Gr8Scott
Wookieologist
I have one fairly traditional strat loaded with Area 58's and one that has noiseless single coils in it from Bill Lawrence (the L200S Neck, L280S Mid and L290 Bridge). Though I was happy with the tone of the L290, I felt that the whole guitar could use a bit more output and I wanted a change especially in the neck and middle pickups. I decided to install the Blackouts Modular Preamp. This ordinarily presents a problem since apparently noone has installed this preamp in a single coil equipped guitar as far as I know. Call me crazy or call me an innovator, but I decided to try it once I found this remarkable preamp on the internet for $44 with free shipping. It came in this Saturday and I spent the better part of 4 hours tonight installing this beast. I'm not going to include pix as the wiring looks like a rats nest. It's really hideous to say the least and I really did try to keep things somewhat neat. I could have made it neater if I removed some of the pickup lead length, but I just ran out of time and I wanted to get it over with to see if it worked and how it sounded.
It sounds dark on the neck and mid pickups and not too bad (though I would prefer it to be brighter) on the bridge pickup. The tone control seems to be kind of unresponsive really and it doesn't seem to do much. I may try removing the wire from the tone control and I'll see how that sounds. If it's too bright, I'll wire in a smaller capacitor for the tone pot until it settles into a zone that sounds good. The mids are thick and hot. This guitar definitely has the active pickup sound now. It went from mild to wild in 4 hours. The output is much higher than previously. Pedals that once sounded kind of thin with this guitar now have this throaty crunch with more sustain than previously. It isn't dialed in yet, but I really feel that it has incredible potential. Talk about a sleeper guitar. Noone would ever expect the huge sounds that this guitar has in it to come out of those teensy little noiseless single coil pickups.
I think I've come up with a way to make the guitar work without the preamp given the way I've wired it up. I don't know for sure though and I won't know until I get the correct switch in and try it out. If the guitar sounds best without the tone knob in it, I'll use the hole for the tone knob to house the switch. I tend to not use the tone knob in guitars anyway and the ability to use the guitar regardless of the status of the battery would be a nice option to have plus it would give me the ability to access the non-BMP powered original sounds.
It sounds dark on the neck and mid pickups and not too bad (though I would prefer it to be brighter) on the bridge pickup. The tone control seems to be kind of unresponsive really and it doesn't seem to do much. I may try removing the wire from the tone control and I'll see how that sounds. If it's too bright, I'll wire in a smaller capacitor for the tone pot until it settles into a zone that sounds good. The mids are thick and hot. This guitar definitely has the active pickup sound now. It went from mild to wild in 4 hours. The output is much higher than previously. Pedals that once sounded kind of thin with this guitar now have this throaty crunch with more sustain than previously. It isn't dialed in yet, but I really feel that it has incredible potential. Talk about a sleeper guitar. Noone would ever expect the huge sounds that this guitar has in it to come out of those teensy little noiseless single coil pickups.
I think I've come up with a way to make the guitar work without the preamp given the way I've wired it up. I don't know for sure though and I won't know until I get the correct switch in and try it out. If the guitar sounds best without the tone knob in it, I'll use the hole for the tone knob to house the switch. I tend to not use the tone knob in guitars anyway and the ability to use the guitar regardless of the status of the battery would be a nice option to have plus it would give me the ability to access the non-BMP powered original sounds.
