Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

[Fresh_Start]

The pickup switch on my Heritage 535 started getting flakey about 6 months ago. Now, I can't select the bridge pup at all (silence in that position). It's not the pup, because it's definately on in the middle position. At least the bridge volume control works there...

Anyway, I need to finally bite the bullet and go inside for a total overhaul - and I only want to do it once. Remember, it's a 335 clone! It's got Antiquity humbuckers. I think all the pots are 300k right now but am not sure.

What would you recommend for pot values, tapers, caps, and treble bleed?

I'm thinking:

300k volume, audio taper
500k tone, linear taper
neck cap .022
bridge cap .033 (not so sure about that)
Kinman-style treble bleed on both volumes (130k resistor in series with .0011 cap)

The guitar has nice acoustic tone, and I love the neck pickup. However, the tone gets muddy real fast turning the volume down past 9. The bridge pup is a bit shrill though.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Chip

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

Shameless bump

Guys, I really would appreciate some advice before I start pulling electronics through the f-hole. P-l-e-a-s-e !

Chip

 

[tone4days]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

get with martinsixsstringcustoms for a rewire kit .... i wouldve gone with all 500k audio taper pots and 0.047uF caps ... can't help on the treble bleed, never used that circuit ... dunno how to tame the shrillness either other than lower the pup height some
good luck
t4d

 

[greco]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

Personally, I would go with what T4D is saying except for the 0.047 uF caps...I 'd go with 0.022 uF on both OR what you had thought of originally (0.022 uF on the neck and 0.033 uF on the bridge).

Cap values (and what brand/level of expense you prefer...e.g. Hovlands, Spragues, Radio Shack, etc.) are a "personal" choice type of thing, as you probably know.

Matt at http://martinsixstringcustoms.com is a great guy to do business with.

Good Luck.


Dave

 

[TeleJr24]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

If your bridge pickup is a bit shrill why don't you go for a 250k pot for volume? Won't that take some of the highs off? Are there 2 volumes and 2 tones knobs? You can make the neck 500k or 300k or whatever it was. You'll know when you take them out.

 

[greco]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

Choosing cap and pot values to reduce the "shrillness" (along with the pickup height adjustment) can be difficult as the pot and cap values might only result in somewhat subtle changes.

I certainly hear you about only wanting to do the changes only once, if possible ...I've done this type of thing on several 335 copies.

Dave

 

[tone4days]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

i wonder if it'd be doable to wire the whole thing up outside of the body to try different values .. once you are happy, you can disassemble as needed and stuff it all back in ... also, i wonder how useful it'd be to put the pups on a 'clip-type' connector for easier replacement in the future ... just a thought ...
good luck, chip
t4d

 

[erikm5150]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

i would suggest going with a 500k vol pot to cure the muddiness of the neck pickup...
and to cure the shrillness of the bridge, just wire a resistor from the bridge pickup's HOT to ground, so that the bridge pickups "sees" a volume pot of anywhere from 300k to 400k -- depeneding on how much high end you wanna tame.

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

i would suggest going with a 500k vol pot to cure the muddiness of the neck pickup...
and to cure the shrillness of the bridge, just wire a resistor from the bridge pickup's HOT to ground, so that the bridge pickups "sees" a volume pot of anywhere from 300k to 400k -- depeneding on how much high end you wanna tame.

Great suggestions everybody. I especially like the idea of tweaking the value of the bridge volume down a bit with a resistor. Only problem there is that it will affect the taper too.

Fiddling with the bridge pup's height sounds like an easy "fix". One other problem with this guitar is that the top of the pickups front-to-back aren't parallel with the strings. Gonna' have to mangle some pickup rings to fix that too.

Anybody out there using the Kinman treble bleed mod (cap & resistor in series) with 500k pots and humbuckers? I know it's my favorite solution for single coils but this is my only humbucker guitar.

Thanks,

Chip

 

[alba44]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

Here's a link to Zhan saying how great the kinman mod is with 500k pots & humbuckers https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=103682&highlight=kinman+mod

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

Here's a link to Zhan saying how great the kinman mod is with 500k pots & humbuckers https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=103682&highlight=kinman+mod

Thanks! I missed that discussion.

Interesting that no one seems to have the electronic theory totally solid here - Artie's angle of different frequencies "seeing" different pot values is unique. It makes sense to me that the resistor value should not be the same for 500k pots as it is with 250k pots; however, if Zhang says it works with either then I'm OK with that!

This is going to sound compulsive, but it may make a difference which order the cap & resistor are in - especially if this is intended to be a form of variable high-pass filter (cap first, then resistor... I think).

Cheers,

Chip

P.S. answers to original questions seems to be all 500k audio taper pots, with a .0022 tone cap for the neck and .0033 tone cap for the bridge plus the "Kinman" treble bleed. I'll experiment with resistor values on a guitar that's easier to work on than this one!

 

[greco]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

... also, i wonder how useful it'd be to put the pups on a 'clip-type' connector for easier replacement in the future ... just a thought ...
good luck, chip
t4d

I did this using plastic terminal strips (cut off 2 terminals for each pickup). It does introduce a mechanical connection (i.e., non soldered) and this is a potential weakness that could loosen However, it makes it much, much easier to change pickups.

Dave

 

[tone4days]

Re: Heritage 535: pots, caps, etc.

chip
i have no experimental experience to share .. but from a theoretical perspective, i can not imagine the order of the cap and resistor being of consequence if for no other reason than because it is an AC circuit