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Post subject: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 6:12 pm
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Anybody change the 5-way switch in their Strat back to a 3-way?

I have never really liked the 2 and 4 position in a 5-way switch. It just doesn't do it for me. I'm using SCN pickups with Greasebucket tone controls wired to the neck and bridge pickups (no tone on the middle pickup). Please don't suggest I change pickups or tone circuits as I love what I get in 1, 3, and 5. And yes, I have played around with pickup height adjustment. Just never could get the 2 and 4 dialed in. Its OK when playing clean but any kind of overdrive just sounds harsh. I don't use pedals for overdrive, just what the amps produce (a 5F6A Bassman clone and Trainwreck Express clone that I built, and a BDRI and Champion 600 reissue that I have heavily modified).

So, anybody else take a step back in time with their pickup selector switch?

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 6:28 pm
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No but I think I'm going to pull the 24 pole super-switch from my Partsocaster and just install a standard 5-way. I know it's not the same thing as you're talking about but you've brought it back to my mind. I think I might go ahead and do that. I like the quack of the Strat enough that I don't think I would want to have to live without it .... so no, I don't think I would want a 3-way.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:06 pm
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I can't live without 2 and 4. Gotta have 'em. To me, that's a huge part of the "Stratocaster" tone. But to each his own. If you want to change your switch, change your switch. :)

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 11:29 pm
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Back in the day of the 3 way switch being standard, players found that they could set the switch in between the 3 positions and get a whole new tone (strat quack for example) and with a RWRP mid, buck hum. Hence the birth of the 5 way switch.

I don't use the 2 and four much, but find them to be very useful as a tool to quiet the beast between songs.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 12:24 am
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Not sure why anyone would want to lose the bridge + middle setting but hey, apparently Leo Fender tried the pickup combinations and didn't care for the sound so he installed a 3-way switch.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:28 am
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markara wrote:
Back in the day of the 3 way switch being standard, players found that they could set the switch in between the 3 positions and get a whole new tone (strat quack for example) and with a RWRP mid, buck hum. Hence the birth of the 5 way switch.

I don't use the 2 and four much, but find them to be very useful as a tool to quiet the beast between songs.


SCN pickups are noiseless so 2 and 4 have no noise reducing effect.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:34 am
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GilgaFrank wrote:
Not sure why anyone would want to lose the bridge + middle setting


Because

bluesky636 wrote:
Its OK when playing clean but any kind of overdrive just sounds harsh.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 4:05 am
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Hi Bill. Bridge+middle is too necessary to me for my Knopfleresque moments, so I couldn't lose that. As you say, that's a clean tone. I hadn't thought about it much before but it seems you're right: I don't believe I use 2 and 4 for more drivey sounds.

So I'd never swap a five-way for a three-way, but I absolutely get the logic of doing it. I've long felt people's desire for "versatility" from their guitar is questionable. It seems to me that in real-life playing situations what we need are two or three distinctly different sounds that can be selected with maximum ease. Anything that makes that simpler and more accurate has to be a good thing.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:43 pm
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bluesky636 wrote:
markara wrote:
Back in the day of the 3 way switch being standard, players found that they could set the switch in between the 3 positions and get a whole new tone (strat quack for example) and with a RWRP mid, buck hum. Hence the birth of the 5 way switch.

I don't use the 2 and four much, but find them to be very useful as a tool to quiet the beast between songs.


SCN pickups are noiseless so 2 and 4 have no noise reducing effect.

True, but if there ever is a desire to change pups then that "feature" is lost with a 3 way...

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:07 pm
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Ceri wrote:
Hi Bill. Bridge+middle is too necessary to me for my Knopfleresque moments, so I couldn't lose that. As you say, that's a clean tone. I hadn't thought about it much before but it seems you're right: I don't believe I use 2 and 4 for more drivey sounds.

So I'd never swap a five-way for a three-way, but I absolutely get the logic of doing it. I've long felt people's desire for "versatility" from their guitar is questionable. It seems to me that in real-life playing situations what we need are two or three distinctly different sounds that can be selected with maximum ease. Anything that makes that simpler and more accurate has to be a good thing.

Cheers - C


I'll never get those switch replacements that claim to give you hundreds of sounds from one pickup. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

My favorite pickup is the neck. Very rarely use the bridge. I have six guitars that all sound very different from each other and four amps. I have a hard enough time as it is deciding on a tone. :D

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:08 pm
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markara wrote:
bluesky636 wrote:
markara wrote:
Back in the day of the 3 way switch being standard, players found that they could set the switch in between the 3 positions and get a whole new tone (strat quack for example) and with a RWRP mid, buck hum. Hence the birth of the 5 way switch.

I don't use the 2 and four much, but find them to be very useful as a tool to quiet the beast between songs.


SCN pickups are noiseless so 2 and 4 have no noise reducing effect.

True, but if there ever is a desire to change pups then that "feature" is lost with a 3 way...


The operative word is "if".

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:14 am
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bluesky636 wrote:
Ceri wrote:
...I've long felt people's desire for "versatility" from their guitar is questionable...

I'll never get those switch replacements that claim to give you hundreds of sounds from one pickup. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Haha - yeah!

I have a Strat with the S1 switch, and for a long while it seemed completely pointless to me. Eventually I grudgingly discovered I do quite like a couple of the extra sounds it gives so I guess I wouldn't ever remove it. But I can never remember everything it does without the diagram in front of me: it's utterly unintuitive. Which is useless in any playing situation. You can't ask the band to wait a minute while you work out which switching combination you're trying to find.

I want to be able to flick easily from rhythm to lead for a solo, and that's enough. Sometimes more than enough - there's a reason some players like a guitar that just has one pickup and a volume knob and nothing else.

There's a lot to be said for simplicity.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:49 am
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I remember back in 1974 how cool I thought I was when I would make my 3-way switch in my Strat get stuck in-between 1 & 2 or between 2&3 to get those oh so cool sounds. Then in 77 Fender came out with a 5-way switch...it then became an iconic norm.

I would never go back to a 3-way. So easy to just flip from 1 to 3 to 5 if need be still have that option to use those chimy quacky settings on 2 & 4. I used them quite often with Rat distortion and slight echo. Not harsh, but rather a really cool honk'in, harmonic type of tone. And just for a clean tone like so many famous Strat players use for bluesy tones as well.

I agree with Ceri though. Too many selections can get confusing. I have wired some guitars with a lot of choices and if you do not have everything memorized, then you can get lost. I like use #5 (neck) a lot and then 2 & 4' and from time to time the bridge settings. That is about it. Just seems like if one is going to strip away 2 & 4 one might as well play a Tele or some other guitar as a those setting are iconic to a Strat. IMHO.

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Last edited by Xhefri on Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:21 am
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Interesting to see that for all the myriad of pickup selection settings, simpler seems to be the majority.
I have SCN's on my mim strat. Also the 5 way but I wouldn't revert back to a 3 way.
Although I'm curious as to 3 versus 5 there is a noticeable difference in sound.. ?

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Post subject: Re: 5-way to 3-way Switch Change
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:29 am
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53magnatone wrote:
Although I'm curious as to 3 versus 5 there is a noticeable difference in sound.. ?

Ah! Now that's an interesting point.

There was a thread on this Forum a few years ago where people discussed whether the three-way switch had an audibly different tone to a five-way one (omitting 2 and 4, obviously). I remember it got very angry - and like most of those kinds of discussion arrived at no useful conclusion.

Bill's ears are amongst those I'd put faith in. Do you hear any difference in sound between the switches, Bill?

Cheers - C

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