Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

[Rich_S]

As I described in my recent post in the Guitar Shop , I got a used Schecter PT off eBay the other day. Since I bought it through Instrument Exchange, I got a 48-hour evaluation period, which is drawing to a close.

I can't figure out if there's something wrong with the pickups and/or wiring. Everything seems to work fine - the pickup switch switches pickups, the volume and tone pots work, the coil tap switch makes it thinner and brighter, just like they're supposed to.

But overall, the guitar seems very weak and muted sounding. I compared it to my other Tele (Vintage '54 bridge, mini-HB neck) and the Fender is much more powerful, pushing the amp easily into crunch. By contrast the Schecter stays fairly clean, hardly pushing the amp at all.

The Schecter supposedly has a "Duncan Designed" HB102 set in it, similar to a JB/Jazz set. Unless I'm wrong, these should be a lot more powerful than my Fender's pickups. Raising the JB's height made it a bit louder, but not enough to solve the problem. I tightened up the output jack, and looked at the wiring. I saw no obvious problems, but didn't want to go digging around too much, since the guitar's still on approval. I need to figure out what to tell Instrument Exchange quick - keep, send back, re-negotiate.

Any ideas? Am I simply wrong about how much output to expect from these HB102's? Can anyone suggest something that might make the whole guitar behave like this?

 

[joelap]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

A good rule of thumb is that if you're not happy with the instrument stock, chances are you still wont be happy if you change pickups / mod it or whatever.

when I pick up an instrument, I know right away if it fits me/suits me or not. If you arent "feeling it" with the PT, by all means send it back. IMO, of course.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

Well, long-term, this is going to be a project guitar. I really bought it for its goldtop, single-bound, twin humbucker body. I always expected the pickups to be somewhere between "so-so" and "pretty good", and figured I'd change them out later if they weren't exactly what I wanted.

But this thing sounds like something's wrong. The guitar sounds like a cheap hollowbody plugged in with a 300-foot Radio Shack coiled cord, to an amp with a blanket thrown over it. And maybe a 12AT7 incorrectly inserted where there should be a 12AX7.

Am I wrong, or should this axe have substantially more signal than my Vintage '54 Tele? This JB-clone should be whompin' the Tele's butt, but it's not. I just can't think of a good reason why.

Any suggestions welcome, I gotta haggle with IE this morning.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

Rich, the JB (even if it's a Duncan Desighn) should walk away from the Vintage 54 in output, if it's not there is a problem!

That said, seeing that you bought the guitar to completely mod I woundn't sweat it.

When I buy a guitar and I know Im gonna rip all the electronics out, often I don't even plug it in...I listen for natural sustain, I pay close attention to the neck, fret work, and the hardware. If the guitar has a good neck, and the body rings on it's own and has good or better hardware I grab it up! When I bought my JV Strat i played several others and I had it narrowed down to 2 different ones before I even plugged them in, and still then it didn't really matter...the black one sounded far better unplugged and had a better neck, so I got it! I knew I was gonna put new pickups, pots, and switch anyway so I didn't care about anything else.

just my 2 cents

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

BTW...have you checked the DC with a meter yet?

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

Thanks, TGWIF for your continued interest. I'm probably stressing about this too much, but finances dictate that this modding project take some time, and I was hoping for a "player" that would do for now until I can convert it into the ultimate "Live Aid" tele clone. And right now, it's not much of a player. I was just hoping to figure out what's wrong so I can negotiate a slightly better deal from IE.

As we all know, WAF is inversely proportional to price, and I need all the WAF I can get right now.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

I fully understand, I did have to play my JV stock for a while, but I'll tell you this...if the body jives with you and you dig the reat, tuff it out! It will seem like wasted money for a while but when it's done it will all be worth it!

Thanks, TGWIF for your continued interest. I'm probably stressing about this too much, but finances dictate that this modding project take some time, and I was hoping for a "player" that would do for now until I can convert it into the ultimate "Live Aid" tele clone. And right now, it's not much of a player. I was just hoping to figure out what's wrong so I can negotiate a slightly better deal from IE.

As we all know, WAF is inversely proportional to price, and I need all the WAF I can get right now.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tele vs. Tele - what's wrong?

Well, I finally got a chance to work on the PT this past weekend. Some problems improved, others created. As usual.

Schecter website says the PT has the Duncan Designed HB102 set in it, equating to roughly the JB/Jazz set. When I opened up the guitar, the pickups say HB103, supposedly similar to the Duncan Distortion set. I measured the DC resistance and got 8.05k neck and 16.72k bridge. That's weird, since the DD set is supposed to be 12.7k/16.6k. My neck pup isn't even close, I'm guessing it's more likely a Jazz-ish neck, but then what's it doing with HB103N stamped on it? Strange.

I fixed the problem of the weak/muffled sound, though. I just adjusted the pickup height, and it's much better now.

Other work: Schaller straplocks, rewired as volume/volume with a new CTS pull-pot (tapping the bridge pickup only), new Switchcraft output jack. I had to drastically reset the intonation, but a couple of saddles needed to get cranked back so far that the length-adjustment screw is close to pinching the string. Guess I'll have to check StewMac for some shorter screws.

I haven't had much chance to play it yet, but it's much better. Certainly useable until I can proceed further in my project of re-creating Pete Townsend's "Who's Last" guitar. Seymour's coming to town tomorrow night, so I think I'll lay it at his feet and ask him what kind of pickups it should have in it.