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Sorry it's been so long since the last update, I've had a very busy summer with not much time for updating this. With a bit less work to do I have plenty of articles to write about, some pickup and pedal reviews, and some other bits and pieces. Again if you have any comments or any reviews you'd like to submit email them to me and I'll put them up ASAP.

Nik

Latest Article:

27/05/2007

New Pickups and Shielding Fender Japan 57 Re-issue.

Having wanted a sunburst Strat since I first started playing guitar I decided it was high time I got one. I sold my Mexican Tele on Trademe to fund this new purchase. I found a nice 2 tone sunburst 57 RI with Texas Specials in it, alder body and maple neck. Check it out here.

It arrived from Japan about 6 days after I paid for, which I thought was pretty reasonable. Unfortunately I had to pay GST on it but that happens sometimes.

The first thing I did when I got it was change the strings, you just don't know how long the ones that come with the guitar have been on there. Whilst changing the strings I had a look under the pickguard. It had a rather odd 5 way switch on there and some very small tone and volume pots. And, of course, a minimal amount of shielding.

I strung her back up and proceeded to play, noting straight away that the action was far too low, and the trem too loose. So I raised the action quite a bit, screwed the trem claw in a bit further and added a 4th trem spring, much better.

The noise however was pretty terrible, especially with my Big Muff engaged. Something had to be done.

So I ordered a new set of electronics (Tone and vol pots, plus 5 way switch) and a new pickguard. I also ordered some copper shields from the same place as the one I got for my Black Strat. I had also predicted that the Texas Specials wouldn't really be me and I had acquired a set of Custom Shop 54's after comparison against the Fat 50's, Texas Specials and 69's.

A week later all the bits had arrived so it was time to get to work. Last time I shielded a strat I used tin foil and contact glue, this time I decided to use spray on contact glue, as evidently it is much easier.

The first thing I did was put the shield on the new pickguard. I put newspaper down on the table and sprayed the shield. I then put a new bit of paper down (to avoid getting glue on my new pickguard) and placed the shield on the pickguard. I then cut the holes out for the tone and volume pots and the 5 way switch. At this point I discovered the holes for the pots were much smaller than the pots themselves (due to the smaller pots that I noted earlier being used.) I then had to widen the holes using a knife.

Next I performed the treble bleed mod noted below. I then soldered in the new pickups, all pretty simple stuff. End result looks like this.

Next up was shielding the pickup and control cavity on the strat. I used small bits (varying from about 50 x 5mm to 120 x 80mm) of tin foil folded in half, then sprayed with glue to do the sides and bottom of the cavity and the output cavity. The most important part of this job is making sure oil the foil is touching and completing a circuit, otherwise the exercise is useless. The output cavity is the hardest bit to do. Its also very important to mark where the holes are for the wires to go to the output jack and trem, because they're very hard to find once it's all foiled up.

Once this is done it's simply a case of soldering on the trem earth wire and the output jack wires. When you do this I recommend putting a cloth over your guitar so you don't scratch it with your pickguard. Having finished that it's time to re string and play.

It's such a nice feeling when you plug in a guitar, turn the volume up and hear.... well nothing. Having one shielded strat you'll find you can't go back to not having it done. The pickups are fantastic, not too boomy or trebly. At first I found them a little muddy in the neck position but a little experimentation with heights soon fixed that. I wouldn't say they're better than the 69's, but different. I'd say the 69's sound slightly more modern       (funnily enough.)

All in all a highly successful mod, and the Japanese 57 RI guitars come highly recommended, as well as the Custom Shop 54 pickups. If you're after buying these or the copper shield mentioned send me an email and I'll point you in the right direction.

Also the pickguard with the Texas Specials is up for sale, the only thing I have taken off is the tone and vol knobs. I'd be happy with $235 for it, and for $30 I'll put a copper shield on there, contact me if you interested.

All this mention of contacting me, here is my email address: nikinta@ihug.co.nz

Cheers for reading, have a good one!

27/10/2006

Treble Retention Circuit.

I have just started playing some stuff that requires use of the volume knob on my Strat, something that I've been able to avoid in the past, but can no longer do. However there is an unfortunate problem with volume controls on most guitars, turning them down even a little from full sucks tone. Someone mentioned to me there is a mod you can do to avoid this.

I did a little research and discovered this mod called the treble retention circuit, or treble bleed mod, depending on where you read about it. Basically the tone loss occurs because as you turn the volume knob down,  the resistance goes up and the volume knob filters out audible high frequencies, due to the way the pickups, volume control and cables operate as a low pass filter.

So to fix this problem you need a capacitor and resistor, there are a lot of differing opinions of what sounds best, and evidently if you're doing this on a guitar with humbucker you only need a capacitor. I chose a 1nf ceramic capacitor and a 150k resistor, as recommended by the website I bought the copper pickguard shield for my custom Strat from.

Now the only skill you really need to have to do this mod is the ability to use a soldering iron, and you don't even have to be very good at it! I chose to run the resistor and capacitor in series (resistor first). Apparently you can run it in parallel with equally successful results, though you get a different sound. I shortened up either end of both the capacitor and resistor to make the circuit very small, then soldered them together. I then soldered the resistor end onto the 'hot' connection on the volume pot (where the wire comes from the pickup selector switch) and the capacitor end onto the output connection (the 'hot' wire that goes to the output jack, make sure it doesn't go onto the earth!). It took me no more than 5 minutes.

The mod works great, I can't understand why it isn't standard on all guitars. Obviously the sound is still not quite the same, mine still suffered slight tone loss, I think if I put a slightly more powerful (maybe 1.2nf) capacitor on there it would be better. It's also a possibility that the loss of tone is caused by the pre-amp being less loaded at a lower volume, it's something I'll experiment with. I also noticed a slight increase in treble with the volume on full but only when I had my fuzz face on, and a quick adjustment of the treble knob on the amp soon fixed that.

It cost me less than a dollar for 2 capacitors and 6 resistors, these parts can be picked up at places like Jaycar or Dick Smith Electronics. I highly recommend this mod if you're ever playing around with your volume knob.

Cheers.

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