[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi I'm Mike Lewis at the Fender Custom Shop.
We're here today to talk about the fat '50s half blender strat
wiring.
So what's special about the fat '50s half blender wiring?
It's an old wiring from the early '50s.
The fat '50s part of it means the tone control
is connected to the wiper on the volume control-- that's
the central lug-- whereas, when you connect it normally,
the pickup will always see whatever
the resistance of the pot is, no matter how you have it set.
The effect is as you turn down the control, it stays cleaner.
It doesn't get dark.
The sound you get is a little bit stronger,
a nice swell on the attack and sustain, as well as
a natural treble bleed, meaning that when
you turn down the volume control,
you don't lose any highs.
So here's a little demo of that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Here's the volume control all the way up.
[MUSIC PLAYING] As I turn it down--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--it still stays bright--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--so that when you play chords--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--it's still very clear and pristine sounding,
even with your volume control turned down.
The half blender part of it-- normally a Strat,
the way it works is down here in the bridge,
you got your bridge pickup alone.
Second position, you've got your bridge and your middle
together.
Middle position, you've got just the middle.
Fourth position, the middle and the neck.
And the fifth position, just the neck.
OK, so that's five different sounds, different pickup
combinations.
Now there are two that you normally can't
get with a five-way switch.
And that would be the bridge and the neck combined, or all three
at the same time.
So that's what the half blender does.
So here we are down in the bridge.
We've got a master volume and a master tone.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This control down here, which is normally a tone control,
it's now a blender for the neck.
So I can turn it all the way up and I've got just the bridge.
[MUSIC PLAYING] And as I turn it counterclockwise--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--that's bridge and neck together,
kind of like on a Telecaster in the middle position.
This is a sound that you normally can't get on a Strat.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You can also blend it in the middle.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Get all kinds of different sounds.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I like turning it down to just about seven.
Bring in just a little bit of that neck--
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--where it still sounds like a bridge pickup,
but it's got something else going on in there.
So then in second position, it also
functions by blending in the neck.
So here we have the bridge and the middle together.
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I can blend in that neck.
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So that's all three pickups on at once.
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Now the half blender part-- why we call it a half blender
means that it stops working once you
get into the middle position.
From the middle position on, it functions
as a normal five-way switch.
The benefit of that is you could have a preset down here
on your bridge and your neck--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--flip right to your neck by itself
and it's completely normal.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And that's the fat '50s half blender wiring.