Hello. This is my first post and maybe I'm starting with a silly newbie question. If so, sorry.

I wonder about the above guitar tone controls. Is it the case that you can position the p/u switch so that only one part of the humbucker is working and therefore sounds almost the same ( I know not exactly the same ) as a single coil p/u?

As you can tell I'm a bit rubbish at electronics

Thanks for your patience

Willie, welcome to the forum. One thing you'll notice around here is most guys are pretty patient and won't jump on you for asking what might seem like a dumb question. So ask away.
I have a 2010 Am Dlx HSS, and my Humbucker will not split. The S1 switch basically turns the 5 way switch into a 10 way switch, but splitting the humbucker isn't a choice.
There may be other HSS models that will split but I don't know of them myself.
Here's the control sheet that shows the choices for my model:

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Are you talking about the passing lane switch?

The passing lane (aka "Blower", "Raw" switch) removes all the controls (volume, tones) from the circuit and sends your signal to the humbucker no matter the position you're using from the 5-way pickup selector. Useful during a solo when you want getting a little "oomph" under the hood.

Thanks for the welcome and information, Drew. Much appreciated

I had heard a couple of people say you could split the humbucker and therefore make the guitar more versatile but I wasn't sure this was correct. After I posted I found this link here

http://www.fender.com/en-GB/news/index. ... rticle=852

It seems to suggest that the Deluxe HSS will allow coil splitting but it seems from the diagram you supplied this isn't the case. I'm a bit confused about this. Do you know what Fender mean?

In any case, I really like the HSS idea, and it seems to give a lot of versatility and adding the heavy humbucker sound doesn't seem to have a downside to me

Chromeface, I'm not really sure what that switch you mention does. I'm assuming that in altering the tone, the controls in some way inhibit the pickup's response and if you push the button it just gives you the raw unfettered response. Is this right?

The easiest way for you to change that HB to a single to dual coil capability would be to change your Vol. control to a push/pull pot thus allowing you to switch the HB between single to dual.

A little mod which effects nothing else but gives you that 3 single coil Strat quack when in MB or MN mode..

I understand the S1 but I think it is a bit redundant when versatility is needed, since the only variation is to have all pups on and that (imho) doesn't allow much clarity, which is what Strats should have.

With a couple of pot tweaks, you could have all the pup combo's including BN and BNM in single coil, but once again, all three pups sort of cancel each other out...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

The S1 switch and the Push/Pull switch on the Pawn shop are two very different switches.
The push/pull is a better switch, less prone to failure than the S1's....
You would need to do a bit of rewiring for the combo's you are looking for, but everything is reversible and has not modification other than switching pots and rewiring configuration.

AndyBigHair and Martian would be the On'e to ask which road to take....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Looking at the product description for the Am Dlx HSS, it doesn't mention coil splitting. But it does say a reconfigured S1 switch. So, maybe the controls on a new model are different than what I posted for mine. The button that Chromeface mentioned is for lead solos and takes you to the humbucker at a higher volume, but with no tone control. It can be usefull in the right situation.

"I understand the S1 but I think it is a bit redundant when versatility is needed, since the only variation is to have all pups on and that (imho) doesn't allow much clarity, which is what Strats should have."

Magnatone: the S1 gives 10 distinct tone options. You get some of the same pickup combos, but because of the caps, they sound different.

_________________
'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Drew,

You could also looking at getting an American Standard HSS (that's what I'm looking at!). It comes with a five-way switch that has the full humbucker in position 1 but then splits the coil and combines it with the middle pickup in position 2.

Pos. 1. Humbucking Pickup, Pos. 2. Middle Pickup/Inside Coil of Bridge Humbucking Pickup in Parallel, Pos. 3. Middle Pickup, Pos. 4. Neck and Middle Pickup in Parallel, Pos. 5. Neck Pickup

As said in my earlier post, the passing lane button removes all the controls from the circuit and sends the overall signal directly to the humbucker no matter any position from the 5-way selector you use. The humbucker's output is wide-open as the passing lane switch disables the master volume pot.

The passing lane switch is located between the two tone controls.

Though it's a new feature for Fender the passing lane was more popular with Suhr and Yamaha guitars.