AlanRatcliffe
It's funny what I get up to in the wee hours of the morning. Last night I suddenly got an urge to swap pickups in one of my guitars. It's a Strat I built with a one piece, 3lb 10oz swamp ash body and a chunky birdseye maple neck. The body is a universal rout (A.K.A.: one big bloody hole) so can be used to fit any pickups from three single-coils to three humbuckers and everything in between. I've been using it as a test bed for all kinds of things for a while and it's probably going to end up as a fretless soon.
It's had a set of Kinman traditional MKII pickups in the last few months, which are nice, bright, vintage style noiseless pickups. The only problem is I'm not a vintage pickup person - I like bright woods and don't fit tone controls, so a brighter pickup is a bit of overkill. I tried to compensate for this by actually fitting a tone control (GASP!), but still found I lived on the neck pickup too much.
Anyway, I had a set of Fralin Blues Specials lying around with a steel baseplate fitted. I swapped them for a Set of Fender Custom Shop '69s a while ago and used them for pics of fitting the baseplate, but never installed them in anything. I truly hate hum, so have stuck with noiseless pickups for the last few years, but I decided that as the Fralins were warmer style pickups, I'd try them. I ripped out the tone pot while I was in there (they're just not for me) and moved the "neck on" switch down to the hole left by the tone.
Nice! Some of the best real single-coils I've used (which is probably in the neighbourhood of 100 different models by now). Overall relatively fat and warm. Bridge pickup especially is great - fat and hot, but with enough edge to cut through and very punchy thanks to the baseplate. Middle pickup is quite good, very balanced. The neck is where this set falls down a little for me - it's a little too soft and warm. Great for those trying to get a smoother sound from a Strat, but doesn't have quite enough "bite" for me. I think if I were to keep this set, I would probably replace the neck pickup with a Fralin Vintage Hot, which has more "snap" to it.
Position 2 on the switch (bridge and neck) is perfect, just the right amount of quack. Position four is blah - too smooth once again. Bridge and neck together are quite good, with an almost Tele position 2 character but warmer. All three pickups on is next to useless - way too smooth (to be fair, most pickups can't get a good sound in this setting).
So - these Fralins are no longer for sale (for now anyway, these things are always subject to change without notice). On the other hand, anyone want a set of Kinman Traditional MKIIs? ?
JoeyBones
I can't say that I've done anything that technical. Most of my late night binges involve eBay and watching some or other series. I was up till 1 last night working out a deal with a guy in the US for a Radial PB1. I had to wait for the guy to come online.
I got the pedal at what I hope is a good price and I got through 1 movie and 3 episodes of Reaper.
AlanRatcliffe
Big pic here. Yeah, I'm gonna have to do something about that hole in the pickguard. I'll probably just fill it for now as it's such a mission to make a whole new one. I need to get some white pickup covers too - the cream doesn't work.
Innards:
You can never have too much screening...
Spyke
Just out of curiosity, where does one find the copper tape that you use for the screening?
AlanRatcliffe
Stewmac for the 2" tape. I prefer to get large (12" X 12") sheets for pickguards, which I get from
Guitar Nucleus. I've tried to find locally, but no luck.
Spyke
@ Alan: check this link out
Copper tape
How does the pricing compare?
Long reels - 33m
AlanRatcliffe
Well spotted!
They don't have the 50mm with conductive adhesive, but comparing the price of the 19mm to Stewmac, they work out about double the price per metre. ☹
You need the conductive adhesive BTW, otherwise you have to solder every join and overlap (not a good idea on pickguards or nitro finishes).
Spyke
Browsing the Stewmac site now...
Looks like i'll be spending a considerable amount of money with them - they have everything! (well, just about!)
AlanRatcliffe
Good site, yes. Especially if you want to find everything in one place. And one of the two good places to find guitar-specific tools.
However, many of the parts are substandard (especially the electronics - switches, caps, pots, etc.). Their bodies and necks are also made by Mighty Mite, who I'm not a fan of. In many cases, if you look around you'll find better or the same items for less. The downside to shopping around is that you end up buying a lot of different parts from a lot of different stores - I probably have about 100 different sites bookmarked and buy regularly from a dozen.
I also don't subscribe to their "tool for every job" approach. Sometimes they'll try sell you a fancy tool when something a lot simpler has been used by pros for years. A good example would be their "knob puller" (Honest! ? ) a $40 device for removing knobs - when a shoelace works perfectly every time.
A few choice parts suppliers:
USA Custom Guitars -
http://www.usacustomguitars.com/
Warmoth -
http://www.warmoth.com/
Soulmate Guitars -
http://www.soulmateguitars.com/
B. Hefner & Co -
http://edenhaus.com/
Musikraft -
http://musikraft.3dcartstores.com/
Stewart MacDonald -
http://www.stewmac.com/
Luthiers Mercantile International -
http://www.lmii.com/
Acme Guitar Works -
http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/
Mojo Musical Supply -
http://www.mojomusicalsupply.com/
RSGuitarworks -
http://www.rsguitarworks.net/
WD Music -
http://www.wdmusicproducts.com/
Specialty Guitars -
http://www.specialtyguitars.com/
Guitar Nucleus -
http://guitarnucleus.com/
THG Knobs -
http://www.thgknobs.com/
GuitarFetish -
http://store.guitarfetish.com/
... there - that should keep you out of mischief for a while.
NorioDS
Eh... So what's "screening" and why's it good?
Spyke
Norio wrote
Eh... So what's "screening" and why's it good?
Welcome back!
I'm going to let Alan answer, I'd be clutching straws...
NorioDS
Tenks man ?
AlanRatcliffe
Norio wrote
Eh... So what's "screening" and why's it good?
Basically, it's blocking electrical and radio interference from getting to the wiring inside a guitar. In a guitar you do this by surrounding the wiring in the cavities with a conductive substance (either special conductive paint or copper tape) which drains interference to ground and by using twisted pair wiring.
kayDUB
So would it help/be worth it to do some sort of screening for my pedalboard?
AlanRatcliffe
No - not unless you have a lot of exposed, unshielded wire. All the wiring on a pedalboard is usually with screened cables and the stompboxes themselves are metal.
kayDUB
ummm, I wired external Nuetrik jacks on the board for inputs and outputs, and also a kettle plug connector and switch?
Tell me more about the conductive paint?
AlanRatcliffe
As long as you positioned the mains socket away from the audio connectors, that should be OK. I just looked at your pics and it looks fine. Ideally you should always try and keep longer lengths of mains wires as far away from instrument level stuff as possible, and where they do have to cross, try and get it at right angles.
AlanRatcliffe
Conductive paint is often used to shield cavities from outside interference. Usually it has a high degree of carbon or evem metals like silver. Tends to be a more expensive solution than copper tape, but is quicker and easier to apply.
Malkav
Well Alan I realise my knowledge is nowhere near as abundant as yours but if your ever wanted to make this pickups noiseless I know that Suhr Guitars do sell a special circuit that you can install on the back of your trem cavity to completely cancel out noise. ?
AlanRatcliffe
The BPSSC. For a mere $350 - a dummy coil circuit that cancels 95% of the hum from single-coil pickups (not as much as a noiseless "single-coil" pickup though), that you have to have a non-RWRP centre pickup for, and does nothing for the noise induced in the wiring by stray magnetic fields and RF interference (unlike shielding). Also does not work with hot single-coil pickups.
It's a case of horses for courses - If you absolutely have to have a specific set of real single-coils, the BPSSC is the best way to go instead of a noiseless "Single-coil" set of pickups - but it still does absolutely nothing to prevent the wiring from picking up noise.
