Hey Ya'll,
Just tossing a thought out here to the wind to see which way it blows...

As I've been messing with a couple of my "projects" lately, I had another of those silly little thoughts occur to me. One of the beautiful things about "Strats" is that they are so modular and rather easy to customize. I know there's some folks out there who will buy a Strat "off the rack" and will never do anything to it other than play it but there are a lot of us who do often make changes to our instruments to personalize them a bit. Arguably, one of the first things that a number of us tend to do is change the pickups...particularly on less expensive instruments such as MIM's or even Squiers. Even on higher end instruments though, sometimes people want a "heavier" sound or simply a sound other than the stock pickups can provide. It's not that the stock pickups always sound "bad"...although often that can be the case...it's just that often we want something different. I think the number of companies that make pickups...and the various lines of pickups from those companies easily proves this. Duncans, DiMarzio, EMG, Lace, Fralin, and even the large assortment of pickups available from Fender...Fat 50's, Custom Shop 69's, Vintage Noiseless, Samarium Cobalts, Tex Mex, and so on. Lot's of us just LOVE to change our pickups!

That said, while soldering isn't really that difficult for most people, how about creating something like an "industry standard" connector instead? I could see this as having a number of advantages... From the manufacturing side of things, this would have to be a bit more efficient...and perhaps even faster than soldering. The person assembling the pickguard assemblies would just "snap" the pickups into a selector switch wiring harness and that harness could then be snapped in to the jack. This wouldn't alleviate soldering all together but it could make things a bit faster. Certainly this would also be better than issues such as "cold soldering joints" that can and do occur in the manufacturing process. In addition, I don't think these little connectors would really be all that much more expensive than the soldering process...they could even be less expensive considering what I said above (a $.10 connector and a moment to snap them together vs. the cost of skilled labor or high priced computerized equipment)...although I certainly haven't researched that. Obviously for those of us who do change our pickups...sometimes frequently in that all so vain effort we call the "quest for the perfect tone"...this would certainly make things just a bit easier as well.

Auto makers have been using such devices for years so I would think that if they will hold up to the rigors of an automobile, they should certainly hold up well on a guitar that's not subject to the same kind of heat, stress, etc.. I also think that if Fender were to do this, many of the other pickup manufacturers again such as Duncan and so forth would quickly follow suit. For that matter, Fender (or someone) could even offer an easy "upgrade" connector that could be used on older instruments.

Now before someone says it...yea...I could easily go to Radio Shark myself and devise such a thing for my own use. However, it would be so much easier if this was something directly from the factory. Good for the factory...good for the customers...what more could anyone ask for? I'm sure that someone will find some negatives with this idea but at the very least, it could be an idea worth exploring.

Like I said...just tossing an idea out to the wind there...

Peace,
Jim

I could see some advantages also, but some pickups are wired completely different, so I cant see how it could work with every application. I'd be curious to see what some guitar techs and luthiers would have to say about the idea. With something like that it would speed up production at the factory, so I'm sure there must be an abundance of reasons why they don't do that.

This subject was discussed over at the Duncan forum as well. Most responses were negative. And as someone stated there would be problems to overcome one of which is a standard wiring scheme.

You'd be paying for that capability.

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Exactly. I dont see why those who dont swap out pick-ups would be enthusiastic about the price premium either. Ive only recently justified the current ones.

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This is something that I wondered about also,It makes sense to me that in 1954 all the connections had to be hard wired and that off the shelf pots and switches had to be used. But lets examine what has happened since the,The Stratocaster has sold in the millions and Fender surly could have the pot and switch suppliers make what ever they want for the same price as the existing components.It appears to me that production could save sometime wiring the Strat and component switching would be a breeze,I like the fact that these guitars are made in the same manner as the originals .but the blind worship of something that was done for practical reasons over fifty years ago is not the best way just a way,I believe that Mr Fender would probably agree,What do you think,all responses welcome.cheers

I think it is an interesting idea whose time has long since come.

Personally, I think the expense isn't worth the perceived convenience. There would be excessive lengths of wire all over the guitar as you couldn't trim the wires down to appropriate size without removing and/or resoldering the contacts and above all, if one is adept with soldering, these contacts wouldn't save any time any way. YMMV.

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You dig?

Well, in regards to Duncan's specifically, yea...I could see where this could be a bit of an issue. With pickups such as the Rails and such which are actually humbuckers in a single coil package, certainly a lot of folks want that coil splitting option...even if they don't actually use it.

That said, I would think the "high IQ boys" in R&D could still come up with something like this. Obviously, a "normal Strat" already has a "standard wiring scheme"...3 pickups typically wired to the switch in a specific way. This is what some folks feel, make's a Strat a "Strat". Even with a large number of the aftermarket pickups, this still wouldn't change. More over, I would think that using a larger connector of some kind...something that has the options built in for those extra wires for coil splitting...seems like it would be ideal.



That is very likely a sad and unfortunate truth. To me it does seem typical of the corporate mentality to take something that saves them a little bit of money and then charge extra for it as a "new & improved" feature.

That said, if they were actually smart about it, it's something they could do during a yearly design change along with a typical price hike. Take this last year for example...Fender did that 30% price hike across the board. They could have snuck something like this in to the assembly process on all of their instruments (certainly this would work for Teles and even basses as well...a lot of those folks like to change their pickups too). I'm sure some folks would probably grumble about it but as we saw here on these forums, people griped about the price hike anyways.



Yes...my point exactly. Look at amps as a good example...yes, back in those days they did all the amps with the "point to point" soldering etc., because that's how things were done back then. Now a days however, except for a few "special" models that a few people make, most of the time most companies, including Fender, use printed circuit boards and such. Amps kept up with modern manufacturing technologies but for some reason, the guitars didn't in this specific area.

I completely agree with you in that Leo was one smart cookie and if he had of known of a way that make things easier...both for the factory as well as the musician...and it saved him a few pennies in the process without sacrificing any quality, he certainly would have jumped on it...in a heart beat.

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for this but personally I think that's something that Fender has really lost sight of over the years...their founders vision towards innovation and his ability to listen to the musicians he served. I know I've read in a few places how back in the "old days" Leo and others in the early Fender hierarchy would go to clubs and such and talk to working musicians using Fender products...get their thoughts and opinions on what worked, what didn't and what still needed to be done. I think that back around '85 when Fender bought themselves out from CBS again that there may have been a little effort to recapture this spirit but in recent years with Fender having become the corporate monster that they have...between the on going quest for "higher profits" and their pursuit of "global domination"...I really feel as though they have really lost interest in "the little guy" who in fact make up the bulk of their business.

I also agree with you in regards to the issue of some people's attitudes towards "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I can certainly understand that attitude to some degree but not to the point of being anally retentive about it. For some reason, this attitude really seems quite prevalent in the musician mentality. Take microphones for example...a lot of people will still use nothing but a Shure SM57/58 in certain applications because they believe (or have been told) it's the "industry standard". That's all fine and dandy but in this case, they won't even look at other comparable microphones...and technology has come a LONG way since the 58's came out and there are a number of much better mics out there for the same price. People will get a bug up their butts and say things like "Well, that's what so and so always used" so they aren't even willing to consider some other way of doing things that may actually work better.



Anyways...again just blowing some wind here. Ultimately I'm sure that nothing will come of it. Just nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

Peace,
Jim

Hhmmm...I'm not really sure how there would be excessive lengths of wire really. I wouldn't think you would need to use that much more wire for a connector than you would with the way things are done now. The only thing I could really see being affected in that regards would be the aftermarket pickups where they often tend to give you gobs of extra wire which of course does need to be trimmed. That said, with most (if not all) Strats for example, the distance from say the neck pickup to the switch (or the propsed wiring harness) is virtually the same from one Strat to another...even between Fenders and Squiers and even the off brands. This would simply mean that instead of a long pig tail at the end, the aftermarkets would need to be a little more precise if they were to include this snap on connector. Of course, it's also quite possible that someone could come up with a connector that could be put on the wires easily after they were cut to fit.

I think it's also possible that they...the R&D folks...could even look at doing a complete over-haul on the way guitars are wired. Instead of trying to use this connector with switches that they use now, maybe design a new switching system to work with this over-all concept so that the connector just plugs right into the switch. In this case, the connector could even facilitate the extra connections for things like coil splitting so that future upgrades would be easier as well.

The only downside I really see (so far at least) is the mentality issue. Some folks "like" doing things the way they've always been done...and some times that means doing things the hard way. For example, some people will believe that the traditional point to point wiring will have an affect on things like "tone"...whether it's true or not, some people will believe it (look at the trem cover thread for example...doy! LOL!). I think that thoughts on traditionalism are going to be harder to over come than any practical manufacturing concerns.

Now as to the soldering issue...there I have to flat out disagree with you. I've been doing soldering for a great many years now so I would consider myself fairly "adept" at doing it...perhaps not as much as some, but certainly more so than others. If we're going straight to the switch, we're talking about de-soldering the old pickup wires...6 of them, properly cleaning those contact then soldering on 6 new wires. Even if we're just talking about "snipping wires" and then soldering them together with a little blurb of electrical tape to cover the connection, this still takes a little bit of time. This versus a second or two to snap a connector together? I'm sorry but I would really have to believe that even for someone adapt at soldering, the connector would be -A LOT- faster. Again I'm talking about something not terribly dis-similar to those quick locking connectors used in automotive applications...or even some of the newer type connectors found on computers (aka USB connectors for example or the little dohickys used for connecting the audio of the CD to your soundcard). It takes what? A whole 1 or 2 seconds to snap one of these things together? It takes longer than that for your soldering iron to heat up! LOL!!! I have one of the big 150 watt "guns" and it still takes longer than that to come up to temperature.

Further, in terms of aftermarket installations, this assumes that anyone who changes their pickups is going to be adept at soldering in the first place. Sure, there's folk like you and me who have been doing this for years and years and have put pickups in dozens and dozens of guitars and have soldered hundreds of things around the house...including the family cat (sorry...j/k). I'm sure there's even a few folks who may have worked in a production environment who could do something like this with their eyes closed. However...is that really indicative of the average guitar player who may simply be looking for a bit of a different sound out of their instrument? Maybe someone who has a high end Squier or even an MIM Standard who just wants a better sound out of the guitar? Truthfully there are people who really don't know which end of a screw driver they're supposed to hang on too...such a person is certainly going to fumble with a soldering iron and I think the number of people like this tend to out number those of us who do have a little more experience!

On this note, I would think this would be another selling point for this system I'm proposing...it would make it easier for virtually anyone to change their pickups. Obviously I have no "market research" on this but I think it's a safe bet that there's probably quite a few people out there who have never changed their pickups because...well...they don't know how. Magnets...wires...switches...that's some really scary stuff for some people. Yea, you can take it to a "qualified tech" but that can be expensive (on top of the expense of decent pickups which can run upwards of $200 or more)...I'm sure there's at least a few folks who wouldn't want to pay the extra $50 to $100 or more for a tech to do it. Then of course there's simply the issue of finding a "qualified tech" to begin with...it's kind of hard standing there at the counter to know if said person is going to butcher your prized instrument...even if it's a cheap prized instrument! That said, such a person may be more inclined to buy those new, expensive aftermarket pickups if they were actually -easy- to install. Seems like a pretty good selling point to me


Not trying to start an argument with ya here Martian and I do respect your opinion but I happen to disagree with you here.

Peace,
Jim

If anything would ever happen on this front, and I seriously doubt it, it would be handled by a group of pickup manufacturers.

That I absolutely agree with. As I said from the start, just tossing the idea out to the wind to see which way it would blow. If nothing else, it get's the idea out of my own head so I can carry on with my life! LOL!

L8r,
Jim

I think the only thing holding this back is guitarists resistance to change. As someone who has worked on military grade electronics in the past, it seems so archaic. It would open up new levels of customization and expansion to those who would not attempt it otherwise.

Lomitis you can get plug and play harness already from Kinman as you described. Heres the link to them.
http://www.kinman.com/Shop/harnesses_stratprod.htm

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