Hey guys,

Happy Christmas! My wife was kind enough to buy me a Fender 61 reissue thin skin strat for christmas, and first of all I must say how blown away I am. I didn't expect different strats to sound so different, but it blows away my fender AM std strat!

What I noticed though, the tone knobs are wired differently to my Am std. The bottom tone knob controls the bridge pup only, and the top tone knob controls the middle and neck pup. Is this normal for a strat in 1961? Or has it been wired up differently?

Thanks guys!

It's wired differently. Vintage Strat wiring is tone control for the neck and middle pickups with no tone control for the bridge.

It's another very cool, modern touch on what is a fantastic American Vintage Special Run Strat. I've been in love with my Sonic Blue Thinskin since I bought it in September.

John

Thanks for the reply John,

So was this wired differently as part of the limited edition run (by fender at the factory) or was it done by the guy that last owned my guitar?

I am very happy with how it is wired, a nice surprise! I'd just like to know if it was done retrospectively or not.

I'm sure it was done at the factory as part of the specs of the Special Run.

The wiring was a pleasant surprise to me, too. So were the Fat 50s Custom Shop pickups. The Thinskin's a long term keeper for sure.

John

Congrats on a nice Christmas present!

Hey, congrats on the new guitar. Yep it's factory. I recently got a new Am Std and the "new" wiring on it- 2nd tone control works mid and rear pup- is the first strat I've owned that is wired differently than the one you're describing. In other words, the standard wiring has, until more recent times, left the rear pup with no tone control at all. Since I always found that pickup far too bright I have always wired it into the 2nd tone control so I could control it and it actually allows me to use that pickup in a lot more situations. For me it's much more versatile. That's just me though. There was a recent thread with some excellent diagrams as to how to do this, if you're interested.

Later,
Mark Ross

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