L
Lewguitar
Guest
And I'm loving it! The guitar came with three APS-1 pickups: alnico 2 with raised and staggered polepieces. I thought the bridge pickup needed a little help so yesterday (Thanksgiving) I took it all apart and installed a Twangbanger.
The guitar had the standard Strat wiring with no tone control on the bridge pickup...I liked the Tele like snap and bark I got out of the Twangbanger without a tone control bleeding treble to ground and diminishing the output of the pickup...but I decided after playing it for a while that I'd like a tone control anyway.
So I installed a .02 cap instead of the stock .05 cap and a No-Load master tone pot that I made from a regular 250K CTS pot by opening it up and putting a drop of Super Glue on the carbon strip right at the end where the wiper would contact it when turned to "10". Now when the tone control is on "10" it is disconnected from the circuit.
When I lower the tone pot to about "8" it starts to function like a normal tone pot...and it's interesting how much signal is lost! The bridge pickup sounds both louder and snappier when the the tone control is on "10" and the tone control is removed from the circuit.
I changed the remaining tone pot to a Blender pot...it's another homemade No-Load pot but it allows me to blend the neck pickup into the bridge pickup and the bridge pickup into the neck pickup when either pickup is chosen by the 5 way switch.
I had another Strat for a while with flat poled APS-2 pickups and the Twangbanger. I have to say that I prefer the raised and staggered pole APS-2 pickups. They seem louder, especially the middle four strings, and brighter...probably because the raised poles are closer to the middle four strings.
And for some reason these APS-1's seem deeper: the bass seems stronger and more solid than it did in my other Strat with APS-2 neck and middle pickups.
This is a heavy ash bodied guitar...around 9 pounds. Alot of times a heavy Strat will sound kind of thin to me but not this one. It sounds very deep and clear and sort of piano like. Very solid and deep sounding but it sustains like crazy.
I like the Wilkenson vibrato this guitar came with. I don't use it as a vibrato but I like the way it sounds. Has a full size block like a vintage '62 Fender Vibrato but the saddles are a little differant.
Anyways, through my Matchless Chieftan this guitar has an amazingly deep and well defined tone and in this guitar the Twangbanger sounds more like a great Tele bridge pickup than it has in any other guitar I've tried one in.
Couldn't be happier with my Thanksgiving project!
Lew
The guitar had the standard Strat wiring with no tone control on the bridge pickup...I liked the Tele like snap and bark I got out of the Twangbanger without a tone control bleeding treble to ground and diminishing the output of the pickup...but I decided after playing it for a while that I'd like a tone control anyway.
So I installed a .02 cap instead of the stock .05 cap and a No-Load master tone pot that I made from a regular 250K CTS pot by opening it up and putting a drop of Super Glue on the carbon strip right at the end where the wiper would contact it when turned to "10". Now when the tone control is on "10" it is disconnected from the circuit.
When I lower the tone pot to about "8" it starts to function like a normal tone pot...and it's interesting how much signal is lost! The bridge pickup sounds both louder and snappier when the the tone control is on "10" and the tone control is removed from the circuit.
I changed the remaining tone pot to a Blender pot...it's another homemade No-Load pot but it allows me to blend the neck pickup into the bridge pickup and the bridge pickup into the neck pickup when either pickup is chosen by the 5 way switch.
I had another Strat for a while with flat poled APS-2 pickups and the Twangbanger. I have to say that I prefer the raised and staggered pole APS-2 pickups. They seem louder, especially the middle four strings, and brighter...probably because the raised poles are closer to the middle four strings.
And for some reason these APS-1's seem deeper: the bass seems stronger and more solid than it did in my other Strat with APS-2 neck and middle pickups.
This is a heavy ash bodied guitar...around 9 pounds. Alot of times a heavy Strat will sound kind of thin to me but not this one. It sounds very deep and clear and sort of piano like. Very solid and deep sounding but it sustains like crazy.
I like the Wilkenson vibrato this guitar came with. I don't use it as a vibrato but I like the way it sounds. Has a full size block like a vintage '62 Fender Vibrato but the saddles are a little differant.
Anyways, through my Matchless Chieftan this guitar has an amazingly deep and well defined tone and in this guitar the Twangbanger sounds more like a great Tele bridge pickup than it has in any other guitar I've tried one in.
Couldn't be happier with my Thanksgiving project!
Lew
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