I put a set of Custom Shop Texas Special™ Stratocaster® Pickups in an MIM Strat for a friend. I went with the wiring diagram that came with the pups, but I did add some grounds. We used orignal Fender pots for tone and CTS for volume. They all say CTS on the back. I used a .047uf tone cap.

The grounds that I added weren't shown in the Fender diagram, but were on the Seymour Duncan pup diagram that I downloaded. I grounded the backs of all of the pots together and ran a ground wire from the back of one of the pots to the trem claw.

We also used Stewmac copper shielding tape for the cavities and there is very little noise. But when I turn the tone knob down the volume shut off. It does this for all pups. Is that normal? I'm more of a Les Paul guy and I have not worked on Strats much.

Thanks for your help.

No it shouldn't do that, your wiring may be wrong, can you post a photo?

Sorry, my friend took his guitar home so I don't know when I''l be able to take a picture of it.

The guitar is clearly wired wrong. Without photos, any suggestions for a fix would be highly speculative.

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Bill

What happens when you wind the volume down? Does it happen on the front tone only?
What you suggest is not normal. Did you wire the volume and tone back to front and the tone pot is acting like the volume pot would?

I wired the front pot for volume and the back two pots for tone. Something in my gut is telling me I reversed the hot wires for the neck and bridge pups. I'm not sure, but I have a feeling I may have wired the white wire for the bridge on the 3 pole and the white wire for the neck on the 1 pole.

I have no idea about the switch, it is a regular Fender 5 way switch. Is there a forwards and backwards to the switch?

Hopefully the guy I did this for will get back to me, I've been trying to contact him all day.

This is typical wiring if you don't wire the bridge pickup to a tone control.

http://support.fender.com/service_diagr ... A_SISD.pdf

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Bill

Try this
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_2t_5w

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I LIKE PIE!!!!!

IF I DO SOMETHING STUPID,DON'T SAY A WORD...

The capacitor is wired incorrectly; you have it soldered in between the two tone pots.

Looking at the pots from the bottom, one wire coming from the capacitor gets soldered to the upper tone pot's can. The other wire coming from the opposite side of the capacitor gets soldered to this same pot's terminal on the right. This same wire now should also extend from that terminal to the middle terminal on the lower tone pot.

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You dig?

Thanks for the responses and help. Okay I finally got some pics. When I took it apart I did have the neck and bridge pup wires turned around, but I fixed that. The tone still kills the volume.

When I move the switch to P1, the front tone kills the vol.
When I move the switch to P2, the front and rear tone kills the vol.
When I move the switch to P3, the front and rear tone kills the vol.
When I move the switch to P4, the rear tone kills the vol.
When I move the switch to P5, niether tone kills the vol.

I wired it like the diagram that came with the Fender pups. However, we are using an Oak 5 way switch. It has been brought to my attention that the posts on the Oak are in a different order than a CLR 5 way. I wired it to a the CLR diagram. If that is so, it makes sense why the tone is killing the volume.







This is the info I found on the Oak switch.



Thanks again for your help.

No way it should be doing anything like that.
It has to be be some sort of wiring issue causing it.

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He who dies with the most Strats wins.

From the little bit I can deduce from your picture with the volume pot, it appears you have a black wire coming from the middle terminal to where, I don't know. This however, should be a white wire going to the positive terminal of the output jack.

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You dig?

The black wire is going to the tip of the output jack. It is coming out of the shielded wire next to it that is soldered to the outside lug and back of the volume pot. The other end of the shield is soldered to the ground of the 1/4" jack.

Take some pictures that show the whole thing. Make 'em clear and from different angles.
Your close up pictures show small areas, we can't see where the wiring actually goes.

Descriptions won't help nearly as much as pictures that show everything because if you have made a mistake, and wires aren't connected how you think they are we have no chance to see it. No guarantees we'll spot 'em but there's absolutely no way to see from your shots, as we can't see the paths of your wiring.

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

Sorry, this is the best I can do for now, I don't have the guitar. I worked on it last night and I won't see it until next Tuesday night. Thanks for looking.