One single coil stratocaster

[Neddy]

Looking to do up my squier strat with a nicer neck and pickups. Since I'll only be using the neck pickup im thinking of just having the neck pickup replaced and the middle, bridge and pickup selector being dummies. Anyone ever done anything like this, and would it work well enough? Cheers

[randythoades]

Several people have converted their strat to a single pickup setup, both just bridge or just neck (including myself on occasion - and I like the idea myself of just middle as I rarely use bridge or neck pickups), but I am not sure I see the point in your case.. If you are going to just leave the other pickups there as 'dummies', just leave the switch in neck position and everything functions as you want without modifying the wiring or functionality.

If you want to make a real point of it, just rout out a blank scratch plate without the other pickup holes and a single volume and tone so it looks like a single pickup version (neck in your case). If you have the other pickups in place no one would know the difference.

[EdwardMarlowe]

Yeah, if you want it to look standard but only use the neck pickup, I don't see any need to rewire at all. I'd only get into that if  - as randythoades says - you wanted to only have the one pick-up on there, make it a feature. If you want to keep the standardised Strat look, I just don't see any advantage to doing any rewiring here (aside from switching in your preferred choice of pup). 

[ezbass]

If it were me and I wanted to retain a dummy bridge and middle, I’d replace the neck pickup as planned and wire that directly to the volume and tone controls, taking the selector out of the circuit altogether. I’d even consider removing the selector altogether as it’s just something to catch your hand on/get in the way of the knobs. However, as above, I like the idea of a complete remodel, with just one pickup on the pickguard and two controls, making a feature of it. It’s the most expensive option, but it would make it yours.

[randythoades]

This is a repost photo from a version I found on a Jazz guitar forum when I was trying other genres to help me fall in love with a strat. This one uses a single coil humbucker in the neck for a more rounded jazz sound, but I think it looks fantastic without the dummy coils.

[EdwardMarlowe]

4 hours ago, randythoades said:

This is a repost photo from a version I found on a Jazz guitar forum when I was trying other genres to help me fall in love with a strat. This one uses a single coil humbucker in the neck for a more rounded jazz sound, but I think it looks fantastic without the dummy coils.

Nice thing about a Strat mod using a whole new guard is that you can also retain the option of very easily reverting to standard if you want to (or, indeed, if you're certain that won't be an issue, sell the original plate complete and wired in order to fund the new version....). 

[randythoades]

I am now thinking that this might be an interesting build to do. I have come to the conclusion that I just don't really like my strat and have a spare tele and hardtail strat body that I haven't used yet. Rather than do yet another Esquire build I might try this first and see how I like it. Just need to decide whether to use a strat sized humbucker for a little extra body like the photo, or maybe even a p90 instead of a normal strat neck pickup. I have most of the parts and will use the neck of my current 1979 Aria strat so that I can re-instate the original body if required.

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, randythoades said:

or maybe even a p90 instead of a normal strat neck pickup.

[randythoades]

I will do a build diary to document this when i get started, but am going to do a neck only p90 build. Going to use a humbucker size p90 so I don't need to increase the size of the rout on the body I have and to keep it flexible for the future. Will keep you updated.

[bbman9]

My Blue strat is wired with a blender circuit  (B&N), using the bottom tone pot as the blender. 
Left the middle pick up wired in but only use the neck with a little bit of bridge dialled in to get the sound I was looking for.

But a p90 only sounds interesting ,

 

A Yamaha had one I sold recently in the neck position but the neck was a tad flat for me

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 28/11/2023 at 11:58, randythoades said:

I am now thinking that this might be an interesting build to do. I have come to the conclusion that I just don't really like my strat and have a spare tele and hardtail strat body that I haven't used yet. Rather than do yet another Esquire build I might try this first and see how I like it. Just need to decide whether to use a strat sized humbucker for a little extra body like the photo, or maybe even a p90 instead of a normal strat neck pickup. I have most of the parts and will use the neck of my current 1979 Aria strat so that I can re-instate the original body if required.

Sounds like an interesting idea. If it can fit (should be able to from what I can see online), a Submarine Pro in the middle (and so the option of sending output from the same guitar to another amp / direct to the PA) could be a fun variation too - https://www.submarinepickup.com