New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

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IMOCD
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New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

Post by IMOCD »

Afternoon :wave: . One of the reasons I recently switched from g&l to a custom build:wink: was so I could use a standard strat pickguard as g&l tribute pickguards are a bit of a nightmare to source.
The plan being, so I can have a few pickguards pre-wired in differing configurations, allowing me to change them over with minimal hassle when I feel like a different flavor - a good way to use up those spare pickups.
I have a set of Harmonic Design Z90's that I'm wanting to use in a Z90 - strat single coil - Z90 config. At the moment thinking a 5 way with the following configuration:

1. Bridge
2. Bridge and middle
3. Neck and bridge
4. Middle and neck
5. Neck

Master volume with neck and middle on tone control 1 and bridge on tone control 2.
Would I need a resistor across the middle pickup as the Z90's will need to see 500k?

Would also be nice to have push-pull allowing me to add neck/middle and bridge/middle in series. Although, this may sound like shite. Thoughts on this?
Is it possible to make this setup hum cancelling?

Anyhoos, I can solder but not very cleanly, and this is a complex job for my skill level. So...... next question, anyone keen to take this on for me???

Happy to pay cash or have a few pedals here to choose from as an alternative payment: Caline Ocean Blue delay, Caline Blue Sky OD or Mooer Trelicopter.

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olegmcnoleg
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Re: New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

Post by olegmcnoleg »

You will need a super switch, just like the one on your new Strat, and wired almost identically.

For some hum canceling, you will need one of the pickups to be reverse wound / reverse polarity. Probs best to go with the middle pickup. (But if you have an HD P90 set, you may find one of them is already reversed—check this first). The easiest way to do this is with a compass!

Or, if all the pickups have the same polarity, you could buy the Suhr noise cancelling backplate—if you really are OCD ;-)

Harmonic design P90s are a wonderful choice BTW. The ones I had worked fine with 250k pots (I thought)

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robthemac
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Re: New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

Post by robthemac »

I don't think it'll be possible to get hum-cancelling in all of positions 2-4 without noiseless pickups or the aforementioned Suhr system. I'd choose which of those positions you would use the least, and then make those two pickups normally wound and the other pickup reverse wound. I almost never use the neck+bridge combo (despite my Strat being wired so that I can), so I'd personally for for the middle pickup reverse wound as Oleg suggested.
Jops wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:46 am Spring is the comic sans of reverbs anyway.

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olegmcnoleg
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Re: New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

Post by olegmcnoleg »

robthemac wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:02 pm I don't think it'll be possible to get hum-cancelling in all of positions 2-4 without noiseless pickups or the aforementioned Suhr system. I'd choose which of those positions you would use the least, and then make those two pickups normally wound and the other pickup reverse wound. I almost never use the neck+bridge combo (despite my Strat being wired so that I can), so I'd personally for for the middle pickup reverse wound as Oleg suggested.
Yes, you cannot get all positions to hum cancel with those single coil pickup choices. If the bridge were a humbucker, you could :-)

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Re: New strat configuration - advice and soldering skills required

Post by robthemac »

olegmcnoleg wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:21 pm
robthemac wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:02 pm I don't think it'll be possible to get hum-cancelling in all of positions 2-4 without noiseless pickups or the aforementioned Suhr system. I'd choose which of those positions you would use the least, and then make those two pickups normally wound and the other pickup reverse wound. I almost never use the neck+bridge combo (despite my Strat being wired so that I can), so I'd personally for for the middle pickup reverse wound as Oleg suggested.
Yes, you cannot get all positions to hum cancel with those single coil pickup choices. If the bridge were a humbucker, you could :-)
But.... you'd have to have a humbucker in the bridge.
Jops wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:46 am Spring is the comic sans of reverbs anyway.

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