Can you think of any reason why these ideas are retarded?

1. Wire only neck and bridge PUs, tele-style with a mini-switch for PU selection, and no tone knobs, only volume.

2. Because of 1 I'd need a custom scratchplate. What are the problems (if any) associated with metal scratchplates?

Adam CR wrote:Can you think of any reason why these ideas are retarded?

1. Wire only neck and bridge PUs, tele-style with a mini-switch for PU selection, and no tone knobs, only volume.

2. Because of 1 I'd need a custom scratchplate. What are the problems (if any) associated with metal scratchplates?

There's nothing retarded about this. I only have a volume knob on my Strat and I placed it in the middle position of the three control holes ('Control Holes' hahaha...) . Tone control is what's retarded Adam. Malmsteen and Blackmore do not use the Strat middle pickup and I'm quite sure neither of them use tone controls either so , between me and those cats, you're in good company.

Give it a shot. Sounds like an interesting experiment.

Adam CR wrote:Can you think of any reason why these ideas are retarded?

1. Wire only neck and bridge PUs, tele-style with a mini-switch for PU selection, and no tone knobs, only volume.

2. Because of 1 I'd need a custom scratchplate. What are the problems (if any) associated with metal scratchplates?

Why do you think a custom scratchplate would be necessary ?Do you have a thing against showin' some hole ? Catholic guilt perhaps ? Anyways, metal scratchplates are expensive , but they can help to shield the pickups and I think they look the business (Limey talk, I couldn't resist !)

m.koren wrote:
Why do you think a custom scratchplate would be necessary ?

I've been using a regular scratchplate with two of the three 'control holes' gaffa-taped for a while, but I want it to look vaguely tidy when it's finished...

Okay. In that case , go with the metal scratchplate. Have a good time .

I hate middle pickups on guitars so this sounds fine to me but I remember reading somewhere that metal pickguards can cause microphonic feedback at super loud volumes with light thin aluminium guards being more prone to this than, for instance, brass.
I think you can get around this problem by putting foam sheeting underneath to dampen it.

One volume knob on a strat looks sort of Van Halen-ish. Don't know how you feel about that.

Adam CR wrote:1. Wire only neck and bridge PUs, tele-style with a mini-switch for PU selection, and no tone knobs, only volume.

Something more substantial might be less likely to spontaneously fuck itself.

Mose Varty-Seppanen wrote:
One volume knob on a strat looks sort of Van Halen-ish. Don't know how you feel about that.

Better than if I had a bunch of white and black stripes I'll fuckin' tell ya .

Antero wrote:Something more substantial might be less likely to spontaneously fuck itself.

I think you're probably right, also I hadn't particularly given the switch earthing much thought.