JoeAArthur

Why am I thinking this thread is a joke and I just don't get the punch line?

The most likely cause as MarkSound has told you several times is that the wires to the output jack are connected to the wrong lugs - backward. This happens with newly wired strats quite often, especially when one does not use a shielded cable and/or uses the same color wire for both connections and/or doesn't realize the two jack connections are different. BTW - the spring claw for the tremolo is the piece inside the body that attaches the springs to the body with two screws. This is a normal location for a string ground connection.

Yeah, go for it. I personally think that the reason the P / and/or / J pickup combination/positions even exist today is because the early attempts at fender to build a decent bass amp were pretty dismal at best. A true neck position pickup would have just made it sound that much worse. I once saw a 3 pickup bass combination I really liked because it sounded so great. the neck position had one of those Gibson pickups... eb-0 or eb-1 one of those (sorry, I don't know Gibson basses that well but I'm sure you know what pickup I mean... that single big humbucker sized one) then... a precision split in the middle and a Jazz bridge pickup. The bass itself believe it or not was the Telecaster style.

Post a link. Something might be 30% of series, but it ain't resistance.

Post a link. Something might be 30% of series, but it ain't resistance.

No, the height adjustment screws do not go through to the wood. They're just meant to raise/lower the pickup body inside the pickup ring - which of course is attached to the body with the four other wood screws.

Actually two 3.65 coils in parallel would be 1.825K, half of a single coil reading.

Radio Shack has a pretty decent rotary style 4pole double throw switch.

Primal is correct. Current flow hasn't been from positive to negative since the time of Edison during the late 1880. It has since been shown incorrect. Historical note: Although he couldn't understand it due to the incorrect assumption of current flow of the day - he patented his observations as the "edison effect".

I may be a little dense right now, but I seriously don't have a clue as to what you are talking about. Could you explain a bit more?

No. The TBX works by "unloading" the pickup with a 1 meg pot. Using two would result in roughly only 500K of unloading... which would translate into even less treble. If you want more treble than the TBX, there will be a slight increase using a Delta or "unload" pot over the TBX.

Oh, I definately like connecting the dots, however, when it comes to coloring outside the lines... well, lets just call that artistic expression. What I meant, though, is that IMO its easy to "trace" the signal going through a circuit when you are looking at a schematic rather than an assembly diagram. +1 And once you understand the schematic, you can wire it up regardless of component choices. Pictorials on the other hand require that you have the same component and easily grasping things like what is happening with the switching doesn't come as easy as with a schematic. The exact component thing is essential. As an example... I think it is stewmac - they have a 3 position telecaster style switch that has the same 4 lugs per side, but the common lug for the switch poles is completely opposite of what most pictorials assume. Some blend pots have the pot sections opposite. So you might wind up turning down the wrong pickup when you really wanted it to turn down the other based on the rotational direction. And I believe it is Ibanez... has those all poles in one row like some of the import switches but the actual switching is really unique.

Well, it really depends. If you're chasing down a problem, it depends on the problem. If you're installing new pickups, it's always a good idea to check continuity - DC resistance and exact measurements aren't essential here, but to have something is. It is frustrating after the pickup(s) are installed and the guitar is strung up to find you have pickups with open coils - and this can happen with NEW pickups, more often than you would thing. On pickups I also check for correct phasing. I use my old analog meter for this primarily because it is the only meter I have and I don't know how well it would work with a digital since I look for the direction the needle deflects. I also check the measurement and functioning of pots. If I am installing two, like for volume and tone I always use the higher measuring one for the tone control - just my convention. If I happen to be using an enclosed output jack or switch where I can't see what is going on, I validate the correct lugs. If shielding the guitar, I check that the shielding foil has continuity from end to end. Just a few uses.

No, you don't need to change the caps - unless of course you destroy them during the replacement of the pots.

It has to do with the construction of the switch - no magic, just the nature of materials. The switch has 4 leaves made of spring steel - two on one side and two on the other. At the ends are the contacts, probably brass or copper "studs". When the switch is in the middle position, those leaves on both sides are relaxed, causing them both to come together and make contact... at the contacts. When the switch is moved to one side or the other, one of the leaves is placed under tension, causing it to separate and break contact. The leaves that break contact is on the opposite side of where the switch is positioned - meaning that when the bridge pickup is selected, the leaves on the "neck" side are separated. Over time, and depending on use... the actual physical construction of the particular switch and the actual materials used, one side or the other can become weak or what sometimes happens is that those leaves shift position. The result is a lack of adequate contact when the leaves should be together. Sometimes, it can happen due to a piece of dirt or "dust clogging up the works" - which is why I use contact cleaner first. If that doesn't work, replacing the switch will.

#1 - Ground is not really a "destination". In schematics, the ground symbol is really a short-cut of showing a common connection without having to draw all of the physical connections (e.g. separate wires or chassis). So considering ground as a common connection - that's how the current gets back to the pickup. The braid or shield in your instrument cable to the amp is part of the ground connection. #2 - Whenever two components are connected in series the order of connection doesn't affect the performance of the circuit. In the specific case of the pots connections for the two tone controls, the current doesn't know the difference between the wiper and the outside lug. You'll note that the same outside lug is used in both cases - how you turn the pot to either increase or decrease the resistance is the same in both cases... right?

Water analogies do have their problems. They don't handle AC too well for one thing. There is only so much current coming from the pickup and this current contains many different frequencies. Regardless of frequency, the total current produced by the pickup from one wire is trying to find the easiest way back to the pickup - to enter in the other wire. Remember that current flow will only occur when there is a complete path. When it hits that split between volume and tone control, some of the current will go one way and some of it goes another. The tone control capacitor helps decide what goes where because it is frequency selective and presents an easier path for the higher frequency current and a more difficult path for the lower frequency current. The tone control resistor acts with the capacitor to determine how easy or difficult this path actually is... In general, some of the higher frequencies will find an easier path by going through the tone network and once through that, they can zip right back to the pickup. They have been "short circuited". As the frequencies get lower, the tone network path becomes more difficult. These go through the volume control, make it to gorung and then zip right back to the pickup. The volume control provides another choice of paths - the wiper that moves and determines what portion of resistance exists between both sides of the volume control. Some of the current takes the path through the volume control and back to the pickup and some of the current takes the path through the volume control wiper, down the center conductor of the guitar cable and into the amp. Once inside the amp, depending upon the amp, there may be other splits of current - but in the end, all of the current that traveled to the amp via the cable eventually meet up with one another and travel back through the cable... and eventually back to the pickup. Since this is AC, reverse the flow and the exact same thing happens, just in reverse.

A string doesn't "know" if it is intonated with the frets or not. That won't cause the warbly sound. It's sound to me like "stratitis" - meaning the pickup is too close to the string and the string's vibration is being affected by the magnetic pull of the pickup - lower them both about a half a turn or so.

No missing wire. The tone control network, consisting of the tone pot (variable resistor) and capacitor wired in SERIES, is connected across the volume control in PARALLEL - there is no need for any current to get "back" to the volume. The same current is split - some flows through the volume control to the center lug or sweaper and out the output jack... and the other flows through the tone network. The tone network removes the high frequencies at a rate determined by the value of the tone control capacitor and the resistance of the tone control pot - they are bypassed to ground AROUND the volume control.

Sounds like the switch could be faulty. You could try cleaning it with some contact cleaner, but chances are good it really needs to be replaced.

The auction in question is not for GFS pickups. Jay does sell other pickups that he happens to buy up in lots. Notice that GFS is not mentioned in the auction. They are usually as good as any import pickup such as mighty mites, but usually no where near the same quality of materials and workmanship of true GFS pickups.

Metal covers do affect the sound, although I don't think I could say that it is degraded. The metal cover, when grounded as most of them are due to contact with the metal baseplate, form one plate of a capacitor. The coil windings form the other capacitor plate. This capacitance does reduce the resonant peak, leading to a slightly reduced treble sound with the cover. Can you notice it? Maybe, but I doubt it. Although the plate-to-plate area may be large, the distance between them is relatively more and probably won't result in much capacitance - at best it would be measured in pico-farads and I would think that 100pf would be the upper value - it all depends on the physical construction of the pickup. Personally, I think the additional shielding benefits from electrostatic sources more than outweigh the slight reduction in treble.

Nope, no chance at all.

No. The switch in the photo is not a 4-pole switch, it is a 2 pole. What you are calling a pole is a soldering lug. The switch you need is also called a superswitch. It is a true 5 way 4 pole switch. It will have 24 soldering lugs.

I just hold the soldering iron under it and move the iron back and forth.