SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

[ukoldgit]

Hi all, great forum and I would appreciate your help and suggestions with a little question I have.
I have recently bought a Rose Morris cheap chinese strat on ebay and found that it had been fitted with a calibrated set of SSL-5s (CSET), my plan is to get a better quality guitar and swap them into it, I am currently leaning towards a Squier Deluxe which has Duncan designed SSS pups and probably put these into the Rose Morris.
I am not keen on just swapping all the electric's over as I would like to upgrade the Squier with better quality components (if that's possible or even necessary?) my question is what would go best with the SSL-5 set to achieve the nearest to a Gilmour sound i.e. 250k/500k pot's, Cap spec?
Being a bit of a greenhorn at this modding malarky any suggestion's/comment's would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

You could probably stick with the stock electronics which I believe are all 250k pots with a 47nF cap to see how you like it. If you want more treble/bite/clarity/glass you could move up to a 500k volume pot. No, it isn't necessary to replace all the electronics but it isn't the worst idea in the world either because they're cheap, you can adjust your values, and there can sometimes be improvements in sound just due to the quality of the parts.

 

[Jacew]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

47nf with 250k pots is very dark sounding even for standard strat setup. For SSL-5, 22nf would probably be better. Order a bunch of caps and try them out. If you go for 250k pots, don't hesitate to go under 10nf in search for tone. I personally find combination of smaller value caps and smaller value resistor/pot yield more "natural" tone.

 

[ukoldgit]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Hi both many thanks for your suggestions which is great for a non electronics man, anyone know what a standard USA fender set up is as it might be a good place to start?
Thank's again.

 

[Jacew]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Hi both many thanks for your suggestions which is great for a non electronics man, anyone know what a standard USA fender set up is as it might be a good place to start?
Thank's again.

I think it's 250k pots + 47nf Cap for "Modern" and 22nf Cap for "Vintage" setup. I'm not completely sure of this though...

 

[ukoldgit]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Sound's like it would be a good start with the 250k pot's and experiment with 22nf and lower values to get the tone depth as you previously recommended Jacew, just had a look under the scratchplate of the Rose Morris and as I suspected there's no marking's on the existing pot's or cap so no clue there and it's going to be a bit of trailblazing I reckon.
Thanks for all your help and I will let you know the outcome when I have the Squier and what the result's are.:beerchug:

 

[ukoldgit]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Change of plan!!!!, just got the Squier Deluxe and the Duncan designed PUPS are superb so it would be a shame to swap them out for the SSL-5s, however I have just bought a USA Peavey Predator that has been mostly sanded and was planning to do a full refurb including tuners, bridge, nut, electric's & PUPS etc (SSL-5s) as a keeper.
My intention is to finish off the part sanding of the body, apply Tru-oil for a natural finish and install the upgrades, was looking at a Wilkinson strat steel block trem bridge (modified to fit) I am hoping the SSL-5s will fit the cavities of the Predator? If anyone has experience of this all suggestion's would be very much appreciated.
I know the tuner holes will need to be reamed out on the Peavey to fit standard modern machine head's but did my time as a Toolmaker so mechanical work doesn't scare me, it's the electronic's that are dark art's to me! (electrical people are mad! they work with something they can't see, can't smell, is silent and can't feel until it kill's them!
Not sure if this should be in a new thread or what as being a bit of a newbie, any learning curves are alway's welcome.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

I think it's 250k pots + 47nf Cap for "Modern" and 22nf Cap for "Vintage" setup. I'm not completely sure of this though...

Vintage spec is .1uf with 250k! Very dark on the roll off.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Modern Fenders come stock with 250k pots and .022 polyester tone cap.

 

[Jacew]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Ok. So I was completely wrong... Sorry for misinformation.

I thought American series come with 0.47 cap? (and that vintage spec was brighter)

 

[Mincer]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

I only replace electronics if I don't like the way it sounds, or if there is a electronic or mechanical problem. If you like the SSL-5 set as is, you can just swap the electronics as a whole. If you want to play around with values, by all means do so. I've heard SSL-5 sets sound great with both 250k and 500k pots (depends on the guitar), and both values of caps..so it is really up to you. Generally, these are the cheaper parts of the electronics to play with, and the only frustrating thing is taking off the pickguard to swap things out.

 

[ukoldgit]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Thanks guy's for all the advice, I received the Peavey Predator yesterday and that has 500k full size pot's that seem to work ok so will try those first and do a straight swap with the Peavey pickup's and see what result's.
Any result's will be a while coming as I have to finish stripping the paint off the body (which will include removing the maple caps, so a fair bit of sanding to be done) and finishing it with Tru Oil and of course installing the other upgrades, will keep you posted.
Thanks again.:clap::clap:

 

[AlexR]

Re: SSL-5 staggered calibrated set help

Ok. So I was completely wrong... Sorry for misinformation.

I thought American series come with 0.47 cap? (and that vintage spec was brighter)

Most strat pickup I thought were the .047....indeed the .022 seems a more recent addition if indeed it is more than just 1 guitar.

Vintage strats have .1