Gauteng Black Strat Remove Dents

serven · 2015-01-13T01:49:21+00:00

Hi All, Can anyone recommend someone that will be able to refinish a black strat body and neck? It's a MIM '98 I don't know if the finish needs to be stripp...

Gauteng Black Strat Remove Dents

serven

Thanks, for the comments! I have found the cause of the non-working tone control. One of the wires has come off. While I had things open I had a poke around. Is there absolutely any reason why someone would've swapped both the tone and volume controls out to 500k pots? I checked the cabling against Fender's schematics for a MIM and the rest seems normal. The cap though is also .033 uf

Since there's quite a bit of rust and scratchiness and so on I will replace the tone controls. Should I replace with 250k instead? I like the current tone however it is perhaps just a little bit harsh? But it could just be me being used to EMGs instead of the single coilness

Pictures if the insides:

V8

serven wrote: Is there absolutely any reason why someone would've swapped both the tone and volume controls out to 500k pots? I checked the cabling against Fender's schematics for a MIM and the rest seems normal. The cap though is also .033 uf

Since there's quite a bit of rust and scratchiness and so on I will replace the tone controls. Should I replace with 250k instead? I like the current tone however it is perhaps just a little bit harsh? But it could just be me being used to EMGs instead of the single coilness

Perhaps these links will help :

http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Pickups_and_Electronics/Which_control_pot_to_choose.html
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.wiring_faqs/
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showpost.php?p=10542167&postcount=6

Last year I refurb'ed a HSH and spent some time messing around with pot values (500k vs 250k) and cap values (.2, .33, .47) just to see what difference ~~it really made~~ I could discern. I didn't think my ears would find too much difference - but I was wrong. Setup w/o any pots in the circuit the SC's were impossibly harsh - like a audio icepick, H's were good, bit fizzy but I could live with it. I tried 250k & 500k pots and settled on 500k pots - overall the guit is very bright in SC & fairly bright in H, which I've come to prefer. Also the way I wired it up - "gibson 50's wiring" had a lot to do with the sound - has a bonus of acting as a partial treble bleed mod (treble is somewhat retained as you back off the vol. http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/19909-mod-garage-50s-les-paul-wiring-in-a-telecaster

The cap's didn't make a huge difference to me - there was a definite difference between values (alas I didn't have different types of cap's in the different values available at the time) but only when the pot was not on 10. Since I play 95% of the time with it on 10 - not a big deal for me.

I recall Alan calling humbuckers, "mudbuckers" ? The EMG selects I have in my headless guitar exhibit every bit of this Clean tone muddiness, only really sounded good under loads of gain. After using the strat as the main weapon for quite a while, most humbuckers now sound muddy (and indistinct) to me - while SC's, P90's and PAF's rock my clean&dirty tone world...though turn the gain (all the way) up and gimme a full phat humbucker!

serven

Today's "challenge": I have managed to sort out the non-working tone control for the neck pickup by soldering the wire that broke off back on. However, in position 4 (2nd closest to the Neck), the Neck and Middle pickup must be active, however the Middle pickup is silent. So position 4 at the moment is identical to position 5.

The middle pickup does work in the centre position, as well as with the bridge in position 2. Can someone maybe suggest how to diagnose this? It looks like all the wires are connected correctly (see previous post) - could it be a faulty 5-way switch maybe?

Attila

If you want to hear what they sound like without fitting new pots. Just tack on a 1M or a 500k resistor over the out side legs. of the pot.

Also think about a Hi-pass filter or Treble bleed mod on the volume pot, this is to pass the higher freq at low volume

By the way there are no real rules to cap values and pots. The ideal value for guit pots are around 350k at a 65/33 taper for single coils. But no one makes them any more, and if you do find them they are hellishly expensive But there are ways to get values that suits YOUR tastes.

Don't follow the crowd blindly;

Edit: Sorry I was texting from my mobile phone

if your pots are 500k add a resistor over the end lugs (in parallel) will work out some thing like this...(1/R1= 1/R + 1/R2)

500k + 500k = 240k

500k + 1M = 330K

Hi Pass or Treble bleed mod

Place a 100k 1/4w resister and a .002uf cap (in parallel- the" Duncan" ) between the hot and middle lugs (output to jack) of the Volume Pot, remember you can play around with these values to suit your setup

There are two other ways to do this there is the "Kinman" resistor and cap in series and the "Simple" which is just a cap ....

serven

Attilla, hey thanks I actually didn't think of that! I suppose I can "open up" the current 500k pot completely and just tack on a 250k one to fiddle with not to get more or less of an idea?

I am getting the "don't follow the crowd blindly" thing now more than I did before. The more and more I play this thing the more it's coming to life and the more I am enjoying the tones as it is. The only exception here is the bridge pickup alone which is such a terrible shrill shrieking duck-quacking noise (to me anyway). The rest however and everything in-between is very beautiful indeed. It seems I might leave the pots as they are if I can use contact cleaner to get the scratchiness ironed out.

Attila

thats it ....added some text to my post above

serven

Aha that makes mathematical sense - I will definitely definitely try that thanks a million!!

Wizard

Remember that a 500k pot has a 250k setting. Halfway. A 250k pot doesn't have a 500k setting ...

serven

Morning all,

Had some asking what it sounds like. This is right now:

Excuses / Terms & Conditions: Recorded this morning 3am (had to be quiet), I am still very much a beginner, It was random improv-ness with no do-overs or fixing, I don't have a condenser MIC which would've helped capture the real audio, I can't mix, It's recorded using Logitech Desktop speakers in my office - no acoustic treatment or real monitors or any of that kind of thing.

Oh yes and the bass isn't a bass, it's the fender strat through my multi fx pedal. And the drums is also played by using one of my looping pedal's pre-sets over my guitar amp speaker into the mic (hence the slight boxyness).

Oh yes and I hurt my back by stepping on someone's pet (completely by accident) and haven't really slept since Sunday morning... Yeah okay I think that covers.

BTW: decision made, I am getting the neck repaired, the body refinished, and keeping the rest as it is for now (maybe just some rusted screws that will get replaced)

Thanks for all the awesome advice!

guidothepimmp

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A perfectly good list of believable excuses! Well done..

You missed the one about the plectrum.. too thin, too thick, couldnt find your fav so you cut one out of a butter container lid.. 8)

serven

Thank you

Oh oh oh yes and I even forgot, I couldn't use the normal margarine container lid to make that pick because we've changed to a new brand, so I've had to cut it from container that houses butter held together with olive oil. This new lubricant on the pick has a significant influence how it interacts with the strings which while awesome is something I am not acquainted with!

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