Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

STRATDELUXER97

STRATDELUXER97

Stratoblaster Tone Meister
You guys that have been following my thread and helping know that I've been trying to dial in this bright strat guitar.

So here's what I did and it worked great and maybe this can help someone else.

First off the guitar has the G&L PTB tone system which has a treble pot with the std..022,.033 cap on it like a regular tone pot.I went .033 in this one.

The bass pot is a 1 meg.and I have a .0015 on that.It's job is to dial out lows from 10 to 0 and it's great for dialing any woofiness from a pickup.

I Left the 500k volume pot because the Gibson Alnico N pickup was flat when I tryed the 250k pot.

As far as the JB...I went UOA5(Getting to love this magnet)....

Trimmed the 6 fillister screws flush to the baseplate..DMZ folks told me about this several years ago to solve a neck pickup issue and woofy 59N..I know alot of folks on the forums have done this too..It really seems to tighten a JB and the magnet swap is great.

Normally I can't handle a JB's over bearing mids,but this guitar really benefits from the added mids,lows,and the beefier output.

I went on/on/on mini switch so I can have series(16k) split(8k) and parallel..About( 4k)..The split tones I really like..With the Fred the overall tones were thin and bright.

Will keep the Fred for another project maybe down the road,but for once I'm happy with the JB and Artie traded it to me a few years ago.

The G&L system and the magnet and shortening of the screws really helped in ways that I never liked about the JB....Seems awesome!
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

sweet. glad you got something workin for ya!
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

+1 on the UOA5. Now you've got me thinking about trimming the screws in mine.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Demanic said:
+1 on the UOA5. Now you've got me thinking about trimming the screws in mine.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
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It works...Years ago I did this on a 59N and a DMZ VPAF and an A4 magnet change to the 59..Took the woofy stuff way.I think it may have tightened up this JB also? I Like my pickups a bit lower also..I'm like 3/32" from the bottom of the strings to the pole tops..Normally adjust by ear but I end up here.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Congratulations on finding a combo that works for you, it's always nice to have SD win out over DMZ.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Chistopher said:
Congratulations on finding a combo that works for you, it's always nice to have SD win out over DMZ.
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Thx brother for that..

I agree with you and funny that most of the pickups in many of my guitars are Duncans..I do also have some Fralin and CS Fender stuff also though and the the Fred in my black strat thats been in that guitar since 89.

That pickup stays in that guitar.

Funny how a couple of changes to the JB made an overall huge difference.Normally I hate a JB,but the magnet swap and shorter pole screws and having the pickup down just a bit really is perfect.

The split tones are quite a bit beefier and doable compared to the Fred..The mids still stand out in typical JB fashion,but this axe needs those mids..

I'm happy and done tweaking on this one and glad I got to use the JB because I almost sold it.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

The other pickup that was a passing thought after lots of research in the DMZ,would have been the Norton or maybe the Mo Jo...But I'm happy and the bridge pickup turned out pretty much the way I had hoped after some of my own experiences over alot of years of magnet swaps and you all and guitar tweaky stuff in general.

I Knew the UOA5 would add possibly more mids to the JB,but it also tamed it some and it took some of the harsh highend shrill stuff that grates on me with the JB. Anyway..win win!
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Yeah, the JB is very polarizing in it's stock form. I've also found that the JB takes magnet changes with a more pronounced effect. I once experimented on de/regaussing a JB by using a Neodymium magnet and the effects it had on the JB were much stronger than when I did the same thing to P90s, a Strat, and several other humbuckers.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Chistopher said:
Yeah, the JB is very polarizing in it's stock form. I've also found that the JB takes magnet changes with a more pronounced effect. I once experimented on de/regaussing a JB by using a Neodymium magnet and the effects it had on the JB were much stronger than when I did the same thing to P90s, a Strat, and several other humbuckers.
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That's cool...I've made hybrids and have done alot of magnet swaps in different pickups.

Messing with magnet strengths is way over my head though. LOL

Normally the JB is at the bottom of my Duncan list,but Artie and I traded..He got a Dimebag bucker and I got his JB.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

STRATDELUXER97 said:
That's cool...I've made hybrids and have done alot of magnet swaps in different pickups.

Messing with magnet strengths is way over my head though. LOL

Normally the JB is at the bottom of my Duncan list,but Artie and I traded..He got a Dimebag bucker and I got his JB.
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It's not that hard to mess with guess. All you need is a really strong magnet. Wave the south side of the disk over the south side of the weaker magnet and it will weaken, become north and then get stronger again. It's easy to reverse too, in case you mess up. Hold the disk at an angle to make the change in gauss slower.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Chistopher said:
It's not that hard to mess with guess. All you need is a really strong magnet. Wave the south side of the disk over the south side of the weaker magnet and it will weaken, become north and then get stronger again. It's easy to reverse too, in case you mess up. Hold the disk at an angle to make the change in gauss slower.
Click to expand...

I would think I'd want the magnet full strength though.:wink:
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

Cutting the screws flush is supposed to just brighten it, yes? Remember reading this in guitar player probably 25 years ago. Think i tired it a few time but don't recall the effect or whether i liked it. Has me curious how it would affect my 59/custom but too bad it's non reversible.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

gimmieinfo said:
Cutting the screws flush is supposed to just brighten it, yes? Remember reading this in guitar player probably 25 years ago. Think i tired it a few time but don't recall the effect or whether i liked it. Has me curious how it would affect my 59/custom but too bad it's non reversible.
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Seems to tighten the lows up a bit too but I'd bet it's dependent on what pickup the mod is done too.Def helped the JB which can be muddy in some guitars.

It's reversible with replacement screws.

I did this several years ago to the VPAF DMZ I still have in the neck of my SG and it removed the woofy lows that this pickup and a 59 can give.
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

cutting the screws changes the magnetic field shape, seems to tighten the bottom and open the top a bit. ive done it a few times with neck pups and like the results
 
Re: Fred Out And JB Back In And Pretty Awesome!

jeremy said:
cutting the screws changes the magnetic field shape, seems to tighten the bottom and open the top a bit. ive done it a few times with neck pups and like the results
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Even thought about putting the DMZ allen screws into the JB,but found I really didn't need to.Looks better with the stock slotted screws also.
 
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