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Post subject: Stratocaster Pro Wiring?
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:23 pm
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Anyone have pics of the wiring on a Strat Pro? Just got one off ebay, it plays amazing, but someone has messed with the electrnics. I know its supposed to have the greasebucket circuit, but not sure what is going on in there now. I ordered some 69's to put in, and now I can't decide what kind of wiring I want to do with it. Might just do a blender and a master vol and master tone. Any thoughts, ive never done this mod? If anyone has pics of what it is supposed to look like under the hood of a strat pro, it would be greatly appreciated. Its a 2005 model, although i didnt think they started producing these until 2006?


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Pro Wiring?
Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:18 am
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keithb1252 wrote:
Anyone have pics of the wiring on a Strat Pro? Just got one off ebay, it plays amazing, but someone has messed with the electrnics. I know its supposed to have the greasebucket circuit, but not sure what is going on in there now. I ordered some 69's to put in, and now I can't decide what kind of wiring I want to do with it. Might just do a blender and a master vol and master tone. Any thoughts, ive never done this mod? If anyone has pics of what it is supposed to look like under the hood of a strat pro, it would be greatly appreciated. Its a 2005 model, although i didnt think they started producing these until 2006?


A Grease Bucket circuit is not unique to just this model Strat. The Support section here will have other Strat models with this wiring for your perusal.

Personally, and I would presume that there are many who would disagree, your best bet is the master volume/tone blender pot. Remember though, that blender pot has to be a no-load pot.

With the CS 69 trio and the ability to have the neck and bridge pickups on at the same time, you'll surely mimic a nice, traditional Tele sound out of your Strat.

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Post subject: reply
Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:37 pm
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Yeah i just noticed that the highway one upgrade has the greasebucket. Truth be told i was gonna try and get this thing back to stock and sell it, but after playing it a while I think im gonna have to keep her. I've always liked one vol and one tone, and it looks to be a pretty easy schematic to follow. Ive seen a few diagrams that throw a "volume kit" on the vol pot, which looks like just a small cap and a resistor. Maybe a .001 cap and a 1/4 watt resistor? Would a treeble bleed here be about the same thing? Thanks for your help


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Post subject: Re: reply
Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:43 pm
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keithb1252 wrote:
Yeah i just noticed that the highway one upgrade has the greasebucket. Truth be told i was gonna try and get this thing back to stock and sell it, but after playing it a while I think im gonna have to keep her. I've always liked one vol and one tone, and it looks to be a pretty easy schematic to follow. Ive seen a few diagrams that throw a "volume kit" on the vol pot, which looks like just a small cap and a resistor. Maybe a .001 cap and a 1/4 watt resistor? Would a treeble bleed here be about the same thing? Thanks for your help


A few clarifications: What is commonly referred to as a, "treble bleed" circuit in reality is a treble retention circuit. In electronics, to 'bleed' is to wire something to ground. The phrase was distorted because people began to say, this circuit allows the treble to still 'bleed through' at lower volumes. But I digress:

As you know, when you lower a volume pot, along with the volume, frequency response from the pickup decreases as well. This combination of resistor and capacitor retain the treble frequencies when the volume is decreased as if the volume pot was still on '10'. There are two drawbacks here: 1) This circuit makes the volume pot act erratically and 2) With moderate output, single coil pickups, it makes them sound outright tinny.

This treble retention circuit was designated specifically for humbuckers as HBs can really turn to mud when their volume is decreased in many instances. Essentially, the more powerful the humbucker, the worse it sounds when the volume is backed off. As you can see, this circuit does have its place and usefulness in certain situations.

Fast forward: Somewhere along the line, when the HSS and HSH combos started coming on the scene hard and heavy, this circuit showed up in these guitars because the HBs were really powerful and the contrast to the single coil frequency wise, was like being on two different planets when their volume was decreased and/or teamed with a single coil. Also, if it wasn't there, the pots among themselves would be mismatched as both couldn't serve a single coil or HB properly. Here too, the featured pickup was the HB where it was presumed that the single coil would either be for rhythm or blending because of it's radical decrease in volume from the HB which in essence, would mean that the volume would be on '10' when the single coil was selected and not an issue. So, the pot rating better suited for a HB won out in all cases.

Fast forward even more: As you may expect, this circuit started finding its way into single coil guitars with extremely powerful pickups because they would have output power akin to a humbucker. Consequently, here too, there is validity to the treble retention circuit.

The bottom line and at the risk of being redundant: If your guitar only has moderate output single coils, not only is this treble circuit a waste of time but it will make your guitar sound and respond downright awful.

Why do some of the, "biggies" install it if it is inappropriate? Because it's yet another gimmick uninformed players feel they must have and for literally about 10 cents in parts, guitar manufacturers can tack on at least $100 to the price of the guitar by adding this circuit to it and of course, giving it a fancy name.

And let's not forget too, it is such a simple mod that many, many hack guitar techs can oftentimes install this circuit, thus making money while inducing the recipient with a, "Placebo Effect" and how just like food and water, said recipient surely cannot live without it.

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