Hi everyone, I've got a question.
I don't know anything about wiring, or anything practical in regards to pickup installation, and with the addition of the S-1 switch on my 2008 American Deluxe Stratocaster, I'm surely lost.

I want to replace the stock pickups with some Bare Knuckle Trilogy Suites, but in my uninformed head I also planned to keep the S-1 system; however, in the fender PDF* I see that there are 3 wires coming from the pickups as opposed to what I assume to be the standard 2. This kind of hurts my feeling, because as little as I use it now I thought that with a different set of pickups the S-1 switch would really be a neat addition to my guitar. On top of that, having a Strat with big meaty pickups like the Trilogy Suites along with the S-1 switch could give me some very unique tones, and I was looking forward to that.

But it seems that will not be possible here with my switching system, probably, unless someone knows something I do not.

And if it's not easy for me to modify my guitar/pickups, can I just remove or bypass the S-1 system?

Summary:
Can you tell me how to switch my pickups in and out and still use the S-1 system without buying anything new (other than my new pickups)?
And if not, can I remove/bypass the switching system and put the new pickups in without ruining my guitar?


Thanks for the read and on top of that any time and effort you put into answering my question!


**not to insult anyone's intelligence here, I assume that anyone who will be answering this will have seen a wiring diagram before, and I don't think anything out of the ordinary is featured here, but I'm just including it for it's potential convenience and reference

*http://support.fender.com/service_diagrams/stratocaster/010-1400_02A_SISD.pdf
**http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/downloads/schematics/profiles/strats/sss__1_vol_1_mid_&_neck_tone__1_bridge_tone.pdf

Welcome.

You can keep the S-1 system with the Bare Knuckle pickups. The black wires of the BK pickups would replace in the same place, the black wires of the Fender pickups. The white wire of the BK pickups would replace in the same place, the white, yellow or red wires of your Fender pickups. That third wire of the Fender pickups, specifically, the green one is to ground the frame or chassis of the Fender pickups. The BK pickups do not have nor need this third wire and so, for your purposes, it is irrelevant. In other words, once removed, the green wires are not replaced with the BKs.

One consideration: Your aim is to replace humbucking pickups (the Fenders) with non-humbucking pickups (the BKs). Consider the fact that your guitar's circuit in general will obviously have an increase in hum to it and in certain switching positions, this hum will increase even more.

_________________
You dig?

Howdy!

+1 on all that good stuff Martian wrote!

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

Wow. That is the best news I've heard in quite some time. I was morose about my pickup situation and to my perception having no way out. It won't be any problem at all to simply replace the wires, now I'm going to actually buy these pickups.

And yes, I'm aware that I'll be getting some hum now, but it's much better than having plastic sounding pickups. The SCNs are great for distortion, but the clean tone is lacking character. If I must have hum to sound like a single coil, so be it.

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me and making my dreams come true.

Yep as usual both Martian and Andy are spot on. The only thing I would add is if you are using S1 watch out for reverse wound mid pickups. The standard s1 wiring is for a normal wound pickup not a RWRP and you may end up getting some unusual sounds using one in combination with the S1.

Hmm, really now? There is a big volume loss as of now when I use the middle positions and I thought that was because of the middle pickup be reverse wound/polarity.
Thanks for telling me that though, I was planning on buying the set that isn't reverse wound anyway, but I'd like to know of any/all of the quirks I may expect from this pickup swap.
I'm heavily excited though, I could have a really unique machine when I'm done here.

With the S1 in the up position there should be little volume difference when switching from neck to mid. If there is you could possibly have a faulty SCN. I have come across a few of these.
If you can check the resistance with a meter.
Hope this helps.

Hmm maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, because I did have to replace my neck pickup a long time ago, but they all work fine now.
I think it may just be a bit of a mental thing.

On this note, should I get the staggered pole pieces? I wasn't planning on that, but is there some advantage to having those instead of level pieces?

If the level change is minor between the front and mid it might just be pickup height.
The mid is not RWRP on the SCNs.

Here is fenders take on staggered but there is a lot of other info out there.

http://www.fender.com/en-NZ/news/index. ... rticle=482

Personally the overall tone for me effects my choice rather than the stagger.
Modern lighter gauge strings and flatter fretboard radius guitars really don't require a stagger.

Alright I've looked into my pickup heights and I seem to have sorted it all out, thanks for that.

And thanks for the link there, I'll go ahead and stick with the flush poll pieces.

This has been overwhelmingly helpful, and I thank you all very much.