Tone Control Schematic

Older Fender Stratocasters?

Why did the older Fender Stratocasters have a pp3 battery inside when there was no external visible need- no Equilizer or technology sticking out the side?

All of the guitar Schematics i have studied incorporate passive low pass filters (Tone Control) so it is not this that’s being powered (or this would be an Active LP Filter).

So if you know this please let me in on the info, and explain why the guitars have moved to a a state where no DC input is required from a battery (even though the pickups are inductors and act as generators thus producing an AC output signal…See why im a bit confused?).

Thanks

The ones that use a battery are not ones that guitar geeks would call “older”. The older ones (50s/60s) are all passive electronics. Active electronics really became popular in the 80s.

A passive guitar only has the option to “cut” for a tone control – it can remove some treble is the normal option. Once you put a little preamp in there, with a battery to power it you have all sorts of options available, and if you look closely, some clever things started to happen with the knobs – pushing the knobs to do jobs, two actual knobs that look like a single one to give bass and treble controls. This also gave the option to boost instead of just cutting. Some instrument (notably basses) even had an XLR connector for output to a balanced input.

Some people like active electronics, some people don’t, hence the fact that not all guitars have them now, The currennt fassion is for vintage reissues.

Basic Guitar Electronics I – Volume and tone control