Do you really need two tone controls on a Silver Sky or Strat?

[Longneck Tenon]

Do you need TWO tone controls? I kind of prefer just a volume and tone.

I'm not going to alter my Silver Skys.

But I am going to get my 80's MIJ Squier up and running again and thinking of putting pickups and controls in this pickguard:

https://imgur.com/rqxzyQE

I'm going to put the "bridge tone control" where it usually is. But I'm thinking I'll put the volume control a little closer to where the neck tone control would normally be. Kind of between them.

And use Tele knobs. Just two.

Any thoughts?

I have the neck/middle tone control at 10 and the rear tone control at 7, but since I almost always play in the neck, neck/middle and middle positions it doesn’t really matter!

 

[ViperDoc]

I find tone controls on Strats to be indispensable when playing with pickups and through a rig with too much high end. Sometimes I need high cut. I like having it in the cockpit.

 

[Rider1260]

I love having the Tone Control on the Bridge pickup of an SSS guitar , I did remove the tone from the middle pickup at one time so I had tone on the neck and bridge , makes the middle louder and the 2 + 4 positions fun if I was going to do one tone it would be bridge only

 

[Lewguitar]

I love having the Tone Control on the Bridge pickup of an SSS guitar , I did remove the tone from the middle pickup at one time so I had tone on the neck and bridge , makes the middle louder and the 2 + 4 positions fun if I was going to do one tone it would be bridge only

I like that sound and 4 out of 5 settings do have a tone control. Only the middle pickup by itself doesn’t.

Wiring it that way prevents the two tone controls from being on together and from being in parallel and dividing their resistance in half and allowing more treble to pass through them to ground and throwing away treble.

That’s how I’m going to wire this guitar.

https://imgur.com/a/kP2LfKw

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

I have a vtt guitar that I'm setting up with Fiore switching. But, for SSS guitar I usually do three volumes and no tone.

Special setup! I like the idea, especially with an overdrive it must bring another dimension of play!

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

On one of my strats, I moved the volume to the next tone and kept it farthest away.

I always found the volume bulky and too close, I like this configuration.

 

[rockinforJesus]

@Lewguitar one of my all time favorite configurations for S-style guitars is what G&L uses for their S-500 guitars. The exception being that I used a push-pull pot instead of a mini toggle.
This gets you bass cut and treble cut for each pickup selector position, and the push-pull adds neck pickup so you can get Tele neck/bridge, or all 3 pickups for a really fat tone. Swiss Army style setup makes it such a versatile setup.
http://guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY2/main.php?g2_itemId=6156

 

[Lewguitar]

@Lewguitar one of my all time favorite configurations for S-style guitars is what G&L uses for their S-500 guitars. The exception being that I used a push-pull pot instead of a mini toggle.
This gets you bass cut and treble cut for each pickup selector position, and the push-pull adds neck pickup so you can get Tele neck/bridge, or all 3 pickups for a really fat tone. Swiss Army style setup makes it such a versatile setup.
http://guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY2/main.php?g2_itemId=6156

Hmmm. This guitar has gone through a few permutations! But i don't think I'll do that.

Decided on a '02 Orange Drop for the tone cap and no tone control for the middle pickup. Just the neck and bridge.

Otherwise, it's going to be wired like my Silver Sky with a 300K volume pot and a 3.3M resistor.

https://imgur.com/EHMaO35

 

[thewesdavis]

Fralin's blender pot.

I used to use that.

Allows for combining the neck and bridge pickup...like on a Tele.

It's a useful sound but I went back to keeping it simple.

This white guitar I'm working on used to have a Tele bridge pickup!

https://imgur.com/9oPR7iq

Those are bakelite knobs off of a Rickenbacher Lap Steel from the 1930's.

Bought them on eBay ages ago.

If I ever do a Silver Sky, this would be the layout I would want to go with...
But I've always loved singlecoils way more in theory than how I execute my playing...

 

[RedGuitars]

No. You do not.

 

[Rider1260]

In the 70s when I wanted to get a better sound from the bridge pickup I moved the tone to the bridge and had no tone in the middle position eventually went with a hotter neck pickup also to keep up with the humbucker guys and kept the tone on the neck for the darker ( even out of phase sounding tones ) when I did this the 5 position switch became available and 2 and 4 were easier ( used to hold it in-between on a 3 position switch ) On many of my PRS I prefer the 2 knobs that are pretty common as the pickups are well balanced and find I don't often need the tone control and when I do its just for that tone and not something I need all the time. On the Sliver Sky you could put a load under the pickkguard to mimic the bridge and middle tone pot and for me just leave the bridge tone control as its if you want to go 2 knob

 

[Greywolf]

I swapped out for a blend pot , connecting bridge and neck .. gives you a huge tonal range with a simple mod

 

[DISTORT6]

I have a super-strat background.
One humbucker, one volume, no problem.