What Pickups/Pots/Jack for Charvel model 5fx?

[Charvel1975]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here sine February of 2010! I'm going to go with passive pickups on my Charvel model 5fx instead of the EMG's that are in it now and would be taking the guitar to a guitar repair shop to have work done as well as having setup done as I'm not good at working on guitars, I can string them up, tune etc. But that's about it. Our cover band plays Classic/Hard rock/80's Hair Metal & some 90's music.

It had an EMG-81 (Non-Quick Disconnect) in the Bridge, a Slant EMG single coil in the neck (don't know if it's an SA, S or SV?), a Gold Original Floyd Rose and an ungrooved nut and the behind the nut Kahler Locking Piece. From what I've researched online the guitar has a Poplar body with Maple neck-thru neck, rosewood fingerboard. I also attached a pic of the gold Original Floyd Rose that was in it.

Since then, all this was done some years ago:

* The gold Floyd Rose Original was taken out and a black 80's Floyd Rose Original was put in - Still have the gold Floyd Rose 
* The ungrooved nut was replaced with a LSR roller nut 
* New Kahler locking nut installed
* EMG-81 swapped out for an 85 (still have the 81)
* Custom sleeves around the tremolo springs
* Orange Drop cap installed (don't know what value?)
* 3-way toggle switch put in - now it don't seem to be switching the pickups right

I want to do some upgrades as it never has stayed in tune that well and is very bright sounding right now and not in a good way. Also, all my other guitars have passive pickups, I just don't gel with the actives now. It would be setup for standard E tuning and I'm thinking of going with .009 to .042 gauge nickel wound strings. Any suggestions to improve the sound/tone/playability?

I don't know what single coil for the neck as I read on another forum some people were saying something about which way the wiring comes out of the neck single coil could be a problem when installing? I want versatility and the ability to be able to have push/pull pots to split to single coil for versatility.

[Mr.Grumpy]

1 hour ago, Charvel1975 said:

* The ungrooved nut was replaced with a LSR roller nut * New Kahler locking nut installed

I don't understand the logic behind having a roller nut AND a locking nut right behind it. 

 

1 hour ago, Charvel1975 said:

I don't know what single coil for the neck as I read on another forum some people were saying something about which way the wiring comes out of the neck single coil could be a problem when installing?

You're probably thinking of pickup phase...which is only an issue when both pickups are on. 

 

1 hour ago, Charvel1975 said:

I want to do some upgrades as it never has stayed in tune that well

I don't have a lot of experience with Floyds, but I've read you can have tuning problem if the knife edge on the bridge plate and/or the pivots of the bridge posts get gnarled up. 

 

Quote

What Pickups/Pots/Jack?

 For passive pickups, I'd recommend 500 K ohm pots for both volume and tone, as it traditional for passive humbucker guitars. For the tone cap, standard value is 0.047 or 0.05. There's no tone improvement from a pricey "orange drop" tone cap, any low voltage film cap of the right value will work, and usually take up less space than an orange drop.

For the neck pickup, I'd get something fairly high output to balance the level with the bridge humbucker. I'd probably do a dual-rail humbucker if it was my guitar. 

For the bridge pickup, check your string width, you may want to go with a wider "F-spaced" pickup so your magnetic pole-pieces line up. I'm not going to recommend any particular pickup, that's really a matter of personal taste.  Should be fairly simple to put a coil split (or serial/parallel! ) switching on a push-pull pot, I would use the tone pot for this. I found that switching a humbucker to parallel yields a sound that's very close to the split coil sound, but is still noise cancelling. For either diagram, check out GuitarElectronics dot com. 

Oh, yeah, the output jack. Since your guitar won't be active anymore, you can ditch the 3 terminal TRS (stereo) output jack if you wish, but there's no reason you can't re-use the existing jack either, which I would do if it's not giving you any trouble. Leave the "ring" terminal un-connected or tie it to the sleeve (ground) terminal. 

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Mr.Grumpy

[badpenguin]

Exactly what Mr Grumpy said. 

The roller/lock nut combo is just plain redundant. No need for one, if the other is used. 

Cap values, .47 .22 all standard and 500K pots, exactly what's needed.

Pickups. All depends on your playing style. Metal, harder edge rock, Higher output pickups. Examples being Duncan Nazghul, Dimeback, ect ect. More standard rock style, the 59, Jazz, Dimarzio Super distortion, Lawrence XL500, the list is near endless. REMEMBER to add a ground from the floyd to a pot. EMG's don't have this.

I would go with a single coil sized humbucker in the neck, with a push/pull tone knob for series/parallel. (Gives you as humbucker, or a nice quiet single coil sound.)  If you are really interested in different tones, go with a FREEWAY 6 way toggle switch. Series/Parallel, phase, normal, all with a flick of a finger. I have one on a Ibanez RS330. (single neck/single neck +bridge/out of phase neck and bridge/humbucker neck,/both humbuckers/humbucker bridge.)

Home - freewayswitch

 

[Charvel1975]

Thank you both for the suggestions, much appreciated!! Also, what nut would you recommend to replace the LSR roller nut?

[badpenguin]

Fretboard is already cut for the locking nut, so....

And if your floyd is having tuning issues, check the knife edges at the pivot posts. Either the edges need a file taken to them, or the posts need the be replaced. DId you have that same issue with the other floyd that was on it?

[looly]

i have a 1988 charvel/jackson import model 5fx. i am having my luthier install the factory J-95 and J-100 pickups back in. I misplace and  cannot find the factory tone pot. does anyone know where I can get one or atleast tell me the brand and pot value this guitar came with stock? were they alpha pots? and were the tone and volume pots 250k or 500k? please let me know anything you can. thank you so much.Luis Morales

[jtr654]

You know that there were only 300 of the 5FX made. They were originally model 5A's with 1 humbucker they add (Charvel) the single later. the early one had no tone knob.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by jtr654

[badpenguin]

If there was a humbucker, it was A500K pot for the tone and B500K for volume. If EMG's, then B25K for volume and A25K for tone. If replacing the EMG's with passive, make sure your tech adds a ground wire from the bridge, to one of the pots. Your tech should know this.

 

And on a sidenote here... whatever happened to ANSWERING someone's question?

Edited December 23, 2021 by badpenguin

[Charvel1975]

Sorry to bump an old thread, life has got pretty hectic for me and pretty stressful 😟 I did want to give and a BIG THANK YOU to everyone for your input and suggestions so far!! So for an update, before the end of last year around July & August, I had my Charvel model 5fx taken to a guitar repair shop and setup and gone over and it's tuned to standard E tuning with .009 to .040 gauge strings and had the gold Floyd Rose Original that was taken out of it years ago put back in and the EMG-85 that was in the bridge position swapped out for the old EMG-81 that came in the guitar when I got it for a Christmas gift from my parents years ago. The Charvel is a neck-through construction with a maple neck and poplar body.

When I got it back me and my other guitarist and the drummer got together at our practice spot and was running through some songs and the Charvel was extremely bright sounding and doesn't have any punch, clarity or definition to it and when I plug it in the gain loss is significant... I also hooked up to other guitars as well: Ibanez JEM Blue Floral, my single hum Partscaster with Seymour Duncan JB and my Gibson Les Paul Special with Dimarzio P9 Super Distortion in the bridge. I was using a Blackstar HT40 Club 40 watt 1x12 combo with the matching Blackstar HTV112 Cab and both the combo and cab have the Celestion 70/80 speakers in them, Digitech RP360XP through the effects loop for effects only and volume pedal on it set for solo boost and also and my Maxon OD808 through the front of the amp. My other guitarist is using a Marshall DSL40CR combo through a vintage Marshall vertical 2x12 cab. So I replaced the old 9 volt battery in it with a new one and even tried adjusting the EMG 81 closer to the strings and the guitar still just sounds all thin.

I'm looking on eBay and someone has and I believe it's a trem spaced EMG F-57TW Short Shaft Pots & Wire

Includes EMG's exclusive Solderless Install System:

1 TW P/P Switch w/ pot (25K)

1 25k tone control

1 stereo output jack

1 two pickup in/out buss

1 battery buss

1 pair mounting screws and springs

1 TW pickup cable

2 connect cables

1 output cable

1 battery cable

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Charvel1975