My Strat Highway 1 mod I'd like to share (Pic HEAVY)

R

rprnj

New member
I wanted to share my guitar mods with you guys, because maybe it could help someone or maybe someone's interested.

My electric guitar is a Fender Strat Highway 1. It was originally HSS, and sounded great stock, but I needed to get more out of it.

So this is her stock
stockhighway-e1288838926894.jpg


So what I wanted was more control out of my tone. I wanted to start but replacing the stock HSS with a HHH setup that would give me the option of running each p'up single coil or humbucker.

I removed the pickguard and discovered my first obstacle - the p'up cavity had to be routed to accommodate humbuckers. --->
stockcavity-e1288838973805.jpg


After some time dremeling and sanding, I arrived here - with a nice swimming pool!! --->>

routedcavity-e1288839054257.jpg


I wired her up (several times along the way, but that's another story. I can get into the specifics of exactly what electronics are in there in case anyone is interested, but here's a picture of the pups loaded -->
pups-e1288839155100.jpg


I blocked my tremolo for two reasons - 1) I feel like I drop out of tune too much with it 2) I love the extra sustain. It really is a different animal.

block-e1288839300444.jpg


I've also done things cosmetically - new pickguard to accommodate the HHH, wood knobs, etc. Here's the 'final' product.

full-e1288839697490.jpg


close-e1288839713258.jpg


I have a much wider spectrum of colors to choose from now to really be able dial in my tone and be able to convey exactly the mood I want.
 
Jaysus that's some route! Forgive me, but would it have been possible to use stacked 'buckers in place of the existing single coil routes? I love the HWY 1s. What way have you wired this?
 
TelePaul said:
Jaysus that's some route! Forgive me, but would it have been possible to use stacked 'buckers in place of the existing single coil routes? I love the HWY 1s. What way have you wired this?
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It was a total pain in the ass. It was like 4 in the morning with a blizzard going on outside. My last dremel bit goes on me, but because of the blizzard ain't nothing I could do. So I had to use the core of the bit to basically grind it out...not fun.

And I could have but, I had a specific tone in mind that I just wasn't able to find with a stacked humbucker.

The bridge and neck p'ups are vintage DiMarzio Dual Sounds. The neck has this raw, yet smooth energy about it. The bridge has almost a banjo like squawk to it. The middle is a DiMarzio Super II

I can't seem to find the schematic for it but essentially...

All 3 Pups go Single or Humbucker -> 5-way switch -> Middle pup has its own tone knob, bridge and neck together (I'm using .22 ceramic caps..I get a nice amount of sweep and when tone gets rolled off I can get this nice smooth bell-like or chime-like tone).

I'm forgetting stuff but you get the idea :)
 
Nice work man!

As far as the stacked humbuckers go--I've got those in one of my strats. I like 'em for how quiet they are, but tonally, they're not nearly as thick as a standard HB. I don't know the science behind it, but I'd describe the stacked pups as about 90% single coils, 10% HB in sound. So I understand you're decision to go with the HBs.
 
WhiteStrat said:
Nice work man!

As far as the stacked humbuckers go--I've got those in one of my strats. I like 'em for how quiet they are, but tonally, they're not nearly as thick as a standard HB. I don't know the science behind it, but I'd describe the stacked pups as about 90% single coils, 10% HB in sound. So I understand you're decision to go with the HBs.
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I think it depends on the mini 'bucker.

I had Dimarzio Cruisers in my Strat for a couple weeks, and agreed that they sounded eerily like singlecoils - not 100%, but at least a solid 95% (then again, they were designed to be on the singlecoil side of the spectrum). I've never played one, but I hear the JB Jr., on the other hand, sounds much more like a humbucker.

I talked a bit to Dimarzio about this when I did the swap for a Heavy Blues 2 set (which, two and a half weeks down the road, I LOVE), and the (very helpful) guy I chatted with suggested it had a lot to do with the spacing of the magnetic fields. On a mini'bucker with two blades, the two points where the magnetic fields intersect the strings are awfully close together - not quite the single point of a true singlecoil, and enough to make it sound audibly different, but much closer than the much wider split of a true humbucker. I'm not sure how much basis there is to that, but it makes intuitive sense, at least.

Your guitar certainly LOOKS different - I don't personally care for the HHH look with the wooden pickup rings on top of a pickguard, but I think ultimately what's more important is how it sounds and if you're happy with that. And, it seems you are, so right on. :D
 
Hey thanks again guys! There's been a lot of time, effort, and love dumped into her.


Regarding my choice in pickups...I definitely knew the tone I wanted to get out of them, so it made the choice borderline a no-brainer. Plus I get the versatility of going single coil or humbucking with any p'up and any p'up combination. To be honest a good 75% of my playing is done with that middle p'up in split coil. Potentially, I could have just picked a single coil that fit the tonal range I wanted, but once again its all about that palate of colors to chose from.

Routing it with a dremel was AWFUL. Lots of cursing involved. And like I said, at some point, the bit wore out and was basically just using friction to grind thru it.

Drew...that actually makes total sense. And yeah...a lot of the "Strat" guys think I committed a sin. It has strat overtones b/c of the floating bridge, but certainly would not describe it as strat-like(it does have a degree of twanginess but that's attributed to the bridge). You're absolutely right about sound > Looks. Personally, I couldn't care what the hell it looks like (Though I think she does happen to be pretty) as long as it plays and sounds right on!! :cool:
 
Cool cool. So the micro-switches activate the tap yeah? I've been looking at them myself too for a different purpose. Did you manage to drill through the scratch-plate okay? Dremmel again?
 
TelePaul said:
Cool cool. So the micro-switches activate the tap yeah? I've been looking at them myself too for a different purpose. Did you manage to drill through the scratch-plate okay? Dremmel again?
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Yes they do. And it was easy, however in hindsight I would do it differently this time. I've seen online somewhere (and you can just do this yourself) - a metal bracket that holds the switches, and instead of drilling a hole for the entire switch assembly to fit through, you just route a small hole for the just the tip (haha :laughings:) through.

Its a little more covert. I don't run into problems with them being in the way but it looks a little cleaner.
 
Hello, I'm new to the forum and learning about guitars, electronics, modding and stuff. One question.. Does the fact that you took out that chunk of wood to make space for the pick ups affect the resonance at all?? is it audibly noticeable?
 
Hey there.

Theoretically there's gonna be some sort of change anytime you make an alteration like that, but is it noticeable? Nah. Had it been something more like a resonance chamber I think there'd be change, but they're filled with pickups and wires, so I don't notice any difference.
 
rprnj said:
Hey there.

Theoretically there's gonna be some sort of change anytime you make an alteration like that, but is it noticeable? Nah. Had it been something more like a resonance chamber I think there'd be change, but they're filled with pickups and wires, so I don't notice any difference.
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Good on you for answering that guy's question 3 months later, but he never came back since making that post.
 
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