I just subbed for ever that is a true how to video good execution of when where and why now I can do it thanks bro

Are you kidding me? 'Hope that was helpful'? I never attempted this until watching this video. Very very helpful. Thank you!

Briliant, I now know how my 1978 stratocaster works....I bought it new in 1978 as an 18 year old....ha ha, I'm slow but I got there..with your assistance. Thanks!

Dude, I cannot begin to explain how much your explanation and demonstration has given me the confidence in my Jaguar project. Thank you so much

Bravo! This should be the number one video offered by KZfaq when someone searches for "strat" wiring.

Daaamn. In 1983-84 my parents bought me a Squire Strat. Black and rosewood. That guitar was one of my constant companions for many many years. I’ve never mastered the instrument but it’s my baby. Until 20 years ago when I stopped playing and the guitar sat in a closet. This Christmas I took it out it was a wreck. I’d forgotten the drunken nights, the experiments (modded the switch and pots for some unfathomable reason) and the ridiculous strings. I looked up the serial number and good lord - it’s a Japanese made squire that some knuckleheads buy for 2k. Well - the body on mine has way to many nicks, character i call it to be worth anything like that. But I love it. So I fixed all that was wrong - truss , bridge etc. except a mod gone wrong or maybe just a bad switch that muted the neck pickup- the one with the sweetest tone IMHO. I just spent two hours using this tutorial and lo and behold - my baby works again. THANK YOU!!! My baby thanks you.

I am glad you mentioned gray market components. There are companies in the US, likely elsewhere, that buy old inventory and sell them, or use them in boards. Worse is in China they get all kinds of old, non functional, electrical equipment. The take out components, clean them and remove markings, and will re-brand with newer dates, and upgrade models. They are then sold to the company I worked for, after leaving high tech, who sold them to people and companies. When they fail the customer gets angry with the manufacturer. Fun fact. When I discovered the little board manufacturer I was working for was doing to this I mentioned the parts were counterfeit. The owner found out and came to see the trouble maker. I knew the guy, we sold him old inventory in Silicon Valley and sued him for claiming that he was a distributor of our product. He said I could either do as he said or be fired. I was fired. I called customs and they lost $240k in counterfeit parts on top of the $100k fine from EPA. I made them a giant blip on customs radar.

thank you so much sir! I'm doing my first pickup swap, and watching someone skilled at it explain the process was priceless.

Wow. And just like that I went from not knowing a single thing about what goes on inside the electronics of a Strat, to thinking I might be able to wire one up. Very clear and methodical explanation!!! My only question is what is the function of the capacitor. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with us.

Thank you so much one of the best videos have come a cross explaining the procedure of wiring the Stratocaster guitar in a standard way and step by step which made it even a beginner to be encouraged as long knowing the basics of soldering . This is what I can call it the A B C for a standard Stratocaster Guitar wiring. And please do accept our gratitude and appreciation for your spectacular educational video. And hope you share more topics as well because for sure a millions of people will enjoy and learn the A B C method in any subject. I salut you my friend and best greetings and regards from ENGLAND 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 UK 👍🎸👏

Huge compliment. I watched this video with excitement and I have to admit. I don't know of any comparable video that explains things so helpfully. In Germany, this still seems to be a huge problem. Thank you very much. I finally dare to tackle electronics. Greetings from little Germany

I learned more about wiring by the time I finished the first half of this video, than I have ever known. I feel confident now that I can probably do this myself. Soldering has always been my weak point, but watching you has shown me so much. Thank you for making this video and making me a more knowledgeable guitar geek. :)

This is the best video explanation I've seen for wiring a strat and I've researched a lot of them. You are a fantastic teacher and your camera angles are great! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

I'm impressed! Your close up step by step instruction makes this wiring undertaking possible. You don't just point and talk, you solder it for us all to see. It just about brings me to tears, that you make this doable for me. Thanks.

Kind sir, i want to bestow upon you many thanks for this video. I've been struggling with wiring up my strat, well my struggling days are over. Now I'm gonna jam, like it's 1999 man. Thanks thanks thanks

This is by far and away the best instructional video on this subject I’ve come across. I’ve watched countless vids when I started doing my own work on my guitars. You sir, can solder

By far, the best explanation of this traditional wiring diagram than anything else out there anywhere!!! GLORIOUS!!!

I’ve just started soldering and even without you speaking just watching you I’ve learned a lot

After 5 years of collecting dust my axe does once again grindeth! Thankyou for the clear and accurate instructional, huge help. Now feel confident enough to try out some different wiring and capacitor configurations to see what kinda mojo is lurking within the spectrum.

Wow, I know this corny but you just taught me something that’s very important to me. I’ve been putting this off for some long because electronics are the one and only thing I’ve never got my hands on... and of course, it was super easy. You just helped me build my first custom guitar. Thank you very much.

Man, I just want to thank you for make these videos available for all of us. I just finished my first Stratocaster wiring with the bridge tone knob mod just watching your two videos. My Ron Ellis pickups sounds amazing. Next week will be my P-Bass 52 wiring! Thank you very much! You rock bud!

WOW! You are a fabulous instructor. I thank you so very much. 💗 I'm going to be wiring a 10-way switch into an HSS as soon as the parts arrive. Your lesson was well received. I appreciate the pointers, tips, tricks, and reminders. I'm very 🙏 grateful. Thanks again in subscribed and all ears.

You're a great instructor! You've demystified the whole process, from component choices, to soldering techniques, as well as signal flow! Thanks so much for all you do!

So well done. I'm a lawyer who has all the electrical and soldering experience necessary to pass the Bar exam, so your detailed explanation of not just what to do, but why, is greatly appreciated.

This is soooo much better than simply trying to reproduce from a diagram. I feel I got the fishing pole, not just the fish. Thanks!

Great info here. It helped me getting the audio pots working again. Cold soldering...

Ps. I took notes and made multiple diagrams until I was sure I knew exactly what you were explaining so finitely!

I'm in the middle of putting my DYI Strat together and I have to say that your video is the most comprehensive and easy to understand instructional video I have ever seen! You totally answered all the questions that I had and being as I've wired strats together many times I was doing it not quite wrong but certainly not as effectively and cleanly and efficiently as you did in this video. So I've liked and subscribed and I shared this to a couple of my Guitar Building buddies! Many thanks from Jim in seattle!

6 years on and it's still an awesome video. Thanks a lot!

Thank you for the awesome video. You have an amazing ability to talk and explain everything to the tiniest detail. I’m building a partscaster and just finished the body/neck work. After watching your video I’m pretty sure I’ll do a good job wiring the new electronics.

Man are you a great instructor - thank you very much for doing this!!!!!!

This is brilliant, you go in to so much detail, and take your time. Thank you, from a guy who has no clue, but will soon have a go at building his first Strat

Huge thanks for posting this Roy. I'll be doing this on Saturday. Artec hotrails running through 500k pots. Rock on bro.

Great work, Thank Roy.😊 I have a squier stratocaster from 2014 . 😢

First one of these I actually understood...great clarity...you are a natural born teacher. Thanks.

Great information! Really helped out in figuring out a wiring problem with a bridge pickup I was having. Only criticism is on the soldering in the video... that's how you get cold joints easily. Dab of flux, tin and heat both components to join; 'scooping' solder onto cold metal, and not using flux on top of that almost guarantees a poor or bad joint. Especially on vintage/oxidized parts.

This is the best how-to vid I've seen in a long time. Well explained, no jargon. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for this. I have scoured the internet trying to find a good tutorial on soldering electronics for a guitar. Soooo many people are so terrible at explaining what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. You explained every step and answered so many questions I had. I feel. A little more comfortable trying my hand at soldering.

I watched this video, then I decided to do my own. It gave me confidence. I now have my own strat. Thank you so much for this video!

hey folks this video does not show the ground wire being placed! I approached this from the "I want to change out my pups" and the guitar already had the ground wire in place. To be clear and more helpful, you DO want a ground wire in place on a strat or strat copy wire configuration. You want a wire soldered to the trem claw and then ran through the cavity to the cavity ground screw, if there is one. If you do NOT have a ground screw in or around the controls cavity, you can run the wire from the trem claw through the cavity ground wire hole (a small hole that goes from the trem claw through the side of the control cavity) to the top of the volume pot. You then want to run a small ground wire from the side of the volume pot to the middle pot and then to the side of the bridge tone pot or 3rd pot. This is typical grounding for a strat. If you have any questions about this please ask in the comments section and Id be happy to help the best I can!

First, thank you for the excellent tutorial... I especially used this video as a guide during my first (and successful) installation of pickups: I remain indebted to you. I only want to add one thing that may help others and that is re the wiring of the capacitor: if one line is used for one pot lug while the second line is used for the other pot log and then to ground (in this way, the capacitor sits between the pots, with each line going to a different pot and its lug), the volume will cut out when the (neck) tone knob is lowered to zero. The way to avoid this is: use one line from the capacitor to thread the two pots and their lugs and then use the other line on the capacitor to go to ground.

I'm currently in the process of tearing an old Squire apart and adding quality components. It's a guitar that 5 people have learned on and I want to give it the renovation in deserves. The wiring in the thing is completely jacked and I knew I was going to have to wire it all over from scratch. This video was AMAZINGLY helpful! Thank you very much!

Been following diagrams and soldering for 15 yrs. Now I actually know what each tab on the switch does independently. Never bothered to dig into it. Thanks, man. Now I can play with it and stray from written convention. I like my middle pickup poking through in position 2&4 so I’m gonna play with a neck volume, bridge volume and master tone to bring the neck and bridge down and have the middle full tilt regardless. Unconventional, but most of my ideas are haha! Subbed!

I am still working on the neck and the body of my strat. But once I get to wiring I will be sure to come back to this video to help me out!

Ive really got to coment again on this ive watched other videos and this is by far the best because he really explains in detail I really hate these videos were nothing is explained they expect you to only learn by watching

Your video has literally saved my partscaster! tinning the legs than wires was huge and thank you for walking it through!

12 minutes in and I have to say that you have such a passionate, knowledgeable, yet gentle teaching style. You need to be a teacher mate!

well done, you are very insightful and clear here, I went thru half a dozen videos before finding yours, which helped get my new strat selector switch up and running quickly. Thanks for the orientation on how it all works and testing measures 🌻

you are so detailed and clear, thanks, you are a gifted teacher

Excellent hands on demonstration

This video was outstanding....perfect explanation to a stratocaster which seems to elude the giant manufacturers from explaining. Thanks...

To all youtubers guitarists....if you want to teach, that's how video is done. Thank you Sir!

Thank you for this excellent tutorial. It helped me fix the missing tone control on my strat's middle pickup. I took electric shop in Jr. High School, but this was more informative. Soldering skills are much improved now.

I didn't know if I had a bad pickup or a bad blade switch. The bridge pickup had become really weak, not like when it was new. After seeing Roy explained how everything was hooked up it gave me an idea. I swapped the white wires coming off the bridge pickup and one of the others. Then at that point everything worked but just out of order. So I reversed the wires to their original locations and then it all worked properly. When Roy says sometime you have a dead solder connection, well that must have been the problem in my situation.

Roy you have just saved my first build 😁 I was one wire wrong till i found your video and my middle pickup has never worked 🙁 You ran a wire from the tone pot at the beginning to the third pole on 5 way switch , mine was on second pole not third and i had not got the link wire in either from first pole to second pole on 5 way Cheers dude your the man 😁😁🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Ya man. This was infinitely useful and had no bullshit preachyness.

On most guitars they run a ground wire to each pot, which is not necessary if the pick guard is shielded (Strat pick guards should be shielded) because the pots are grounded by touching the shielding. Also, when checking the pickups with the switching I tap all pickups just to make sure I have sound where I should and no sound where I shouldn't. Same when checking tone. Great video. Thanks!

Thank you for this. Really helpful! Very clear instruction and nice clear and close camera work. Right, here goes😉!

Thank you so much for doing this! You're a terrific instructor! Very grateful for this video!

Great video! Thanks! Now I'm confident enough to solder my new strat myself!

Same here brother, awesome how to video. fixed nearly 5 circuits this month, and mod a few strats here and there. Cheers from Chile !

Thanks Roy, this is the best video I've seen on the subject, now I can go fix my guitar!

Thorough, Quick and Easy --- Great explanation on the switch Legs..

Great video Roy, very clear, I like how you say `we're gunna` - `yur gunna` can be so rude.

Great instructional. Many thanks!

I just built my first Strat... $1550.00 later ... Thanks man... You Roooock!!!

The most instructive video for dummies I have found

Thank you Roy Cox for an excellently clear and detailed instruction ..! .. Merci Roy Cox pour une instruction extrêmement claire et détaillée ..! 🥇👑🙂🎶

Thank you very much for this video very clear and easy to follow, got my 1983 squire strat working again.

13:00 prep/tin the legs switch 18:00 capacitor 21:57: Bridge Tone 25:50: neck/middle tone jumper 23:27 neck tone 27:50 Volume Pot 30:30 pickups 34:00 rest of connections

thank you for uploading and showing us this step by step! best how to video on KZfaq tried the wiring diagrams and just confused me more.... thanks so much!

This is the best wiring video that I have ever seen. Thank you very much!

I love these how-to DIY videos. They keep me busy.

Clearest and most informative I've seen on how to wire a strat...wish I'd known about you when I was doing mine...now I'll go inspect my work again for accuracy... excellent !!!

I’m trying this myself now thanks nice video

Really clear & deeply informative video. Thank you so much.

Perfect video. step by step with explanations on how the pots work. Thank You!!!!

Thank you! Wired 2 strats in 3 hours---no hum! Great video, well explained, done systematically, and explained fully.

Excellent video. I had just rewired my Strat but it wasn't sounding right but after watching your video I found out my mistake. I have sved it in my bookmark. Thanks so much..

Great video, I also want to have the Neck and Middle P/U share one Tone and one pot for the bridge, Your jumper cable clarified this process very easily, Thanks Again !!

I have watched this a few times. Excellent sir, I learn from you! Thank you.

Thank you! I finally know which legs are which and the proper direction that switch goes. (They don't mark their stuff...) Now to build a Nashville-ish Telly with S, P90, Gold Foil... Oh yeah!

The best and clearest instructions on ow to wire your guitar

Thanks for the video. I was specifically looking for info on how to test the pots and what the three posts do, and you nailed it right in the beginning of the video. BTW my first impression of your voice was that you sound like David Lee Roth when he speaks, except you make a lot more sense.

To see this video from you was very helpful and inspirational to me go dare and put my hands on my guitars and start to make them several mods and changes, making them a lot better than they used to be. So thank you so much for sharing your experience and greetings from Argentine!

Dude! Awesome! I would've paid for this! You explained it perfect! Thank you!

Great video, great explanation. Thanks so much for making your knowledge reachable to anyone.

Dude thank you so very much, this is the first real video that actually helps ALOT!!! without trying to sell one some bullshit!!! Your Explanation is Fantastic!!!!!!!

@Roy Cox. Roy, thank you so much for posting such a detailed & well explained video on wiring a Strat. I just bought 2-70's Strat's so you know I just got done shelling out a lot of money, so now instead of giving the Luthier who usually does most of my work, I'll be able to save $200-$300 on each of these vintage Strat's. Plus I still have my Gilmour build sitting in a case & 2 regular Strat's. Now my wife will want me to sell a few of them so I'll need to take it slow & hope she forgets. Wives who know nothing about guitars, can't understand why we tend to start collecting them. All I tell her is if I had a larger room to store my guitars in, it wouldn't seem like I have too many of them.... Thanks again Roy, you've made a fantastic video. Also a big thank you for helping me feel more confident in doing my own work.

Brilliant. Straight and to the point, just how I like it. Thanks.

damn sir, you are very good. you explained it to the point with very clear voice and detail instructions. thank you very much! if you live near me i will buy you beers!

Very good tutorial. Learned a lot that I was confused about.

May you and your children and their children never want for anything 😜!! Best video on strat wiring of all time. Thanks so much!!

Awesome video, thank you very much for explaining everything in detail!

Thanks Roy, I followed through this to a perfectly wired vintage setup using Pribora blues hand wound pickups. My strat sounds incredible now.

I'd have paid real money for that. Thank you. A thousand times, thank you.

Roy, thank you for making this video. You made it easy to understand and I'm confident now that I can do this.

Could you please explain the very last wiring step to me again? I dont understand that last part about the positive and negative wires...if you explain the theory of it I'm sure I'll understand. Your theory when explained is very awesome for getting the bigger picture. I thank you for the video and hope to hear back from you!

Really great video. A quick correction - Orange Drop caps USED to be made by Sprague, but they are currently made by Cornell-Dubilier (a former competitor). It looks like they officially purchased the rights in 2012 - but before that the mfr was SBE. Sprague closed in early 90's. NOS Sprague Orange Drops are usually a little higher more $$ than new ones. Prob a lot more info than needed here, but this was of pretty high interest to me - maybe others will think so too.

excellent info. thanks so much for the uncluttered direction.