The Pedal Stra(i)t Jacket

[rayden44]

Made a bit of a mistake last night..... and plugged in my old strat!

Fiddled around a bit, played with settings..... and damn it if the old noisy, funky wired, pile of crap didn't give me some fat tones. Right that's enough of that off to my Tele pride and joy.... ahhh hmmm.... why does this now sound as thin as a rice cracker on a diet. For some time I a/b'd the two (note to self, buy a/b box). After regaining consciousness (2 gats around neck = no room for air), I'm pondering several solutions that I'm going to test. I'm sure you guys have solved other ways so would like some input to what you guys have tried.

Gat is:
www.squierguitars.com/products/search.php?partno=0303035521

Pups Are Broadcaster set:
www.kinman.com/guitar-pickups/telecaster/

[rayden44]

1) Just play the strat
I'll get this out of the way first. No. There are aspects of the strat I like, and others I don't. I like the plucky quack and sound of the Tele, also there seems to be more difference Neck to Bridge.

2) Change the Electrics
I could try a Tele wiring upgrade kit - I did this on my strat and there was quite a noticeable difference. Not a bank buster either.

Maybe upping a string gauge will help, but obviously not help my fingers. My weedy fingers play 10s as is.

Much as I have liked the pups I have, the Strat is kind of telling me they're not so good for my use, or possibly are on their way out. The strat has stock Peavey Falcon Int'l pups which I suspect are the old "pole pieces on top with one big magnet underneath" trick. They should not be outperforming anything from a pickup maker! I might be able to find some hotter ones, but this will involve some research, guesswork, and some money.

www.guitarparts.co.nz will be my friend. There's some pickup sets there too.

3) Tone fiddling
Usually I pull mid-range out of my amp - might try sticking some more in or backing off the tone knob/volume, increasing gain...

4) Pedal GAS!
Find myself a nice booster of some kind. There are many boosters / od pedals around. So I'm going to have to go play (dern!) Any success stories? This guy tempted me a while back. Lots of vintage style OD tones.

www.musicplanet.co.nz/shop/Browse+by+Brand/Brands+U-Z/Vox/Vox+Ice+9+Pedal.html?id=FWobUxME&mv_pc=s

5) Buy the G&L ASAT Special
Obviously if I had the money to do this - I would have so this is effectively my budget - if mods cost more than this then money stays in the pocket until "New Guitar GAS" time comes around Output is high and clear, I like the sustain and neck feel.

[rayden44]

Ok taking my first steps have ordered new pups and wiring upgrade kit. Where there's smoke, there's solder

[rayden44]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSxyeMK2S4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTSVfjrjDl8

These are the pups I'm going to mess with. Did a bit of reading as well as listening and the suggestion was "If you're finding pups too muddy, try alnico V". I've gone for Tonerider's Vintage Plus set. Course I believe Kinman uses Alnico V too but with "35% less pull" so this might be a factor? I can always change the height. As I've said, my ones might be failing.

I also read that you can't have noiseless pups (which kinmans are) without taking something away. Not to knock Kinman as several of my favourite players use these, and most shops I know swear by them - but my small amount of electrics and sound knowledge agrees with this concept.

I'm probably going to replace the electrics first, then try, then go for the pups. Also bought a couple of sets of strings to play with incase I stuff things up.

[Happy Jack]

Dec 21, 2010 17:39:39 GMT -5 rayden44 said:

Ok taking my first steps have ordered new pups and wiring upgrade kit. Where there's smoke, there's solder

And in my case where there is solder there is burnt fingers, burnt work tops

[gasman]

Dec 22, 2010 3:46:51 GMT -5 Happy Jack said:

And in my case where there is solder there is burnt fingers, burnt work tops

If you think that's bad, I had to figure out what a "gat" was!

[rayden44]

I'm not that confusing am I?

All my goodies to build this arrived at work today.... fun fun for me tonight!

[gasman]

Dec 22, 2010 16:13:44 GMT -5 rayden44 said:

I'm not that confusing am I?

All my goodies to build this arrived at work today.... fun fun for me tonight!

I had never heard the term 'gat'. Have fun with your project !

[rayden44]

no idea where I heard it....

Didn't have time last night, to busy unbricking iphones. Maybe today since it's xmas eve. Finishing work early, yeah sounds a good time to do it.

One thing I've always considered making is a platform where you can put pickups in and out of a guitar without having to move strings etc. I always think of more ways to do it, one day I'll make something

[rayden44]

Well I had to do a bit of fudging. All Parts supplied me with 2 tone pots instead of one of each. The mounting screws on the neck pickup were too long for the cavity (think were designed to be body mounted). I broke my new 3 way switch with a badly placed drop of solder, fortunately I had recently replaced my original switch anyway. All the pots on my classic vibe were 250k anyway so no biggie. So aside from my 3 way switch and volume pot everything has been changed

[rayden44]

Oh, and I burnt myself once

And the result. Yes one very happy Tele Lows are no longer washed out and sad. Sustain a little better, and volume considerably better. Bridge pup is just on the line of being ice pick sharp, but not thin. I had several DVD's playing while I was working and when I was testing it was Albert Collins playing Honey Hush and getting some good tones jamming along. Haven't tried gaining it up much, I was enjoying some nice fat cleans, but that's looking good too. For pups that aren't noiseless - they're not noisy.

I would seriously go so far to say for $110 bucks for a set those Tonerider pups are about the best "bang for buck" thing I've modded any guitar with.

[Happy Jack]

Dec 24, 2010 5:01:34 GMT -5 rayden44 said:

Oh, and I burnt myself once

And the result. Yes one very happy Tele Lows are no longer washed out and sad. Sustain a little better, and volume considerably better. Bridge pup is just on the line of being ice pick sharp, but not thin. I had several DVD's playing while I was working and when I was testing it was Albert Collins playing Honey Hush and getting some good tones jamming along. Haven't tried gaining it up much, I was enjoying some nice fat cleans, but that's looking good too. For pups that aren't noiseless - they're not noisy.

I would seriously go so far to say for $110 bucks for a set those Tonerider pups are about the best "bang for buck" thing I've modded any guitar with.

Only once?

Those Toneriders are ridiculously cheap for what they are. I was pretty blown away by mine.

Glad the extra 2% worked ;D ;D

[rayden44]

Yeah I'm getting fairly good at not burning myself, tho last time I burned the guitar instead. But my soldering is pretty bad! Takes me ages, tho I am getting better - it's the soldering onto backs of pots that still gets me..

Well I started thinking about this earlier. When you think of the other little things that make a big difference like pickup height, attack, string gauge - 2% more winds is probably better than you'd expect. More testing tomorrow!

[Happy Jack]

I must admit I opened the rear panel of my guitar up (whistling in a very workmanlike way!) saw the tangled web of wires ........... promptly and very quietly closed it back up and took to my electrician friend to do ;D ;D ;D

Be very interested to swap notes on Pick up heights etc.

I have just adlusted mine to what I think is about right and had a quick play

I haven't had time to have a thorough play yet - hopefully next week

[rayden44]

That's why I like Tele's. Bugger all wires, nice and uncomplicated. Course with the PT doing coil tapping it's not quite as straight forward so you get extras

Played for a few mins again today - still a happy camper - still can't believe these are $100 pups.

Uhhh notes? Hrm, I just raise the neck till it's halfway between the body and the strings somewhere, check I'm happy with the volume and they make a nice sound. Make sure they don't pop too much if I pick too hard (ie too high). Then tweak the RH side up a little for the thin strings. Then I balance out the bridge pickups volume, then tweak that just higher so it's a little louder than the neck. I should probably read how to adjust them 'properly' but this seems to work.