Invader info

C

Coachmoe

New member
Greetings!

I was gifted a Strat that appears to be a Squire with Fender Stratocaster decals on it. It has a Duncan Invader and one volume control. Previous owner routed the crap out of the cavity to make it fit.

I know that a lot of metal guys like the one knob concept but I'm an old school guy, I usually play Les Paul's, SG's and Firebirds. I do have a Tele and Strat for some color.

I am thinking about having a good set of pots and some type of a cap installed and just keeping it a one pickup guitar as I don't have a Strat with a humbucker. I play classic rock and blues and I am looking at using this guitar possibly as a slide guitar in open E or A.

I play though a Dr. Z Maz 18 NR, DRRI with a 12" Celestion or a Princeton Reverb with a 12" Celestion. Both of my pedal boards have Fulltone OCD's and are driven by a Tumnus or Sugar Drive.

My question pertains to adding good pots and cap so that I can get some tonal variation, kind of like a Les Paul Junior. Will I get what I'm hoping to achieve or is the Invader just a really hot pickup designed for metal style music?

As always, thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can give me.
 
Re: Invader info

Have you tried playing it through your rig yet? That might give you a better idea as to whether it's worth upgrading anything. Who knows, you might decide something completely different after trying it, like a simple treble bleed mod.
 
Re: Invader info

Demanic,

Yes I played it through my Fenders. It's kinda thick, really sounds pretty good for slide. I'm thinking that a tone control and a cap will enhance the highs a little bit. Also looking for it to clean up just a tad when turning down the volume.
 
Re: Invader info

Have you thought about a 1meg volume pot with a treble bleed? That would enhance the highs about as much as anything, plus keeping them when you roll the volume down for cleaner stuff.
 
Re: Invader info

I say play the guitar a bit and see if you like the sound. Older guitars I clean the electronics with a can of air to remove crackle and that's about it.

With the invader it's very high output so a few things to try
if it's too high in output - lower the height of it
if it's too warm - raise the pole pieces with a floyd rose allen key
if the entire guitar is too dark - stainless steel strings or a 0.022uf (22nf) tone capacitor or 1m (1000k) pots replacing the 500k pots.

Most of the time there is nothing wrong with stock electronics. A pot may read 470k instead of 500k. A tone capacitor may be a little larger than say 0.047uf (47nf) where it'll actually read 50nf. This is a great non-biased video I found a while back
 
Re: Invader info

Invader shines with a volume control. Or better, no at all. More open sounding and highs. On the contrary, a tone control will subdue the highs.

My recommendations:
1. A push pull volume control for parallel option. You'll get lower output out of Invader for versatility.

2. Two way toggle switch to bypass the volume control, connecting Invader straight to output jack. In the middle of playing the guitar, you can back off the volume control accordingly, then turn on the switch and you'll get a boost for dynamic sound (whether it's in series or parallel mode).
 
Re: Invader info

Shadow fire, that might explain why the cavity was routed out so badly underneath. I have not tried to make any kind of a vertical adjustment on the pick up as of yet. That might be something to take a look at before I do anything else.
 
Re: Invader info

Elelpe, Your ideas makes sense. However, I don’t like messing around with all kinds of different toggle switches or push pulls. Never had much luck with them. I had a couple of Gibson‘s with push pulls and I took them out and put in regular pots.
 
Re: Invader info

The Invader also works very well in parallel- not as thick or compressed, yet still hum cancelling. It is worth having a push/pull pot to accomplish this.
 
Re: Invader info

Coachmoe said:
Demanic,

Yes I played it through my Fenders. It's kinda thick, really sounds pretty good for slide. I'm thinking that a tone control and a cap will enhance the highs a little bit. Also looking for it to clean up just a tad when turning down the volume.
Click to expand...

ADDING pots and/or caps will never "enhance" the highs. Anything you add will cause some loss of your highs. CHANGING the value of a pot from a lower value to a higher value can enhance the highs. With an Invader I would use the highest value pot you can find (1 meg). If you add a tone pot and cap I wouldn't go any higher than .022 uf.
 
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Re: Invader info

You say you don't like push/pulls or switches, but with the Invader it is definitely a good idea to at least try switching to parallel as Mincer suggested. The Invader (as you probably know) is very dark and heavy with lots of output and overdrives by looking cross-eyed at it. parallel will brighten the tone, reduce the output and make it much easier to manage.
 
Re: Invader info

Another vote for doing the Invader in parallel. It's one of my favorite pup tones.
 
Re: Invader info

I would do 500k for the full series mode, so that it isn't too dark. That also compensates nicely for the quasi-single tone of the parallel mode.

But wait for Mincer to chime in. :)
 
Re: Invader info

ArtieToo said:
I would do 500k for the full series mode, so that it isn't too dark. That also compensates nicely for the quasi-single tone of the parallel mode.

But wait for Mincer to chime in. :)
Click to expand...

These are the right answers.
 
Re: Invader info

Mincer said:
The Invader also works very well in parallel- not as thick or compressed, yet still hum cancelling. It is worth having a push/pull pot to accomplish this.
Click to expand...

Mincer, Where could I find a schematic of this parallel hook up? What push pull pot
would you suggest?

Thanks!
 
Re: Invader info

Late in the party...

A no-load tone pot would have the benefit of a regular tone control AND of no tone control altogether. Such a no-load tone pot is very easy to build from a normal pot. Do a Google search about that if needed.

A treble bleed cap on the volume pot might be interesting too - a crude 1nF treble bleed cap is way too caricatural with most pickups but can do wonders with high power (high inductance) models like the Invader, making them sounding close to lower resistance HB's once the volume pot lowered.

Unless we consider a PTB dual tone control, which transposes the treble bleed principle in a tone pot (that's how a pot and a cap could relatively "enhance" the high range, albeit it would do it by cutting the bass. LOL) : https://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/two-band-ptb-tone-control-useful-easy-cheap-awesome/

FWIW - just other ideas for a wider choice.

Good luck in your tone quest, Coachmoe.
 
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Re: Invader info

One good thing, is that due to the way a Strat pickguard is made, it's probably the easiest guitar in the world to experiment with wiring. One pickup, one pot, makes it even sweeter. Good luck with this project.
 
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