sorry for the double post eggman, I didn't know under which heading should my post be so I did it in both.

My luthier did advised me about adding a series/parallel switch or an out of phase switch but I'm worried about having to mess with the pickup. You see, the classic 57 and 57 plus only has 2 braided wires instead of four so (I might be wrong about this one but)I'm guessing you have to mess up with the pickups. I know its not a big of a deal but I have become paranoid about my pickups lately because I am very happy with the sounds I am getting from them. A slight change in the tone that is caused by tweaking the pickups would drive me nuts- so as tempting as it may seem I had to throw that one away. Besides, I don't think the paf pickups were designed for coil taps and for making them out of phase. If they were, I think Gibson would give them 4 braided wires instead of 2. But again, this is just my uninformed opinion. Maybe you guys know better.

As for the coil tap, I am aware that it often leads to a weak thin tone- especially with not so hot pickups like the ones I have, so I did some research on the local library about guitar wirings. From there, I found out that you can do a capacitor tap to strengthen the thin tone- but I've also found out that the boost provided by the capacitor tapped coil can be too much for a good single coil.

My best option so far (I think) is to add a varitone switch. I've never tried one. Some people say that its useless and many of them disabled it. But I've heard blueshawk players report that you can get a good strat and tele sound somewhere in the 4,5 position. BB King also uses it in his Lucille and never removes it in the middle position. I wanted to try the Lucille to see it for myself (I don't know where in my area can I find a blueshawk) but someone already bought it when I went to the music store today.

Does anyone here own a blueshawk or an ES 335- or any guitar with a varitone tell me if you can get a strat and a tele sound from a varitone switch?