modding my strat

[Squireman131]

i have a squire affinity series s/s/s guitar. im hopefully buying a "hot rails" mini humbucker for my bridge position and i was wondering would it be a good mod to throw in a on/on switch to switch from series to parallel? if so any tips on how too?

[Bloozcat]

i have a squire affinity series s/s/s guitar. im hopefully buying a "hot rails" mini humbucker for my bridge position and i was wondering would it be a good mod to throw in a on/on switch to switch from series to parallel? if so any tips on how too?

If you're speaking of adding a series/parallel switch for the hot rails pickup alone, it's probably not a very useful mod. Because the coils are so close together, the tone would probably be very weak. A series/parallel switch for combining an individual pickup with another is a mod that creates some interesting tones (think Brian May of Queen).

Here's an interesting article that talks about a series/parallel switch on a humbucker (which is what the hot rails essentially is). This site is also great for various wiring mods.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/sw3.php

[duhvoodooman]

Agree 100% with Bloozcat on parallel wiring for the Hot Rails--it will sound thin, trebly and very weak.

Now, wiring the Hot Rails into a DPDT push/pull pot so that you can run it in series with either or both of the other two p'ups is a very useful mod. Described in detail HERE (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=2897). You could also install a second push/pull to cut out one of the two Hot Rails coils for a sharper single-coil tone. This 2-switch combination is exactly how I have my own Strat wired.