Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

[Guitar Toad]

It’s no contest.
The Texas Hot rules the battle of the Texas pups in my JV strat. Now, that I’ve tried it, I can’t go back. Now, I’ve a TH neck and TM’s in middle and bridge.

The standard specs on the Tex Mex are 6.4K nack and middle, 7.4 for the bridge.

The Texas Hot that I have wound to 6.3K is louder, more lively, and brighter. It goes well with the middle Tex Mex for a nice notch position tone. But, it greatly outshines the TM middle and bridge TM’s that remain in my strat. The 6.3k wound TH is louder and better than the 7.4K bridge. Wow! The TM bridge simply sound flat in comparison. Playing the middle and bridge TM’s now is like stereo in the tone defeat position.

It only took me 20 minutes to swap out the neck pups and be back together again. What was I worried about?

This is a great pickup! Thanks flank!
When I get my tax refund I gotta get 2 more Antiquities!

I think Jimmie Vaughan would love these Texas Hots in his own strat!

[Luke Duke]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

Toad, I knew when you finally got a Duncan in there (especially an ant.) you'd see what the fuss was about.

Luke

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

Luke Duke, you were quite right!

gripweed, did I give a good description?

[gripweed]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

Luke Duke, you were quite right!

gripweed, did I give a good description?

Lmfao -- yes you did.

[flank]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

sweet man..... i like how you described it as being more lively. I think that the duncan single coils that i have put in are not so much as WAY differnt than the stock pickups, but they make my strat sound more alive, like a cover was taken off of it......if you know what im saying.....its like the best of the strat sound, and just MORE of it

glad you like it man

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

I noticed that the neck tone pot had a .022 cap but the bridge tone pot didn't have a cap at all. Is the usual for Fender strats? Next, time I have it apart should I replace the .022 for .047 cap and put one on the bridge tone pot?

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

This Texas Hot has great tone but it doesn't have much low end punch. Perhaps that where the Surfers excell? If the TH had a little more on the low end it would be nearly perfect, But perhaps just I need to get the height dialed in properly. I sure that will help some. At the moment the low E end is a bit higher than the high E side.

[gripweed]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

This Texas Hot has great tone but it doesn't have much low end punch. Perhaps that where the Surfers excell? If the TH had a little more on the low end it would be nearly perfect, But perhaps just I need to get the height dialed in properly. I sure that will help some. At the moment the low E end is a bit higher than the high E side.

You might like the Duncan 5/2 for Strat. They are one of my favorites although I certainly haven't tried all of the Duncan Strat pickups. It has an Alnico 5 for the bass strings and Alnico 2 for the treble strings.

I don't think Lew is a big fan of them though, even though I think he likes them. I believe Evan called them one of his favorite Strat pickups though.

[PhatStrat]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

I noticed that the neck tone pot had a .022 cap but the bridge tone pot didn't have a cap at all. Is the usual for Fender strats? Next, time I have it apart should I replace the .022 for .047 cap and put one on the bridge tone pot?

I'd like more info on this question as well if anyone could enlighten us. I too had a .022 cap on my neck tone pot, which has now been moved to the bottom tone pot which now functions as a master tone (the original neck pot has been replaced with a Fat-O switch for splitting/wiring options). What is the function of the cap, and what would change if it were switched to a .047 as GT has asked? Just curious. Main reason for my asking is cause when I wired the Fat-O switch in and moved the cap to the bottom tone pot I think I damaged it, cause the tone pot now works intermittently. I am going to have to replace the cap and/or possibly the whole pot, so as long as I'm doing it, is there a better setup for tone control?

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

The typical wiring scheme (at least from what I've seen in Strats I've opened up) is to use a single .022 cap to serve as the tone pot cap for both neck and middle pu tone pots with no tone pot at all for the the bridge pu. I re-wired mine so that that .022 is on the neck pu only and assigned the the tone pot for the middle pu to the bridge pu, meaning the middle pu now has no tone pot. I wired a Mallory .0068 cap on the new bridge pu tone pot. It's a low value, just enough to dull the "ice pick" a little if the room I'm playing in comes back at you pretty bright.

(FWIW, I put in one of those Super switches you can get from Stewmac so that position #3 is bridge/neck instead of middle alone, a tone I had no use for.)

[PhatStrat]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

I found an answer to my own question regarding cap values. If you read here it seems to be a pretty clear explanation. Basically it seems that the higher the value of the cap, the greater the reduction in treble as the pot is turned down. No effect at all when on "10", and a higher reduction in treble at "1". Makes sense... now of course I have to buy both cap values and try it out. My original setup was with a .022 cap, so I will try out the .047 and see if I get more treble roll-off as a result.

Damn this is fun!!

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

I found an answer to my own question regarding cap values. If you read here it seems to be a pretty clear explanation. Basically it seems that the higher the value of the cap, the greater the reduction in treble as the pot is turned down. No effect at all when on "10", and a higher reduction in treble at "1". Makes sense... now of course I have to buy both cap values and try it out. My original setup was with a .022 cap, so I will try out the .047 and see if I get more treble roll-off as a result.

Damn this is fun!!

I saw where a guys suggested soldering two 6" wires off the tone pot where the cap would go. Then you put everything back together and try several diff caps to determine what you like. The you can install the winner permenantly.

What about the no-load pot modification that I saw on projectguitar.com? Have you tried that?

[PhatStrat]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

Hey GT. Thanks (or maybe not) for the suggestion about the wires. I have spent the whole night switching caps back and forth, bugging everyone in the family to give me opinions (kinda like at the eye doctor... "which is better, 1 or 2, 2 or 1?"). Now I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the .022 cap, but also like some of the sounds from the .047 cap. Just for grins I hooked both up at the same time parallel and got yet another set of sounds.


Since I can't quite decide I might look into a push-pull pot that I can use to switch back and forth and then hook them both up!! Gees... does it ever end??

[PhatStrat]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

Oh and... BTW, my previous post where I said that the cap only effected the tonality when not on "10" is not accurate. The overall sound is still quite different between the two caps even when the tone pot is not engaged, and different still when no cap is hooked up. But you guys probably already knew that huh?

[Bludave]

Re: Texas Hot vs Tex Mex

It’s no contest.
The Texas Hot rules the battle of the Texas pups in my JV strat. Now, that I’ve tried it, I can’t go back. Now, I’ve a TH neck and TM’s in middle and bridge.

The standard specs on the Tex Mex are 6.4K nack and middle, 7.4 for the bridge.

The Texas Hot that I have wound to 6.3K is louder, more lively, and brighter. It goes well with the middle Tex Mex for a nice notch position tone. But, it greatly outshines the TM middle and bridge TM’s that remain in my strat. The 6.3k wound TH is louder and better than the 7.4K bridge. Wow! The TM bridge simply sound flat in comparison. Playing the middle and bridge TM’s now is like stereo in the tone defeat position.

It only took me 20 minutes to swap out the neck pups and be back together again. What was I worried about?

This is a great pickup! Thanks flank!
When I get my tax refund I gotta get 2 more Antiquities!

I think Jimmie Vaughan would love these Texas Hots in his own strat!

This is nice to hear. I just ordered a set of Texas Hots for a Strat project I am going to do this year. I also ordered a JD Bridge PUP for my TEL.
Can't wait to get them!!