Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak middle

[vinnie1971]

I got the above set to go in my Telecaster / Jazzmaster / Firebird hybrid.

The DCR reads approximately (measured in the guitar)

Bridge - 10.2k
Middle 6.5k
Neck 8.5k

They’re the stacked Tele bridge, stacked strat middle and Firebird neck pickup.

They sound great on their own, especially the bridge and neck which balance perfectly but I find the middle strat pickup is weak. Noticeably dropping in volume when selected on its own or combined with the others.

The only way I can get a balance is by raising the middle 2mm away from the strings and dropping the others 5mm away. It looks really odd like that but it works.

Anyone else experience this with this set. I don’t think anything is wrong with the pickup - I think that’s the correct DCR and it’s not shorting out a coil as it’s hum cancelling.

I’m even tempted to replace that pickup with a Duncan vintage stack neck or middle but worry about the balance with the others, which I’m happy with ...



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[GuitarDoc]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

The middle pup is a much lower output and your experience with it is not uncommon. If it seems excessively so, are you sure you have the correct wires connected properly?

Sometimes it is necessary to do what you did...change pup heights to get a better output match. If it works and sounds good now, go for it. Nobody will see or even care if the heights are different.

 

[vinnie1971]

Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak middle

The middle pup is a much lower output and your experience with it is not uncommon. If it seems excessively so, are you sure you have the correct wires connected properly?

Sometimes it is necessary to do what you did...change pup heights to get a better output match. If it works and sounds good now, go for it. Nobody will see or even care if the heights are different.

Yes it’s connected correctly. Multimeter checks out on the switch, jack and from hot lead to ground.

I listened to some demos earlier of that set, and it does seem that’s how it is. One guy - his middle pickup sounds pretty balanced but I can see his pickup heights are adjusted like mine.

It did occur to me that I could use a 1 meg volume pot the run a resistor from the hot to ground leads ( 500k to 1 meg) of the neck and bridge to ground... I think that may cure it.


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[idsnowdog]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

A lot of people hate the middle pickup in a strat set and think it's too loud so they go with a weaker middle pickup to accentuate positions 2 &4 on a 5-way switch instead of by itself. The difference between the neck and middle isn't much and bridge to middle isn't excessive either. I would just replace the middle pickup with something around 8K range.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

A lot of people hate the middle pickup in a strat set and think it's too loud so they go with a weaker middle pickup to accentuate positions 2 &4 on a 5-way switch instead of by itself. The difference between the neck and middle isn't much and bridge to middle isn't excessive either. I would just replace the middle pickup with something around 8K range.

That sounds sensible- STK 1 seems a good option


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[idsnowdog]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

That sounds sensible- STK 1 seems a good option


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Something else you could try is a 4K resistor with the middle pickup like you see in the Partial split resistor section of this article. All you would do is add the resistor to the ground wire for that pickup. Raising its resistance may even out positions 2/4. https://www.fralinpickups.com/2018/10/17/using-resistors-in-guitars-101/

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

Something else you could try is a 4K resistor with the middle pickup like you see in the Partial split resistor section of this article. All you would do is add the resistor to the ground wire for that pickup. https://www.fralinpickups.com/2018/10/17/using-resistors-in-guitars-101/

Great suggestion.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

i say switch out the middle pickup, the mods could help absolutely but if that pickup was wound any weaker I'd have it on my fridge as a very ugly magnet for my grocery list.

Almost any single coil even if you went with a 5k pickup would be an improvement. I would suggest a mexican fender pickup or dare I say a squier pickup. I'll explain why in a minute.

With that particular Squier. The one I had at least as this is one of those guitars people will probably remember as it's such a unique pickup combination. I didn't measure the neck pickup in this set but this explains why it's so quiet as there is a world outside of DC resistance to assure us of pickup output. Apparently the pickup maker Bill Lawrence would get angry when people would ask him the DC resistance of his pickups. The way I always see things is I use both of these measurements.

With the middle pickup in the one I had it was a Duncan Designed SC102
6.35k - DC Resistance
1.05H - Inductance. H as in Henries which is stupidly low
Though the DC resistance is what looks like normal the inductance is a dead giveaway of how weak the pickup will be. This is without magnetic tesla or anything more extreme put into consideration to really see what the pickup can do.

The bridge pickup in the set I had was a Duncan Designed TB103-B
9.86k - DC resistance
2.56H - Inductance
this is when you wire the pickup into series. Not series out of phase like they come which explains the annoying hum. It's fixable. Series out of phase can affect a pickups inductance. A 6H pickup like a Duncan Custom could measure in at around 4H instead.

I'd go with a mexican fender or squier pickup. 1H is very rare and I'd think a pickup is broken or something but some people want them that weak. I've been doing a chart of resistances and inductance on and off the last few years.

this is a seymour duncan blog on the subject of inductance. The usual range is 1-10. I've seen 12 a few times but anything beyond 10H for a humbucker you might as well go active or buy an overdrive.
https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/inductance-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

i say switch out the middle pickup, the mods could help absolutely but if that pickup was wound any weaker I'd have it on my fridge as a very ugly magnet for my grocery list.

This is totally ridiculous advice...to change the pup. If the only thing you were concerned about with your pups was output/inductance (in Henrys), then maybe. But TONE is usually what we are after (note that the OP said it "sounds great"). And if the output volume of the pup can be manipulated by raising or lowering the pups or by simply adding a resistor why spend money on a pup that may not sound as good (even though it may have higher inductance).

There are thousands of different pups on the market. Why enter the tonal crap shoot and potentially spend hundreds or even thousands of $$ if you've already got what you want?!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Duncan designed SSH ( Squier vintage modified Nashville telecaster set) - weak mi

If your guitar allows it, you can swap the neck and middle pickups, too.