Two Volumes, One Tone

This modification does not alter the appearance of your guitar.

I had a request from Daniel Menzel in Germany for a modification which would convert one tone control to a second volume control -- thus having a volume control for the neck and middle pickups and a separate volume control for the bridge, and a single master tone control. This can be done using the existing components -- with one of the following limitations (which one depends on how you choose to wire the modification):

• One of the "combined" positions will couple the volume controls leaving this position "unpredictable." Ie. either the neck/middle or middle/bridge combinations will be a bit flaky in that the volume controls will be coupled as follows:
  • If either volume control is turned all the way down, there will be no output.
  • If one volume control is turned all the way up, and the other is not all the way (or most of the way) down, the output will be full volume.
  • If neither volume control is turned all the way up or down both volume controls will set the volume.
  If you choose to place one volume control on the neck and middle, and the other on the bridge, the "coupled" position will be the middle/bridge combo. If you choose to place one volume control on the neck, and the other on the bridge and middle, the "coupled" position will be the neck/middle combo.

• There will be no output from the "middle only" position. One volume control will affect the neck and neck/middle positions, the other will affect the bridge and bridge/middle positions, and the middle only position will always be "dead." If I were going to do this mod to one of my guitars, this is probably the option I would choose because I never use the middle only position. However, if you use that position you certainly don't want to do this!

NOTE: You will probably want to reduce the value of the capacitor in the single remaining tone control -- otherwise you will lose much of the "piercing" tone of the bridge pickup.

NOTE: This modification requires a true two-pole switch. Some cheap Strats have a single pole switch with six separate contacts for the switched positions but only one common terminal. The switch MUST have eight terminals.

NOTE: I have not performed these mods! As I mentioned, I drew these up in response to a request and I have not tried them myself. It's pretty straight-forward stuff so I'm sure it will work -- but I can't vouch for the usefullness of the mods from first hand experience. Once Daniel performs one of these modifications I'll ask him to provide comments on how well he thinks it works.

Strat With Two Volumes and One Tone
Read the notes in the upper left hand corner regarding the different versions. You may want to reduce the value of C1 by about half A real two-pole switch is required -- some cheap Strats have a single pole switch with six contacts. (Ie. the switch must have eight terminals, not seven.)