JoeAArthur

Grounding the wood isn't going to do any good.

This is the link you want: http://www.fender.com/support/wiring_diagr...parts_lists.php

Yeah, just a different way of drawing it.

this is the best way, just run a wire from the hot side of the output to the ground so when your switch is flicked it shorts out the guitar. sounds like a tremolo effect to me which would be active electronics and not just a simple switch I think he might have meant to say "depth" and not rate. With a pot wired in series with the switch, you should be able to dial in the depth of volume drop when you push the switch. But if he did mean "rate", that would be something like the old Vox "repeat percussion" effect.

Just wire it across the two lugs on your output jack.

CTS is traditional. They were used by a variety of guitar makers. But traditional doesn't mean consistent. Approximately 2 years ago I started getting bad CTS pots in batches. Apparently this was a transition - from being USA made to being manufactured offshore. That's when I made a change to Alpha. They are high quality parts, easily the equal of the previous CTS made in USA pots, and since then, much more consistent. I don't use anything but Alpha pots now. I can't comment if CTS has jumped the hump because it is difficult going back to something that declined when you have a good source now. No, they don't make a difference in tone. They do make a difference in how long they last.

Wow. Where do you get this stuff from? It is so far from reality it is not even worth disputing!!

I'm not sure what you mean. I never said that hand wound coils couldn't be as close to humbucking as humanly possible. I said that scatter wound coils had a slim to none chance. If you believe there is no difference between a precise hand wound coil and the scatter wound then maybe I understand the confusion. Hum is not present at high frequencies. That's why it is called hum. The frequency (in the USA) is normaly 60hz. There would have to be a heck of a lot of capacitance in those coils to reduce it by cutting off the high frequencies. You ask if I've tried this, and you claim that it is obvious that I haven't. I don't know what you mean. So let me explain my position. No, I have never wound a single pickup coil in my life. Over the last 35 years I have only been a consumer of pickups. I know I have bought way too many pickups in that time frame. If only I could have known then what I know now. In each case, a scatter wound humbucker has been less humbucking than a precisely hand wound humbucker. In each case, a machine wound humbucker has been more humbucking than even the best of the precisely hand wound humbuckers. So, if you are attempting to claim I have no basis to make my comments because I have never wound a pickup coil, that would be like claiming I have no basis to comment on my car's mileage because I have never made my own gasoline. And you can take that last comment as sarcasm if you want.

I didn't say that they had to be absolutely identical. That would be a mis-statement as the windings have to be reverse. Tosses out identical into the trash heap. The difference between slugs and polepieces have absolutely nothing to do with hum pickup. It does make a difference in picking up the string vibration, but only the coils pickup hum. Like an antenna. Carefully hand wound pickups can be made to cancel hum effectively. But only if the hand winder avoids scatterwinding. I am not talking "tone", you can argue that all you want. But even the patent (as in P.A.F) claims that equal but reverse wound coils of opposite magnetic polarity are necessary to achieve the humbucking effect.

If two opposite coils do not pickup the same equal amount of hum and in reverse polarity then they cannot be effectively humbucking. Capacitance of your coils do not even enter into the humbucking equation. Only equal and out of phase signals can cancel effectively. If you sloppy wind your two coils totally at random but they pickup the same equal hum signal but out of phase, more power to you. And the next time I play poker, I will get a royal flush on the first five cards I am dealt every time without a problem.

What amp are we talking about?

Very interesting information - thanks! I was not aware of problems such as these in hand-wound pickups. I guess that explains why copper etc. didn't really help with the noise. Do you have any idea how off the winds would have to be to begin picking up noise in this fashion? I might touch base with Fralin to see if this is a common occurrence. thanks, roah You are absolutely correct - it is possible that hand wound can cancel hum, assuming that the "hand wound" coil is as close to "computer wound" as possible. However, if "hand wound" follows the typical "scatter wound" associated with hand winding, the chances of obtaining humbucking operation is closer to none than it is to slim.

No. In the interest of being totally political correct concerning pickup hype, I would encourage you to contact Fralin.

Duh, sorry. I didn't know this was related to the sustainor thread. I thought you were talking about power amps.

Based on the symptoms, it sounds like your pickups. In order for a pickup to be as close to humbucking as possible, both coils need to be wound as identical but with opposite polarity as possible. Unfortunately this isn't really possible with hand-wound coils. I don't know about Fralin, but some makers are claiming that mismatched coils provide a superior sound. Whatever, the end result is a humbucking pickup that isn't really full humbucking and it will pick up more noise, especially as you get closer to the amp - the power transformer puts out lots of hum stuff. The reason it sounds less hummy in the middle position is that you have two mismatches that balance each other out better and get closer to true humbucking.

Of course there is more current draw with a bridge configuration. Each amp has to provide the same amount of current through the load. The voltage can be doubled, but you still need current to provide the power. When bridging amps, you have to consider the minimum load and double it for reliable operation. If each amp has a minimum load of 4 ohms, then the minimum speaker load should be no less than 8 ohms. If the amp is capable of stereo as well as bridge operation, then both amps are using the same power supply. That's why there are usually terminal connections instead of jacks for bridge operation - the speaker load must be "floating", meaning no ground connection. Otherwise, watch out for the sparks! There is a bridge design, I think I remember Crown used it first back in the early 1970s. It was also used by Sunn in their Concert amp series. This design "floats" the power supply instead of the speaker load allowing one side of the speaker load to be grounded.

Sounds to me you have your input jack wired incorrectly - like the "ground" and hot lead is backwards.

Dream 180's - great humbuckers. Less noise than even high end "branded" pickups. Only problem I had was getting the proper cosmetic match between neck and bridge models. First attempt, one was all black as I expected... the other was black except for nickel pole pieces and hardware. That one got swapped out pretty quickly, but it was still an unwelcome hassle. They sound great though!!

Actually I will assume you want to know what dual pot means... not duel post. Most pots are single pots. A dual pot is two pots operated by a common shaft. The pots do not have to be the same value. For the TBX... one pot has a 250K value. The other pot of the dual arrangement has a 1 Meg value. But they are further special. Let's say you have a TBX. Fully counterclockwise (aka anti-clockwise), the 250K section would be at zero ohms. The 1 Meg section would also be at zero ohms. Moving the pot clockwise from zero to the center detent ("5"). The 250K section would increase in resistance from zero to the full 250K value of this section. The 1 Meg section would remain at zero ohms. Moving the pot further clockwise from the center detent ("5") to maximum clockwise ("10"). The 250K section would remain at 250K. The 1 Meg section would increase in resistance from zero to the full 1 Meg value of this section. I am not saying that the linked kit doesn't contain everything you need. After all, you have not told us how you intend on wiring this guitar of yours. All I am saying that the TBX is a dual pot with a single resistor and a single capacitor. That's it. In other words, a TBX "system" doesn't need a "special 5-way switch".

It's not necessary to use a TBX with Lace Sensors. In the Strat Plus produced during the late 1980s, Fender used a TBX control only for the bridge pickup. The other tone pot was a normal 250K 0.022mfd tone control. EDIT: I removed the TBX and replaced it with a regular tone setup. The TBX and Lace Sensor bridge was way too bright for my tastes. The TBX is only a dual pot, one resistor and one cap. Nothing special about the 5 way switch on the link you posted.

Well... one thing is wrong with the schematic - the orientation of C4 is incorrect. Since the only source of positive voltage is towards the opamp, the positive side should be towards the opamp, not away from it. Electrolytics can take a bit of reverse voltage, depending on the voltage rating, but I would flip it around.

Pickup output isn't measured in ohms. DC resistance of the coil can be measured, but it is unrelated to pickup output. If someone is selling active pickups and is pretending that they can be compared based on DC resistance estimates... well, that ain't someone I would be buying anything from.

The action you are describing is what I consider normal for linear pots, not audio pots. You may have had linears before and just replaced linear with linear. With audio taper pots, the tone and volume controls will be much smoother. With linear taper pots, they will not seem to have any effect from about 2-3 on the knob up to 10. Linear taper pots on a tone control are great if you want to do a wha-wha thing because you don't have to move them very much. But for control, you can't beat an audio taper pot.

You mean like a "Varitone"? Or are you looking for separate frequency and Q controls?

The string ground is only to use your body as part of the shielding for the circuit. If you shield the circuit, your body isn't going to help much so the string ground can be left off. In a guitar with passive electronics, while it might seem "neet" to claim star grounding and point towards the elimination of ground loops as the justification - without an active component to detect any difference in ground potential, no ground loop will exist. A ground loop is much more than multiple paths to ground. And when it all comes down to wiring, the shield and the signal ground will share the same grounding point on a correctly wired instrument - that being the output jack. The use of a cap or even a cap/resistor to make the string ground is highly touted to eliminate shocks - but it hasn't been proven in practice, and I wouldn't stake MY life on it regardless of which website says it will. Proper grounding of equipment will always have my priority above the use of a cap or cap/resistor in the guitar. Your choice and your life duration may vary.