Emerson Custom Blender 5-Way Strat Prewired Kit — Best Guitar Mod for Your Stratocaster
The Fender Custom Shop '60 Journeyman Strat returns — this time with the Emerson Custom Blender 5-Way Prewired Kit installed. Here's what a wiring upgrade actually sounds like. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Fender Custom Shop 1960 Journeyman Relic Stratocaster returns with its stock Texas Special pickups now paired with the Emerson Custom S5B Blender 5-Way Strat Prewired Kit, into the Benson Amps Monarch via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact, R2R Electric Si Distorter TFK, and Effectrode Tube Vibe feature in the second half.
Get the Emerson Custom Strat 5-Way Blender Kit here: https://emersoncustom.com/products/s5b-blender-5-way-strat-prewired-kit?sca_ref=6282128.5O9h8BhMpG
Treble Bleed Mod: https://emersoncustom.com/products/2017-treble-bleed-circuit-volume-mod?sca_ref=6282128.5O9h8BhMpG
All Emerson Prewired Kits: https://emersoncustom.com/collections/prewired-kits
Emerson Custom wiring is in nearly every guitar on this channel — the exceptions are vintage instruments I don't modify. The quality of components matters enormously: CTS pots built to Emerson's exact specifications and tolerances, paper-in-oil capacitors, and a Treble Bleed mod on the volume pot that maintains high-frequency content as you roll back the volume knob. Stock Strat wiring bleeds treble as the volume decreases — the Treble Bleed keeps the tone present and articulate throughout the entire volume sweep, which is explored extensively from 07:19 onward.
What the S5B Blender Kit adds beyond a standard upgrade: the secondary tone knob becomes a Blender — a continuous knob that blends the neck pickup into the bridge, bridge into neck, neck into bridge/middle, or bridge into neck/middle combinations depending on where the 5-way selector is positioned. A knob rather than a switch means every point between the extremes is accessible — subtle blends, partial blends, and the extreme positions are all dialed in continuously. The global tone knob governs all pickups. The result is a Strat with significantly more pickup voice combinations than a standard 5-way, with no visible modification to the pickguard or controls.
This is a direct comparison to the stock Journeyman wiring covered in the previous video — same guitar, same pickups, same amp chain. The improvement in volume knob response alone is immediately apparent.
🎛️ Emerson Custom: https://emersoncustom.com
🎸 Fender Custom Shop: https://shop.fender.com
🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 Fender Custom Shop '60 Journeyman Relic Strat | Faded Aged Surf Green | Texas Special Pickups | Emerson Custom S5B Blender 5-Way Kit | P/O Cap | CTS Pots | Treble Bleed
🎛️ Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact | R2R Electric Si Distorter TFK | Effectrode Tube Vibe
🔊 Benson Amps Monarch | Boss Waza TAE
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R10 & R121 | Sennheiser E906 | Ableton Live 12
