Eric Johnson and “Virginia.”
This month, let’s take a deep dive into the details of Eric Johnson’s 1954 “Virginia” Stratocaster, and discuss how to install its unique wiring scheme in your Stratocaster.
For much of Johnson’s career, he’s played his 1954 Stratocaster, which he nicknamed after a masking-tape label found in the pickup routes. In the ’50s, it was common for employees at the Fender factory to sign the guitars they assembled. This now-iconic instrument was built by an employee named Virginia, one of the earliest women Leo Fender had hired to work at the Fender factory. (Virginia’s last name is a mystery from the early Fender days. There are several photos of her, and other early employees remember Virginia, but none seem to remember her last name.)
In 2020, Fender released the Eric Johnson “Virginia” Stratocaster, as well as a Custom Shop version. It’s unknown when the modifications were done to this guitar. Let’s look at some of the things that make “Virginia” unique, and how you’d recreate this by building your own personal copy:
Body: Two-piece, offset-seam sassafras body painted in the classic Fender two-tone sunburst finish. Sassafras, also called golden elm or cinnamon wood, is native to North America. It’s not a common tonewood, but Fender used sassafras for some early Strat bodies. My guess is that it was used to substitute ash and swamp ash. Sassafras has a grain and appearance similar to ash and chestnut, as well as a similar weight and density, and it was easy and cheap to get in large quantities.
There are different companies offering sassafras Strat bodies, but you can also choose an ash or swamp ash body. If you want to be as close as possible, get a two-piece body. Whether it’s offset-seam or not is up to you.
Neck: One-piece maple neck with a soft V-shape, 12"-radius fretboard sporting 21 jumbo frets and black dots. It should be no problem to find such a Stratocaster neck. And the choice of standard or figured maple is a matter of personal taste.
Hardware: Basically the standard Fender hardware from the ’50s, such as the typical Fender ’50s Stratocaster tremolo and Kluson vintage tuners. Here is a list of what is not standard on this guitar’s hardware:
- A single Graph Tech String Saver saddle is used on the high E string. All the other saddles are ’50s standard bent-steel saddles.
- A flat washer on the output jack.
- The tremolo uses four springs (instead of five), and the one that’s under the B string is not installed.
- A single ’60s-style butterfly string tree with a nylon spacer underneath, instead of the ’50s-style round string tree
The plastic parts: This is also ’50s standard, sporting a single-ply offset-white pickguard with aged-white pickup covers, knobs, switch tip, and tremolo arm tip.
EJ plays pure nickel strings, so this is also recommended if you want to get as close as possible.
Now, let’s have a close look at the electronics and wiring. Here is a list of the electronic parts you’ll need:
- DiMarzio DP116 HS-2 stacked humbucker bridge pickup
- Fender ’57 or ’62 EJ middle and neck pickups
- Standard open-blade 5-way pickup selector switch
- Cloth wire for all connections
- 375k audio volume pot with a 90/10 taper ratio, no treble-bleed network
- Two 250k audio tone pots with a 90/10 taper ratio
- 0.1 μF/150 V wax-paper tone capacitor
- Standard mono output jack
Getting all these parts should be no problem at all. The pickups are in production, 375k pots are available from various companies, and new wax-paper capacitors are also available. All three pickups should use latex tubing instead of springs for pickup-height adjustment.
If you wish to use NOS wax-paper caps, don’t worry about the voltage. It will have absolutely no influence on the tone inside the guitar, only on its size. Be sure its capacitance is close to 0.1 μF, because these caps have a tendency to drift in capacitance over time.
The switching matrix is almost standard Stratocaster and goes like this:
#1: bridge pickup
#2: bridge + middle pickup in parallel (in phase)
#3: middle pickup
#4: middle + neck pickup in parallel (out of phase)
#5: neck pickup
The DiMarzio stacked humbucker is permanently used as a split single-coil pickup with only the upper spool being engaged, so no humbucking feature is activated. The upper tone control is assigned to the neck pickup, while the lower tone control is connected to the bridge pickup, leaving the middle pickup without tone control. The pickguard uses ’50s-style copper-foil shielding (connected to ground), but only under the area where the electronics are installed, not over the whole pickguard.
If you want to put this wiring into your Strat, take notice of the out-of-phase feature in switching position #4. On the “Virginia” Strat, the bridge pickup has a south polarity, while the middle and neck pickups both have a north polarity, and the middle pickup is reverse-wound. Please note that this is not a reverse-wound, reverse-polarity (RWRP) pickup, because both pickups need to have the same magnetic polarity. There are many pickup combinations where this feature will not work, so upgrading your pickups may be necessary if you want the full package. In short, you need a middle and neck pickup with the same magnetic polarity, one of them reverse-wound, and both in phase with the bridge pickup.
So, here we go for the wiring (Fig. 1). As always, I tried to keep it as clean as possible by substituting the ground-wire runs with the international symbol for ground. I used the DiMarzio humbucker color code for the bridge pickup. If you decide to use a different brand, you need to transfer the color code of the wires with the correct color-code chart.
That’s it. Next month, we will dissect the new Fender John 5 “Ghost Telecaster” wiring, so stay tuned.
Until then ... keep on modding!
Brad was learning Chet Atkins-style thumbpicking in lessons from the age of 12, and while he later absorbed a rock vocabulary, Shifty comments that Brad always seems to play with a country feel. Throughout the episode, Brad frequently illustrates his points by playing riffs, in a way that shows that his connection with the instrument is a fluid one and a key part of how he expresses himself.
"Mud on the Tires" was originally recorded 20 years ago, in 2003. Brad's setup was either his '68 Paisley Tele or '52 Tele, recorded through a '63 Vox AC30 and a Dr. Z Z 28, the latter of which was run through a 15" JBL speaker. As he puts it, the AC30 fills the frequency gaps left by the Fender, making the combination a perfect sonic marriage. He says that live, he normally plays the solo on a guitar he's nicknamed "Splash," and they've had to replace the nut on it three times, due to how Paisley bends the 4th string on the space behind it at a certain point in the solo.
While rockin' his G bender, Brad has some trouble executing the solo's most elaborate middle riff during the solo breakdown, but his incredible chops pull through towards the end of the ep as he whips out the impressive lick. Shifty encourages followers to see if they can match it! That might be a tall order, but it is all part of the fun.
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
King started his career as studio player in the ’70s and remains an active performer. Inspired by Hank Marvin, King chose a Stratocaster as his go-to instrument long ago—he’s often called the German Hank Marvin, which I think says it all. The Ventures and Swedish instrumental band the Spotnicks are also big influences, and you and you can clearly hear this in his playing style and in his trademark guitar tone. Across his catalog of 30 records, he’s sold more than 6 million copies and hopefully will continue making music for years to come.
Photo 1
King is known for playing ’70s Fender Stratocasters in vintage white with the era-correct big headstock, rosewood fretboard, and white pickguard, plus two modifications that are quite unique. Have a look at the cover of his Greatest Hits record from 1983 in Photo 1 (there’s his famous smile). Between the 5-way pickup-selector switch and the volume and tone controls, you can clearly see a small metal plate containing two small toggle switches.
I asked Ricky King about the secret of these two additional switches, and this was his answer (translated from German):
“With one of the switches, I was able to engage a little preamp inside the guitar to influence the volume and the high frequencies. This little unit was developed and built by one of the studio technicians, and the necessary 9V battery was also placed inside the guitar. You can have the same operation by using an external booster and EQ pedal, so this feature was later removed. The preamp also made technical problems from time to time, which was another reason to remove it. This was long ago, and I don’t have the original preamp anymore. In my later guitars, the additional metal plate with the two switches was no longer present and the only toggle switch I used was directly built into the pickguard. With the second switch I was able to engage all possible pickup combinations.”
With this description, it’s not too difficult to re-engineer the original Ricky King wiring from the era when he recorded his greatest hits. One of the switches engaged an onboard preamp that boosted both the volume and treble. Keeping the timeline in mind—we’re talking about the mid ’70s—and from the description (boost plus EQ), I’m pretty sure we’re talking about a treble-booster circuit with a fixed boost because there’s no additional element to control the boost level. We don’t know exactly how much is being boosted, and we don’t know what exact circuit was used. The trademark Ricky King sound was always ultra clean and free of any overdrive and distortion, so the boost was for sure moderate. From the timeline, we can’t be sure if it was an old-school discrete transistor-based circuit like the famous Rangemaster or a modern one using an IC circuit like the good old LM741 that was used in the MXR Distortion Plus. Both are possible, and my own guess is it’s a Rangemaster-based circuit with silicon instead of the old traditional germanium transistors.
The second switch you’ll recognize as a good, old 7-sound Stratocaster mod to get the two additional pickup combinations: bridge plus neck and all three pickups together, both in parallel.
To combine both mods, I’ll use a feature without knowing if this was originally used in Ricky King’s guitar. If so, all is perfect. If not, it’s a fine and modern upgrade, resulting in the same tone.
So, what do we need to get this wiring?
1. A DPDT mini toggle switch for the preamp and an SPST mini toggle switch for the 7-sound modification.
2. An onboard preamp circuit of your choice.
3. A stereo output jack.
4. A 9V battery, connector strip, and battery holder.
There are a wide choice of ready-to-drop-in onboard preamp devices available on the market. I would choose a PCB with a trim pot for the boost factor so you can set and forget it, pretty much like on Ricky King’s guitar. You’ll have to experiment, but don’t start with a high setting, the trademark King tone is always crystal clear (think Hank Marvin). Some units also offer trim pots for bass, mids, and highs so you can mimic the treble boost by setting bass and mids flat and kick in a little bit more highs. You can also download countless wiring diagrams for such units on the internet and make your own custom one if you want to.
I don’t think Ricky King was very popular in the United States, but his personal Stratocaster wiring is an interesting one, so I think you’ll have fun with this.
Depending on your Strat and the size of the preamp, you’ll have to decide where to place the unit and the battery. Usually Strats with the swimming-pool routing offer plenty of space for this.
You also must decide where to place the two switches, or if you want to substitute them with two push-pull or push-push pots. Between the 5-way switch and the controls is enough space to place both mini toggle switches. Die-hard Ricky King fans can naturally make a custom plate like the one on his original guitar.
With this wiring, we’ll replace the standard mono output jack with a stereo jack to make engaging the preamp module much more comfortable. It’s possible to leave the standard mono output jack, but instead of the 2PDT switch, you’d need a 3PDT switch. Such mini switches are available, and with their three switching stages, it’s possible to engage the booster signal plus the 9V power.
With the standard mono output jack, you’ll hear a noticeable “PLOP” when you use the switch, which can be very annoying. When you use the stereo output jack to engage the 9V power, the “PLOP” will be present as well, but you can’t hear it because the power contact will be closed before the signal contact, so it can’t reach the amp. I’m pretty sure 3PDT mini toggle switches weren’t available in the mid ’70s, so it’s most likely that a stereo jack was used in the original wiring.
Fig. 1
So, here is the wiring with both mods for you, as shown in Fig. 1.
That’s it. Next month, we’ll take a deeper look into the Johnny Marr Jaguar wiring before we finish the DIY relic’ing project after that.
Until then … keep on modding!Fig. 1
The basic idea of this mod is very simple. With a switch, you can split the humbucker to a single-coil pickup resulting in two very different tones: 100 percent humbucker or 100 percent single-coil. The variable coil-splitting mod uses a pot instead of a switch, so you don’t have only two given tones but also anything in between, giving you precise control over the amount of split.
This is not just about balancing tone, but also balancing hum-free operation. The more humbucker you have, the less hum and noise will be present and vice versa. With the pot fully opened you have 100 percent humbucker, and with the pot fully closed you have 100 percent single-coil. But it’s easy to dial in any tone you want, for example, 70 percent humbucker plus 30 percent single-coil, which gives a good proportion of hum-free operation.
Another cool bonus is that when you have too much bass or overdrive in full humbucker mode, you can use the spin-a-split to instantly clear things up.
So, you’ll have easy access to a huge range of tones from only one humbucker pickup by mixing single-coil and humbucker sounds. You can also mimic other pickups with this mod, such as P-90s or Filter’Trons. Another cool bonus is that when you have too much bass or overdrive in full humbucker mode, you can use the spin-a-split to instantly clear things up.
The idea is not new. It first showed up in the mid 1970s and Hartley Peavey is the person to whom all the credit must go. Most people think this is an easy mod, which only partly hits the nail, and I’ll explain why in just a moment.
Let’s have a look at the basic configuration and how this mod works (Fig. 1). You need a spin-a-split pot for each humbucker pickup you want to install this wiring into. As usual, I chose the Seymour Duncan color code to demonstrate the mod because it’s the quasi-standard in the guitar world. If you want to transfer the color code to humbucker pickups from another company, you can use one of the many color code transfer charts on the internet.
As usual, the green and the bare wires go to ground so there’s nothing new here. The black wire is the output, going to a pickup-selector switch or to the input lug of a volume control. The red and the white wires are going to the middle lug (lug #2) of the spin-a-split pot while the bottom lug (lug #3) is grounded. When the pot is turned all the way down, the red and white wires will be connected directly to ground, which is a normal coil-split setup for single-coil tone. When the control is turned all the way up, the red and white wires are not connected to ground at all, which means normal humbucker mode and tone.
The idea is not new. It first showed up in the mid 1970s and Hartley Peavey is the person to whom all the credit must go.
This is where the trouble starts. In reality, both wires are still slightly connected to ground but with a large resistance, depending on what pot you use for this. This will drain a good portion of volume and tone to ground. A perfect and easy fix to get rid of this lingering connection to ground is using a no-load pot, which removes the ground connection when the pot is turned all the way up.
If you want to use a tone pot as a spin-a-split pot, you’ll find a 500k or 250k audio pot. It’s essential to replace this one with a no-load pot or convert the existing pot into a no-load pot by breaking the connection internally. If for any reason this is not possible, you should use a 100k pot, but finding them in guitar-friendly configurations is a challenge. Linear pots work best for this mod, so with a little luck you’ll find a 500k linear tone pot in your humbucker guitar, which is a perfect base for this mod by making it a no-load pot.
Fig. 2
As you can see, it’s not as easy as it seems, and as always, the devil is in the details.
In closing, here’s an illustration (Fig. 2) of the spin-a-split mod together with a volume pot for the same pickup. Instead of connecting the wire to the input of the volume pot, you can connect it to a pickup-selector switch if you have more than one pickup in your guitar.
That’s it! Next month we’ll do a mod for Stratocaster guitars called the “Ricky King” mod, so stay tuned. Until then ... keep on modding!