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20$ . Unless you're playing really high gain (but with SC ?!) it works wonders.
Shielding does help with RF noise, but it doesn't do anything for hum.
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20$ . Unless you're playing really high gain (but with SC ?!) it works wonders.
Shielding does help with RF noise, but it doesn't do anything for hum.
just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped me along here. I went with used pickups on Ebay - Fender Texas Special for Neck and Middle, and Seymour Duncan SSL-5 for bridge. I just wired it all up, and they all sound exactly like what I was looking for. I'm not finished - I have some issues to fix. but im getting beautiful tones from each one individually.
Awesome choice, one thing to remember if you don't already know, the old trick is whether you're recording or playing live, the position or direction the guitar is facing effects hum so you can point the guitar to some direction where the hum can sometimes completely disappear or becomes minimal.
lol, Dean I know this all too well. You can hear a nasty interference being picked up in all my SoundCloud clips - my "studio" bedroom ____ sucks! I try to play in a certain position to minimize it, but it makes me angle the guitar away from the computer, where my monitors are, so it gets really awkward. I think it's my dimmer switch which I still haven't taken the time to remove. If not, I'm probably screwed in this regard. Oh well, I'm not planning on living here forever anyway.
Interestingly, I didn't hear any of that interference using the new single coils, and this guitar isn't even fully shielded correctly. That's one of the tweaks I need to make - paint the insides with conductive paint, figure out why the neck and middle pickups are out of phase, add a tone pot, ground the strings/bridge, replace the 5-way, solder everything with more care, and use better wire. I really just wanted to make sure I didn't get dud pups off eBay, and I wanted to play on them rather than wait for everything to come in and do everything correctly.
speaking of shielding, does everyone prefer paint or tape?
I've used both in the past. Tape seems to be better, but paint is easier to apply. You could always paint the cavity and, if it doesn't work, add tape over top.
here's what it sounds like right now:
Bridge, middle, neck for rhythm/riff, then reverse order for leads.
U can hear some issues with the wiring on the bridge. Also, middle + neck are out of phase, although not in the demo.
I like it! What rig is that?
Thats the tonehawk profile from my latest reverb presets. I added a lil gain, backed off some bass, and boosted treble. The preset is one i will post later - SprC. Its essentially the same as SprB but emphasizes more delay, to more of that echo-y sound.
yeah !!! I'm glad you mount'em up, they are a bit noisy but that's a really great strat tone to me , you'll enjoy single coils more and more growing older
Guitar is currently 100% unsheilded in a room with a dimmer. I also have a piece of loose wire touching the volume pot to the bridge to ground the strings. And theres obviously some issue with my soldering on the 5 way switch. Once everything is finalized, i think itll be a bit better. Gonna jump on your profile pack in a bit. Also bought some new saddles and gonna restring, raise the action a lil, and reintonate.
Ok, finally got it all sorted out. Everything is fully sheilded, all pickups are in phase, hum canceling in positions 2 and 4, .020 uf cap for tone, blender switch on 3rd pot (but dont care for it tbh). I replaced the strings, oiled the fretboard, and replaced the bridge saddles. Reintonated and set the truss rod and action... took a while but worth it. New life in this instrument - twas my 1st guitar from '95, and this is I think its 4th pickup change. It was useless for the last 2 years at least. Loving the tone im getting. Thanks again for all the advice. Post some pics and clips soon.
Well done I'm looking forward to the clips
Excellent!
dammit - the bridge is out of phase - that's why the blender knob sounds crummy, and why position 4 sounds thin. I thought it was the SSL not getting along with the Fenders, but I wired it backwards. oh well. I'll fix that later on - simple switch. As for now, here's some samples from WarabA's SC pack:
playing is crappy as usual!!!!
It sounds good to me, I always wondered how good the pacifica's were, they are really cheap guitar but great value it seems.
Well they're definitely better than a Squier. The stock pickups are not good, as expected; but otherwise, it's pretty good quality. I have the lowest priced entry, but my brother has a slightly more expensive one. His came with a sunburst finish, sanded neck, and nicer bridge saddles, but I think it was still less than $300. Still bad stock pups, but you can upgrade and have a GREAT guitar for well under $500. Both guitars are quality - no blemishes, bad frets, defective hardware. Mine has held up. And the nut action is set correctly. That's how you can always tell if a guitar is cheap - the nut is just thrown on there without any care to level it with the frets. But it's nice and low here, without any buzz. I'm going to sand my neck soon. The only thing I wish was better is a more comfortable neck heel, but it's not such a big deal - this isn't exactly designed to shred.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Zexcoil pickups yet.
They are unique pickups that use 6 individual coils wrapped around diagonally aligned polepieces to achieve a noiseless configuration without any tone loss.
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Only hear good things about them.. I'm pondering which set to buy from them..
I'm surprised no one mentioned Zexcoil pickups yet.
They are unique pickups that use 6 individual coils wrapped around diagonally aligned polepieces to achieve a noiseless configuration without any tone loss.
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Only hear good things about them.. I'm pondering which set to buy from them..
These are interesting (but pricey). I suspect that the underwound would have the tone I was after. Let us know which you get and whether you like them
These are interesting (but pricey). I suspect that the underwound would have the tone I was after. Let us know which you get and whether you like them
Will most probably be their convertible set.. I've seen some demos of it on youtube and it seems to do the single coil sounds very well and when you switch it to humbucker mode it has those classic PAF sounds..
If I do pull the trigger I'll post back.