Recommended Strat Pickup Rewiring

[baronedo]

I recently purchase a set of Kinman FV HMS pups and they are great. However, a secondary bonus was two wiring changes provided by Kinman that I highly recommend.

 

The first is the treble bypass filter modification on the volume pot. This neat little mod involves installing a .0012uF capacitor and 130K 1/4 watt resistor in series across the volume pot (see the kinman wirogram on the link below but NOTE that Kinman advised me that they incorrectly labeled it as a .0012mF capacitor instead of .0012uF). This eliminates treble loss when you turn the volume knob down on your Strat or any brand guitar for that matter. This is a common problem which is nicely cured.

 

The second mod is called the "Modified wiring for Neck pickup mix control and master tone control". This mod is really neat and basically converts the first tone control pot (i.e. the middle pot) into a master tone control for all pups (you only need one tone control anyway) and very importantly, you replace the rear 250K tone control pot with a either a 500K or 1 Meg pot (1 Meg is preferred) and rewire it slightly to make it function as neck pup blender/mix pot. With the new 1meg tone pot set full on 10, the 5 way pup switch functions as a standard Strat ( i.e. position: 1 neck, 2 neck-mid, 3 mid, 4 mid-bridge, & 5 bridge). However, if you back down the last pot, you get some wonderful new combinations as this pot will then progressively blend the neck pup with the other pups selected with the 5 way switch. Notably in position 4 you get a blend of all 3 pups, and in position 5 you get the neck and bridge pups which closely mimic a Tele sound.

 

Incidentally, Kinman provides a capacitor and resistor with their pups for the treble by pass mod but you can buy these for $1 to $2 from an electronics store. I bought the 1 Meg tone pot for $4. For $6 or $7, you can greatly enhance your Strat without changing its external appearance.

 

I highly recommend these totally non-surgical modifications to all Strat users. I also highly recommend Kinman's pups. These are noiseless SINGLE COILS (not humbuckers) which give you a higher quality Strat tone without the noise. The Kinman people also patiently answer any questions you have via overnight email and give you great customer service and are a pleasure to deal with. Check out the link below for wiring details.

 

http://www.kinman.com/html/toneWorkshop/tone.htm#WIROGRAMS

[baronedo]

Has anyone tried any of these pup wiring mods? If so, I would appreciate your feedback.