Hello,
Ronald from Canada and I am new to the Fender Forum.
After years of playing acoustic instruments: guitar and mandolin I have finally decided to purchae an electric guitar ,Fender by choice.
I am looking at a Stratocaster American Deluxe Hss, ( it seems the best of both worlds as pickups go).
I notice that in the s-1 switching system there is mention of parallel and series connection .
What exactly does this mean and how does it affect the sound.
Since I will have a lot more questions pertaining to the model or models please let me know if this is the right place to ask or if I should contact Fender guitars directly although I could not find an E- mail on the site pertaining to questions prior to purchase.
Ronald
Canada

Ronald, i think the answer to your question could fill a book.

If you are near a major center, you should make a trip to Long and mcQuade, and try one out. your ears will tell you better than we can explain in print.

Here's Fender's info page anyway.
http://www.fender.com/products/s1/

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

The S-1 switching set up (briefly) lets you run one side of the bridge humbucker and various other pickup combinations so that you have more tonal options available. I have it on mine and enjoy it.

MIA all the way!

_________________
"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Pickups are like little AC generators. A single coil pickup typically has the hot/+ connected to the guitar output+ to drive the amp, and the cold/- side connected to ground/amp grnd. You can have several single coils wired this way at the same time and all will contribute to the resultant overall tone 'individually' - this is parallel, and is typical Strat wiring, with the 5-way switch picking what coils you want to hear (what coils have their hot/+ connected to the output+).

The humbucker in the bridge postion is sort of like 2 single coils, but normally wired in series; the hot/+ of the 1st coil connects to the volume&output jack, the cold/- of the 1st coil connects to the hot/+ of the 2nd coil, and the output/- of the 2nd coil to ground. If the same humbucker was wired in parallel, each coil could contribute to the the overall tone separately as described above. The output signal in parallel is not as loud, & may be a bit brighter then a stock 'in series' HB, where the one coil builds directly on top of the other coil's signal. On a side note HBs are humbucking due to the wiring and polarity of the individual coils (opposite each other - cancels noise - RWRP).


The S1 will allow 'you' to mix the top coil of the HB in various series and parallel combinations with the other single coil pickups, and also do the same with the whole 'in series' humbucker (mix it in with the single coils). It could also provide some noise canceling options if the coils selected were RWRP.

Since the bridge pickup is typically brighter sounding then a middle, which is brigher then a neck pup, you can decide to mix in a little warmer signal from the middle pup instead of the lower half of the HB. Or make the signal louder by having the different coils in series instead of parallel. Or make the tone from the neck and middle pups a little brighter by adding in the HB, or part of it!

I like the S1 on My Dlx SSS.

See this layout, it will show the different combinations possible!

http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/ ... 02APg4.pdf