Every few years I get an itch that needs scratching. As a perpetual optimizer, I often ask myself, “what could be better?” The answer came back this time as this guitar could be “more Eric Johnson” like. Let’s be honest here, I have several strats, and at this point, that’s really why I still have this guitar. The Dimarzio HS-2 (wired as a single coil) in the bridge is brilliant, but after spending time with my seafoam green strat I find myself wanting more traditional single coils in the neck and middle, a la EJ. I still like the sounds of the previous Area 58 & HS-2 I had in the middle and neck respectively. Over time it became apparent that some of the glassiness was lost in the 2 & 4 position, and I felt like I would enjoy more vintage style pickups.
Enter Van Zandt True Vintage
I *really* like the Fender Pure Vintage 61s in my green strat. I initially set out to buy these. I got so mad at how they sell pickups and remember that they’re jerks for suing everyone, that I stopped myself from purchasing. What a perfect time to vote with my dollars! One of my favorite pickups is the Van Zandt Blues I have in the middle position of my tele. It’s bad ass and I’ve had it for over 20 years, and I’m taking it to the grave. When I thought about it, it just made since to get some more. This time around I went with their True Vintage model and I’m loving them so far. They’re not expensive and they’re made about an hour away from where I live. Keep in mind that as I write this I’m still in the honeymoon phase. These days there are almost too many options out there w/ pickups. Honestly, most of them are great, but if you’re looking for something Fender-y, but not “Fender Fender”, this is a really good option.
The Wiring
In a previous post I explored adding some Jaguar sounds to my strat. This was fun, but I found myself almost never using the strangle switch on the push/pull tone pot. That seems like something that can be improved! I’ve used these strat-o-tele diagrams for years as I much prefer the N+B sound in the middle position. ….but even I have to admit there are times when the traditional middle pickup is desired. Adding that to the push/pull tone pot seemed like the right move. Low and behold this diagram essentially has everything I was looking for.
The one thing I wanted to change was to reverse the push/pull so that it defaults to N+M. I expected to simply flip the blue and pick wires in the diagram above, but the way it’s drawn did what I wanted and does not match the text description. This is the first time I’ve tried disconnecting the tone pots from the 2 & 4 position. I thought I might not like this at first, but so far, I really like it. All in all, this is a really nice strat wiring option. The one other tweak I did make was dedicating the second tone pot to the bridge pickup (position 1) and hooking up the first one to the neck & middle (positions 3 & 5).
The Results
It’s been a couple weeks since I made the change. The only thing I’m not loving is the different shade of white in the Dimarzio pickup. Unfortunately they don’t make a cover that matches *and* fits a traditional single coil (annoying!). I did replace the plastic with parchment white to try and get closer, but that may have made it worse. …but it’s not that big of a deal and I’ll keep it like this for the time being. Anyway, I’ve really been enjoying this guitar again and I’m really liking the more traditional strat tones.