My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

[heathxx]

I can't find any find any reviews around the internet agreeing with this so I figured I'd ask here.

I just recently put new pickups in my strat. I put a Classic Stack Plus STK-S4b in the bridge, a Fender CS in the middle and a SD SSL-52 in the neck.

The middle and neck sound great, but the STK-S4b in the bridge sounds horrible. First of all I've got the true single coil pickups lowered more than I like and the STK-S4b as close to the strings as I can reasonably get it just to equalize the volume of the pickups. Right off this seems wrong to me as the STK-S4b should be quite a bit higher output that the other pickups which are close to vintage output.

Next, the neck and middle sound nice and snappy, while the bridge sounds dark and muffled and, frankly, totally crap.

I do not have it wired for coil splitting. I have it wired up exactly as the standard SD wiring diagram shows. White to switch, black and bare to ground, red taped off and tucked away.

Is it possible I've only got the lower coil working? That just hit me as I was typing this.

Anyone else have any experience like this?

 

[AlexR]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

Check that the right wires are soldered on the bottom of the pickup - the baseplate has where the colours are supposed to be

 

[jmcorey]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

Check that the right wires are soldered on the bottom of the pickup - the baseplate has where the colours are supposed to be

This. I've had a pickup from SD that had the wires attached to the coils incorrectly and I needed to change the wiring to compensate.

 

[jeremy]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

the cs+ isn't all that hot a pup and shouldn't be overly dark, something is probably up with the wiring

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

if you have it wired in full humbucker mode, the red and white should be taped together, black to switch, green and bare to ground.

You have just one of the coils working and I'll bet it's not the top one...

 

[Artie]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

if you have it wired in full humbucker mode, the red and white should be taped together, black to switch, green and bare to ground.

You have just one of the coils working and I'll bet it's not the top one...

The STK-S4 is black & bare to ground, white to switch, and red taped off. It's not a traditional Lil humbucker.

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

The STK-S4 is black & bare to ground, white to switch, and red taped off. It's not a traditional Lil humbucker.

The Stack Plus pups have Fender wiring colors?

 

[Artie]

Re: My Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 sounds like booty

It's not so much that its Fender colors, per se, just that its the traditional single-coil white-to-hot, black-to-ground. The red, is the added bonus of the "new" configuration that allows for true-split if you so desire. Its a unique wiring mode.

3 STK-S4_1v_1t_5w

(The "yellows" in that diagram are actually bare wires.)