Here's a Good One For Ya'

shredhed

shredhed

New member
The scenario
Fender Deluxe Mahogany Strat w/Roller nut (which blows chunks - but I digress:approve:)

I screwed up the original bucker (H-S-S) and didn't like it anyways, so I figured a JB would sound good. It sounded great in every other guitar I've tried it in till now.

It's toppy (way trebly)and not enough bottom:censored:

I've read that there are 2 things I can do. Either put a dif magnet or install a cap.

Either one would be ok to me, so I think I'll try a cap first since it doesn't require me to dismantle the bottom of a pickup. I've taken them apart and fixed em before so know how. I just would rather take the easy rout first:scratchch

So my question is this. If I solder the cap to the volume pot would it not also dampen the highs of all the pickups, since it's a Strat and all 3 use the same volume?

Is there a different place I can put the cap that will only effect the bridge pup?

Thanks, Bob
 
Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

I suppose you could wire a capacitor directly inline with the hot wire coming off the JB and then to its place on the switch.
 
Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

It's a simple enough experiment. Unsolder the JB wire from the switch. Solder a capacitor to one end of the wire, other end of the capacitor to the switch. If you don't like the sound simply remove it and solder the JB wire back to where it was originally.
 
Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

I'm new at putting caps on even though I've been playing for 32 years. Is there a certain value you would recommend? I read on the site where Seymour used a really small value for the application I'm describing.

I just thought of something:scratchch I never checked to see what kind of caps are already on it. It's an H-S-S setup with 500K pots. I'll bet the singles have caps cos there aren't 250K pots like they normally would need.

I maybe could just remove the caps from the singles and put a single cap on the volume to cover all 3 pups.

I'll check what I have and get back to you.
 
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Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

OK. There are 2 caps - one on each of the tone pots. ic, then MSR or MER, .022k, then 250h (Most of these letters and numbers I can't make out too well) But the .022K is visible.

They are connected to the middle lug of the pots and grounded to the pot.

This is a Mahogany Deluxe Strat so it has the S-1 switching. Each switch/pickup combination has a tone pot (including the bridge pup) at all times.

So, that's odd cos that means that I have a cap active on my JB (The bottom tone knob is wired to the HB pup)

I don't want to mess with the 2 that are there already. I think I'll try and add one to the pickup wire on the JB.

If I'm thinkin right that would mean adding a .022K would equal .044K for that pup alone - right?

If so that would be close to the .047 that Gibson uses for humbuckers.

What do you guys think?
 
Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

Well that worked!

I had an old set of pots from a Yo Kramer focus. Actually it was Epiphone parts:scratchch

But there were two 473j caps, so I desoldered one and put it in line with my JB pup's ground.

From what I read on SD's site and also Google I found that that was a .047 cap which is typical for a humbucker.

It took that angry streak out of the JB that I was having to EQ out.

My GT8 processor has a level meter on it that tells me how strong my signal is. I can compare my pickups signal and adjust them accordingly to get them balanced. Now, even though I still can't get the levels equal due to the singles not being able to be raised enough to match the high output of the JB, at least they sound like they have the same output now that the JB has been tamed.

Before I had to lower the JB to match the singles and doing that made the JB a bit anemic.

Another thing I did, The Tex Mex pickups had pole pieces that were up to 1/4" sticking out of the top of the pup. I realize they were designed this way. I had read where Seymour had said that the more pole sticking out, the more treble you get. I always thought these singles didn't have the tone they should have, and i could never get them close enough to the strings. Now I know why. So I pushed them in most of the way like a regular single.

Doing that also let me get the singles a tad closer to the strings without the magnetic field interferance, so I've got all my pickups pretty close being balanced, at least they sound balanced to my ear. So I'm happy.

You learn something new every day I guess. I had never messed with caps and had never done anything but replace pickups in guitars. Occaisionally I have worked on pickups, but when it came to capacitors I never undestood what they were for and what the values meant. Now I know.

It's been a good day:)
 
Re: Here's a Good One For Ya'

Happy for you!

I just have couple pointer if you like,
- A8 magnet would also tame that upper mids you didn't like. IMO swapping a magnet is easier since it does not require not but a screw driver.
- I have also heard people using 250K pot for the same purpose.
- Capacitor are measured by farads.

Rock it loud....
 
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