Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

[Artie]

Hey Chip; I almost started to PM you on this, but thought that maybe others might be interested.

My Quarter Pound should be arriving tomorrow, and while doing a forum search of any QP info, your name came up . . . a lot. :laugh2:

I take it, that you advocate the use of the bottom plate and spin-a-tap. I was wondering if you felt like elaborating on how you did both? Like, what kind of metal, how you attached it, what kind of pot, (I think you mentioned 100k), how you have it wired.

Thanks, Artie

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

Hi Artie -

I did the QP with a base plate when Jeremy et al were raving about the Twangbanger but it wasn't available yet. The base plate emphasizes the lower mids (I think), and gives a great Tele-like tone to a strat with the bridge & neck in parallel. Bridge in series with the neck (or middle) has lots of beef - good old time rock tone.

I bought the base plate from Callaham Vintage Guitars. It's only $5.00 excl. shipping and has the ground wire attached. My QP is tapped with the leads coming off the ends instead of the middle of the pickup, so I had to hacksaw off the tips of the plate. No big deal there.

The spin-a-tap is great, and 100k did work best after experimenting with larger values. The next time I open up that guitar, I'm going to make it a "no load" pot though. I may also add a small resistor between the tap lead and the middle lug of the pot so that the full coil is never completely shorted out. (Fully tapped, the QP is a little bit anemic.) I took the drawing off my website 'coz no one seemed interested and it's a crude hand drawing, but it's attached here. Please note that this is not the same as the dial-a-split shown in the Schematics area, but Scott Miller in Tech Support confirmed that this is the right way to do a dial-a-tap.

Hope this helps.

Chip

 

[Artie]

Re: Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

Thanks Chip; Thats pretty much what I figured, but I wanted to make sure.
And thanks for the info about Callaham having them. That was going to be my next question.

 

[Kent S.]

Re: Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

The spin-a-tap is great, and 100k did work best after experimenting with larger values. The next time I open up that guitar, I'm going to make it a "no load" pot though. I may also add a small resistor between the tap lead and the middle lug of the pot so that the full coil is never completely shorted out. (Fully tapped, the QP is a little bit anemic.)

I thought the 1/4 lbs.er was a 1/3 : 2/3 wrap tap ... If that's the case then you could tap to 1/3 out leaving the 2/3 active instead of the other way around (not sure how it's set up though). Even so the overall effect wouldn't be as dramatic though.

I took the drawing off my website 'coz no one seemed interested and it's a crude hand drawing, but it's attached here. Please note that this is not the same as the dial-a-split shown in the Schematics area, but Scott Miller in Tech Support confirmed that this is the right way to do a dial-a-tap.

Hope this helps.

Chip

I'm still waiting for e-mail replies from said, something tells me I'll be waiting quite a while ... It's slightly confusing the terminology of how that tap is done ... maybe I need more sleep ...

 

[Artie]

Re: Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

Kent; My 1/4 lb'er reads:

13.22k total (white to black)
6.50k (black to red)
6.72k (red to white)

Which matches up pretty good with the spec chart:

So, its pretty close to being split down the middle.

Artie

 

[Kent S.]

Re: Hey Fresh Start . . . (Quarter Pound question)

Kent; My 1/4 lb'er reads:

13.22k total (white to black)
6.50k (black to red)
6.72k (red to white)


So, its pretty close to being split down the middle.

Artie

My bad ... I thought though that they did make a 1/3~2/3 thing a one time, oh well maybe that's why it wasn't a good idea. Thanks Artie ... :cool3: