Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Richard

Richard

New member
I have a CV squier 50s strat with 2 ssl-1s in the neck and middle and a DD HB102B (fake JB) in the bridge wired up with 2 250k pots and a .47 cap. The guitar sounds and plays great its just a little to dark. the bass makes my speaker rattle on my little practice amp. So i did a serch and found out that some people beleve that a shielded guitar will kill your top end. IDK for sure but this guitar is factory shielded and quiet as a mouse. What kind of changes would i expect if i changed out the pots to 500k or 1meg and/or lower the cap value or remove the cap all togather and ground the lug to the pot? Like i said i dont want to change any pickups because they all sound so good, just to bassy... Thx Richard

PS. I know some people will say turn your treb up or bass down on your amps. I want to be able to change guitars without haveing to re EQ everything in a live situation.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Simplest solution. Get a better amplifier. (Sorry to be so blunt but it is the plain truth.)
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Richard said:
I have a CV squier 50s strat with 2 ssl-1s in the neck and middle and a DD HB102B (fake JB) in the bridge wired up with 2 250k pots and a .47 cap. The guitar sounds and plays great its just a little to dark. the bass makes my speaker rattle on my little practice amp. So i did a serch and found out that some people beleve that a shielded guitar will kill your top end. IDK for sure but this guitar is factory shielded and quiet as a mouse. What kind of changes would i expect if i changed out the pots to 500k or 1meg and/or lower the cap value or remove the cap all togather and ground the lug to the pot? Like i said i dont want to change any pickups because they all sound so good, just to bassy... Thx Richard

PS. I know some people will say turn your treb up or bass down on your amps. I want to be able to change guitars without haveing to re EQ everything in a live situation.
Click to expand...

You need a 500K pot on that JB.

The 250K pot is attenuating the high frequencies of the humbucker.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

I have never heard, or experienced, a shielded guitar cutting high end. Furthermore, there is absolutely no scientific/electronic basis for such a statement.

Changing to 500k pots will add some high frequencies back in for sure - 1 meg will even moreso. Some people put in a switch that bypasses the volume and tone pots altogether.

It kind of sounds like you want to reduce low end as opposed to adding high end though. Maybe you'd appreciate turning one of your tone controls into a bass control, like on a G&L Legacy.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

I second the call for a 500k pots. It's probably the simplest solution to your problem. It'll noticeably brighten your tone up. I wouldn't recommend going for the 1 meg pots though. That might throw you into icepick territory.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Funkfingers said:
Simplest solution. Get a better amplifier. (Sorry to be so blunt but it is the plain truth.)
Click to expand...

I have a Mesa tremoverb and a classic 100 so I don't think that's the prob. I did say it made my speaker rattle on my practice amp... It's a micro cube and no other guitar makes the speaker rattle.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

ratherdashing said:
I have never heard, or experienced, a shielded guitar cutting high end. Furthermore, there is absolutely no scientific/electronic basis for such a statement.
Click to expand...

Yeah man.. sounds crazy to me to but im new to all that. This is the first axe i had that had shielding paint in it. But do a search on the gear page and see tons of people complaining about it and taking it out because it made there guitars quiet but dull. someting about adding capacitance and consequently rolling off the top end. some people say to much shileding works like a grounded cap but takes away to much top end. all i know is this is the first shielded guitar i have had and its the darkest guitar i have ever had. usualy when i have a strat im trying to make it thicker and darker, not brighter.

anyways, anyone know what will happen if i remove the cap totaly? will that brighten me up any? I have never tried it.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Richard said:
I have a Mesa tremoverb and a classic 100 so I don't think that's the prob. I did say it made my speaker rattle on my practice amp... It's a micro cube and no other guitar makes the speaker rattle.
Click to expand...

Yes. I had a Micro Cube. With my hotter output guitars, several of the amp model selections made the MDF cabinet fart when I played on the low E string.

I have a Chinese-made Ibanez SZR-something that I have modified with Duncan Designed HB102b, SC-101m and TE-101n pickups. I compromised on the volume pot value by fitting a Gibson 300k. All five pickup selections sound right.
 
Last edited:
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Also, nominated for "thread title we thought we'd never see"

:laugh2:
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

i love strats that are that warm and bassy! my 22 year old American Standard with a JB in the bridge position is the same... extremely warm!!!!
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

I have a feeling that certain Fender hater is not going to like the thread title...
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Disconect the tone pot. Use just a master volume 250K pot - a la YJM
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

"Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat. "


a silver sparkel spray job will be the most effective :D
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

Stef said:
Disconect the tone pot. Use just a master volume 250K pot - a la YJM
Click to expand...

I've disconnected the tone pot on a few of my guitars, as well as basses. makes them brighter, yes, but not alot more brighter. its just a tad really. like turning an EQ knob half a number up.

you shouldnt be using a 250k pot, i agree.
 
Re: Give me some tips on how to brighten up my strat.

IIRC, the original 70s telecaster deluxes had 1 meg pots to go with the wide range pickups. They also sounded VERY bright. Try those as your tones, and see if you can find "the magic icepick!"

Jason
 
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