My favorite Fender is the Jimmie Vaughan Strat. I own two of them. My main guitar has the tex-mex pickups -I love this sound. For the second guitar I have purchased a set of Texas Special pickups since I also love the sound of the Mark Knopfler Strat. My question is as follows:

Recommendations for tone circuit wiring when installing the Texas Specials.
Should I leave the middle pickup wide open like the Jimmy Vaughan Strat or change it to the more conventional circuit with the bridge pickup wide open?

Should I use the stock cap or change it? If so, what value cap?

I play blues, swing, surf, some rock, and a lot of stuff from the 40's 50's & 60's.

Amps= Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb with my original (first one-purchased for $29 new) Tube Screamer-no other effects.

My new toy is a Fender G-Dec 3 30 which appears to be a lot of fun-

What else can I say- I'm an old analog guy who playd in the 60's and 70's
who is trying the digital thing. Any suggestions will be apprecated. Thanks
Markrider

Hi markrider,

I think that JV got it right, tone control on bridge, middle wide open, that's how I like mine. Some like the tone control on the middle and not the bridge. That is a simple matter of moving the wire coming from the tone pot to the next lug over on the selector switch. Some even like both bridge and mid to have the tone control, which would mean a jumper wire between the two lugs on the switch. But, having the tone control on both will mean that you have both tone controls in the circuit in position 4 of the switch, which means a little less output in that position.

I think that the stock cap will be just as good with the Tex Spcls as it is with the Tex Mex. I have the Tex Mex in my RW 60s and agree that they are great pickups.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I would suggest you try a Paper and oil capacitor......



there quite cheap and fine improvement.

Link....
http://cgi.ebay.com/Single-022uf-630v-Soviet-Military-PIO-Guitar-Capacitor-/300340105900?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item45edaa52ac

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Tone is a personal choice. Although I have my tone controls set up on bridge and neck (using the Greasebucket circuit) and the middle wide open, what sounds good to me may sound like crap to you. I suggest you try the different configurations and select which one you prefer the most.

I am not a believer in the "sound" of a capacitor. I use orange drops simply because they are readily available and cheap.

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Bill

I used an orange drop cap on a MIM Classic Esquire (I installed a neck pickup- that cap sounded great when I backed off the treble- Thanks for your help.
Markrider

Orange drop caps make a tremendous difference in a Les Paul's tone so I imagine that you'd get similar results with a Strat.The only mod I'd ever consider doing on my Jimmie Vaughn is to change the tone circuit to the old original neck,middle pickup setup.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I have my Strat with Texas Specials wired sort of like a Jimmie Vaughan Strat. Except instead of being wide open the middle pickup shares a pot with the neck. But either way, I think it's critically important to have a tone pot devoted to the Texas Special bridge pickup. Sometimes you're going to want to take the twanginess down a knotch.

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To get Knopfler wiring have the thing wired exactly the same as a vintage strat. No tone control to the bridge, middle pickup same wind/same polarity as the bridge and neck.
That will give you what I hear as far better inbetween sounds and an instant boost when switching to the bridge pickup for lead. Never thought the no tone control middle sounded the same. The high end is too tamed in the bridge/middle position and too much in the neck/middle.
Strats lose a lot (not just hum) from that opposite wind/polarity middle pickup. I'd rather have the hum and a good sounding guitar. Bit of hum never stopped anyone worth listening to from playing one, did it?