New Pickup Day

[WRGKMC]

I been on vacation this week and I've had time to get to some projects I've had on the back burner done.

 

In this case I bought a new pick guard from Warmoth Guitars cut for Mini Humbuckers. It took a little longer then I expected. The holes weren't cut large enough so I had to pull out a file and elongate them side to side so the mini humbuckers would fit in. I was going to use the minis in another build of mine and had them set aside for at least 6 months. I pulled them out yesterday and tested their DC resistance an was disappointed. I bought them on EBay and the ad said they were vintage wound to 5~6K. My meter read about 9.5k which is not vintage.

 

I figured I may as well use them on the Strat. I had the pair plus a Firebird pickup that read about 8K so I used that one in the center. I may swap that one for the neck later but I went for something that looked symmetrical so I put it in the center. I chose to modify this one because it had a boat route under the pick guard and no additional routing would be needed.

 

 

I had to dig the Dremel out to take a little off the pick guard under the neck so it would fit in place and the screws align.

 

I used a master volume and master tone. I also added a push/push pot in the center. I have the pot connected to the center tap wires and I can dial the middle pickup down to a single coil. The switch turns the bridge pickup on so I can have all three pickups on or just the Neck and Bridge depending on where the 5 position is set. The only glitch I ran into soldering I missed having the hot wire on the wrong leg of the master volume. A quick move on the wire and it worked as I expected it to. I may wind up soldering the two legs together for a different taper. The hot pickups don't roll off till about 3 on the knob and I want it to start at about 8 so I may redo it later.

 

Tone wise I'd surprised how much Strat tone retained. There's surely allot more gain and the bass was definitely enhanced, but that metallic Fender string tone is still there alive and well.

I have used Full sized HB's in Strats before and expected the sound to be a little closer to that kind of beef with three mini's but was pleasantly surprised to find the gain to only be half that much.

Well maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Minis are noted for being half way between a P90 and a Full Sized HB and that's exactly what I got.

 

I haven't been playing this Squire in awhile. Its got a fat neck and extra tall frets but the neck doesn't' flex at all and remains straight. It one of the reasons I kept it for so long. It retains its tuning very well. I noticed a few flat spots on the frets from wear when replacing the strings so I'll likely pulls the strings back later tonight and do a little crowning and re-polishing. Normally I'd do that before putting the strings on but I was eager to check the wiring job and hear how it sounded.

 

I still have a couple of other Strats so I can still get my single coil tones. I figured this mod would satisfy the need for tone changes and its completely reversible. I'll put the original pick guard with its pickups in storage for awhile. They are only cheap Squire pickups with ceramic bar magnets. They always sounded fine to me and since I have others with TX specials I kept this one stock for a change in tone. I'll likely put this one to the test recording in the next few days. Playing chords sounds fantastic through my little Marshall amp. I'll know for sure once I record it and make come comparisons. Anyway, that's about it. I think the Pick guard cost around $30 and the Artec pickups about the same.

 

 

 

[Preacher]

Wow, awesome, happy new pickup day!

 

Would love to hear some clips...

[DeepEnd]

Congratulations. Happy New Pickup Day. Given Warmoth's rep for quality, I'm a bit surprised by the pickups not fitting the cutouts. Glad you were able to make it work. Once when I was setting up a friend's Ibanez, I noticed the shape of the pickguard didn't match the curve of the lower horn and I remedied it with a file. I guess these things do happen.

[WRGKMC]

I'm sure they just used a template to cut it. Guess its better to have it a tad too small then too large. I brought it down where the pickups are nice an snug. They wont wobble at all now which is a good thing.

 

I just did a quick recording of it played through a Vox stomplab direct. I was using the lead and middle pickups full up. I'm not sure what setting the Vox unit had. I think it was a cranked AC30 drive tone. There was allot of mids in there but it did get a good Carlos Santana type sustain. I'll have to build some presets specifically for that guitar to get the best sounds.

 

I left the lead levels high so you can clearly hear how the pickups sound. I just did a single take so nothing real fancy. The Whammy sounded way better then it did with the singles. I may have to add a spring and float it. I could only bend down with it being wanged down tight to the body.

 

Anyway, If you want to hear how it sounds here you go.

 

Sound Cloud -

 

Drop Box - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1682170/Trade%20Wave%20%5BMaster%5D.wav

[Preacher]

Great, thanks for posting the clip, sounds great.

[billybilly]

Right on man, sounds great!

[wankdeplank]

Really love the looks, love to hear what it sounds like. Cool project, something I never would have thought of.

[WRGKMC]

I posted a clip of it in an earlier post with a cranked vox type gain. If I get a chance I'll record a clip with a clean tone so you can get an idea of its range.

[wankdeplank]

OK, must've missed that the first time. Dude, that tone and playing is totally bad-ass. Must be Dorian, quite Santana-esque with tone to match. Now I want your guitar.

[WRGKMC]

^^^^ Thanks for the complements. Don't know why you'd want the guitar, Its just a cheap Squire Strat. Truly nothing special. Don't know what scales I used, I was just improvised to the chord pattern.

[wankdeplank]

Must be those mini-hums then. I kinda miss having that flavor in my collection, but I do have four Strats - hmmm. Just not that ambitious I'm afraid.

[Tom Mc1]

Love the pick guard.

[WRGKMC]

I had to adjust the pickups to get some better tonal separation. I had too much bottom end especially on the neck so I tapered them down on the neck and middle and also backed all three further away on the low E side. This brightened the mids and highs.

 

I did get to mess around recording some clean tones and there is a notable difference between these and singles. It's mainly the string attack. Its more compressed and the dynamics are less spiky. I think Gibson Minis with a vintage wind would sound better but its still pretty cool. Rhythm chords are very smooth and palm muting between chords to stop the string is really cool. I was doing some stuff bounding my palm off the strings to get tight breaks between chords which sounded really neat.

 

I haven't been playing a Strat in awhile. That darn volume knob on a strat is a PITA. Its placement is right where I lay my hand when I want to palm mute chords. Mini's sound great with a little drive dialed up for chords and you can alternate between a chug and a plunk when you palm mute near the bridge to get many classic rhythm effects. Oh well, Every guitar has some draw back. I played nothing but a Strat for 10 years and I'm sure I'll learn to work around that issue again.