A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I have a dual humbucker Fender Strat, which I love (and is almost the only guitar I ever play). It has a 3-way blade switch (and a push/pull tone knob) that I'd like to swap out for a 5-way switch giving me these options:

5. Neck Humbucker
4. Neck split
3. Both (split or humbucker... haven't decided)
2. Bridge split
1. Bridge Humbucker

Anyone ever do this? It seems simple enough, and much easier than pulling that damn tone knob!

Am I better off sticking with the 3-way and adding a mini toggle switch?

Does your plan imply 4 different hot wires ? ( I know little about splitting hums)

The 5 way switch is designed for 3 hots, as far as I know......so I dont know if the split hum hots will have room on the 5 way.

Maybe your 2 split hots could go through a toggle before being the "mid" pickup. then yould have: hum/split choice/hum ......on a 5 way switch plus a mini toggle.


Or, pushpulls with 3-way switch might be the way to go.

I'm leaning toward keeping the 3-way blade with a mini toggle for splitting, like this:

That seems good.

hum or split/ combo/ hum or split

so mid is either hum-hum, or split split...I am guessing

Milkman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:26 pm I'm leaning toward keeping the 3-way blade with a mini toggle for splitting, like this:

I believe this will save you a lot of headaches & heartburn!

Partscaster wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:31 pm That seems good.

hum or split/ combo/ hum or split

so mid is either hum-hum, or split split...I am guessing

Exactly... I haven't ever had the need or desire to switch from Humbucker to Single Coil mid-song, but I hate trying to pull the knob (that's what she said), so this seems a good solution.

If you have done other 5 way switch mods you are probably aware of this, but there are a few different versions of it. If you do need some help in this regard, this series of articles should help (I've only included part 3, but if you need part 1 or 2 you should have no problem finding them):

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.premie ... 2651081587

Thanks @dabbler ... I don't have much experience with 5-way guitar switches in particular - this will be very helpful.

Dang... the link didn't work for me.

I found the 5-way switch article:

https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/the- ... ch-part-ii

Try here 2 humbuckers and 5 way switch.
https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wi ... -diagrams/

There's another great webpage on wiring but i can't find it. Has numbers in it 1720? 1620?
Found it.
http://www.1728.org/guitar.htm

I have a Fender Blacktop HH Stratocaster with a five way blade. The five positions are:

1) Bridge humbucker
2) Bridge humbucker outer coil + neck humbucker outer coil
3) Both humbuckers
4) Bridge humbucker inner coil + neck humbucker inner coil
5) Neck humbucker

I find this to be a very useful and versatile set up, providing some very Strat-like and Tele-like tones in addition to the humbucker sounds.

Thanks guys....

toomanycats wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:06 pm I have a Fender Blacktop HH Stratocaster with a five way blade. The five positions are:

1) Bridge humbucker
2) Bridge humbucker outer coil + neck humbucker outer coil
3) Both humbuckers
4) Bridge humbucker inner coil + neck humbucker inner coil
5) Neck humbucker

I find this to be a very useful and versatile set up, providing some very Strat-like and Tele-like tones in addition to the humbucker sounds.

Thanks TMC! I think I'm going to try this... I assume that this helps reduce (eliminate?) wild volume swings between positions as well?

Milkman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:08 pm

toomanycats wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:06 pm I have a Fender Blacktop HH Stratocaster with a five way blade. The five positions are:

1) Bridge humbucker
2) Bridge humbucker outer coil + neck humbucker outer coil
3) Both humbuckers
4) Bridge humbucker inner coil + neck humbucker inner coil
5) Neck humbucker

I find this to be a very useful and versatile set up, providing some very Strat-like and Tele-like tones in addition to the humbucker sounds.

I assume that this helps reduce (eliminate?) wild volume swings between positions as well?

That is correct. This was likely Fender's rationale in the way they set up of the five way blade on their HH Blacktop guitars (now discontinued).

I love the feel of this guitar. I've considered jamming a standard strat pickguard setup on it, but these pickups snarl just right for me while playing hi-mid gain stuff.

I'm gonna have to add a SSS strat to the stable one of these days and see if we get along. I've never had one.

@andrewsrea did wiring like this for me. With Pearly Gates and PRS Style coil splits I think. I actually came to prefer 3 way and a push pull for coil splits.

Like @golem mentioned, my GOAT wiring for Hum-Hum Strats, uses a 5-way to get:
1: Bridge Hum
2: Inner coils of each humbucker, parallel RWRP for hum cancelling
3: Both Humbuckers
4: Outer coils of each humbucker, parallel RWRP for hum cancelling
5: Neck hum

A mod to this is to add a DPDT toggle or P-P that you can cancel a coil on command, so when you are in the #1, #3, #5 positions you essentially have single coil combinations.

For this set up, one switch rail of the 5-way becomes 'hot' and the other rail becomes 'ground'.'

The trick is to choose one of the pickups to 'reverse'. For example, say the bridge is wire standard: Black = hot, Green = Ground, Red & White joined for tap to 'ground.'

Then the neck pickup would be White = hot, Red = ground, Black & Green = tap to 'hot.'

explains PRS style coil splits.

Milkman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 5:25 pm but these pickups snarl just right for me while playing hi-mid gain stuff.

By the way, what are those pickups anyways? Shawbuckers?

toomanycats wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 7:55 am
By the way, what are those pickups anyways? Shawbuckers?

I don’t really know… they’re the stock “Blacktop” pickups.

Milkman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:06 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 7:55 am
By the way, what are those pickups anyways? Shawbuckers?

I don’t really know… they’re the stock “Blacktop” pickups.

Oh wow, I didn't realize your guitar was a Blacktop too. I love those stock pickups and have never considered changing them. They have a great combination of output and clarity, they're not overly compressed, and they split really well. They're like PAFs on steroids.

toomanycats wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:22 am
Oh wow, I didn't realize your guitar was a Blacktop too. I love those stock pickups and have never considered changing them. They have a great combination of output and clarity, they're not overly compressed, and they split really well. They're like PAFs on steroids.

I like them too.... that's why I was happy to see your direct experience with these with 5-way. I'm not sure why this particular model has a 3-way and a push/pull tone. I think these pickups split really well too - as usual, they're not quite single coils in split mode, but they sound pretty good to me.

5-way switch is on the way. I'm just gonna leave the push/pull pot in there without using the upper position - seem like a good plan, or should I check to see if I have another 500K pot around here somewhere?

Milkman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:22 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:22 am
Oh wow, I didn't realize your guitar was a Blacktop too. I love those stock pickups and have never considered changing them. They have a great combination of output and clarity, they're not overly compressed, and they split really well. They're like PAFs on steroids.

I like them too.... that's why I was happy to see your direct experience with these with 5-way. I'm not sure why this particular model has a 3-way and a push/pull tone. I think these pickups split really well too - as usual, they're not quite single coils in split mode, but they sound pretty good to me.

5-way switch is on the way. I'm just gonna leave the push/pull pot in there without using the upper position - seem like a good plan, or should I check to see if I have another 500K pot around here somewhere?

The reason why I didn't know your guitar was a Blacktop was because like mine, all the others I've seen have Fender skirted amp knobs for the volume and tone controls. I actually switched mine to regular Strat knobs because, well, it just looks more Straty. Love that your's has a standard trem too. Mine has full floating Floyd, which for me renders it pretty useless for gigs. Break a string and yer done.

There's a relatively simple mod involving parallel resistors where you can make a humbucker see a 250K pot as 500K. Maybe somebody else here can explain it, because it's above my pay grade.

Milkman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 5:25 pm I love the feel of this guitar. I've considered jamming a standard strat pickguard setup on it, but these pickups snarl just right for me while playing hi-mid gain stuff.

I'm gonna have to add a SSS strat to the stable one of these days and see if we get along. I've never had one.

Please never get rid of those pickups on that guitar. It just sounds too good.

And I have yet to play one of the same model that came close.

Okay, I've got a 5-way blade switch. I found some drawings to guide me too.

This is what I've got:
And this is what I want, along with a nice wiring diagram: