Questions Regarding Alex's Strat

RMosack · Post by **RMosack** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:57 pm

Hello, this is my first post here.

Over the years, I remember reading all sorts of stuff about the Strat that Alex started using around 1980 or so. IIRC, some of his more familiar Gibsons were actually in a state of disrepair or somesuch.

I know he had a Bill Lawrence L-500 in the bridge position, but I'm not certain of the model.

From old articles, I've read that he had a Gibson-style three way switch installed on the pickguard near the treble horn. You can see this in old pictures and videos. Apparently, this was to allow him the more familiar (to him anyway) Gibson-style 3-way switching. Apparently, the Strat's neck and middle pickup were wired together to represent the typical Gibson neck pickup while the bridge humbucker was the other pickup on the switch. The middle selection would get all three. What I'm not certain of is the wiring of the two single coils.

Anyway, I have a few questions.

1) Does anyone know if the bridge humbucker was an L-500L or L-500XL?

2) Assuming the bit about the 3-way switch was right, does anyone know how the neck and middle single coils were joined? Series or parallel?

Soup4Rush · Post by **Soup4Rush** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:02 pm

I have no clue but someone will be along shortly to answer your question. Meanwhile welcome to By-tor and I hope you like it enough to call it home.

Walkinghairball · Post by **Walkinghairball** » Tue May 09, 2006 6:55 pm

Yeah, what Soup said.

Sorry I'm no help...................I'm just a drummer.

CygnusX1 · Post by **CygnusX1** » Wed May 10, 2006 5:30 am

Welcome aboard RM...Funny you should mention that....I'm a guitarist myself (a bad one

) doing some pickup research myself...Not particular to Lerxt mind you, but the info is relevant...

Read the tech articles here:

www.seymourduncan.com
www.guitarelectronics.com

They address coil-tapping and switching....Some good info there for D-I-Y'ers...I'm repairing a vintage Kramer myself, so it's helped me immensely...

Rush On

Siggy

RMosack · Post by **RMosack** » Wed May 10, 2006 1:36 pm

Thanks for the links. I'm familiar with how to do all of that stuff, I'm just trying to figure out how that Strat was wired. The biggest question is whether he had the neck and middle in parallel (like position #2 on a normal 5-way Strat switch) or in series (like a spread out humbucker).

Hopefully someone will chime in.

Cool site by the way!

CygnusX1 · Post by **CygnusX1** » Wed May 10, 2006 2:14 pm

check this out...I think the info you seek MAY be copyrighted...

The February '93 Guitar Player has some Strat rewiring schemes in the
article that starts on page 98. One of them requires no extra
hardware. Or, if you're willing to exchange the 5-way switch for 3
mini switches, the Dan Armstrong ``super strat'' scheme is pretty
flexible. It gives you:
- each pickup alone
- three parallel pairs
- three series pairs
- three pickups in parallel
- three pickups in series
- three pickups in series/parallel

The mini switches go in the slot where the 5-way usually goes. You
have to drill three holes along the slot to make room for the switch
shaft..

Would this be a good start RM? just something I ran across...

Sig

CygnusX1 · Post by **CygnusX1** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:33 am

In the 80s, Alex went for a more processed, thinner sound, often employing custom strat style guitars made by Lado in Canada.