Hey, how is the HB wired on the HW One Strat?

Before I change anything I'd like to know. It's a tad too bright for me. I was wondering if possibly the humbucker was wired with the coils in parallel? It should be in series, but I just thought I would ask you long time Strat fans.

If it is indeed wired in series then what would you guys suggest for a warmer, and preferrably low output pickup.

I'm open also to combining the middle with the bridge, wired in series, like the S switch does when it is pushed in.

Reason I want this is, I already have a Deluxe SSS Strat and I love the tone in the 1st position with the S switch in (Bridge and middle in series) And since one of the 2 pickups is in the middle it has a lower tone.

I want to get closer to this tone so that I can switch guitars during a set and not have to change eq settings

Try moving the middle pickup tone control to the bridge pickup. This should help you tame the bridge as well as open up your middle pickup.

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2004 American Deluxe V-Neck Strat w/Kinman Blues
2007 American Deluxe Tele w/Kinman Broadcasters
Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic 2X12
Fender Cyber-Twin SE

The HB is wired in series.

Now depending on it's age, that HW1 HSS could be wired so that one coil is grounded out when you put the selector switch in the Bridge/Middle position.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Hmmmm, It's an '08. Do you think this one is wired that way?

The most recent diagram on Fender's site shows the 2 extra wires jioned like normal on a 4 wire HB, not attached to anything.

TRhe more I think about it, should it sound as bright as it does, since it probably has a 250k vol pot?

I think I'm going to look under the hood

I have an older one that's wired that way (the same way as the MIM Standard Fat Strat), but yours isn't (at least according to the current diagram, which you found).

I found that I like that feature: where in the bridge/middle position it turns off one of the humbucker's coils and puts the two resulting single coils into humbucker mode!



The two wires not attached to anything are the wires that put the humbucker's coils in series.

Yes, please do check under your hood!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

That would be cool My '06 Deluxe does that, except they're both singles. But yea, I like the tone of the rear and middles combined in series.
I haven't looked under the pickguard yet but I've been listening to the change in tone on position 1 and 2. It sounds like it's both HB coils both positions.

I'm on the fence about it. I can either
a. Change the wiring to the way yours is wired.
b. change the bridge pickup and possibly wire it like yours.
c. Buy a new set of pickups (scn) and pickguard (SSS) and go from there with a completely custom wiring job

Here's what that wiring diagram looks like:

Click Here

This will give you the general idea of how Fender shorts out one coil of the humbucker when switched into the Bridge/Middle position.

You can't really tell the colors of the wires humbucker, which goes where. The single coils of your Highway One may have different polarities than the ceramics of the MIM Standard Fat Strat in diagram so you may need to figure out which coil is which and which one you need to short out to get the appropriate hum cancelling. Good Luck! Got a magnet and a multimeter?

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

depends on age

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Squire Strat
Jasmine Takamine
Cherry Red American Standard Strat