HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

njstoehr

njstoehr

New member
I have a MIM Strat that I have completely modded (started life as a SSS Standard). I have a SSL-5 in both the neck and middle positions, and a JB in the bridge. All of the pots are 250K CTS Log tapers and if memory serves me correctly I installed .047uf caps on the tone pots. I have the 5-way wired up so that tone #1 is the neck and tone #2 is the middle and bridge.

Now the question...I love the tone from the neck and middle. I don't want to change a thing about them. Unfortunately the JB in the bridge isn't quite doing it for me. It sounds a little "choked" for lack of a better way of putting it. The cleans are okay but a bit muddy/muffled/blanketed, however you want to put it. The highs just don't "bite" the way I would like them too. Ironically, I have a Les Paul that has brighter, clearer highs.

What should I do to get the clarity back in the JB? I have adjusted the JB height so that I get a decent balance in output. I realize that raising it up closer to the strings will get me a little more brightness but I am hesitant to bring it much closer to the strings because, as I stated earlier, I have achieved a good volume balance with the single coils. I haven't tried anything from a wiring stand point yet but step one will likely be to disconnect it from the tone pot. I don't really want to install a 500K Volume pot as I am afraid that the neck and middle positions (true single coils) will become too bright. That said, I am willing to try it before moving on to another pickup.

Any advice?
 
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Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

I know you said you don't want to do it, but a pot change is probably the answer - but it needn't necessarily affect the single coil sounds. I'm aware of 2 options, and there might be more. One, is use a double-ganged 250/500k pot for the volume. It's two pots stacked and controlled by the same shaft - wire the single coils to the 250k section and the humbucker to the 500k. The second option is to change to a 500k volume pot outright and add a resistor to the single coil positions on the switch to increase the load the pickups see in those positions. This page is in German, but the drawings are mostly in English.
 
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Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

Thanks for the link. I may try that first as I have a 500k laying around.
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

A resistor would change the taper a bit... If I remember it right, it'd make an audio pot a bit "linear"... Not a biggie, but stil...

Good luck.

B
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

Okay, lesson learned. First of all, thanks again for the link. The rewire was/is a little more involved than I wanted to get into tonight so I simply disconnected the JB from the tone knob. Easy enough to do by simply desoldering one jumper on the switch. Tried the guitar out and that alone made a big difference. I am still not 100% sure that it is what I want but I am going to play it awhile and see what happens. It balances very well tone wise with the single coils now, sounds more open. If after some time I am still wanting a little more, I will try one of the two options mentioned above.

Thanks a lot for the input.
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

Try lowering the height.
I run my JB with 250k pots but I have a 0.01 tone cap.
Much more usable and doesn't bleed off as much top end.

My JB is set at 5/32 and the singles at B. 6/32 T. 4/32. I love it.
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

keep the 250k volume pot, wire the two singles to the same tone pot and give a 500k tone pot to the JB. Works for mine. A push/pull coil split for the JB comes in handy too. Even split it is a quite a high output single coil.
DSC_0490_zps339efd2c.jpg
 
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Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

I've always thought the JB humbucker sounded pretty good with 250K pots. One of the few that does. Seymour even uses the JB with 250K pots in his Tele-Gib guitar.

I'd try adjusting the polepieces so the two E string poles are even with the top of the bobbin and then the other four are raised in an arch that matches the curve of the frets and fingerboard.

Then adjust the whole pickup as close to the strings as you can go without buzzing. That should brighten it up. If it's to bright, move it back down again until it sounds better to you.

On a S/S/HB Strat, I'll usually suggest moving the tone control for the middle pickup to the bridge pickup - but that won't make the bridge pickup brighter. It'll just give you a tone control for the bridge pickup. You could then change the 250K tone control to a 500K pot which would brighten it up some without affecting the neck or middle pickup.

That mod will leave the middle pickup without a tone control but you'll have tone controls for the other 4 positions of the switch.
 
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Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

Thanks for all of the replies folks. I think I have it dialed in now. I changed the volume pot to a 500k and removed the tone pot from the JB. It is a whole lot better now. I have always known this, but never really experienced the A/B difference in tone by removing a tone pot and running a pickup without it. So far I am very pleased. I am even more happy with the tone from the single coils. I suppose the fact that the SSL-5s are high output (for single coils) works with the 500k volume pot.

Now I am going to just play it a while. So far so good.

On a side note however, I am using a 0.047uf tone cap and this seems a bit much. When I roll down the tone knob(s) it gets muddy fast (this would be on the single coils only). Would a 0.022uf give me a more usable tone control or would even smaller like 0.015uf (used on the neck position of some Les Pauls) be a better bet? My goal is to knock the "bite" off of the highs while still retaining some clarity or string to string separation.
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

A lower value cap will definitely decrease the amount of mud available throughout the tone pot's range, but it will also brighten up the sound of those pickups even when the tone pot is wide open (unless you have a no-load pot). Your description also suggests it might be a linear taper pot instead of audio taper - if it gets muddy between 10 and 5, then stays more or less the same between 5 and 0 you might get more useful control out of an audio taper pot.
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

i'd remove both tone knobs (make one a dummy) or one tone knob and use it as a dedicated 500k volume pot for the HB. i find single coils sound better with 250k pots. by better i mean more single coil sounding.

the pots have a huge impact in the tone. you should hear a humbucker through a 1 meg. the definition from the wound strings is something else. in 500 and 250 k the wound strings are dull sounding. then again the 1 meg has its drawback too of being a tad bright sounding full out. is there anything between 500k and 1 meg?
 
Re: HSS Strat with JB Tone Help

@thqm3 - If the pots are linear taper, someone lied to me. Actually, the tone knobs work as intended. That is to say that they roll off the highs pretty smoothly through the whole sweep. Then they get to about 3 or so, they stay pretty much the same. Its just the amount of roll of that is too much. I haven't been back inside the pickguard yet but I will this weekend. The wife and kids are going out of town so I will be spending a lot of quality time with my axes this weekend (planning on a complete retro-style rewire of an SG this weekend as well). I think I will try a couple new caps first. Fortunately I have a lot of different values to choose from at the house.

I will let you know how it turns out.
 
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