Pickup frustration and tinkering.

Paddy

So for a long time I've had a love hate relationship with the Fender Hot Noiseless pickups in my partscaster.

Tried a few things:
1. Installed and uninstalled an EMG Afterburner(active variable gain boost). Put this in cause I found the output of the pickups a little lacking. Removed it in the end cause the boost made the ceramic pickups a bit ice picky.

2. Added two modded TBX tone controls. Neck pickup was too dark and bridge to brittle. TBX helped for both those problems.

3. Endless hours spent adjusting pickup height. And could not get completely happy.

So without forking out some bucks on new pickups i found another solution.

Swap guitar innards.

Took the pickups out of my Squier which is two Tex Mex Single coils and a Tex Mex humbucker and put them in the partscaster and visa versa.

How they were:

And after the change:

The Hot Noisless work well with the basswood body on the Squier.

But what I really like is the Tex Mex on the Swamp Ash. Get some nice SRV snap and growl and the extra oomph outta the bucker.

But not being completely content I now started tinkering with pole piece heights in the single coils. And I find the results very interesting.

The normal stagger was a bit shrill on the highs. So changed them a but. I have a modded vintage stagger on the neck pickup and a Kinman stagger on the middle.

And it sound good!!!

Thought I would share a bit of my jubilation with you all.

AlanRatcliffe

I love it when I swap parts between two guitars and they both get better! ?

Which is more your player? The partscaster I presume?

I love the Kinman stagger - it balances well for me, regardless of how close or far the pickups are. Kudos for being brave enough to mod the polepiece heights, BTW - can be a tricky and dangerous business.

el-guapo

I think your Partscaster has improved looks-wise, too! Love the tortoiseshell on that finish.

Paddy

Yeah Blondie (the partscaster) is my fav at the moment, to play and to look at. My wife hates the brown shell guard though, and let's not get started on her hatred of mother of pearl ?

I did a bit if reading before I attempted the pole adjustments. And it seemed a lot of people do that to the Tex Mex to tame them a bit.

And I agree with you Alan. The Kinman stagger works really well. Will try it on the neck pickup next!

And funny enough, the Hot Noiseless have a bit more snap to it in the Squier and the neck pup sounds better now.

Next up on to do list: install the S-1 switching system in Blondie. Then she's going to be awesome!!! I just suck bad with soldering and it'll be fine soldering on the S-1 and mega switch.