"I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

DreX said:
I like the tone afforded by no load pots also, I just prefer having access to the entire available palette of tones. You use the no load pots in a way that side steps it's shortcomings, which is to say you either have it on "no load" or between 5 and 8 on the dial. You don't miss the 9 - 9.9 range, or the potential range of tones between 9.9 and "no load". The Fender TBX gives you all that back. The only downside is that what was 0-9 is now 0-5 (0-7 more realistically), so it can be more touch sensitive, that's the primary trade off. I installed a TBX in one of my Les Pauls, it fit fine even though it was intended for Strats. It actually makes a lot more sense in a Les Paul since making as Strat go from bright to brighter isn't a popular proposition.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I have never tried a TBX yet, maybe I should at some point to be able to draw some more comparisons from experience though.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

DreX said:
Personally I think half the people who install no load pots simply don't like tone controls at all, and use it as a way to eliminate the control while keeping their guitar nearly stock.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true, but not entirely false. I prefer the tone of no control, but I love the versatility of one. For some riffs, I man knock it down just a bit, for example.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

Man, I wanna say I do this to every guitar, but I'd never do it to a super nice one.

Sandpaper, meet neck.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

sosomething said:
How much of a difference does this usually make? I can see doing it for single coils, but does it make a big difference on humbuckers?
Click to expand...

When you're playing with high gain or at high volume, it does lower the noise floor a bit and it does more to screen out noise from external sources (fluorescent lights, dimmer switches, etc) than from the guitar itself. It's also a slightly more noticeable application in the studio than live. And yes, I typically play HH guitars but it's more handy for singles.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

B2D said:
When you're playing with high gain or at high volume, it does lower the noise floor a bit and it does more to screen out noise from external sources (fluorescent lights, dimmer switches, etc) than from the guitar itself. It's also a slightly more noticeable application in the studio than live. And yes, I typically play HH guitars but it's more handy for singles.
Click to expand...

I don't think many people have done a true A/B comparison with and without shielding. You have to happen to have two of the same guitar, one with and without shielding, or record a guitar, then shield it, and record again, then compare the two, and somehow make sure you induced the same amount of extraneous noises in both cases, which isn't necessarily easy to do. I wonder if people don't hear a difference by virtue of expectation alone.
 
Last edited:
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

Meh. I've never played my Strat and thought "Man, wish this was even BRIGHTER!".

In fact a friend of mine has an Am. Series Tele and I HATE the sound of it wide open, and it has no-load pots.
Had to tame it down quite a bit to make it good for me.

So no-load pots is definitely one thing I wouldn't do.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

The thing about no load pots, 250k or 500k pots, is that it doesn't uniformly decrease all treble frequencies, it decreases the Q, which means it de-emphasizes the peak resonance specifically, and sucks away a big aspect of the pickup's voicing. For that reason, I like to put 500ks in all my Strats (back on topic!) with a global tone that I can use to dumb down the Q if I want a more typical Strat tone, but can still access that biting peak if I want to. It's especially decent with a Tube Screamer type overdrive which shaves a little off the top by itself, but I can can also turn down the treble on the amp, or the tone on the overdrive, to offset the difference, too.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

tc said:
Man, I wanna say I do this to every guitar, but I'd never do it to a super nice one.

Sandpaper, meet neck.
Click to expand...

This is another one that I do on all of my electrics. Haven't had the heart to do it to my acoustics though...
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

1. Replace the stock strings and tune the bridge for the new strings. I've never come across a guitar that plays its best with the stock string set. Usually this means taking off 9's and putting 10's or 11's on, sometimes with a wound G. In some cases (always cases in which the factory equipped the guitar with 10's), it involves simply changing brands.

2. "Fix" the string height. On cheap-o guitars, sometimes the strings are way too high, but that's obviously because nobody even tried setting it up properly at all. On guitars that actually have been set up in the factory, the strings are always set WAY too low for me.

3. Tighten all screws and nuts. For some reason, most guitar factories seem to have a problem with the simple task or torquing screws and nuts properly (especially the tuner bushing nuts). I have bought very few brand new guitars that didn't either have rattles and/or loose nuts/screws, or that didn't develop them shortly. Going through and torquing properly causes better tuning stability and eliminates rattles.

4. Smooth out rough edges. Nut slots, tuner posts, bridge saddles, fret ends, etc. IME, even great quality instruments need SOMETHING like this done to them somewhere. It's the nature of mass production coupled with varying individual customer tastes.

5. Remove all plastic protective film THOROUGHLY. This means pulling screws and nuts out. The exceptions would be a few times that I've bought an axe with the sole intention of flipping it.

6. Polish frets. I've never had a brand new guitar that didn't benefit from it – even the guitars that had really decent factory fine finish work.

7. If the guitar originally came with a pickguard, but it wasn't there when I got it, I will always get a pickguard for it. A guitar ALWAYS looks better with a guard than with a pulled guard IMO.

8. Get it a cheap-o gig bag at the very least – usually a HSC.

9. Adjust pickups.

10. Make the tone control something I can and will actually use. Sometimes this means not touching a thing. Most of the time, it involves, going to a lower cap value, and sometimes a pot with a different taper. I don't like having controls that are completely useless to me.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

DreX said:
The thing about no load pots, 250k or 500k pots, is that it doesn't uniformly decrease all treble frequencies, it decreases the Q, which means it de-emphasizes the peak resonance specifically, and sucks away a big aspect of the pickup's voicing. For that reason, I like to put 500ks in all my Strats (back on topic!) with a global tone that I can use to dumb down the Q if I want a more typical Strat tone, but can still access that biting peak if I want to. It's especially decent with a Tube Screamer type overdrive which shaves a little off the top by itself, but I can can also turn down the treble on the amp, or the tone on the overdrive, to offset the difference, too.
Click to expand...

I dunno. No-load pots and no-pots sound similar enough for me.
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

DreX said:
I don't think many people have done a true A/B comparison with and without shielding. You have to happen to have two of the same guitar, one with and without shielding, or record a guitar, then shield it, and record again, then compare the two, and somehow make sure you induced the same amount of extraneous noises in both cases, which isn't necessarily easy to do. I wonder if people don't hear a difference by virtue of expectation alone.
Click to expand...

That's probably true. I notice it more when I've been playing my shielded guitars for a while and then I go to one that isn't and it's like... "hmmm this is noisier than I expected." Then I remember. :)
 
Re: "I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

Every guitar I have owned is HH, and the first mod is permanently wiring one pickup out of phase. 2nd is a series/parallel switching for both pickups.
 
"I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

"I perform this mod on every guitar I own..."

akio said:
Every guitar I have owned is HH, and the first mod is permanently wiring one pickup out of phase. 2nd is a series/parallel switching for both pickups.
Click to expand...

Really… permanently out of phase? I like the phase reversed sound, but I can't see making it permanent, personally. Admittedly, I barely use the middle position, but I think I would still want to have the in-phase option available. To each his own I guess... I'm glad it works for you! [emoji2]

I dig the series parallel mod, though.. [emoji106]


[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top