help you determine whether someone would want this type of mod or not. Personally, I wouldn't mind having a mid cut/boost at 460Hz and/or 780Hz in my guitar, I mentioned these frequencies since they are available on my parametric EQ (Pettyjohn Filter) and as I mentioned in my previous comment for me have proven effective for reducing muddiness and enhancing definition and sparkle. The mid frequency you mentioned at 850H< is basically the same I’ve been using which is why I got so interested in this mod. Sometimes I’ve found that sometimes with certain guitars/amps/songs attenuating at 460Hz can have slight benefits over 780Hz. Although the differences are not drastic. For the end result I’m trying to achieve - reducing muddiness - can be done with both frequencies. The demos in your video were impressive. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of use cases for adjusting mid frequencies and references to iconic artists and their tones. After watching your video I had to go and try boosting my mids as well to achieve those tones. Usually I’ve only used the parametric EQ to reduce certain frequencies.
You and I would get along swimmingly. It's rare to find guitar players that take the time to understand frequencies unless they're studio cats. 🙌🏻 It's amazing what cutting frequencies between 300Hz and 1k can do. Cutting mud between 300 & 400 is super helpful. And if your guitar isn't muddy there, it's great for getting a thunderous low end that stays tight. And helpful for keeping the lows tight if you wanna boost lows. I love 600Hz for cutting cloudiness. Boosting or cutting at 1k is very helpful. And I love little boosts between 1 & 6kHz. Most of this is experience EQing for mixing purposes that I've later applied to guitar. But oddly enough, 850 Hz isn't a frequency I'd typically use much in the studio. But it's darn helpful for this guitar setup. You can cut without losing all the density. And boost without adding all the mud and cloudiness. I'm gonna have to reach out to Andy and see if it's possible to get a variable frequency addition to this Mod. That might be fun if possible!!! But maybe that would require an active circuit? I've got that on my Jazz bass but the whole electric setup is powered by 2 9volts.
Sorry if this has been pointed out already, standard Strat wiring does not have a tone control for the bridge pup, the lower Tone knob controls the middle pup and the upper one controls the neck pup. I always thought that was an odd choice considering how bright, strident, shrill (pick your adjective of choice) the bridge pup is on a Strat. My first Strat is a '76, purchased used circa '81. I thought the previous owner had messed around with the electronics, I was soon informed that's how they were designed. All that said, thanks for the video, I now have a new mod to try.
Someone else brought this my attention, but no worries. It's always good to learn something new. I've never owned a vintage Strat and the only new Strat I ever bought was wired as I described in the video. So I just assumed that was the typical configuration. Totally my mistake. Glad you liked the video. If you end up trying this Mod please let me know how it goes.
@@jojokeo I guess it depends on what you mean by "standard strat wiring". As I've said before. The only Fender I bought brand new had a tone pot wire to the bridge, so I just assumed they mostly came like that. But I was wrong. It does seem that going back all the way to the '50s and '60s there was no tone pot wired to the bridge at all. I think when people say "standard Strat" what they mean is "typical" or "traditional" Strat. That's at least what I mean. And in that regard, these guys seem to be correct. I got it wrong in this video.
Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. The signal chain is this Strat directly into my Twin Reverb with the input almost dimed. It's a favorite of mine 🤤
Being a Tele guy a Strat is a lot to wrap my head around as it is. After tinkering for years (three Strats on hand) invariably they end up with a treb pass (lately a .002 uf). The mid pick upd are all set to run straight out with out running through a tone pot. The caps are like fifty cents. That $90.00 will keep one guitar in strings for a year. You may check out a Gibson L6S. Bill Laurance graced those with a six way switch and clear pick ups. Santana use one for years. I dig that bridge / neck blend toggle. Years ago I had a Frankenstein with that happening. Now I',m back to scratchin' my head! Thanks Chris
@@grif900 Griffen, I know more now than I did then. I do miss the thing. Esoecialy the 24 fretts. It was a maple, maple and maple unit. A long scale length Tele works best for me. Chris
Back in 2001 I purchased a loaded pickguard assembly from Harmonic Design, it has this very same tone control modification. Such a hugely usable tone control, especially with a hotter than normal Stratocaster bridge pickup as in the + Mids position you really can get a humbucker-like tone. Glad to hear this mod is available for any Stratocaster.
The myriad of great usable sounds you gave us in this video definitely have me intrigued. I live in Japan, so shipping would add an extra $70 to the cost. Consequently, I:m gonna try making one of my own from parts I bought online here in the Land of the Rising Sun. Mine won't have the center detent, and Mr. Rothstein's pots apparently have a taper that is proprietary, so no matter what, mine probably won't approach the quality of his. Still, it should be a fun project, and I'll be interested to hear the outcome, regardless. Thanks for turning me on to this!
Are you talking about a Jazzmaster here? Any idea what that tone mod is called? Is this the "grease bucket" mod Fender uses on a lot of the Highway 1 guitars? I'd love to read about this but I can't find much info. Been getting really curious about all the different Mods people have been posting in the comment section.
Great video! Glad YT recommended it to me I have a strat I've been wanting to do something special with and this seems like it's exactly what I was looking for. You've earned a sub! Keep up the good work!
57 or 62 vintage reissue? I'm leaning to a 57 because of the maple board and headstock. I am very impressed and just ordered my first one for my mid eighties 57 reissue; and can not wait to plug this thing in dry to my mostly original 66' Super reverb amp. Thanks for the awesome demo. I can hear the difference quite clearly on my old Yamaha monitors.
This beauty is a 2015 Custom Shop '58. Fat neck, jumbo frets, all the way 😎 Do you have an Instagram account. I'd love to see some pics of your '57. If you get that mid control, post up a video. Or at least shoot me a message and let me know what you think. I've been using them so long I just take it for granted. I was talking tone with a buddy a few months back and was reminded lots of people don't know about this Mod. Just wanted to share. Thanks for the comment 🙌
I misspoke not once but twice, mine is a 58 reissue, Exactly the same spec as yours but seafoam green non relic. I pulled the neck after ordering from Andy Rothstein to do a proper shielding job and realized the body is 1990 and the neck is 1991. I cant bring myself to drill the hole for the mini- Switch and ordered a few CTS 250k w/push pull for the master tone and plan to add a treble bleed cap to the volume pot, For Andy's voodoo tone wiring with the push pull giving the neck pup on in any position the 5 way switch is in. All the parts are here now and I am going to dig in this coming weekend. No Insta here, But I will find some way to convey the outcome.
The best mod that I ever did to my Strat was get rid of that tone pot completely. All the pickups run through one volume pot and one tone pot. Works perfectly.
I have a Squier CV 50s Strat and compared to my old 1979 Strat, the bridge pickup is _usable_ thanks to it being connected to a tone pot! I never tried this on the '79, but if I had I might have kept it. D'oh! Anyway, my next mod will be to connect all three pickups to one tone pot, and then think about what to do with the redundant pot (maybe fit one of these Rothstein pots, or make it into a neck blend pot).
Are you getting a hotter signal by doing this? Kinda assuming taking something out of the signal chain will have a benefit. I'm kinda curious what seems different with the tone pot removed? Any feedback?
@@TheSoundCoop Definitely a hotter signal WITHOUT the Tone pot being a load to the signal circuit. Here's the technical description: Position 5 (Neck only) w/ 1 Tone Pot= .022uF cap loading signal. If in #4 Position the other Tone Pot also with a .022uF to ground is combined with the Neck pickup and Tone pot. This puts both pickups in Parallel AND both Tone pots AND both capacitors in Parallel. With two capacitors in parallel you get a Series combination (adding) of capacitance (opposite of resistors in parallel), effectively like having a .047uF capacitor to ground bleeding off much more high end signal content. Position 4 is the ONLY position that this can happen since positions 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all only on their own dedicated Tone pots (using standard Strat wiring and controls).
Wow! Love the wide range of sounds with this mod, and your playing is sweet. Someone else already pointed out that the standard Strat tone config is lower pot for the mid p/u and middle pot for the neck p/u, with no tone control for the bridge p/u. I'm not sure I want to mod my '63 L-Strat, but I might try it on my MIM 60th Anniversary Deluxe Player's Strat, which has the push-button toggle that gives you all 7 p/u combinations. Thanks for posting this! 😎
I'm glad you are digging the tones. I totally messed up the configuration. The only Strat I've ever bought brand new was wired up as I described in the video so I just assumed this was standard for most typical Strats. Total my mistake.
@@TheSoundCoop No biggie. I probably would have made the same assumption if I bought a brand new Strat in that configuration and I hadn't previously played a zillion Strats in the standard configuration (i.e., tone pot 1 controls neck p/u highs, tone pot 2 controls middle p/u highs, and no tone control for bridge p/u). It's weird that you found a brand new Strat in a non-standard tone pot configuration. I'm trying to think through how a passive mod can add mids. The only thing I can come up with is the fact that your Strat is set up with each tone pot affecting the tone of all three pickups. That significantly changes the inductance of the L-R circuit; the total inductance is less than the inductance of the lowest value among each of the individual coils. You've also got the other tone pot in the circuit, in addition to the modded tone pot. I dunno...I'm guessing that there's some kind of mid-range resonance condition when the modded pot is above 5. I'm also guessing that it wouldn't work the same way if you just added the mod to the same pot on a standard configuration Strat. Does Andy say anything about rewiring the pickups so the back pot acts as a tone control for all three pickups? Just curious.
I want to try this as a single tone control with the extra tone wired as a 1/4 blend. Its like what the TBX tone control wants to do in an active boosted circuit. I really like you combined it with the Gilmour switch. FYI, you can wire the 1/4 blend as a switch if you use a 2 pole 5 position "super switch" instead of the tyical 5 pos switch, it works in Pos1 only, if you have no use for all 3 pickups in Pos2.
I appreciate you pointing this out. All the viewers really came through in the comments section. I've had so many killer recommendations for other mods, or mods of existing mods. Gonna have to look into this. I'm definitely not getting a ton of use from all 3 pups together. Might have to try this out
Nice, informative video. My mods include a treble bleed capacitor/resistor, which makes the volume pot so much more useful, and neck bolt inserts, which allows the use of machine screws to hold the neck on, resulting in a better tone (in my opinion).
@@ParaBellum2024 I'm guessing here, but probably not much, if any. The treble bleed circuit is wired up to the volume pot. So tone pot configurations should have no effect. Admittedly, I don't mess with my Strats volume pot much. I'm mostly a clean tone guy, so I'm not driving amps very often. I don't really see much point to using a volume pot for anything but cleaning up a driven amp. But I did recently get a Gibson Junior and only having one pickup, I've been messing with the volume pot on that quite a bit. Starting to get curious if maybe I'm overlooking the Strats volume pot.
@@TheSoundCoop Treble bleed circuits on the Vol pot are for "preserving" high end as the control is turned lower (adding resistance into the signal path). Any time a signal path goes through a resistance the high end becomes affected. More resistance = more high end loss (and effectively less signal strength). TIP: don't do the typical resistor and cap in parallel or your pot taper will become changed (I don't like this). I use them in series :) therefore, finding the right values of each is a matter of preference and very controllable depending on your guitar, pickups, and your preference. Try 22k/2nF, 47k/1nF, & 100k/1nF depending on single coils w/250k pots or humbuckers w/500k pots
I was just looking into this Mod in the s500. Unless I'm mistaken, I think that tone pot is a PTB mod which would separate the treble and bass, and then allow you to reduce them independently. This is a killer mod. I used to have it in an ESP I recently sold. But it's not the same Mod as this Passive Midrange Control. The PMC Mod doesn't have treble and bass attenuators. It boosts or attenuates the Midrange at around 850 Hz with a wide, even shaped bell curve. If I'm talking about the wrong S500 here, and you know about something else, please let me know. All the comments here have been sending me down the Mod rabbit hole and I'd love to check out something else you may be aware of. Regardless, I might have to put this PTB Mod in one of my darker, higher output guitars to take advantage of that low end roll off when using overdrive. It's extremely helpful 🙌🏻
Thanks so much! This is only my second video so just getting my feet wet. Still got a lot of things to improve on but it's been really fun so far. Should have some new videos soon.
John, thanks so much for checking out the video! I'd be happy to go over some of the licks. Is there a time stamp for a specific lick you're enjoying? I can tab them up and do a little tutorial, no problem.
Interesting mod. Totally get the allure. But Me, I’ve gone the other direction with mods. I’m back to loving original Strat tone pot wiring and using low(5.7-ish) output pickups. Honestly, I’d be ok with no tone knobs at all. I never roll off tone knobs on any guitar. The only mod I’ve warmed up to and adopted is the RWRP middle pickup.
My favorite thing about Strat players is all the variety. There's so many things you can do with just the basic Strat. Leaving that behind, there's so many options to Mod, and we all like to experiment. I probably need another Strat so I can try out some of the more modern options. Lots of cool Mods mentioned in the comments here. And of course, going the traditional route has its own allure. Thanks for the comment 🙌
Not having a tone pot at all will give you a different sound than with. Even with the pot at ten there's still a little bit of treble bleed to ground. I tried it and wound up replacing the tone back. There was a bit of high frequency scratchy grit that I found unpleasant.
@@valvenator thanks for sharing your experiences. I agree that there’s some tonal difference between having a tone pot at 10 and no pot. That’s glaringly obvious with a traditionally wired strat. The bridge pickup is clearly different sounding. Brighter. Crisper. Personally, I like it. I’ve never encountered the objectionable noises you describe, tho. Just different tonal shaping. Honestly, I’m fine with traditional or modern, or no tone pot Strat tone wiring. In the end, a Strat will always sound like a Strat. Fwiw, my favorite Strat pickups are the Fujigen alnico p/u’s from the late 80’s fender Japan strats. Super clean and very dynamic. I’ve come to dislike hotter Strat p/u’s.
Seems like a fender tbx tone control, but maybe comes pre-set up, where the tbx is somewhat epen ended to what you actually do with it. But ther is a basic prescibed way to use it. But that is 12$. Maybe im missing the difference. Premier guitar magazine gas various wiring options for the tbx from Dirk Wacker. The kingtone switch is also a drop in option for the price point of this mod, seems similar but maybe more specific. So many options 😊
Can you customize the way a TBX modded pot works? The way it's described online is: "It functions as a standard tone control from 1 to 5, after which it decreases resistance, sending more bass, treble, presence and output to your amp". If this is true, it's not quite the same as the PMC Mod I'm showing off here. The PMC Mod doesn't do the regular tone pot roll off from 1 to 5. That's the mid scoop part of the PMC. Maybe turning the TBX above 5 gives you a mid scoop by pumping the bass and treble? But even then, it's working in reverse of the PMC. Boosting the top and bottom instead of reducing the mids. I'd tend to think this would probably create an amp "push", plus it says it "adds more output". Not sure the output is broadband gain, or just the lows and highs. But I'd guess it would make the TBX Mod less transparent when going for a Mid scoop. The PMC Mod doesn't pump the volume at all. The highs and lows stay pretty much the same regardless of how you set it.
Soon as you said you preferred 'clean', you won me over. It's so annoying trying to hear tone shifts when players add all sorts of pedals while reviewing a guitar. It's all in the pickups, man! Take a clean sound and do your tone massaging with that incredible Passive Midrange Control, I can hear it. Because you didn't add the awful gain or clipping that comes with most pedals, the guitar's pickups come through clear as can be. Thanks.
I SO agree! Maddening when guitarists do pedal demos (or indeed any guitar tonal demos), with the sound cranked into distortion - which kicks all the subtlties out of the window!!
I think he has missed the free and very simple and needed tweak of all Strat type electrics... just put a short jumper between the unused bridge pickup tone tab on the switch and link it to the neck tone tab .... and the 2 pickups are not ever on at the same time normally... Solder time is maybe 30 seconds and it is simple to do or undo and needed in every Strat.
Very interesting. Can we hear a guitar with just one tone pot that you've changed to this Passive Midrange Control? I have 2 Strats; one with dual tone knobs and one with single tone knob. Thanks. 00
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks. One of my two Strats is the SRV. I don't like the treble boost has built in when I use the bridge p/u. I've lowered the height of the p/u and have been a bit more satisfied with the tone.But your video has me wondering....hmmm shhmaybe. 00
@@cgdoublezerorc I only tried the SRV upper mid boost once, in my buddies Strat, so I'm not extremely experienced. But I did think it was harsh in the bridge pickup. I remember feeling like the boost was somewhere above 1000 Hz. The frequency center in this pot is closer to 850 Hz so the boost is a touch warmer than I remember the SRV pot being. But still midrangy. Between the boost and the cut, there's lots of vibe available from this Mod
Absolutely true. I have this in my Novo with P90s. The mid scoop works real well to make the P90 more Strat like. But you don't get a much out of the mid push when turning the pot about 5. Especially in the bridge position. It also works very well in a typical Telecaster setup. Really any pickups that are bright, with Mid to Lo output will do well with this Mod.
Cool, so you just schooled me how I bought so many pedals for no reason, haha. EQing at the source literally puts all the control in your hands. If you ever play around with those bass contour pots, like on Reverend guitars, thats a helpful one. I got a Rev and it fixed every boomey amp issue I ever had - If I could put two more pots on a strat, it would be a MTG and a bass-cut.
You hit the nail on the head here. I really prefer EQing at the guitar, when it's possible. Often my amp is in another room, of worse, an ISO box. This Mod saves me a lot of time. I'll have to look into this bass contour. Often when I'm running a cranked up amp, a little bass adjustment would really help out. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention 🙌
Really cool, can also buy a American Performer, it adds the bridge and neck with the bottom pot two. Isn't Fender doing it on most of the American line though? I don't know, seems like it. Like the mids but still I can pretty much do the same with my Performer in different positions and second tone as well.
I don't think it's cutting bass and treble beyond 5. The bass and treble stay the same no matter which way you turn. I should have showed this in the video by testing the Mid Control at 10 vs the High Cut tone pot turned down to 3 or 4. It's really quite different sound wise. Another commenter said it reminded him of some of the dial positions on the Gibson Varitone. Oddly enough, Andy makes those as well. So many the circuit comes from there? I'm thinking about doing another video of this same Mod in my Novo with a P90 neck, and Splitblade Tele bridge. I'll make sure to show the difference between the Midrange boost and the high end cut.
Great work on the vid. Im sold on this. What pickups u got tho? Would that make a difference at all? Also do u already have noiseless pups or better yet what s about hum? Thanks
Thanks so very much! I'm running Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups in this guitar. I mostly do studio stuff and cannot stand the noise. I know lots of guys say noiseless pickups don't sound authentic. But I don't even know what that means. There's a decent difference from year to year in the vintage Strats. And we have dozens of modern styles of single coils now. I think this mod would work great with a wide range of single coil style pickups. I have the same tone pot in my Novo which has a P90 in it. You can still get the scooped mid sound from the P90, but when you start turning the knob above 5, it doesn't seem to have a massive effect on the tone like it does with Strat pickups. P90s already have that mid-range that the pot can add when set above 5. If you're liking the tones in this video, I think it would work great in any single coil or P90 style guitar.
This is actually the best mod i have seen, also in your configuration, I hopen the pot is dented in the middle so when you need a quick reset you can find it without looking. I think I will buy this mod, BUT i have a question about the toggle switch you added, do you know where the lead from the neck pickup is coming from? since you normally first let it go thourgh the tone pot do you need a parallel lead from on the pickup itself or..... thanks a bunch!!
Thanks for watching and glad you like the Mod. The pot I have from Andy definitely comes with a centered detent. You can also order one from him without the detent. And he also makes one that has a push pull where you can switch between a high-end roll-off and a mid scoop. Except for that version doesn't have the Boost, it only has the cut. As far as my 7-way switching mod, I don't actually know how it's wired. Both of my tone pots work in all seven positions so it has to be going through the tone pot somehow or another. I had a local luthier install this mod for me over a decade ago, but I'm sure you can find plenty of resources online to dial in the 7-way switching for your setup. There's lots of ways to do this. You can get one of those freeway switches for 10-way Strat switching. You can wire the 7 way into a blender pot. You can use a push pull. Lots of options. Once you find the one you want, there'll be a wiring diagram available.
Thanks for sharing this Mod! Even though it operates differently, it does seem like you could get some similar tones to the Mod in my video. Meanwhile, the BCU has some killer boosts that are accompanied by well selected cuts. It seems like an extremely useful set of tonal options. I've only played a few active guitars, so my experience is limited. But I'd say this is a decent excuse to stash away a 9volt 😉 Their website suggests that the draw required is extremely low, and batteries last for years. If this is true, extra bonus 👍🏻
I'm not sure I've ever heard anything so cool. I seldom venture beyond the neck or neck/middle positions. I love the sound, but it's just a sound. The video you shared sounded like two different guitars. Amazing.
Thanks so very much! This mod is really a lot of fun! And I'm also amazed by all the other mods people are sharing here. I've learned so much from all the input. Cheers 🙌
Thanks for the vid! I would think the slight adjustments between 5 to 7 or backwards from 5 to 3 would be more useable overall. But it's certainly nice to have all of those tones without needing a battery. That to me is the selling point. Did you mention what pups are in that Strat? Nice guitar by the way... is that a custom shop? Thanks again for the share!! 🙏
You're welcome. I appreciate you giving it a watch and leaving a comment 🙌🏻 IMHO, when going below 5, the real sweet spot is between 2 and 3. Going down to 1 doesn't do much for me unless I'm going heavy gain, which is rare. Oddly enough, when I go above 5, I usually just go all the way to 10. Neutral and below all sounds Strat like to my ear. I only go to 10 when I'm playing a Strat but wish I was playing thru a P90. Usually, I'm looking for a tough more compression and more presence when I go to 10. The guitar is a 2018 Fender Custom Shop '58. Got it in December and I can't get enough of it 👊
Also, I totally forgot to answer your question about the pickups. Sorry about that. This guitar came with Fat 50s pickups. But I couldn't handle the hum. I took the whole electronics system out, and put in the electronics from what was previously my #1 Strat. So this guitar has a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. They're probably 15 years old at this point. I don't know if they've changed the design during this timeframe. When I got these, the non-vintage noiseless version of Fenders Noiseless line were the N3s. I think Fender is currently selling version N5 or N6. So there may have been a few upgrades to the Vintage Noiseless pickups since then. But I don't really know.
@@TheSoundCoop Thank you for that update! I really appreciate it. I recently purchased a Fender Pro Am II Tele with their latest iteration of noiseless pups, and they are good, but I'm jonesing for that tele stank that comes from vintage or vintage copied style pickups. Bill Lawrence has an offering as well as some really hard to find Voodoo brand that I hear Guthrie Trapp playing now and again. There's a purity in those tones that are remarkable. Your sound is in a really sweet spot... so I may have to rethink the noiseless thing over if adding the tone pot. It really is nice not having to stand facing a some odd point on the compass to keep this thing quiet! Thanks once again! Much appreciated!!
@@Sammywhat Guthrie Trapp is the man!!! What a killer player. He's super lucky to get to jam around with Uncle Larry (Tom Bukovac). Those two are quite the pair. But anyway, I realize (like many things with guitar) the noiseless pickup options are pretty controversial. I have a few really good friends that are obsessed with vintage 50s and '60s strats. I constantly hear from these guys that noiseless pickups don't sound anywhere near a real Strat pickup. I don't think these guys are lying. I don't even think they're being snobby. For people who are chasing a very specific sound, they know what they're looking for and they know what they like. I'm just not one of these guys. I don't really gig anymore. I'm mostly a songwriter and producer. Almost everything I do is in a studio environment. I'm not chasing one very specific sound. I'm in need of a wide array of tones. I want to be able to get the classic sounds we all know and love, while having enough options to be flexible. I pretty much avoided Stratocaster's and Telecasters for the first 10 years of playing guitar because I couldn't stand the noise. Everyone had always told me that noiseless pickups didn't sound accurate enough and I just always took them at their word. These Vintage Noiseless pickups in this Stratocaster where my first introduction to noiseless pickups. I've never looked back. I don't currently own a guitar with humbuckers. All of my guitars are based around single coil designs. I tend to like brighter guitars and lower outputs. My Stratocaster has noiseless pickups in it. My Telecaster has noiseless pickups in it. My Novo with P90s has noiseless pickups in it. The only guitar I have that isn't noiseless is a Gibson Murphy lab jr that I recently got. I had intentions to change the pickup out, but frankly it gives off such unbelievable tones, I don't even want to change it. One thing worth considering. I used to have two Strats. One set up with N3s and the other one set up with these Vintage Noiseless. To my ear, the Vintage Noiseless had a little bit more push in the upper mids between 1k and 3k. Those frequency regions are where a lot of the spank comes from in Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars. The N3s were always a little more mellow in that region compared to the Vintage Noiseless. It wasn't a massive difference, but it was the kind of thing where I found myself reaching for the Vintage Noiseless guitar pretty much always. The way I understand it, Strats in the 50s had less copper and had a mellower tone. As things progressed towards '64, they got increasingly hotter with more winds of copper. Then it seems like after '64 they started reducing the copper back down again. All that to say, I think '62 through '64 are typically the hottest output strats in the vintage years. That extra copper likely gives a little upper mid bump between 1 and 3k. Maybe the pickups in your Strat don't have that spank because they're just a modern lower wind. The difference in tone to me is, a modern strat pickup usually sounds a little glassy in the top end, where something that's a little more vintage comes across as more strident or up front. Does that resonate with your experience? If so, it might be worth looking into a noiseless option that is more of a vintage style, or slightly higher wind pickup.
@@TheSoundCoop Thank you, kindly, for the details here. Like you, I don't play live much anymore and I'm mostly playing for the shear enjoyment of it all. That being said, having quality sounding gear is a huge plus, but not really a must as I'm only doing it for me. I can be pretty satisfied with a really simple setup. With age comes wisdom, right?! 😜 That being said, as a lefty, it's really hard getting to try all of these glorious guitars and their subtleties. The truth is, two of the best guitars I've ever owned are partscasters that were simply better than anything I could try at a local music store. I'm not dogging the odd Epiphone or Squier Strat - just look at what Jack Pearson can do with a Squier Strat, right?!! But I've never played a Collings or anything like that - let alone any custom shop offerings from Fender or Gibson. I would LOVE to try a Novo one day. But alas, I'm a strat guy through and through so even these odd offerings will only be slight improvements to the few guitars I've put together. They aren't anything special, but I've done things like rolled the fretboards, crowned the frets and dialed in the intonation so that the guitar sings on every note of the fretboard... stuff like that is really what sparks joy these days. And I've been having a ball with some of the plugin offerings from Neural and Positive Grid. Fun note, Positive Grid has a neat function that can make your guitar sound like a number of other guitars - not entirely convincingly, but still fun nonetheless. Especially since I'm only playing for me and the occasional jam with a friend and a couple of cold ones! We are blessed to be able to play these things and enjoy life like we do! I am thankful for your input and always appreciate the input of other fine musicians. It's a lovely community in which we belong! I'm going to bounce over to listen to your Gibson video. I've wanted a double cutaway for a number of years. I have a lovely Korean made Epiphone Les Paul, but it's a bit heavy. Not bad when sitting, but I'm liking the slab of mohagany and an easily accessible neck pocket. Thank you, again, for taking the time to converse here! Your input is truly appreciated!!
This 7-way-switching blender Mod is really killer. I do this with the Mini Toggle. But can't blend it to taste like you can. It's full on, or off. Still handy but not quite as flexible 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop - I'm just a traditionalist, and I don't like to put any additional switches or holes in my guitar which cannot be reversed! A friend of mine bought the first Stratocaster in Canberra early 1963 he replaced the three way swicth with three large toggles - the guitar is still beautiful but the additional holes have ruined its vintage value!
@@bernhardnizynski4403 totally understandable. I actually took the original pickguard and entire electronics setup out of this guitar. Got another pickguard, and electronics setup, and put it in there. And luckily the mini toggle didn't need routing. It fits in a typical Strat route. Even tho this guitar isn't vintage. I want to be able to put everything back as it was should the need arise.
To my knowledge the Clapton Mid Boost give upwards of +12dB. It's an active mod. The mod I showed in this video is totally passive. The added Midrange is happening via some form of blend. It's not cutting or boosting the overall signal when you turn the dial. Just the mids
Hey, In the early 90s I went for a American Standard Strat. Even after moving Texas Specials in, the neck pick up was home. By then I knew Leo parked neck PUs directly under a harmonic node. The fifth fret and the reciprocal node over the pick up are dead. You are likely aware of this. The test is to strike a harmonic at either of those two points and change pick ups. The only way signal is generated under the node is resultant hatmonics from the body moving the pick up. This is frustrating. G&L moved neck pick ups on some units. Still there is not much amplitude, and the resulting produced signal is weak As comfortable as the neck pu is, I hang out plenty in the others. Of note the 'lisp' settings do not thrill me. But they are handy when the room is electrically noisy.
A really cool mod and a very good and informative video. I've just subscribed to your channel and I look forward to seeing more of your videos. A quick comment - you're speaking very loud when you have your headphones on, and I genuinely mean no disrespect to you by letting you know.
Cool mod. That "humbucker" sound is very convincing. It's kinda inspiring me to make a whole new pre-wired pickguard in this configuration. So for your mini toggle switch, does it work exactly like the push/push pot Fender has on their American Pro II line? For example, if you switch it on when you're in the bridge pickup, it turns on the neck and if you switch it on when you're in position 2, it turns on all three?
Thanks so much for the feedback! I also find it pretty convincing. It definitely gets most of the way to a P90 vibe, minus that extra output. There's just some occasions where a typical Strat sound won't sit in a mix the way Id like. I know a lot of guys will do things like reach for a Klon, or a TS. Which is definitely fun, and totally fitting to serve this purpose. This mod simply puts all that tonal variety into the pot for easy tweaking. I'm a huge fan. If I get called for a session and the Producer mainly wants a Strat sound. I can bring this guitar, knowing if I end up needing those other tones, I got them all on board. I can't speak specifically about the Fender model or mod you mentioned. But your description is spot on. 7-way switching. You could technically wire this to add the bridge to position 4 & 5. But I personally prefer adding the neck to positions 1 & 2, do that's what I use. Lots of ways to activate it as well. You can go the blender pot route. Or the push/pull. Or a mini toggle like I opted from. Really, any A/B type switching would do. My buddy likes the red push buttons. Or you could go with a 10 way "freeway" switching system, like I discussed with another commenter. That seems like an extremely useful Mod. I've been kicking around the idea of upgrading to that. Having a few Series options would really make this Strat a one stop tone shop.
Hi Nick, Great video. I can clearly hear the effects at the different settings that you demonstrated. Well done. I am thinking of adding this mod to my Indonesian Fender Squire strat. It would be the first money ($90) I have put into any mod on it. It was given to me because the joker that had it was an inexperienced accoustic focused type, thought it was too thin. I'm here to tell you it aint thin! Still has the original pickups so I was wondering if this mod would be effective on this original equipment. May eventually mod out the pickups but $300 is yet to be budgeted! At that point I would be in $400 and may want to consider putting a little more into it and get a better strat. Your feedback is important, please let me know what you think. Great playing by the way and keep of the good video works. Thank you, Greg, Saint Louis.
Greg, thanks so much for watching. I appreciate the feedback. I think this mod would work well in just about any Strat setup. I've had this Mod in 5 or 6 different Strats over the years and it never disappoints. Maybe if you had a set of high wind/high output single coils, the tones above 5 wouldn't be as apparent. But you could still mid dip with ease. I have this Mod in a guitar with a P90 which is similar to a high output Strat pickup. The Mod still mid scoops amazingly well when turning the pot down below 5. But it doesn't add as much back when turned above 5, especially in the bridge position. The P90 already has that mid-range happening, where it's kinda missing from a typical Strat pickup. All that to say, this Mod is killer for Mid to Low Output pickups. And especially shines when the pickups are bright, which is typical with most Strats. If you have the budget, I can't recommend this enough. Whenever I record my Strat, that knob is pretty much the only EQ I ever need. It does all of the things I want from a Strat, plus more. As much as I'd love to have a half dozen Strats to cover all the various Strat tones, I just want other things. This one mod gives me all the Strat sounds in one guitar. And it's great in a typical Telecaster setup as well. Or a P-90. Or a Widerange Humbucker. Or a Filtertron. I have this Mod in 3 of my guitars currently and only 1 is a Strat. If you decide to get one, please let me know how it goes
@@TheSoundCoop Hi Nick, thanks for the prompt response, it is truly and deeply appreciated. Like I said the strat was given to me, what better strat to mod, right? I will order the scoop and let you know my impressions. Been really focused on my 338like HB35Plus and learning guitar now on day 192 of this journey and becoming more and more excited with every day's practicing. Averaging about 90min/day and days off of 4+ hours practice. BUT, I have started mixing in practice on my strat as I have found it has truly amazing sound that I can quite emulate on my 35plus N/M/B plus push pulls. Even so, it will not quite do the strat thing however does do quite well with other sounds such as the telecaster. I'll let you know my experience in the next couple weeks. Take care, Caio, Greg, Saint Louis.
@@TheSoundCoop Oh, BTW, While at a photo shoot my strap came off and I dropped my beautiful hb35plus. Miraculously it landed on it's back in deep grass. That will not happen again so I just picked up some really nice 10-11 good quality leather to make a guitar strap with locking clips. I'll send you a link to my youtube after I finish and post some footage of it. Take care, G
@@greggramig910 no worries at all. Keep me posted, and definitely link me. And if you have an Instagram, I'd love to see pics of that Strat and 35Plus 🙌
Please help I'm too far the rabbit hole of options ! Should I buy the midrange shaper knob, or the blender knob? The 7 way switch, or the 10 way Freeway switch??? Too many seemingly amazing options out there!
After seeing all these options, I'm thinking the Midrange Shaper and the 10 way freeway switch would pretty much be a "do everything" Strat. Like, literally EVERYTHING 😀
@@TheSoundCoop I had already ordered a mid-scooped set of alcino 5 pups when I saw your video so midrange shaper may be overkill for me. I wonder if it's possible to have either the 7 or 10 way switch and still have a blender knob or would that wiring be impossible?
If you're talking about the 7 way switching blender, I'm sure it's possible. But you get all the 7 way positions with the 10 way. You could probably still find a way to wire it up. How much use you'd get out of it, compared to the full on version of the exact same thing?.... not sure. Probably depends, person to person. If your pickups are already scooped, it might be worth looking into one of the Mods other people mention here. Something with a Midrange boost, or a low end roll off for all those Series positions in the 10-way.
@@TheSoundCoop Oh my bad I meant the blender that allows you to blend the neck (usually) pickup into the other pickups no matter what position you're in. You blend in more of it the more you turn the knob so it's not an all or nothing thing like a switch. Probably wouldn't be a huge difference getting 25% or 50% of the neck pickup with the bridge when you can get them both at 100% already with either the 7 or 10 way switch, but still thought it might be cool to have if you don't care about sacrificing one tone pot to do it.
@@Jmans247massathon ya, that blender pot you're talking about IS 7-way switching. Usually I've seen it wired where you blend the bridge into the neck, when the neck is selected. This gives you the Bridge+Neck position, which you can't normally get in a Stratocaster. And it also gives you all 3 pickups when in the 4th position, which you also can't get in a typical Strat. Those two extra combinations get added to the original 5 positions. Hence making it 7 positions, or 7-way switching. I run this mod using a mini toggle. But you can also run it using the 10-way switch. Or a push pull pot. Or the blender version. I believe the blender version of this was originally a Fender wiring mod, but I could be wrong.
im pretty sure clapton had this on his signature guitars and his blackie strat (correct me if im wrong) and i added it to my strat and its amazing you dont really need overdrive pedals with this it is so useful
The Clapton Strat mod is an active boost. 9 volt required. The Mod I show in this video isn't that. The more I read about this Mod, the more and more it seems similar to one of the circuits built into the Gibson Vari-Tone, but probably adjusted to fit a Strats tone and output. Caps and resistors stacked in series is what Rothstein says he's doing in this Mod. Totally passive. No extra boost or gain, so not able to drive amps harder like the Clapton active boost Mod.
Since I'm staying mostly in the neck position here, I'd think most of the tones would translate pretty well for ya. I don't have this Mod in a guitar with a humbucker. The closest I can come to that is a guitar with the two pickups wired in Series. Which essentially makes them a humbucker. Because of pickup spacing it's not exactly identical to a humbucker. But the tone and output sound pretty similar. More volume. Darker tone. When using this Mod in that guitar, the scoop side of this tone pot is KILLER!!! But you won't get as much out of the pot when you go above 5, to add mids. P90s and humbuckers tend to already have that mid-range there, where a Stratocaster is sort of missing it. If I was you, I would totally still put this mod in the Stratocaster. I probably wouldn't put this mod in a Les Paul. But it sounds wonderful in a guitar with P90s. It sounds wonderful in typical Stratocaster setups. And it sounds wonderful in typical Telecasters setups.
Cool vid thx bro .. I have A. Floyd rose strat. With active. Emg ..H.S.S and love having a less Paul in bridge humbucker. And. The 2 singles. Are a Cool setup I love mine it's a sleeper. Lol
Thanks for the feedback 🙌 I gotta be honest, I think a humbucker in the bridge of a Strat is the best possible option. I just can't bring myself to routing this beautiful CS Strat. Meanwhile, probably my favorite bridge pickup is that humbucker made by Seymour Duncan, that will fit in a Strat or Tele sized route. It actually has humbucker output and tone. I'm thinking about putting one in my Novo Serus T's bridge 🤷
The way I understand the TBX is, it boosts bass and treble, and adds more output gain.wjen turned above 5. And huts highs between 1 and 5. Very different from this PMC I'm using in the video. The treble and bass of the TBX may infact create a mid scoop. But the one in the PMC uses a reduction at 850 Hz when below 5 on the pot, not a boost of treble and bass. And it boosts mids at 850 Hz when above 5. The TBX won't do that.
I really appreciate you pointing this out. One of the cool things about the Strat is how much you can customize the configuration. I just dug into this a little and it does seem like during the '50s, '60s, and '70s the lower tone pot was for positions 2 and 3 (maybe 4?) while the upper one was for 4 and 5. Leaving the first position without a tone pot, just like you said. I guess I've just never seen a Strat wired any other way than I described. In hindsight, saying "normally" was a bad play on my part. I'm not old enough or wealthy enough to own a vintage guitar 😭 And I've only ever bought one Strat brand new. But it was definitely wired with the bottom tone pot for position 1. I'll have to keep this in mind if I do future Strat videos. Thanks for teaching me something 🙌
Try to make another video using this Andy Rothstein midrange to get those early Hendrix clean tones which they call the hendrix bell sound like on the hendrix song Can you See Me, The wind cries mary, little wing it has that certain clean tone. I think you can get those SRV glassy tones if you roll back the volume pot to 6 to 7 and set the Rothstein midrange to 8, will this get that glassy texas tones?
I've always wondered how a lot of those scooped mid sounds were achieved way back when. It's hard to tell for sure. I have a sneaking suspicion that treble bleed circuits attached to the volume pot might have played a roll. I don't have a treble bleed circuit in my Strat volume pot, but I've played a couple of Strats with it. Usually as you turn the volume pot down the mids will start to dip a little bit but all the highs will bleed through. Knopfler was famous for this. He used the volume pot to clean up his tone when he didn't want any drive. But it may have been amp EQ and/or EQ during mixing. To my ear, to get the Little Wing vibe you probably don't wanna turn the Midrange control up, above 5. You'd probably want to go below 5 to scoop those mids. Andy mentions the "bell tone" on his website and mentions it with Knopflers name attached. He says those bell tone are between 2 and 3 on his Midrange pot and that totally lines up with my experience. I think you're right about the volume pot tho. To my ear, the Strat gets more slinky when you turn down the volume. It does something cool to the dynamics. Especially if you're going into the High input of a Marshall. I'm hitting a Twin Reverb here, so probably not the most accurate Jimi signal chain 🤷
@@TheSoundCoop Hendrix used a 1963 Black Bobbin white strat on the first hendrix experience album so it has a certain midrange scoop called the hendrix BELL shape clean tone. He got this 1963 white strat from Keith Richards girlfriend because it was Keith Richards strat guitar which she stole it from him and told him that it was stolen or it got lost, but gave it to hendix which she had is restrung to be a left handed. The Black Bobbin 63 pickups might be the same type that SRV used plus they also used a RED square tone capacitor which might also bleed off the high end rolling it off differently. The 1963 volume pot is a carbon composition resistive track which changes the tone compared to newer volume pots use a different material resistive track as well as the volume pots resistive track might be higher than 250K which would give you more high end and upper mid range frequencies because of the tolerances. The Rosewood was a SLAB rosewood neck so the Slab is thicker compared to todays rosewood necks so you get a different tone. The 1963 pole pieces can have more nickel and more iron which adds to the alnico magnetics to be more or less inductance to get that midrange bump or midrange scoop. It depends on the pole pieces composition alloys percentages. Todays pole pieces are at different alloys percentages so you have to experiment to get the right combinations to get that SRV mid bump or the Hendrix Bell mid scoop from the guitars pole pieces alloy percentages. The winding wire is copper so the winding turns is adding more copper which more copper is a dark tone and rolls of high end. So more copper alloy affects the magnetic field of the alnico magnet to be more dark and rolls of high end because of the percentage of the copper.
@@waynegram8907 this is some reality cool history. Thanks so much for sharing!! I never really understood the scooped mids thing until I got my first American Strat in the early 2000s. It was the John Mayer Signature, which came with those Big Dipper pickups. They've got that legit scoop mids thing. A year or so later I traded some mixing work for a Mexi Strat. And it had one of these Roth Mid Control pots in it. I took it to a local tech to see if he could recreate it, and he ended up just giving me a link to Andy's wedsite. From there I realized a lot of guys had been talking about these for years in Strat forums. I was behind the curve. But they seem to have fallen out of sight in the last two decades. I'm always surprised when I see guys talking about the strat sound as if it's a singular thing. There's so much variety in strap pickups. The '50s pickups were generally lower output than the '60s. Based on my research it seems like '63 or '64 were the years where the pickups were the hottest. It does seem like Stevie was playing a Strat from those years. They definitely weren't hot compared to a modern high wind strap pickup. But they were the hottest out of the vintage range, pre CBS era. I think, as you stated, the bobbins also play a role. But I don't have a good understanding as to how much. I never felt like I had a terribly difficult time recreating clean Hendrix tones. A lot of it is in the left fretting hand (Jimi's right). But Mark Knopfler is a different story. I struggled to get those early Dire Straits Strat tones for years. Andy's Midrange Control really help me a lot. And contrary to Jimi, at lot of Marks tone is in the right picking hand (Jimi's left). At the end of the day, my main goal is to make and record music. I want tools that are inspiring but they also have to be simple and effective. This Mid Control totally fits the bill. Thanks for having a chat about all this. I could talk tone forever 😂🙌
@@TheSoundCoop Others get the John Mayer Scoop mid tone but turning the strat tone control to 7 to 8 and use a marshall blues breaker, boss blue driver, klon or tube screamer as a CLEAN mid Bump ( drive turned down close to zero ) This will give that mid scoop tone. Try it out and make a video lesson. The Black Bobbin 63 pickups are just the name of those types of pickups which I think they only made for a certain amount of months which I'm guess have a mid scoop winding specs which John Mayer copy and pasted in his PU specs.
@@TheSoundCoop The 63-64 pickups are hotter winding more wire means more copper which will roll off the high end but the pole pieces alloy materials can either be high inductance or low inductance which changes the Alnico magnets Q point resonant peak. So its not just about the hot winding specs the pole pieces also make a big differences. This is why SRV pickups have that trademark texas tone.
It adds the Neck pickup to positions 1 & 2. It's how I run my 7 way switching. I go over it at the end of the video. There should be bookmarks to jump right to the spot. I go over the tones a little bit
The problem with the $90 price tag is that the raw materials are a dual balance pot & some caps, & perhaps a resistor or two...parts that cost anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars each, using a variable resistor & fixed value caps to simulate a variable capacitor. To some extent, it is passively accomplishing what an active equalizer does. But, while it is somewhat effective, this is the sort of thing that can be manufactured overseas & imported for, maybe, $15 tops...thus, $90 is a 600% markup, about double that of a fair retail price. As you mentioned, however, a passive circuit can only cut various frequency bands resulting in lower overall output...whereas an active equalizer is also a pre-amp, such that it can both cut & boost multiple bands to a greater or lesser extent, while maintaining or increasing output. Hence it is more versatile...and available for under $10. Note, BTW, that the mid-range boost that is so highly touted, is actually a boost to the low & even the high "presence" bands, that lie between the actual mid-range & the treble bands. That this boost is so favored is why amp mfrs can add on $100 or more to an amp's price if it has a "presence" control...when, the cost to the mfr is, again, a balance control & a few cheap caps & resistors.
You're not alone regarding feeling like it's over priced. But for me, we have a larger problem. Not a single person wants to step up and undercut the current supplier. If this cost is so egregious, where is the market to sort this out?!? Personally, I don't have any interest in sourcing and building one of these myself. And apparently I'm not alone. No one else sees the massive opportunity and wants to step up to fill that void either. A few folks have come here claiming it's overpriced but don't want to step up and start manufacturing these themselves for something slightly less than a 600% markup 🤣 An even larger a number of people have come here claiming that this exact pot is available for cheaper from another manufacturer. Neither of these two camps has put up AT ALL. So, until someone wants to fill this void, $90 it is 🤷 Regarding the boost in this mod. It's 100% passive. YES, there are passive boosts. No 9 volt. No preamp. It doesn't actually affect lows and highs at all. It boosts exactly where it cuts which is 850 Hz.
How would this work on an american ultra? I love the feel of the guitar but its a little too dark. Would this make it sound more like a traditional trat?
I'm not sure this would help combat a dark Strat. IMHO, a typical Strat is never dark. You'd probably want to just swap out the pickups if the current ones are too dark. But it really depends on what you mean by dark. Sometimes a guitar can be really bright but have a cloudy midrange, and people will call that dark. And conversely, if you take out all the highs, that can also be described as dark.
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks for the response. Im not sure what i mean myself to be honest, but it sounds a little different than other strats, even my classic vibe. I think its because its not a true single coil but a stacked single coil. Im wondering if this would let me adjust it to make it sound more like a typical strat.
@@mikeySHBK no worries. I'm always happy for a chat. To be totally transparent, I have Fender Vintage Noiseless pups in this. So unless I'm mistaken, those are also a stacked single coil. This Strat came with some Fat 50's pups. Aside from the noise, the main difference between sound is, the vintage Noiseless are ever so slightly more strident in the 1 to 3kHz range compared to the Fat 50s. This may just be an era thing though. The vintage noiseless pickups are sort of aiming for that early '60s sound. I believe '62 through '64 are the years that had the most winds of copper. Typically the '50s years have less winds of copper. I don't think the difference is staggering. But '64 Strats tend to be more strident than late '50s Strats. So to me, it makes sense that the Vintage Noiseless would be slightly more strident than the fat 50s in general. And I'm really nitpicking here. I know there are guys out there that lust over those early '60s Strats, and can really hear the difference between something vintage and the modern recreations. I'm not one of those guys. I'm not tuned into the sound enough, and I haven't had my hands on enough '50s and '60s Strats to really know what to listen for. But I would say if you don't like the pickups, just change them out. I do this pretty often. If I love the body and neck and fretboard, changing out pickups is a small thing. Once you get some pickups in there that you are really loving, then I would consider giving this mod a shot.
@@mikeySHBK You know another thing worth considering. I had these vintage noiseless pickups in an American Strat before I put them in this Custom Shop. I played that guitar for probably a decade and got to know it really well. I can tell you that moving that entire electronic setup out of that American Strat and putting it into this Custom Shop had a massive effect on the tone. I don't think the pickups actually changed. But I have a sneaking suspicion there's something about this Custom Shop guitar that affected the overall tonality in general, and subsequently affected the pickups. I really can't imagine anything about the body or neck is really having that large of an effect on the sound. The more and more I think about it, the more and more I wondered about the trem block. I'm pretty sure the block in my American Strat was an aftermarket one that I put in there. When I play my high E and B string on this Custom Shop I can actually hear the trem block resonating acoustically. These pickups were definitely a little honkier in the mid-range when they were in my American Strat. Moving them to this custom shop made them sound brighter, more articulate, and definitely less strident. If you feel like something is weird with the tone of your strat, it might be worth doing something like changing out the trem block for a different material and see if it helps anything. It might be a bit of a stretch, but they're relatively inexpensive. I always thought these vintage noiseless pickups were just a little bit darker sounding, but moving them to this Custom Shop guitar, they're actually a pretty typical Strat sound. There had to have been something else in that other guitar that was making it dark or strident.
@@TheSoundCoop yea thats definitely something im considering. To be honest i actually like the pickups, especially once i hit the push pull. Its just not that vintage sound. I also bought the 57/62 pickups so i might do a swap one day because the body on the american ultra is really comfy
Absolutely would work great with any 3 knob setup, or even a traditional 2 knob Telecaster setup (provided you don't mind losing your high end roll off). I have one in my Bender Telecaster and it's killer!!! If your Tele is a 3 knob setup, then I'd use the exact pot I'm showing off in this video, which is the RG500D. But even if you have a guitar that only has a single tone pot, or a Les Paul style setup where you have 2 volume and 2 tone... You can get the MTG pot instead of the RG500D. The MTG is a push/pull. In the normal position it's a typical high end roll off so you won't lose that. And then if you pull the pot up, you get the midrange scoop circuit. The MTG doesn't do the midrange boost like the RG500D. It only has the midrange cut. But this is still extremely helpful for P90, Humbucker or Filtertron style pickups that already have a thick midrange. The midrange boost isn't as helpful because those pickup types typically have plenty of midrange already. But the midrange scoop can help mellow out a Humbucker. It can make a Filtertron less muddy. And can make a P90 sound closer to a Strat or Tele. I'm gonna drop a video in a week or so showing off the MTG in my Novo, with P90 pickup. Stay tuned to hear the midrange scoop with some darker/higher output pickups. And thanks for checking out the video 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop thank you for the info but I really love the mid boost! I’d want to make my tele thicker. Losing my tone knob is an interesting idea. Thanks.
@@TheSoundCoop I added a middle pick up to my tele for strat in between tones! Brent Mason mod. So my tele is volume for neck and bridge, volume for middle and then tone.
Ok. Different than a Strat. A Strat has 1 Volume and 2 Tone. With only 1 tone knob in your guitar, if you got the RG500D you'd be sacrificing your high end roll off. The MTG would be a better option, but like we discussed, it doesn't have that midrange boost, which it seems like you mostly want. This Mod might not be a good option for you. Unless you feel like turning one of your Volume pots into a Tone pot?
@@BeauregardHall I never said use an EQ pedal, and there's none being used in this video. If your point is "EQ is EQ", I suppose you're right. But why limit it to a tone pot or a pedal then? I can EQ on an amp. I can EQ with mic choice. I can EQ with hardware. I can EQ in my DAW. Personally, I find it super easy to do EQ at the source. If you'd rather bend over and EQ on a floor unit, fair enough. And if you're aware of a 1 knob EQ that's doing what this pot does, please link me. I'm absolutely down to try it.
It's an absolute joy in a Telecaster. I've got one in my Bender Telecaster and I love it. I've also got a Series Mod in that Tele and this Tone Pot is really nice for mellowing out the Humbucker vibe. You keep the compression but lose some of the aggression. Really good for slide playing. If you decide to order one, send Andy an email. This video kinda blew up and he got swamped with his orders. He has them available but listed them as out of stock so he didn't get cleaned out by one buyer. If you email him he'll sell you one for now, and he's in the process of making a massive new batch.
Are you so excited for that 9volt? I'd be curious to know if you can hide it in a control cavity without needing to route a place for it. If you build the kit, please report back and let us know how it goes 🙌🏻
I looked at the website and immediately i can see what can crack this case wide open. The mids pot has a little transformer on it. So, like the yamaha revstars passive boost, the transformer is interacting with the circuit that forms between the guitars pickups loading the amp input. Thats the not-too-technical solution to the mystery of how you can get a boost from a pot that we all learn is subtractive. Its cuz the pickups are a part of the circuit of the amplifier input section once a guitar is plugged in, and the wittle tranny is stepping up the voltage of the incoming guitar signal.
@myrnabrean I really appreciate you diving into this a little. My electronic engineering experience is limited to running a solder gun 😂 You're a legend for giving a more specific explanation for the magic in this tone pot.
@@TheSoundCoop glad i could help. I should post my video of the Freeway 10 position strat pickup selector for you. If a $90 pot doesn't bother you, you might entertain a $50 blade switch.
@@myrnabrean brother, I'm here for it. I just Subscribed to ya. If you decide to demo that Mod, please let me know. I'm all about trying new things. I'd love to check out a video 🙌🏻
@@myrnabrean dude, you're a legend!! Loving the tone in your video. I really appreciate you posting that up. The 10 way switch is ingenious. Popping it over into the next rung of 5 is super slick! Never even knew they made something like this 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop ya my bad was in description. Have srv switch but my strat sounds great without it Mite keep srv n put this in as well. N not have tone knob.
To be completely honest, I don’t really hear that much difference, but then again, you’re not playing another Stratocaster without the modification, and additionally, I am only hearing this through my I-Phone speakers, also. Without another Stratocaster to gauge against, it is really difficult to judge whether there is a substantial gain from the modification. On most standard Stratocasters, when the switch is in the fourth position, the middle and neck pickup’s work together as a humbucker already, and also, in the second switch position, the bridge and middle pickup also act as a humbucker, as well. On several of my custom Stratocasters, however, since I have installed Gold Lace Sensors in the bridge position, the second switch position does not work as a humbucker, because the Lace Sensors are not a conventional magnetic pickup, which is why they are called a sensor. Some of the newer high end Fender Stratocasters with the S-1 volume pots, are capable of adding in the neck pickup to the other switch settings that it normally would not be able to, which is useful for some applications. I also have a Stratocaster with a switchable humbucker in the bridge position that enables me to get a standard Stratocaster sound as well as a more modern Stratocaster sound, it is wired conventionally except for a push-pull pot which was installed at the factory. I tend to run through a variety of equipment and multiple amplifiers simultaneously and am capable of producing just about any sound I like without this modification, but it was interesting to watch this video, and perhaps sometime in the future, I may experiment with this modification and test it next to another Stratocaster without to get a real sense of the worthiness or not of the modification. Thank you for posting this video! Please have an excellent and awesome day! ☀️✨🎸
Maybe I'm missing something but I don't really see the point of having another Strat, without this mod, to compare. This mod has a neutral position. When the pot is at 5, it's neutral, not doing ANYTHING. That's the control. The mod is only active when I turn the pot up above five or down below five. I hope that makes sense. If I'm missing something get at me and I'll be happy to clarify. Regardless, thanks for checking out the video. I really appreciate it 🙌
There are many dynamics at this point in the tone chain. My experience, is adding a pot attenuates signal. at 5 this device is supposed to be neutral. That is a magic. An A:B with 'normal' strat is a reasonable idea.
Absolutely not true. Proved it in this video. Unless you think I'm hiding a 9volt 🧐 And already been over this in another comment. This is typically covered on day 4 of Audio 101 🤣 Tons of passive EQ units with boosts. Pultec anyone? Several ways to go about it. You can cut at input to make passive headroom available by the amount cut at input. You can also use passive 'Q' settings to create boosts at LPF and HPF points.
@@grif900 A retail of $30 to $35 is profitable without gouging for a center detente and orange drop caps. I understand the space is hot post pandemic but the reasonable capitalist shall prevail.
@@ousley421 Griffin is 100% right. If you want a $3 Pot, then that's what you'll get. Alpha and Bourns make a decent pot for around $15, CTS for around $30. The one Nick is demoing has a custom sweep unlike your average Logarithmic/Linear/Audio taper, and he explains that in the video. Also 'detent' doesn't have an 'e' at the end (unless you're italian 😅)
@@matthewmorgenstern1556 I think of it as a nice item, however JHS makes amazing pedals that are much more expensive to manufacture at a comparable price point. Very nice pot, but still just a pot.
@@ousley421 That's your opinion and I respect that! 👍 I agree that this Pot's price point is not suited for you. I personally feel that comparing a JHS pedal to a Custom Pot mod is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Rock on brother!🤘🏻🤘🏻
you can get the same pot and not have to pay $90 FCS.. TBX? stack a few caps .. rig a no load... hefty price tag for a mid scoop, most amps can scoop the mids or any decent amp can do a decent job of this, pedal it up
Fair enough. Maybe it is a hefty price tag. But, I'll gladly pay the $90 to not have to figure out which caps, and how to stack them. Or how/why to rig a no load 🤣 Using an amps mid scoop just isn't the same. The EQ is downstream of the guitar hitting the amps front end. Adding and subtracting mid-range to push into the front end of your amp is totally different from EQing it out afterward. Plus, if you're a studio guy like me and your amp is sitting in another room, you can't just reach over and make adjustments. You're completely correct, you could use an EQ pedal. The problem is, no variability. I can use my multi-band EQ pedal to dial in one specific amount of boost or cut. But I can't vary it without having to go down to the floor and adjust a bunch of frequency bands. This one knob job turnt one direction will variably scoop meds, well turnt the other direction will variably boost mids. I've yet to come across an EQ pedal this simple. And I definitely don't want to go to the floor every time I have to create variability. In this one knob format, built directly into the guitar, I really haven't found anything else quite like it. I'll completely acknowledge it might not be for everybody.
Sorry to let you down. I'm pretty much mainly an audio guy. I only got into video recently and this is my only second one. I shot my first video in 1080p at 30fps. And thought it looked choppy. Ended up preferring the 720 at 60fps better. But maybe it's just me. I can totally move back to 1080p.
@@TheSoundCoop This is the first time i’ve come across your channel so i did not know you were new to creating video form content. if you’re going to keep uploading videos i highly suggest you upgrade your camera because i dont wanna be rude but 720p is just unbearable in 2023. In fact i’ve only watched this video for 5 seconds before i clicked out because it was just intolerable. as i said i meant no disrespect, hope this feedback helps.
@@sarpneskihesap6808 you're not being rude. But I'll admit I don't see what you're seeing. What does unbearable mean? What kind of issue are you noticing with the 720p? Is it pixeld? Are you watching on a 4k monitor? It looks perfect clear on my phone and on my 70" TV. I'm mainly showing off a guitar Mod here. You could literally look at a black screen and still hear the Mod so I guess I just didn't see a point of highest possible def. The first video I put up was at 1080p. It's got about 700 views. This one in 720p has over 15k. I'm kinda assuming this means people don't really mind the definition if the focus is more audio based. I'm totally willing to consider a new camera. Any camera suggestions to shoot in 4k without having to spend $2,000 per camera? I'm not about to spend over 4k to upgrade my camera setup just to show off sounds 😂
Seems overpriced, cmon 90 bucks for a bunch of capacitors resistors and and inductor? My strat mods are way better. I created the next big thing. I won't rip you off.
Who cares about a pot? I wanted to see the pink chrome guitar! Too bad its just a lighting trick. When it comes to tone controls for my guitar builds, I tend to favor having an on-board 7 band EQ in lieu of traditional tone controls.
Am I just tripping? Doesn't a treble bleed live exclusive on the volume pot? I'm pretty sure you can have a treble bleed AND do anything to the tone pots, with little or no interference.
@@TheSoundCoop my Strat is a vintage Strat, as I’ve said with master volume & master tone. When the volume is turned down without a treble bleed nearly All treble is lost & the tone really sucks. By FAR the best versatile Strat I’ve ever tried is the Clapton Strat, but admittedly at a considerable cost. I personally think the middle pup on a Strat is the least usable, but that is of cause subjective. But having said that the middle is great in position 2 & 4. 🎸
Absolutely not true, and somewhat silly to suggest. You can't add Gain with a passive pot. No extra Gain needed to achieve this effect. A guitar pickup is passive. Yet, when you wire two pickups together, the signal gets louder, AND darker. This is an extremely simple example to make the point. But if you want something more complex, just grab a passive EQ, and use the 'Q' on a LPF or HPF. This is a boost. It's frequently specific resonance (amplitude) from the EQ filters. Totally passive. There are lots of ways to add frequencies without gain. Phase and polarities are two obvious places to start. Admittedly, I don't know exactly how Andy achieves it with this pot, but it's silly to imply it can't be done. People across the world do this daily in recording studios.
@@TheSoundCoop By definition passive controls can only CUT, not boost. The only way a frequency can be ‘boosted’ with a passive pot is by reducing other frequencies.
@@TheSoundCoop and boosting a frequency IS increasing amplitude. It’s increasing amplitude at that frequency. Again, a passive pot cannot increase amplitude.
@@johnbuell8035 I'll guess I'll just tack this up to a lack of experience on your end. Or maybe we're just nitpicking about terminologies here. Bottom line, you can absolutely stack passive capacitors, inductors and resistors, in series, to adjust how the frequency spectrum responds. Just like stacking more copper in a pickup or wiring two together in series. As I stated in the video, you don't get extra gain or volume. It's just a passive EQ. Any added amplitude comes from resonance at the EQ cut off filters. Secondarily you can get amplitude increases from subtractive EQ when it decreases frequency specific phase cancelation.
@@johnbuell8035 it might be worth looking into an Audio 101 class. It's been 15 years since I took mine but increases in amplitude post passive EQ is covered almost immediately. Here is a simple way to think about it. If you think about a bunch of different‑frequency tones all playing at the same time, their phase relationships vary continuously and add to or cancel each other to create the total waveform. Remove some of those tones and some of those cancellations won't occur. That can result in the waveform becoming bigger and having more amplitude in specific frequency ranges. Stack caps, inductors and resisters in series and you can really manipulate amplitude via frequency filtering. Take a LPF tone pot for instance. Plug your guitar into an amp, dial it in for edge of breakup. Now turn down the LPF tone pot on your guitar all the way down. Notice how your amp is now distorting more than just edge of breaking despite losing all the high end frequencies? Why? Simple. The frequency filters create resonance at the cut off locations. This resonance will pump amplitude at specific frequency. Not broad band full frequency gain. Rather, frequency specific resonance. The 'Q' on a LPF or HPF is very similar. You're not adding gain. You're adjusting the resonant peak. Which adds frequency specific amplitude. I hope that helps ya a little 🙌
I converted my stock, lower Tone Pot to a blender pot, which is another great mod and it costs $0. You can get the Neck+Bridge combo, all 3 at once, any amount of blend and no matter where your 5-way switch is, it will always blend in the missing N or B pup. Cheers.
This is a solid Mod as well. I don't have it build into a blender pot, but that Mini Toggle I have above the switch is my 7 way switching. I love this Mod too!!! 👊
Thats actually the best mod out there for strat bar none....and its the best mod cause not only can be free(or cheap if you install a no load pot),not only its easy to operate and you dont have to remember a lot but its also the most versatile cause you dont bring the neck or bridge pickups full on to the mix but parts of them......is you bridge a bit ice picky in a particular scenario?Just roll the second tone pot a hair and you added 10% of that neck pickups warmth and presto problem solved....want more...roll off some more...it doesnt get any better than this....
@@TheSoundCoop Was going to ask ,since you mentioned it ,could you elaborate on how that works ?
Not sure what 7 way is .Figured it might be a B/N switch .Thanks .
@@STRATMAN1969 a typical Strat has 5 way switching. But there are still two other positions that are possible. You can add a Neck + Bridge position, which is basically a Telecaster type sound. And you can also add all 3 pickups together. When I flip my Mini Toggle down, it adds the neck pickup to Positions 1 & 2. This makes Position 1 Neck + Bridge, and makes Position 2 all 3 pickups together. There's a lot of different ways to achieve 7 way switching. The Mini Toggle is just how I have mine setup.
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks ,I have Strats with coil taps wired to toggles, none that add pickups ,I was just interested what your toggle did to achieve the 7th position .I like how you have it wired .Also a Strat Neck + Bridge doesn't come close to a Tele Bridge + Tele Neck which is why I had to build a Strat with Tele guts ; ) Love the Mule shirt tho ,represent Saginaw Mi
Blend bridge and neck tones, basically what I use the most, awesome sounds!
I had a very similar tone circuit in my Hohner Revelation RTX. It was in their by stock. You could get this guitar either with a standard Strat PU combination or with bridge humbucker and neck single coil.
I have the version with the humbucker. You could deactivate the tone circuit (called Advanced Tone Network) by a push-push-poti. I re-wired it to split the humbucker entirely removing the tone circuit. Gave me much better sounds and higher output.
Passive tone controls will always add resistance and thus take something away from the original sound and reduce volume. Even if it feels like it was adding mids, it will for sure reduce the overall volume to make this possible.
Great you love this. But it's not for me.
I'll have to look into the RTX. It sounds like fun! One thing I can assure you, there is no tone or volume loss when you add in mids by turning the pot up above 5. Same with the cut below 5. It doesn't "feel" like it's adding mids. It's actually adding mids for sure. I don't know exactly how Andy achieves this, but one obvious way is to blend a high cut version of the signal back into the original. This Mod isn't reducing the highs and lows to bring the mids forward. It's leaving the highs and lows completely intact, including the volume (level), and only bumps or cuts the mids. Regardless, I completely respect that fact that it isn't for you. Luckily we all have varying tastes 🙌
*Awesome demo and mod. The versatility is very noticeable.* ✌
Thanks so very much 🙌🏻
I like having that knob as a passive bass control like in g&l. Really let's you tighten the bass as gain increases or dial it in on the guitar instead of having to mess with an amp you have setup for a different guitar
You're the second person to mention this Mod. I definitely gotta try it out. I love the idea of a tighten bass knob!! 🙌
@@TheSoundCoop Is really cool and works wonders for guitars with a lot of bass. I have a G&L strat but it is a pretty treebly one so i don't use it a lot. But i installed this in my japanese fender tele and that one has a LOT of bass, so i use the tone pretty much all the time
@@ubdejones1 I'm kicking around putting one in a Humbucker guitar of mine. I tend to mostly use it for darker, heavier tones. And the bass can often run away from me. I usually just EQ it out after in ProTools. But this got me thinking maybe my amps would respond better if I tamed some of those lows before hitting the amp. Will report back soon 🙌🏻
I don't know about anyone else, but I am absolutely for any mod that can add this much versatility.
Glad you enjoyed the tones. It's been an extremely helpful studio tool over the years 🙌🏻
Nice mod,kind of like a Gibson Varitone in ways with a G&L quack,the best of say 3 different guitars,yet strat homebase tones not lost
It's funny you say that. Andy also makes a Varitone replacement. I've never actually used one before. Makes me wonder if some of the idea of this Mid Control Mod came from his Varitone circuit.
The Stratocaster's tone with the mod sounds fantastic.
Based on your demonstration of this mod and listening you play I've been achieving similar results with a parametric EQ pedal, specifically the Pettyjohn Filter. Typically, I use it to attenuate mid frequencies around 460hz or 780hz, adding “sparkle” and “definition” to my clean tone.
My Strat-style guitar is a Novo Serus S equipped with Lollar Dirty Sixty-Four pickups. However I’venoticed that the EQ pedal performs exceptionally well across all my guitars.
Having tried several other EQ pedals the Pettyjohn Filter is actually the first EQ pedal I've truly enjoyed.
I place it as the first pedal in my signal chain, right after the guitar.
Thanks for watching and commenting 🙌🏻 A very similar sort of tonal variation can totally be achieved by using an EQ pedal. Or an on-board amps EQ, provided one of the bands has a center frequency around 850Hz. I'm not a big pedal guy. But the Boss 8 band EQ pedal is absolutely top of my list. So helpful. It takes a little work to recreate the bell curve but is totally doable. For me, there's just something about having it on the guitar. It has the immediacy of the pickup position switching. It gets most of the tactile delay out of the way. Fast boosting AND cutting. I never really got much out of the two LPF tone posts on a Strat. The 7-way blender Mod is also a fun one. But for the style of music I write and play, this passive Mid Control gives me the most usable versatility.
@@TheSoundCoop I completely agree. Incorporating a mid cut/boost directly into the guitar offers unparalleled convenience, eliminating the need for an external EQ pedal that consumes space and power. There's no longer a requirement to bend down on the pedal board to tweak mid frequencies.
While an external EQ pedal has the advantage of universality across guitars, it serves as a straightforward method to experiment with this modification. Trying to attenuate/boost at around 800Hz first with an EQ pedal can help you determine whether someone would want this type of mod or not.
Personally, I wouldn't mind having a mid cut/boost at 460Hz and/or 780Hz in my guitar, I mentioned these frequencies since they are available on my parametric EQ (Pettyjohn Filter) and as I mentioned in my previous comment for me have proven effective for reducing muddiness and enhancing definition and sparkle.
The mid frequency you mentioned at 850H< is basically the same I’ve been using which is why I got so interested in this mod. Sometimes I’ve found that sometimes with certain guitars/amps/songs attenuating at 460Hz can have slight benefits over 780Hz. Although the differences are not drastic. For the end result I’m trying to achieve - reducing muddiness - can be done with both frequencies.
The demos in your video were impressive. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of use cases for adjusting mid frequencies and references to iconic artists and their tones.
After watching your video I had to go and try boosting my mids as well to achieve those tones. Usually I’ve only used the parametric EQ to reduce certain frequencies.
You and I would get along swimmingly. It's rare to find guitar players that take the time to understand frequencies unless they're studio cats. 🙌🏻
It's amazing what cutting frequencies between 300Hz and 1k can do. Cutting mud between 300 & 400 is super helpful. And if your guitar isn't muddy there, it's great for getting a thunderous low end that stays tight. And helpful for keeping the lows tight if you wanna boost lows.
I love 600Hz for cutting cloudiness. Boosting or cutting at 1k is very helpful. And I love little boosts between 1 & 6kHz. Most of this is experience EQing for mixing purposes that I've later applied to guitar.
But oddly enough, 850 Hz isn't a frequency I'd typically use much in the studio. But it's darn helpful for this guitar setup. You can cut without losing all the density. And boost without adding all the mud and cloudiness.
I'm gonna have to reach out to Andy and see if it's possible to get a variable frequency addition to this Mod. That might be fun if possible!!! But maybe that would require an active circuit? I've got that on my Jazz bass but the whole electric setup is powered by 2 9volts.
Sorry if this has been pointed out already, standard Strat wiring does not have a tone control for the bridge pup, the lower Tone knob controls the middle pup and the upper one controls the neck pup. I always thought that was an odd choice considering how bright, strident, shrill (pick your adjective of choice) the bridge pup is on a Strat. My first Strat is a '76, purchased used circa '81. I thought the previous owner had messed around with the electronics, I was soon informed that's how they were designed. All that said, thanks for the video, I now have a new mod to try.
Someone else brought this my attention, but no worries. It's always good to learn something new. I've never owned a vintage Strat and the only new Strat I ever bought was wired as I described in the video. So I just assumed that was the typical configuration. Totally my mistake. Glad you liked the video. If you end up trying this Mod please let me know how it goes.
You're incorrect on the Bridge pickup not having a Tone Control in "standard Strat wiring".
@@jojokeo I guess it depends on what you mean by "standard strat wiring". As I've said before. The only Fender I bought brand new had a tone pot wire to the bridge, so I just assumed they mostly came like that. But I was wrong. It does seem that going back all the way to the '50s and '60s there was no tone pot wired to the bridge at all. I think when people say "standard Strat" what they mean is "typical" or "traditional" Strat. That's at least what I mean. And in that regard, these guys seem to be correct. I got it wrong in this video.
Maaaaan that strat is majestic! Do I want a strat again? Dang it! Great work on this video dude!
I forgot to say that it sounds KILLER - what are you plugged into?
Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. The signal chain is this Strat directly into my Twin Reverb with the input almost dimed. It's a favorite of mine 🤤
@@TheSoundCoop sounds glorious 🤘
Being a Tele guy a Strat is a lot to wrap my head around as it is.
After tinkering for years (three Strats on hand) invariably they end up with a treb pass (lately a .002 uf).
The mid pick upd are all set to run straight out with out running through a tone pot.
The caps are like fifty cents.
That $90.00 will keep one guitar in strings for a year.
You may check out a Gibson L6S.
Bill Laurance graced those with a six way switch and clear pick ups.
Santana use one for years.
I dig that bridge / neck blend toggle.
Years ago I had a Frankenstein with that happening. Now I',m back to scratchin' my head!
Thanks Chris
I used to play an L6S ,I loved that thing.
@@grif900
Griffen,
I know more now than I did then. I do miss the thing. Esoecialy the 24 fretts. It was a maple, maple and maple unit.
A long scale length Tele works best for me. Chris
Back in 2001 I purchased a loaded pickguard assembly from Harmonic Design, it has this very same tone control modification.
Such a hugely usable tone control, especially with a hotter than normal Stratocaster bridge pickup as in the + Mids position you really can get a humbucker-like tone.
Glad to hear this mod is available for any Stratocaster.
Any chance you know what Harmony Designs calls their mid scoop tone pot? I'd be very curious to try a different design that has a similar purpose.
The myriad of great usable sounds you gave us in this video definitely have me intrigued. I live in Japan, so shipping would add an extra $70 to the cost. Consequently, I:m gonna try making one of my own from parts I bought online here in the Land of the Rising Sun. Mine won't have the center detent, and Mr. Rothstein's pots apparently have a taper that is proprietary, so no matter what, mine probably won't approach the quality of his. Still, it should be a fun project, and I'll be interested to hear the outcome, regardless. Thanks for turning me on to this!
I'm glad you were enjoying the tones. Please let me know how your custom build goes. I'm curious to see what you can make based on this concept 🙌🏻
Seems like the mod I was looking for. Thanx for the inspiration!
It's SO much fun!!!
The '84 Fender Performer Tone pot has a Mid scoop or bump :)
Are you talking about a Jazzmaster here? Any idea what that tone mod is called? Is this the "grease bucket" mod Fender uses on a lot of the Highway 1 guitars? I'd love to read about this but I can't find much info. Been getting really curious about all the different Mods people have been posting in the comment section.
Great video! Glad YT recommended it to me I have a strat I've been wanting to do something special with and this seems like it's exactly what I was looking for. You've earned a sub! Keep up the good work!
Thanks so very much. If you try out the mod, pop back in and let me know what you think of it 🙌
57 or 62 vintage reissue? I'm leaning to a 57 because of the maple board and headstock. I am very impressed and just ordered my first one for my mid eighties 57 reissue; and can not wait to plug this thing in dry to my mostly original 66' Super reverb amp. Thanks for the awesome demo. I can hear the difference quite clearly on my old Yamaha monitors.
This beauty is a 2015 Custom Shop '58. Fat neck, jumbo frets, all the way 😎 Do you have an Instagram account. I'd love to see some pics of your '57. If you get that mid control, post up a video. Or at least shoot me a message and let me know what you think. I've been using them so long I just take it for granted. I was talking tone with a buddy a few months back and was reminded lots of people don't know about this Mod. Just wanted to share. Thanks for the comment 🙌
I misspoke not once but twice, mine is a 58 reissue, Exactly the same spec as yours but seafoam green non relic. I pulled the neck after ordering from Andy Rothstein to do a proper shielding job and realized the body is 1990 and the neck is 1991. I cant bring myself to drill the hole for the mini- Switch and ordered a few CTS 250k w/push pull for the master tone and plan to add a treble bleed cap to the volume pot, For Andy's voodoo tone wiring with the push pull giving the neck pup on in any position the 5 way switch is in. All the parts are here now and I am going to dig in this coming weekend. No Insta here, But I will find some way to convey the outcome.
The best mod that I ever did to my Strat was get rid of that tone pot completely. All the pickups run through one volume pot and one tone pot. Works perfectly.
Why? The sound is less customizable that way
I have a Squier CV 50s Strat and compared to my old 1979 Strat, the bridge pickup is _usable_ thanks to it being connected to a tone pot! I never tried this on the '79, but if I had I might have kept it. D'oh! Anyway, my next mod will be to connect all three pickups to one tone pot, and then think about what to do with the redundant pot (maybe fit one of these Rothstein pots, or make it into a neck blend pot).
@@luxibro9094 Yeah, but it wasn’t a knob that I used very much and I don’t miss it.
Are you getting a hotter signal by doing this? Kinda assuming taking something out of the signal chain will have a benefit. I'm kinda curious what seems different with the tone pot removed? Any feedback?
@@TheSoundCoop Definitely a hotter signal WITHOUT the Tone pot being a load to the signal circuit. Here's the technical description: Position 5 (Neck only) w/ 1 Tone Pot= .022uF cap loading signal. If in #4 Position the other Tone Pot also with a .022uF to ground is combined with the Neck pickup and Tone pot. This puts both pickups in Parallel AND both Tone pots AND both capacitors in Parallel. With two capacitors in parallel you get a Series combination (adding) of capacitance (opposite of resistors in parallel), effectively like having a .047uF capacitor to ground bleeding off much more high end signal content. Position 4 is the ONLY position that this can happen since positions 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all only on their own dedicated Tone pots (using standard Strat wiring and controls).
Wow! Love the wide range of sounds with this mod, and your playing is sweet. Someone else already pointed out that the standard Strat tone config is lower pot for the mid p/u and middle pot for the neck p/u, with no tone control for the bridge p/u. I'm not sure I want to mod my '63 L-Strat, but I might try it on my MIM 60th Anniversary Deluxe Player's Strat, which has the push-button toggle that gives you all 7 p/u combinations. Thanks for posting this! 😎
I'm glad you are digging the tones. I totally messed up the configuration. The only Strat I've ever bought brand new was wired up as I described in the video so I just assumed this was standard for most typical Strats. Total my mistake.
@@TheSoundCoop No biggie. I probably would have made the same assumption if I bought a brand new Strat in that configuration and I hadn't previously played a zillion Strats in the standard configuration (i.e., tone pot 1 controls neck p/u highs, tone pot 2 controls middle p/u highs, and no tone control for bridge p/u). It's weird that you found a brand new Strat in a non-standard tone pot configuration.
I'm trying to think through how a passive mod can add mids. The only thing I can come up with is the fact that your Strat is set up with each tone pot affecting the tone of all three pickups. That significantly changes the inductance of the L-R circuit; the total inductance is less than the inductance of the lowest value among each of the individual coils. You've also got the other tone pot in the circuit, in addition to the modded tone pot.
I dunno...I'm guessing that there's some kind of mid-range resonance condition when the modded pot is above 5. I'm also guessing that it wouldn't work the same way if you just added the mod to the same pot on a standard configuration Strat. Does Andy say anything about rewiring the pickups so the back pot acts as a tone control for all three pickups? Just curious.
Rothstein is a friggin' genius
My exact sentiment! 🙌🏻
I want to try this as a single tone control with the extra tone wired as a 1/4 blend. Its like what the TBX tone control wants to do in an active boosted circuit. I really like you combined it with the Gilmour switch.
FYI, you can wire the 1/4 blend as a switch if you use a 2 pole 5 position "super switch" instead of the tyical 5 pos switch, it works in Pos1 only, if you have no use for all 3 pickups in Pos2.
I appreciate you pointing this out. All the viewers really came through in the comments section. I've had so many killer recommendations for other mods, or mods of existing mods. Gonna have to look into this. I'm definitely not getting a ton of use from all 3 pups together. Might have to try this out
Nice, informative video. My mods include a treble bleed capacitor/resistor, which makes the volume pot so much more useful, and neck bolt inserts, which allows the use of machine screws to hold the neck on, resulting in a better tone (in my opinion).
Thanks so much! I really got to get a treble bleed into my Strat. It's probably about time 😉
@@TheSoundCoop What effect might the treble bleed have on the mid scoop system though?
@@ParaBellum2024 I'm guessing here, but probably not much, if any. The treble bleed circuit is wired up to the volume pot. So tone pot configurations should have no effect. Admittedly, I don't mess with my Strats volume pot much. I'm mostly a clean tone guy, so I'm not driving amps very often. I don't really see much point to using a volume pot for anything but cleaning up a driven amp. But I did recently get a Gibson Junior and only having one pickup, I've been messing with the volume pot on that quite a bit. Starting to get curious if maybe I'm overlooking the Strats volume pot.
@@TheSoundCoop Treble bleed circuits on the Vol pot are for "preserving" high end as the control is turned lower (adding resistance into the signal path). Any time a signal path goes through a resistance the high end becomes affected. More resistance = more high end loss (and effectively less signal strength). TIP: don't do the typical resistor and cap in parallel or your pot taper will become changed (I don't like this). I use them in series :) therefore, finding the right values of each is a matter of preference and very controllable depending on your guitar, pickups, and your preference. Try 22k/2nF, 47k/1nF, & 100k/1nF depending on single coils w/250k pots or humbuckers w/500k pots
Leo Fender made a guitar that does this called the s500.
I was just looking into this Mod in the s500. Unless I'm mistaken, I think that tone pot is a PTB mod which would separate the treble and bass, and then allow you to reduce them independently. This is a killer mod. I used to have it in an ESP I recently sold. But it's not the same Mod as this Passive Midrange Control. The PMC Mod doesn't have treble and bass attenuators. It boosts or attenuates the Midrange at around 850 Hz with a wide, even shaped bell curve. If I'm talking about the wrong S500 here, and you know about something else, please let me know. All the comments here have been sending me down the Mod rabbit hole and I'd love to check out something else you may be aware of. Regardless, I might have to put this PTB Mod in one of my darker, higher output guitars to take advantage of that low end roll off when using overdrive. It's extremely helpful 🙌🏻
Def changes the tone. Well made vid. Thanks.
Thanks so much! This is only my second video so just getting my feet wet. Still got a lot of things to improve on but it's been really fun so far. Should have some new videos soon.
great tones and playing! you should consider doing some lessons on these licks
John, thanks so much for checking out the video! I'd be happy to go over some of the licks. Is there a time stamp for a specific lick you're enjoying? I can tab them up and do a little tutorial, no problem.
Excellent video! I’ll be looking into this for sure.
Please let me know if you add this to your rig. I'd love to know your thoughts, and how you're getting the most out of it 👊
Interesting mod. Totally get the allure. But Me, I’ve gone the other direction with mods. I’m back to loving original Strat tone pot wiring and using low(5.7-ish) output pickups. Honestly, I’d be ok with no tone knobs at all. I never roll off tone knobs on any guitar. The only mod I’ve warmed up to and adopted is the RWRP middle pickup.
My favorite thing about Strat players is all the variety. There's so many things you can do with just the basic Strat. Leaving that behind, there's so many options to Mod, and we all like to experiment. I probably need another Strat so I can try out some of the more modern options. Lots of cool Mods mentioned in the comments here. And of course, going the traditional route has its own allure. Thanks for the comment 🙌
Not having a tone pot at all will give you a different sound than with. Even with the pot at ten there's still a little bit of treble bleed to ground. I tried it and wound up replacing the tone back. There was a bit of high frequency scratchy grit that I found unpleasant.
@@valvenator thanks for sharing your experiences. I agree that there’s some tonal difference between having a tone pot at 10 and no pot. That’s glaringly obvious with a traditionally wired strat. The bridge pickup is clearly different sounding. Brighter. Crisper. Personally, I like it. I’ve never encountered the objectionable noises you describe, tho. Just different tonal shaping. Honestly, I’m fine with traditional or modern, or no tone pot Strat tone wiring. In the end, a Strat will always sound like a Strat. Fwiw, my favorite Strat pickups are the Fujigen alnico p/u’s from the late 80’s fender Japan strats. Super clean and very dynamic. I’ve come to dislike hotter Strat p/u’s.
Seems like a fender tbx tone control, but maybe comes pre-set up, where the tbx is somewhat epen ended to what you actually do with it. But ther is a basic prescibed way to use it. But that is 12$. Maybe im missing the difference. Premier guitar magazine gas various wiring options for the tbx from Dirk Wacker. The kingtone switch is also a drop in option for the price point of this mod, seems similar but maybe more specific. So many options 😊
Can you customize the way a TBX modded pot works? The way it's described online is:
"It functions as a standard tone control from 1 to 5, after which it decreases resistance, sending more bass, treble, presence and output to your amp".
If this is true, it's not quite the same as the PMC Mod I'm showing off here. The PMC Mod doesn't do the regular tone pot roll off from 1 to 5. That's the mid scoop part of the PMC. Maybe turning the TBX above 5 gives you a mid scoop by pumping the bass and treble? But even then, it's working in reverse of the PMC. Boosting the top and bottom instead of reducing the mids. I'd tend to think this would probably create an amp "push", plus it says it "adds more output". Not sure the output is broadband gain, or just the lows and highs. But I'd guess it would make the TBX Mod less transparent when going for a Mid scoop. The PMC Mod doesn't pump the volume at all. The highs and lows stay pretty much the same regardless of how you set it.
If you look up mods like I mentioned from that articles it does more than it was originally intended to do
I have 2 different complete wired kits from Andy and have so much tone.
This makes me happy. Andy seems like the nicest dude. I'm glad I'm not the only fan.
Soon as you said you preferred 'clean', you won me over. It's so annoying trying to hear tone shifts when players add all sorts of pedals while reviewing a guitar. It's all in the pickups, man! Take a clean sound and do your tone massaging with that incredible Passive Midrange Control, I can hear it. Because you didn't add the awful gain or clipping that comes with most pedals, the guitar's pickups come through clear as can be. Thanks.
I appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed the tones.🙌
I SO agree! Maddening when guitarists do pedal demos (or indeed any guitar tonal demos), with the sound cranked into distortion - which kicks all the subtlties out of the window!!
Couldn't agree more. You guys are my kinda vibe! 🙌🏻
I think he has missed the free and very simple and needed tweak of all Strat type electrics...
just put a short jumper between the unused bridge pickup tone tab on the switch and link it to the neck tone tab .... and the 2 pickups are not ever on at the same time normally... Solder time is maybe 30 seconds and it is simple to do or undo and needed in every Strat.
What's the achievable result of this Mod? Is this another way to get 7-way switching? Or a way to get Bridge + Neck together in parallel?
Very interesting. Can we hear a guitar with just one tone pot that you've changed to this Passive Midrange Control?
I have 2 Strats; one with dual tone knobs and one with single tone knob. Thanks. 00
I can show it off in my Novo with P90s or my Telecaster. But I don't have a single pot strat to show off.
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks. One of my two Strats is the SRV. I don't like the treble boost has built in when I use the bridge p/u. I've lowered the height of the p/u and have been a bit more satisfied with the tone.But your video has me wondering....hmmm shhmaybe. 00
@@cgdoublezerorc I only tried the SRV upper mid boost once, in my buddies Strat, so I'm not extremely experienced. But I did think it was harsh in the bridge pickup. I remember feeling like the boost was somewhere above 1000 Hz. The frequency center in this pot is closer to 850 Hz so the boost is a touch warmer than I remember the SRV pot being. But still midrangy. Between the boost and the cut, there's lots of vibe available from this Mod
Seems like this would be really effective with P-90s to get more Strat like tones from them.
Absolutely true. I have this in my Novo with P90s. The mid scoop works real well to make the P90 more Strat like. But you don't get a much out of the mid push when turning the pot about 5. Especially in the bridge position. It also works very well in a typical Telecaster setup. Really any pickups that are bright, with Mid to Lo output will do well with this Mod.
Cool, so you just schooled me how I bought so many pedals for no reason, haha.
EQing at the source literally puts all the control in your hands. If you ever play around with those bass contour pots, like on Reverend guitars, thats a helpful one. I got a Rev and it fixed every boomey amp issue I ever had - If I could put two more pots on a strat, it would be a MTG and a bass-cut.
You hit the nail on the head here. I really prefer EQing at the guitar, when it's possible. Often my amp is in another room, of worse, an ISO box. This Mod saves me a lot of time. I'll have to look into this bass contour. Often when I'm running a cranked up amp, a little bass adjustment would really help out. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention 🙌
Don't chuck those pedals yet! You just get to discover a whole new way to use them! (the rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper and more twisted)
Really cool, can also buy a American Performer, it adds the bridge and neck with the bottom pot two. Isn't Fender doing it on most of the American line though? I don't know, seems like it. Like the mids but still I can pretty much do the same with my Performer in different positions and second tone as well.
It's just cutting bass and treble beyond 5. Cutting mids below 5.
Still pretty cool.
I don't think it's cutting bass and treble beyond 5. The bass and treble stay the same no matter which way you turn. I should have showed this in the video by testing the Mid Control at 10 vs the High Cut tone pot turned down to 3 or 4. It's really quite different sound wise. Another commenter said it reminded him of some of the dial positions on the Gibson Varitone. Oddly enough, Andy makes those as well. So many the circuit comes from there? I'm thinking about doing another video of this same Mod in my Novo with a P90 neck, and Splitblade Tele bridge. I'll make sure to show the difference between the Midrange boost and the high end cut.
Great work on the vid. Im sold on this. What pickups u got tho? Would that make a difference at all? Also do u already have noiseless pups or better yet what s about hum? Thanks
Thanks so very much! I'm running Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups in this guitar. I mostly do studio stuff and cannot stand the noise. I know lots of guys say noiseless pickups don't sound authentic. But I don't even know what that means. There's a decent difference from year to year in the vintage Strats. And we have dozens of modern styles of single coils now. I think this mod would work great with a wide range of single coil style pickups. I have the same tone pot in my Novo which has a P90 in it. You can still get the scooped mid sound from the P90, but when you start turning the knob above 5, it doesn't seem to have a massive effect on the tone like it does with Strat pickups. P90s already have that mid-range that the pot can add when set above 5. If you're liking the tones in this video, I think it would work great in any single coil or P90 style guitar.
This is actually the best mod i have seen, also in your configuration, I hopen the pot is dented in the middle so when you need a quick reset you can find it without looking. I think I will buy this mod, BUT i have a question about the toggle switch you added, do you know where the lead from the neck pickup is coming from? since you normally first let it go thourgh the tone pot do you need a parallel lead from on the pickup itself or..... thanks a bunch!!
Thanks for watching and glad you like the Mod. The pot I have from Andy definitely comes with a centered detent. You can also order one from him without the detent. And he also makes one that has a push pull where you can switch between a high-end roll-off and a mid scoop. Except for that version doesn't have the Boost, it only has the cut.
As far as my 7-way switching mod, I don't actually know how it's wired. Both of my tone pots work in all seven positions so it has to be going through the tone pot somehow or another. I had a local luthier install this mod for me over a decade ago, but I'm sure you can find plenty of resources online to dial in the 7-way switching for your setup. There's lots of ways to do this. You can get one of those freeway switches for 10-way Strat switching. You can wire the 7 way into a blender pot. You can use a push pull. Lots of options. Once you find the one you want, there'll be a wiring diagram available.
Thank you for the information.
You're welcome 🙌🏻
My Artec BCU tone knob does exactly the same thing but it require a battery.
Thanks for sharing this Mod! Even though it operates differently, it does seem like you could get some similar tones to the Mod in my video. Meanwhile, the BCU has some killer boosts that are accompanied by well selected cuts. It seems like an extremely useful set of tonal options. I've only played a few active guitars, so my experience is limited. But I'd say this is a decent excuse to stash away a 9volt 😉 Their website suggests that the draw required is extremely low, and batteries last for years. If this is true, extra bonus 👍🏻
My fav mod is probably the King Tone Switch…Cheers!
This is a killer mod, especially on a darker guitar 🙌🏻
One sweet Strat with it without the mod. Cheers!
Thank you sir! 🙌🏻
I'm not sure I've ever heard anything so cool. I seldom venture beyond the neck or neck/middle positions. I love the sound, but it's just a sound. The video you shared sounded like two different guitars. Amazing.
Thanks so very much! This mod is really a lot of fun! And I'm also amazed by all the other mods people are sharing here. I've learned so much from all the input. Cheers 🙌
Another killer video!
Thanks brother!
Thanks for the vid! I would think the slight adjustments between 5 to 7 or backwards from 5 to 3 would be more useable overall. But it's certainly nice to have all of those tones without needing a battery. That to me is the selling point. Did you mention what pups are in that Strat? Nice guitar by the way... is that a custom shop? Thanks again for the share!! 🙏
You're welcome. I appreciate you giving it a watch and leaving a comment 🙌🏻 IMHO, when going below 5, the real sweet spot is between 2 and 3. Going down to 1 doesn't do much for me unless I'm going heavy gain, which is rare. Oddly enough, when I go above 5, I usually just go all the way to 10. Neutral and below all sounds Strat like to my ear. I only go to 10 when I'm playing a Strat but wish I was playing thru a P90. Usually, I'm looking for a tough more compression and more presence when I go to 10. The guitar is a 2018 Fender Custom Shop '58. Got it in December and I can't get enough of it 👊
Also, I totally forgot to answer your question about the pickups. Sorry about that. This guitar came with Fat 50s pickups. But I couldn't handle the hum. I took the whole electronics system out, and put in the electronics from what was previously my #1 Strat. So this guitar has a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. They're probably 15 years old at this point. I don't know if they've changed the design during this timeframe. When I got these, the non-vintage noiseless version of Fenders Noiseless line were the N3s. I think Fender is currently selling version N5 or N6. So there may have been a few upgrades to the Vintage Noiseless pickups since then. But I don't really know.
@@TheSoundCoop Thank you for that update! I really appreciate it. I recently purchased a Fender Pro Am II Tele with their latest iteration of noiseless pups, and they are good, but I'm jonesing for that tele stank that comes from vintage or vintage copied style pickups. Bill Lawrence has an offering as well as some really hard to find Voodoo brand that I hear Guthrie Trapp playing now and again. There's a purity in those tones that are remarkable. Your sound is in a really sweet spot... so I may have to rethink the noiseless thing over if adding the tone pot. It really is nice not having to stand facing a some odd point on the compass to keep this thing quiet! Thanks once again! Much appreciated!!
@@Sammywhat Guthrie Trapp is the man!!! What a killer player. He's super lucky to get to jam around with Uncle Larry (Tom Bukovac). Those two are quite the pair.
But anyway, I realize (like many things with guitar) the noiseless pickup options are pretty controversial. I have a few really good friends that are obsessed with vintage 50s and '60s strats. I constantly hear from these guys that noiseless pickups don't sound anywhere near a real Strat pickup. I don't think these guys are lying. I don't even think they're being snobby. For people who are chasing a very specific sound, they know what they're looking for and they know what they like. I'm just not one of these guys. I don't really gig anymore. I'm mostly a songwriter and producer. Almost everything I do is in a studio environment. I'm not chasing one very specific sound. I'm in need of a wide array of tones. I want to be able to get the classic sounds we all know and love, while having enough options to be flexible. I pretty much avoided Stratocaster's and Telecasters for the first 10 years of playing guitar because I couldn't stand the noise. Everyone had always told me that noiseless pickups didn't sound accurate enough and I just always took them at their word. These Vintage Noiseless pickups in this Stratocaster where my first introduction to noiseless pickups. I've never looked back. I don't currently own a guitar with humbuckers. All of my guitars are based around single coil designs. I tend to like brighter guitars and lower outputs. My Stratocaster has noiseless pickups in it. My Telecaster has noiseless pickups in it. My Novo with P90s has noiseless pickups in it. The only guitar I have that isn't noiseless is a Gibson Murphy lab jr that I recently got. I had intentions to change the pickup out, but frankly it gives off such unbelievable tones, I don't even want to change it.
One thing worth considering. I used to have two Strats. One set up with N3s and the other one set up with these Vintage Noiseless. To my ear, the Vintage Noiseless had a little bit more push in the upper mids between 1k and 3k. Those frequency regions are where a lot of the spank comes from in Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars. The N3s were always a little more mellow in that region compared to the Vintage Noiseless. It wasn't a massive difference, but it was the kind of thing where I found myself reaching for the Vintage Noiseless guitar pretty much always. The way I understand it, Strats in the 50s had less copper and had a mellower tone. As things progressed towards '64, they got increasingly hotter with more winds of copper. Then it seems like after '64 they started reducing the copper back down again. All that to say, I think '62 through '64 are typically the hottest output strats in the vintage years. That extra copper likely gives a little upper mid bump between 1 and 3k. Maybe the pickups in your Strat don't have that spank because they're just a modern lower wind. The difference in tone to me is, a modern strat pickup usually sounds a little glassy in the top end, where something that's a little more vintage comes across as more strident or up front. Does that resonate with your experience? If so, it might be worth looking into a noiseless option that is more of a vintage style, or slightly higher wind pickup.
@@TheSoundCoop Thank you, kindly, for the details here. Like you, I don't play live much anymore and I'm mostly playing for the shear enjoyment of it all. That being said, having quality sounding gear is a huge plus, but not really a must as I'm only doing it for me. I can be pretty satisfied with a really simple setup. With age comes wisdom, right?! 😜 That being said, as a lefty, it's really hard getting to try all of these glorious guitars and their subtleties. The truth is, two of the best guitars I've ever owned are partscasters that were simply better than anything I could try at a local music store. I'm not dogging the odd Epiphone or Squier Strat - just look at what Jack Pearson can do with a Squier Strat, right?!! But I've never played a Collings or anything like that - let alone any custom shop offerings from Fender or Gibson. I would LOVE to try a Novo one day. But alas, I'm a strat guy through and through so even these odd offerings will only be slight improvements to the few guitars I've put together. They aren't anything special, but I've done things like rolled the fretboards, crowned the frets and dialed in the intonation so that the guitar sings on every note of the fretboard... stuff like that is really what sparks joy these days. And I've been having a ball with some of the plugin offerings from Neural and Positive Grid. Fun note, Positive Grid has a neat function that can make your guitar sound like a number of other guitars - not entirely convincingly, but still fun nonetheless. Especially since I'm only playing for me and the occasional jam with a friend and a couple of cold ones! We are blessed to be able to play these things and enjoy life like we do! I am thankful for your input and always appreciate the input of other fine musicians. It's a lovely community in which we belong! I'm going to bounce over to listen to your Gibson video. I've wanted a double cutaway for a number of years. I have a lovely Korean made Epiphone Les Paul, but it's a bit heavy. Not bad when sitting, but I'm liking the slab of mohagany and an easily accessible neck pocket. Thank you, again, for taking the time to converse here! Your input is truly appreciated!!
I've just converted that tone control to a blend between P1 and P3 - in the 'in between' switches it gives all three Ps - simple as!
This 7-way-switching blender Mod is really killer. I do this with the Mini Toggle. But can't blend it to taste like you can. It's full on, or off. Still handy but not quite as flexible 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop - I'm just a traditionalist, and I don't like to put any additional switches or holes in my guitar which cannot be reversed! A friend of mine bought the first Stratocaster in Canberra early 1963 he replaced the three way swicth with three large toggles - the guitar is still beautiful but the additional holes have ruined its vintage value!
@@bernhardnizynski4403 totally understandable. I actually took the original pickguard and entire electronics setup out of this guitar. Got another pickguard, and electronics setup, and put it in there. And luckily the mini toggle didn't need routing. It fits in a typical Strat route. Even tho this guitar isn't vintage. I want to be able to put everything back as it was should the need arise.
@@TheSoundCoop - well done!
isn't this essentially the midboost circuit you get in the Clapton Signature strats?
To my knowledge the Clapton Mid Boost give upwards of +12dB. It's an active mod. The mod I showed in this video is totally passive. The added Midrange is happening via some form of blend. It's not cutting or boosting the overall signal when you turn the dial. Just the mids
Hey,
In the early 90s I went for a American Standard Strat.
Even after moving Texas Specials in, the neck pick up was home.
By then I knew Leo parked neck PUs directly under a harmonic node.
The fifth fret and the reciprocal node over the pick up are dead.
You are likely aware of this.
The test is to strike a harmonic at either of those two points and change pick ups.
The only way signal is generated under the node is resultant hatmonics from the body moving the pick up.
This is frustrating.
G&L moved neck pick ups on some units.
Still there is not much amplitude, and the resulting produced signal is weak
As comfortable as the neck pu is, I hang out plenty in the others. Of note the 'lisp' settings do not thrill me.
But they are handy when the room is electrically noisy.
A really cool mod and a very good and informative video. I've just subscribed to your channel and I look forward to seeing more of your videos. A quick comment - you're speaking very loud when you have your headphones on, and I genuinely mean no disrespect to you by letting you know.
I've gotta work a little harder at getting it under control. I appreciate the feedback
Cool mod. That "humbucker" sound is very convincing. It's kinda inspiring me to make a whole new pre-wired pickguard in this configuration. So for your mini toggle switch, does it work exactly like the push/push pot Fender has on their American Pro II line? For example, if you switch it on when you're in the bridge pickup, it turns on the neck and if you switch it on when you're in position 2, it turns on all three?
Thanks so much for the feedback! I also find it pretty convincing. It definitely gets most of the way to a P90 vibe, minus that extra output. There's just some occasions where a typical Strat sound won't sit in a mix the way Id like. I know a lot of guys will do things like reach for a Klon, or a TS. Which is definitely fun, and totally fitting to serve this purpose. This mod simply puts all that tonal variety into the pot for easy tweaking. I'm a huge fan. If I get called for a session and the Producer mainly wants a Strat sound. I can bring this guitar, knowing if I end up needing those other tones, I got them all on board.
I can't speak specifically about the Fender model or mod you mentioned. But your description is spot on. 7-way switching. You could technically wire this to add the bridge to position 4 & 5. But I personally prefer adding the neck to positions 1 & 2, do that's what I use. Lots of ways to activate it as well. You can go the blender pot route. Or the push/pull. Or a mini toggle like I opted from. Really, any A/B type switching would do. My buddy likes the red push buttons. Or you could go with a 10 way "freeway" switching system, like I discussed with another commenter. That seems like an extremely useful Mod. I've been kicking around the idea of upgrading to that. Having a few Series options would really make this Strat a one stop tone shop.
@@TheSoundCoop Hey thanks so much for all those details you mentioned! I have lot to research on. Should be fun! Cheers
I built a pop up toaster on my Strat. Now my Strat plays like butter, on toast 🤫🤘
Award for the best (and only) Dad Joke goes to you, Sir! A tip of the 'ole hate to ya 👍🏻
@@TheSoundCoop Thanx a bunch ;-) Did I win a Strat? I've only got a Vester 😞
@@MikeMichaels1987 No. You won a Squire/Pop Tart decal. Just let me know where to ship 😜
Hi Nick, Great video. I can clearly hear the effects at the different settings that you demonstrated. Well done. I am thinking of adding this mod to my Indonesian Fender Squire strat. It would be the first money ($90) I have put into any mod on it. It was given to me because the joker that had it was an inexperienced accoustic focused type, thought it was too thin. I'm here to tell you it aint thin! Still has the original pickups so I was wondering if this mod would be effective on this original equipment. May eventually mod out the pickups but $300 is yet to be budgeted! At that point I would be in $400 and may want to consider putting a little more into it and get a better strat. Your feedback is important, please let me know what you think. Great playing by the way and keep of the good video works. Thank you, Greg, Saint Louis.
Greg, thanks so much for watching. I appreciate the feedback. I think this mod would work well in just about any Strat setup. I've had this Mod in 5 or 6 different Strats over the years and it never disappoints. Maybe if you had a set of high wind/high output single coils, the tones above 5 wouldn't be as apparent. But you could still mid dip with ease. I have this Mod in a guitar with a P90 which is similar to a high output Strat pickup. The Mod still mid scoops amazingly well when turning the pot down below 5. But it doesn't add as much back when turned above 5, especially in the bridge position. The P90 already has that mid-range happening, where it's kinda missing from a typical Strat pickup. All that to say, this Mod is killer for Mid to Low Output pickups. And especially shines when the pickups are bright, which is typical with most Strats. If you have the budget, I can't recommend this enough. Whenever I record my Strat, that knob is pretty much the only EQ I ever need. It does all of the things I want from a Strat, plus more. As much as I'd love to have a half dozen Strats to cover all the various Strat tones, I just want other things. This one mod gives me all the Strat sounds in one guitar. And it's great in a typical Telecaster setup as well. Or a P-90. Or a Widerange Humbucker. Or a Filtertron. I have this Mod in 3 of my guitars currently and only 1 is a Strat. If you decide to get one, please let me know how it goes
@@TheSoundCoop Hi Nick, thanks for the prompt response, it is truly and deeply appreciated. Like I said the strat was given to me, what better strat to mod, right? I will order the scoop and let you know my impressions. Been really focused on my 338like HB35Plus and learning guitar now on day 192 of this journey and becoming more and more excited with every day's practicing. Averaging about 90min/day and days off of 4+ hours practice. BUT, I have started mixing in practice on my strat as I have found it has truly amazing sound that I can quite emulate on my 35plus N/M/B plus push pulls. Even so, it will not quite do the strat thing however does do quite well with other sounds such as the telecaster. I'll let you know my experience in the next couple weeks. Take care, Caio, Greg, Saint Louis.
@@TheSoundCoop Oh, BTW, While at a photo shoot my strap came off and I dropped my beautiful hb35plus. Miraculously it landed on it's back in deep grass. That will not happen again so I just picked up some really nice 10-11 good quality leather to make a guitar strap with locking clips. I'll send you a link to my youtube after I finish and post some footage of it. Take care, G
@@greggramig910 no worries at all. Keep me posted, and definitely link me. And if you have an Instagram, I'd love to see pics of that Strat and 35Plus 🙌
Please help I'm too far the rabbit hole of options ! Should I buy the midrange shaper knob, or the blender knob? The 7 way switch, or the 10 way Freeway switch??? Too many seemingly amazing options out there!
After seeing all these options, I'm thinking the Midrange Shaper and the 10 way freeway switch would pretty much be a "do everything" Strat. Like, literally EVERYTHING 😀
@@TheSoundCoop I had already ordered a mid-scooped set of alcino 5 pups when I saw your video so midrange shaper may be overkill for me. I wonder if it's possible to have either the 7 or 10 way switch and still have a blender knob or would that wiring be impossible?
If you're talking about the 7 way switching blender, I'm sure it's possible. But you get all the 7 way positions with the 10 way. You could probably still find a way to wire it up. How much use you'd get out of it, compared to the full on version of the exact same thing?.... not sure. Probably depends, person to person. If your pickups are already scooped, it might be worth looking into one of the Mods other people mention here. Something with a Midrange boost, or a low end roll off for all those Series positions in the 10-way.
@@TheSoundCoop Oh my bad I meant the blender that allows you to blend the neck (usually) pickup into the other pickups no matter what position you're in. You blend in more of it the more you turn the knob so it's not an all or nothing thing like a switch. Probably wouldn't be a huge difference getting 25% or 50% of the neck pickup with the bridge when you can get them both at 100% already with either the 7 or 10 way switch, but still thought it might be cool to have if you don't care about sacrificing one tone pot to do it.
@@Jmans247massathon ya, that blender pot you're talking about IS 7-way switching. Usually I've seen it wired where you blend the bridge into the neck, when the neck is selected. This gives you the Bridge+Neck position, which you can't normally get in a Stratocaster. And it also gives you all 3 pickups when in the 4th position, which you also can't get in a typical Strat. Those two extra combinations get added to the original 5 positions. Hence making it 7 positions, or 7-way switching. I run this mod using a mini toggle. But you can also run it using the 10-way switch. Or a push pull pot. Or the blender version. I believe the blender version of this was originally a Fender wiring mod, but I could be wrong.
im pretty sure clapton had this on his signature guitars and his blackie strat (correct me if im wrong) and i added it to my strat and its amazing you dont really need overdrive pedals with this it is so useful
The Clapton Strat mod is an active boost. 9 volt required. The Mod I show in this video isn't that. The more I read about this Mod, the more and more it seems similar to one of the circuits built into the Gibson Vari-Tone, but probably adjusted to fit a Strats tone and output. Caps and resistors stacked in series is what Rothstein says he's doing in this Mod. Totally passive. No extra boost or gain, so not able to drive amps harder like the Clapton active boost Mod.
Ohh my bad man lol im still new to guitar lmao
@@EthanCruz95 absolute no worries at all. Just trying to make sure there's no confusion.
How would this work on a Player Plus Strat with a humbucker in the bridge position?
Since I'm staying mostly in the neck position here, I'd think most of the tones would translate pretty well for ya. I don't have this Mod in a guitar with a humbucker. The closest I can come to that is a guitar with the two pickups wired in Series. Which essentially makes them a humbucker. Because of pickup spacing it's not exactly identical to a humbucker. But the tone and output sound pretty similar. More volume. Darker tone. When using this Mod in that guitar, the scoop side of this tone pot is KILLER!!! But you won't get as much out of the pot when you go above 5, to add mids. P90s and humbuckers tend to already have that mid-range there, where a Stratocaster is sort of missing it. If I was you, I would totally still put this mod in the Stratocaster. I probably wouldn't put this mod in a Les Paul. But it sounds wonderful in a guitar with P90s. It sounds wonderful in typical Stratocaster setups. And it sounds wonderful in typical Telecasters setups.
Cool vid thx bro .. I have
A. Floyd rose strat. With active. Emg ..H.S.S and love having a less Paul in bridge humbucker. And. The
2 singles. Are a
Cool setup I love mine it's a sleeper. Lol
Thanks for the feedback 🙌 I gotta be honest, I think a humbucker in the bridge of a Strat is the best possible option. I just can't bring myself to routing this beautiful CS Strat. Meanwhile, probably my favorite bridge pickup is that humbucker made by Seymour Duncan, that will fit in a Strat or Tele sized route. It actually has humbucker output and tone. I'm thinking about putting one in my Novo Serus T's bridge 🤷
Is this wildly different to a TBX control?
The way I understand the TBX is, it boosts bass and treble, and adds more output gain.wjen turned above 5. And huts highs between 1 and 5. Very different from this PMC I'm using in the video. The treble and bass of the TBX may infact create a mid scoop. But the one in the PMC uses a reduction at 850 Hz when below 5 on the pot, not a boost of treble and bass. And it boosts mids at 850 Hz when above 5. The TBX won't do that.
thats a cool mod! did anyone try it out on a Siliver Sky SE?
NOW WE ARE TALKING!!! Who's gonna be the one to do this?!? I would love to hear how it sounds.
You said a normal strat has the lower tone pot for the bridge pickup up, but not so. The bridge pickup normally has no tone pot.
Depends on what you call a normal Strat. Many now do have a tone control wired to the bridge pickup.
I really appreciate you pointing this out. One of the cool things about the Strat is how much you can customize the configuration. I just dug into this a little and it does seem like during the '50s, '60s, and '70s the lower tone pot was for positions 2 and 3 (maybe 4?) while the upper one was for 4 and 5. Leaving the first position without a tone pot, just like you said. I guess I've just never seen a Strat wired any other way than I described. In hindsight, saying "normally" was a bad play on my part. I'm not old enough or wealthy enough to own a vintage guitar 😭 And I've only ever bought one Strat brand new. But it was definitely wired with the bottom tone pot for position 1. I'll have to keep this in mind if I do future Strat videos. Thanks for teaching me something 🙌
Try to make another video using this Andy Rothstein midrange to get those early Hendrix clean tones which they call the hendrix bell sound like on the hendrix song Can you See Me, The wind cries mary, little wing it has that certain clean tone. I think you can get those SRV glassy tones if you roll back the volume pot to 6 to 7 and set the Rothstein midrange to 8, will this get that glassy texas tones?
I've always wondered how a lot of those scooped mid sounds were achieved way back when. It's hard to tell for sure. I have a sneaking suspicion that treble bleed circuits attached to the volume pot might have played a roll. I don't have a treble bleed circuit in my Strat volume pot, but I've played a couple of Strats with it. Usually as you turn the volume pot down the mids will start to dip a little bit but all the highs will bleed through. Knopfler was famous for this. He used the volume pot to clean up his tone when he didn't want any drive. But it may have been amp EQ and/or EQ during mixing. To my ear, to get the Little Wing vibe you probably don't wanna turn the Midrange control up, above 5. You'd probably want to go below 5 to scoop those mids. Andy mentions the "bell tone" on his website and mentions it with Knopflers name attached. He says those bell tone are between 2 and 3 on his Midrange pot and that totally lines up with my experience. I think you're right about the volume pot tho. To my ear, the Strat gets more slinky when you turn down the volume. It does something cool to the dynamics. Especially if you're going into the High input of a Marshall. I'm hitting a Twin Reverb here, so probably not the most accurate Jimi signal chain 🤷
@@TheSoundCoop Hendrix used a 1963 Black Bobbin white strat on the first hendrix experience album so it has a certain midrange scoop called the hendrix BELL shape clean tone. He got this 1963 white strat from Keith Richards girlfriend because it was Keith Richards strat guitar which she stole it from him and told him that it was stolen or it got lost, but gave it to hendix which she had is restrung to be a left handed. The Black Bobbin 63 pickups might be the same type that SRV used plus they also used a RED square tone capacitor which might also bleed off the high end rolling it off differently. The 1963 volume pot is a carbon composition resistive track which changes the tone compared to newer volume pots use a different material resistive track as well as the volume pots resistive track might be higher than 250K which would give you more high end and upper mid range frequencies because of the tolerances. The Rosewood was a SLAB rosewood neck so the Slab is thicker compared to todays rosewood necks so you get a different tone. The 1963 pole pieces can have more nickel and more iron which adds to the alnico magnetics to be more or less inductance to get that midrange bump or midrange scoop. It depends on the pole pieces composition alloys percentages. Todays pole pieces are at different alloys percentages so you have to experiment to get the right combinations to get that SRV mid bump or the Hendrix Bell mid scoop from the guitars pole pieces alloy percentages. The winding wire is copper so the winding turns is adding more copper which more copper is a dark tone and rolls of high end. So more copper alloy affects the magnetic field of the alnico magnet to be more dark and rolls of high end because of the percentage of the copper.
@@waynegram8907 this is some reality cool history. Thanks so much for sharing!! I never really understood the scooped mids thing until I got my first American Strat in the early 2000s. It was the John Mayer Signature, which came with those Big Dipper pickups. They've got that legit scoop mids thing. A year or so later I traded some mixing work for a Mexi Strat. And it had one of these Roth Mid Control pots in it. I took it to a local tech to see if he could recreate it, and he ended up just giving me a link to Andy's wedsite. From there I realized a lot of guys had been talking about these for years in Strat forums. I was behind the curve. But they seem to have fallen out of sight in the last two decades. I'm always surprised when I see guys talking about the strat sound as if it's a singular thing. There's so much variety in strap pickups. The '50s pickups were generally lower output than the '60s. Based on my research it seems like '63 or '64 were the years where the pickups were the hottest. It does seem like Stevie was playing a Strat from those years. They definitely weren't hot compared to a modern high wind strap pickup. But they were the hottest out of the vintage range, pre CBS era. I think, as you stated, the bobbins also play a role. But I don't have a good understanding as to how much. I never felt like I had a terribly difficult time recreating clean Hendrix tones. A lot of it is in the left fretting hand (Jimi's right). But Mark Knopfler is a different story. I struggled to get those early Dire Straits Strat tones for years. Andy's Midrange Control really help me a lot. And contrary to Jimi, at lot of Marks tone is in the right picking hand (Jimi's left). At the end of the day, my main goal is to make and record music. I want tools that are inspiring but they also have to be simple and effective. This Mid Control totally fits the bill. Thanks for having a chat about all this. I could talk tone forever 😂🙌
@@TheSoundCoop Others get the John Mayer Scoop mid tone but turning the strat tone control to 7 to 8 and use a marshall blues breaker, boss blue driver, klon or tube screamer as a CLEAN mid Bump ( drive turned down close to zero ) This will give that mid scoop tone. Try it out and make a video lesson. The Black Bobbin 63 pickups are just the name of those types of pickups which I think they only made for a certain amount of months which I'm guess have a mid scoop winding specs which John Mayer copy and pasted in his PU specs.
@@TheSoundCoop The 63-64 pickups are hotter winding more wire means more copper which will roll off the high end but the pole pieces alloy materials can either be high inductance or low inductance which changes the Alnico magnets Q point resonant peak. So its not just about the hot winding specs the pole pieces also make a big differences. This is why SRV pickups have that trademark texas tone.
Nice mod, what does the little toggle switch above the 5 way
do?
It adds the Neck pickup to positions 1 & 2. It's how I run my 7 way switching. I go over it at the end of the video. There should be bookmarks to jump right to the spot. I go over the tones a little bit
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks
USEFUL!!!
Thanks for watching 🙌🏻
Literally my favorite color on a Strat
Thanks man! It's a beautiful guitar and I really lucked out! 🙌
Like, literally?
if I can't see the wood grain, make mine faded sonic blue!
The problem with the $90 price tag is that the raw materials are a dual balance pot & some caps, & perhaps a resistor or two...parts that cost anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars each, using a variable resistor & fixed value caps to simulate a variable capacitor.
To some extent, it is passively accomplishing what an active equalizer does. But, while it is somewhat effective, this is the sort of thing that can be manufactured overseas & imported for, maybe, $15 tops...thus, $90 is a 600% markup, about double that of a fair retail price.
As you mentioned, however, a passive circuit can only cut various frequency bands resulting in lower overall output...whereas an active equalizer is also a pre-amp, such that it can both cut & boost multiple bands to a greater or lesser extent, while maintaining or increasing output. Hence it is more versatile...and available for under $10.
Note, BTW, that the mid-range boost that is so highly touted, is actually a boost to the low & even the high "presence" bands, that lie between the actual mid-range & the treble bands. That this boost is so favored is why amp mfrs can add on $100 or more to an amp's price if it has a "presence" control...when, the cost to the mfr is, again, a balance control & a few cheap caps & resistors.
You're not alone regarding feeling like it's over priced. But for me, we have a larger problem. Not a single person wants to step up and undercut the current supplier. If this cost is so egregious, where is the market to sort this out?!? Personally, I don't have any interest in sourcing and building one of these myself. And apparently I'm not alone. No one else sees the massive opportunity and wants to step up to fill that void either. A few folks have come here claiming it's overpriced but don't want to step up and start manufacturing these themselves for something slightly less than a 600% markup 🤣 An even larger a number of people have come here claiming that this exact pot is available for cheaper from another manufacturer. Neither of these two camps has put up AT ALL. So, until someone wants to fill this void, $90 it is 🤷
Regarding the boost in this mod. It's 100% passive. YES, there are passive boosts. No 9 volt. No preamp. It doesn't actually affect lows and highs at all. It boosts exactly where it cuts which is 850 Hz.
I want that classic strat sound the mids ...i think that you jist need a fender amp to get that idk...
I'm going into a Fender Twin Reverb for this demo. Fender all the way 🙌🏻
what amp are you using with the strat mod.
It's a Fender Twin Reverb cranked up pretty loud. Two mic blend using a Sure SM 57 and a Sennheiser MD421.
Interesting.
It's a lot of fun. Thanks for checking out the video 🙌🏻
How would this work on an american ultra? I love the feel of the guitar but its a little too dark. Would this make it sound more like a traditional trat?
I'm not sure this would help combat a dark Strat. IMHO, a typical Strat is never dark. You'd probably want to just swap out the pickups if the current ones are too dark. But it really depends on what you mean by dark. Sometimes a guitar can be really bright but have a cloudy midrange, and people will call that dark. And conversely, if you take out all the highs, that can also be described as dark.
@@TheSoundCoop Thanks for the response. Im not sure what i mean myself to be honest, but it sounds a little different than other strats, even my classic vibe. I think its because its not a true single coil but a stacked single coil. Im wondering if this would let me adjust it to make it sound more like a typical strat.
@@mikeySHBK no worries. I'm always happy for a chat. To be totally transparent, I have Fender Vintage Noiseless pups in this. So unless I'm mistaken, those are also a stacked single coil. This Strat came with some Fat 50's pups. Aside from the noise, the main difference between sound is, the vintage Noiseless are ever so slightly more strident in the 1 to 3kHz range compared to the Fat 50s. This may just be an era thing though. The vintage noiseless pickups are sort of aiming for that early '60s sound. I believe '62 through '64 are the years that had the most winds of copper. Typically the '50s years have less winds of copper. I don't think the difference is staggering. But '64 Strats tend to be more strident than late '50s Strats. So to me, it makes sense that the Vintage Noiseless would be slightly more strident than the fat 50s in general. And I'm really nitpicking here. I know there are guys out there that lust over those early '60s Strats, and can really hear the difference between something vintage and the modern recreations. I'm not one of those guys. I'm not tuned into the sound enough, and I haven't had my hands on enough '50s and '60s Strats to really know what to listen for. But I would say if you don't like the pickups, just change them out. I do this pretty often. If I love the body and neck and fretboard, changing out pickups is a small thing. Once you get some pickups in there that you are really loving, then I would consider giving this mod a shot.
@@mikeySHBK You know another thing worth considering. I had these vintage noiseless pickups in an American Strat before I put them in this Custom Shop. I played that guitar for probably a decade and got to know it really well. I can tell you that moving that entire electronic setup out of that American Strat and putting it into this Custom Shop had a massive effect on the tone. I don't think the pickups actually changed. But I have a sneaking suspicion there's something about this Custom Shop guitar that affected the overall tonality in general, and subsequently affected the pickups. I really can't imagine anything about the body or neck is really having that large of an effect on the sound. The more and more I think about it, the more and more I wondered about the trem block. I'm pretty sure the block in my American Strat was an aftermarket one that I put in there. When I play my high E and B string on this Custom Shop I can actually hear the trem block resonating acoustically. These pickups were definitely a little honkier in the mid-range when they were in my American Strat. Moving them to this custom shop made them sound brighter, more articulate, and definitely less strident. If you feel like something is weird with the tone of your strat, it might be worth doing something like changing out the trem block for a different material and see if it helps anything. It might be a bit of a stretch, but they're relatively inexpensive. I always thought these vintage noiseless pickups were just a little bit darker sounding, but moving them to this Custom Shop guitar, they're actually a pretty typical Strat sound. There had to have been something else in that other guitar that was making it dark or strident.
@@TheSoundCoop yea thats definitely something im considering. To be honest i actually like the pickups, especially once i hit the push pull. Its just not that vintage sound. I also bought the 57/62 pickups so i might do a swap one day because the body on the american ultra is really comfy
Could this work with a tele? I have a 3 knob tele.
Absolutely would work great with any 3 knob setup, or even a traditional 2 knob Telecaster setup (provided you don't mind losing your high end roll off). I have one in my Bender Telecaster and it's killer!!! If your Tele is a 3 knob setup, then I'd use the exact pot I'm showing off in this video, which is the RG500D.
But even if you have a guitar that only has a single tone pot, or a Les Paul style setup where you have 2 volume and 2 tone... You can get the MTG pot instead of the RG500D. The MTG is a push/pull. In the normal position it's a typical high end roll off so you won't lose that. And then if you pull the pot up, you get the midrange scoop circuit. The MTG doesn't do the midrange boost like the RG500D. It only has the midrange cut. But this is still extremely helpful for P90, Humbucker or Filtertron style pickups that already have a thick midrange. The midrange boost isn't as helpful because those pickup types typically have plenty of midrange already. But the midrange scoop can help mellow out a Humbucker. It can make a Filtertron less muddy. And can make a P90 sound closer to a Strat or Tele.
I'm gonna drop a video in a week or so showing off the MTG in my Novo, with P90 pickup. Stay tuned to hear the midrange scoop with some darker/higher output pickups. And thanks for checking out the video 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop thank you for the info but I really love the mid boost! I’d want to make my tele thicker. Losing my tone knob is an interesting idea. Thanks.
No worries. How are the 3 pots in your Tele wired? 1 Volume, 2 Tone?
@@TheSoundCoop I added a middle pick up to my tele for strat in between tones! Brent Mason mod. So my tele is volume for neck and bridge, volume for middle and then tone.
Ok. Different than a Strat. A Strat has 1 Volume and 2 Tone. With only 1 tone knob in your guitar, if you got the RG500D you'd be sacrificing your high end roll off. The MTG would be a better option, but like we discussed, it doesn't have that midrange boost, which it seems like you mostly want. This Mod might not be a good option for you. Unless you feel like turning one of your Volume pots into a Tone pot?
Good video, but you should start every video with a short audio demo before getting into the techie stuff! Cheers!
I tried doing this in a previous video and YT Analytics was suggesting most people forwarded past it. I appreciate the feedback though.
All that to end up hearing "OH AH, it's an EQ pedal. Got it."
No pedals at all here. The Strat is going directly into a Twin Reverb
@@TheSoundCoop The end result -- just use an EQ pedal?
@@BeauregardHall I never said use an EQ pedal, and there's none being used in this video. If your point is "EQ is EQ", I suppose you're right. But why limit it to a tone pot or a pedal then? I can EQ on an amp. I can EQ with mic choice. I can EQ with hardware. I can EQ in my DAW. Personally, I find it super easy to do EQ at the source. If you'd rather bend over and EQ on a floor unit, fair enough. And if you're aware of a 1 knob EQ that's doing what this pot does, please link me. I'm absolutely down to try it.
Any thoughts on how this would go on a tele?
It's an absolute joy in a Telecaster. I've got one in my Bender Telecaster and I love it. I've also got a Series Mod in that Tele and this Tone Pot is really nice for mellowing out the Humbucker vibe. You keep the compression but lose some of the aggression. Really good for slide playing. If you decide to order one, send Andy an email. This video kinda blew up and he got swamped with his orders. He has them available but listed them as out of stock so he didn't get cleaned out by one buyer. If you email him he'll sell you one for now, and he's in the process of making a massive new batch.
@@TheSoundCoop thank you!
@@AlPolito you're welcome brother! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment 🙌🏻
The whole Clapton mid boost with TBX is only $55 on Amazon.
Are you so excited for that 9volt? I'd be curious to know if you can hide it in a control cavity without needing to route a place for it. If you build the kit, please report back and let us know how it goes 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop
Yes!! You Bettcha!@
@@TheSoundCoop
Getting my first electric and have already planned on this mod. Thx
I looked at the website and immediately i can see what can crack this case wide open. The mids pot has a little transformer on it. So, like the yamaha revstars passive boost, the transformer is interacting with the circuit that forms between the guitars pickups loading the amp input. Thats the not-too-technical solution to the mystery of how you can get a boost from a pot that we all learn is subtractive. Its cuz the pickups are a part of the circuit of the amplifier input section once a guitar is plugged in, and the wittle tranny is stepping up the voltage of the incoming guitar signal.
@myrnabrean I really appreciate you diving into this a little. My electronic engineering experience is limited to running a solder gun 😂 You're a legend for giving a more specific explanation for the magic in this tone pot.
@@TheSoundCoop glad i could help. I should post my video of the Freeway 10 position strat pickup selector for you. If a $90 pot doesn't bother you, you might entertain a $50 blade switch.
@@myrnabrean brother, I'm here for it. I just Subscribed to ya. If you decide to demo that Mod, please let me know. I'm all about trying new things. I'd love to check out a video 🙌🏻
@@TheSoundCoop quick demo posted, just clean tones...
@@myrnabrean dude, you're a legend!! Loving the tone in your video. I really appreciate you posting that up. The 10 way switch is ingenious. Popping it over into the next rung of 5 is super slick! Never even knew they made something like this 🙌🏻
Titanium saddles and even titanium string block add a somewhat mid scooped sound.
So what model mod did you use in this video.
I used the RG500D
@@TheSoundCoop ya my bad was in description.
Have srv switch but my strat sounds great without it
Mite keep srv n put this in as well.
N not have tone knob.
To be completely honest, I don’t really hear that much difference, but then again, you’re not playing another Stratocaster without the modification, and additionally, I am only hearing this through my I-Phone speakers, also.
Without another Stratocaster to gauge against, it is really difficult to judge whether there is a substantial gain from the modification. On most standard Stratocasters, when the switch is in the fourth position, the middle and neck pickup’s work together as a humbucker already, and also, in the second switch position, the bridge and middle pickup also act as a humbucker, as well. On several of my custom Stratocasters, however, since I have installed Gold Lace Sensors in the bridge position, the second switch position does not work as a humbucker, because the Lace Sensors are not a conventional magnetic pickup, which is why they are called a sensor.
Some of the newer high end Fender Stratocasters with the S-1 volume pots, are capable of adding in the neck pickup to the other switch settings that it normally would not be able to, which is useful for some applications.
I also have a Stratocaster with a switchable humbucker in the bridge position that enables me to get a standard Stratocaster sound as well as a more modern Stratocaster sound, it is wired conventionally except for a push-pull pot which was installed at the factory. I tend to run through a variety of equipment and multiple amplifiers simultaneously and am capable of producing just about any sound I like without this modification, but it was interesting to watch this video, and perhaps sometime in the future, I may experiment with this modification and test it next to another Stratocaster without to get a real sense of the worthiness or not of the modification.
Thank you for posting this video!
Please have an excellent and awesome day!
☀️✨🎸
Maybe I'm missing something but I don't really see the point of having another Strat, without this mod, to compare. This mod has a neutral position. When the pot is at 5, it's neutral, not doing ANYTHING. That's the control. The mod is only active when I turn the pot up above five or down below five. I hope that makes sense. If I'm missing something get at me and I'll be happy to clarify. Regardless, thanks for checking out the video. I really appreciate it 🙌
@@TheSoundCoop I trust it is a true bypass. Every thing you played sounded usable. Thanks Chris
There are many dynamics at this point in the tone chain.
My experience, is adding a pot attenuates signal. at 5 this device is supposed to be neutral. That is a magic.
An A:B with 'normal' strat is a reasonable idea.
Bridge pickup sounds much better.
Alright. Horses for courses 🤣
Passive controls can only cut, never add.
Absolutely not true. Proved it in this video. Unless you think I'm hiding a 9volt 🧐 And already been over this in another comment. This is typically covered on day 4 of Audio 101 🤣 Tons of passive EQ units with boosts. Pultec anyone? Several ways to go about it. You can cut at input to make passive headroom available by the amount cut at input. You can also use passive 'Q' settings to create boosts at LPF and HPF points.
Nice tone but a $3 pot for 90+ , a custom pot may cost ten bucks to have manufactured.
This is not just any pot, follow the link. Andy is for real.
@@grif900 A retail of $30 to $35 is profitable without gouging for a center detente and orange drop caps. I understand the space is hot post pandemic but the reasonable capitalist shall prevail.
@@ousley421 Griffin is 100% right. If you want a $3 Pot, then that's what you'll get. Alpha and Bourns make a decent pot for around $15, CTS for around $30. The one Nick is demoing has a custom sweep unlike your average Logarithmic/Linear/Audio taper, and he explains that in the video. Also 'detent' doesn't have an 'e' at the end (unless you're italian 😅)
@@matthewmorgenstern1556 I think of it as a nice item, however JHS makes amazing pedals that are much more expensive to manufacture at a comparable price point. Very nice pot, but still just a pot.
@@ousley421 That's your opinion and I respect that! 👍 I agree that this Pot's price point is not suited for you. I personally feel that comparing a JHS pedal to a Custom Pot mod is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Rock on brother!🤘🏻🤘🏻
you can get the same pot and not have to pay $90 FCS.. TBX? stack a few caps .. rig a no load... hefty price tag for a mid scoop, most amps can scoop the mids or any decent amp can do a decent job of this, pedal it up
Fair enough. Maybe it is a hefty price tag. But, I'll gladly pay the $90 to not have to figure out which caps, and how to stack them. Or how/why to rig a no load 🤣
Using an amps mid scoop just isn't the same. The EQ is downstream of the guitar hitting the amps front end. Adding and subtracting mid-range to push into the front end of your amp is totally different from EQing it out afterward. Plus, if you're a studio guy like me and your amp is sitting in another room, you can't just reach over and make adjustments.
You're completely correct, you could use an EQ pedal. The problem is, no variability. I can use my multi-band EQ pedal to dial in one specific amount of boost or cut. But I can't vary it without having to go down to the floor and adjust a bunch of frequency bands. This one knob job turnt one direction will variably scoop meds, well turnt the other direction will variably boost mids. I've yet to come across an EQ pedal this simple. And I definitely don't want to go to the floor every time I have to create variability.
In this one knob format, built directly into the guitar, I really haven't found anything else quite like it. I'll completely acknowledge it might not be for everybody.
imagine having a studio like that and not shooting in 1080p let alone 1440p
Sorry to let you down. I'm pretty much mainly an audio guy. I only got into video recently and this is my only second one. I shot my first video in 1080p at 30fps. And thought it looked choppy. Ended up preferring the 720 at 60fps better. But maybe it's just me. I can totally move back to 1080p.
@@TheSoundCoop This is the first time i’ve come across your channel so i did not know you were new to creating video form content. if you’re going to keep uploading videos i highly suggest you upgrade your camera because i dont wanna be rude but 720p is just unbearable in 2023. In fact i’ve only watched this video for 5 seconds before i clicked out because it was just intolerable. as i said i meant no disrespect, hope this feedback helps.
@@sarpneskihesap6808 you're not being rude. But I'll admit I don't see what you're seeing. What does unbearable mean? What kind of issue are you noticing with the 720p? Is it pixeld? Are you watching on a 4k monitor? It looks perfect clear on my phone and on my 70" TV. I'm mainly showing off a guitar Mod here. You could literally look at a black screen and still hear the Mod so I guess I just didn't see a point of highest possible def. The first video I put up was at 1080p. It's got about 700 views. This one in 720p has over 15k. I'm kinda assuming this means people don't really mind the definition if the focus is more audio based. I'm totally willing to consider a new camera. Any camera suggestions to shoot in 4k without having to spend $2,000 per camera? I'm not about to spend over 4k to upgrade my camera setup just to show off sounds 😂
Seems overpriced, cmon 90 bucks for a bunch of capacitors resistors and and inductor? My strat mods are way better. I created the next big thing. I won't rip you off.
Send links and I'll check it out. I've had a bunch of people say the same thing and none of them has put up. I'm here for it.......
Shhhh... demo please 😩
Timestamps available 😉
Who cares about a pot? I wanted to see the pink chrome guitar! Too bad its just a lighting trick. When it comes to tone controls for my guitar builds, I tend to favor having an on-board 7 band EQ in lieu of traditional tone controls.
Don't worry. Pretty soon I'm gonna convert this thing into an X5 experimental guitar 🤣
I hope that's a gender natural strat!
Brandon, Stratocasters are just a social construct...
Cool vid & an OK mod, but for me I like a master tone control + a Good treble bleed.🇬🇧
Am I just tripping? Doesn't a treble bleed live exclusive on the volume pot? I'm pretty sure you can have a treble bleed AND do anything to the tone pots, with little or no interference.
@@TheSoundCoop my Strat is a vintage Strat, as I’ve said with master volume & master tone. When the volume is turned down without a treble bleed nearly All treble is lost & the tone really sucks. By FAR the best versatile Strat I’ve ever tried is the Clapton Strat, but admittedly at a considerable cost. I personally think the middle pup on a Strat is the least usable, but that is of cause subjective. But having said that the middle is great in position 2 & 4. 🎸
I use the kingtone SRV TONE KNOB.
I'll have to check this out 🙌
You can’t add mids with a passive pot.
Absolutely not true, and somewhat silly to suggest. You can't add Gain with a passive pot. No extra Gain needed to achieve this effect. A guitar pickup is passive. Yet, when you wire two pickups together, the signal gets louder, AND darker. This is an extremely simple example to make the point. But if you want something more complex, just grab a passive EQ, and use the 'Q' on a LPF or HPF. This is a boost. It's frequently specific resonance (amplitude) from the EQ filters. Totally passive. There are lots of ways to add frequencies without gain. Phase and polarities are two obvious places to start. Admittedly, I don't know exactly how Andy achieves it with this pot, but it's silly to imply it can't be done. People across the world do this daily in recording studios.
@@TheSoundCoop By definition passive controls can only CUT, not boost. The only way a frequency can be ‘boosted’ with a passive pot is by reducing other frequencies.
@@TheSoundCoop and boosting a frequency IS increasing amplitude. It’s increasing amplitude at that frequency. Again, a passive pot cannot increase amplitude.
@@johnbuell8035 I'll guess I'll just tack this up to a lack of experience on your end. Or maybe we're just nitpicking about terminologies here. Bottom line, you can absolutely stack passive capacitors, inductors and resistors, in series, to adjust how the frequency spectrum responds. Just like stacking more copper in a pickup or wiring two together in series. As I stated in the video, you don't get extra gain or volume. It's just a passive EQ. Any added amplitude comes from resonance at the EQ cut off filters. Secondarily you can get amplitude increases from subtractive EQ when it decreases frequency specific phase cancelation.
@@johnbuell8035 it might be worth looking into an Audio 101 class. It's been 15 years since I took mine but increases in amplitude post passive EQ is covered almost immediately. Here is a simple way to think about it.
If you think about a bunch of different‑frequency tones all playing at the same time, their phase relationships vary continuously and add to or cancel each other to create the total waveform. Remove some of those tones and some of those cancellations won't occur. That can result in the waveform becoming bigger and having more amplitude in specific frequency ranges. Stack caps, inductors and resisters in series and you can really manipulate amplitude via frequency filtering.
Take a LPF tone pot for instance. Plug your guitar into an amp, dial it in for edge of breakup. Now turn down the LPF tone pot on your guitar all the way down. Notice how your amp is now distorting more than just edge of breaking despite losing all the high end frequencies? Why? Simple. The frequency filters create resonance at the cut off locations. This resonance will pump amplitude at specific frequency. Not broad band full frequency gain. Rather, frequency specific resonance. The 'Q' on a LPF or HPF is very similar. You're not adding gain. You're adjusting the resonant peak. Which adds frequency specific amplitude.
I hope that helps ya a little 🙌