Two Coil Cuts on a standard 5 way switch
With this trick wiring your 5 way switch will split the coils of the
bridge and neck humbucker when in positions #2 and #4 (only.)
This gives you the strat "funky" tone with two single coils, and still
retains your humbuckers at full function when used by themselves.
The "5 way switch" misunderstanding.
The standard 5 way used by everyone is NOT a 5 pole switch. It is only
a 3 pole switch with "short circuits" built in. (actually two 3 pole
switches, one on each side of the wafer) The #2 and #4 positions can
not be assigned different functions as they do not exist - (#2 is a
short circuit of #1 and #3 - #4 is a short circuit of #3 and #5.) The
only real "positions" are #1, #3, and #5.
How it works
Here we use the other side of the switch (the part that is not really
needed) #3, the middle pole is grounded, and the two coil cut wires are
connected to the two outside poles (#1 and #5)
When in position #1 the bridge pickup is on and on the other side of
the switch, its coil cut is not connected to anything. Only when you
move the switch into position #2 do you get the short circuit of #1 and
#3 giving you both the bridge and middle pickup.
But you also get, on the other side of the switch, a short circuit of
#1 and #3, the coil cut is connected to ground (#3) and you have the
bridge humbucking pickup "split" to a single coil!
The further concept of adding the other pickup's coil cut on #4 just
makes the whole thing cooler.
Get the stuff for this mod!
Strat
5 way switch, U.S. made