Post by ozboomer on Mar 1, 2011 19:49:43 GMT -5
This design is based on SimpleMod-e, which featured a P-90 -style Bridge pickup (a GFS Dream 90) with its own tone control, as well as providing both master volume and master tone controls.
Unfortunately, owing to some ambiguity in its installation instructions, the Dream 90 pickup was installed with reverse wiring, giving an out-of-phase (OOP) sound. So SimpleMod-g is primarily about "fixing" SimpleMod-e.
Background
The modifications required for this design are fairly simple and don't require a lot of work:-
Schematic (571x598, 18kB):
Wiring Diagram (797x598, 257kB):
Pickup Combinations:
...where:
+ = pickups are combined in parallel
° = out-of-phase pickup (compared to Middle pickup)
¥ = special tone
¤ = humbucking
Edit: 13-Mar-2011 ... Just to update the combination table with what I think sounds like humbucking sounds or not.
When the DPDT is in the "Normal" position (toggle bat is upward), we have the 5 standard Stratocaster pickup combinations.
When the DPDT is in the "out-of-phase" position (toggle bat is downward), most of the sounds are exactly the same except that:
Sample Sounds
SimpleMod-g-P1.mp3 (128kbps, 950kB) - Some simple chord sounds when switching from 5-Way Position 1 (Bridge pickup only) through to Position 5 (Neck pickup only), with the Bridge "out-of-phase" switch set to the "Normal" position.
SimpleMod-g-P2.mp3 (128kbps, 1.2MB) - Highlights the differences the "tone capacitor" makes. The sounds you hear in this file are:
SimpleMod-g-P3.mp3 (128kbps, 402kB) - A simple sequence, where one track of the sequence is panned hard left, one is panned hard right. Left channel is Bridge pickup alone (Normal switch) and Right channel is also Bridge pickup alone but includes the 1.8nF capacitor in the signal line. It sounds pretty raw but I think the two sounds blend Ok, after some very basic editing and level modding. Edit: 9-Mar-2011 ... This 3rd sound file added today.
Discussion
Not much to talk about here, as we're basically just getting the wiring to the Dream 90 "correct" and installing a phase switch and special tone capacitor. Refer to the SimpleMod-e write-up for more detailed information of the fundamental wiring.
One problem I came across... The wires between the control pots and the 5-way switch were just long enough, with no slack to speak of. This meant I couldn't mount the DPDT in the pickguard and wire it directly as I had originally planned. So, I had to connect all the wires to the DPDT and to the pots, etc with the switch "floating" and then manipulate it underneath all the previously-connected wires - a little bit fiddly... and some might have decided to completely re-wire the circuit. YMMV.
Deciding on the value to use for the tone capacitor was a bit of a job as well... but I finaly decided on 1.8nF (0.0018uF). The (Bridge + "tone capacitor") sound is still a bit thin but it could still be useful - you just need to up the volume a little. The main thing is that when the (Middle + Bridge) position is selected and the DPDT phase switch selects the "out-of-phase" sound, having the 1.8nF "tone capacitor" in the signal path seems to give a bit brighter sound.. or more accurately, cuts some of the mid-range frequencies from the sound, which I quite like.
Edit: 5-Mar-2011 ... I've been playing this quite a bit throughout today and it's getting pretty close to something I might 'freeze' on. Maybe some more tuning still to do on the OOP cap.. and I'll probably look at installing a G&L Legacy -type pf tone control sometime.. but I like the range of sounds I'm getting out of this now...(!)
Some photos:
Again, the guitar looks pretty-much the same as it did for SimpleMod-e, except we now have the phase switch installed:
A view of the completed re-wiring, showing the lack of space around the installed DPDT switch.
...and here's a rear view. Note that I've soldered small alligator clips to the wires that connect to the "tone capacitor"; another trick to help make it easy to change the capacitor value:-
I think it would be best to post any further thoughts, comments, etc about "SimpleMod" in the SimpleMod + ToneMod = ... thread.
Hope this proves useful...
John
Unfortunately, owing to some ambiguity in its installation instructions, the Dream 90 pickup was installed with reverse wiring, giving an out-of-phase (OOP) sound. So SimpleMod-g is primarily about "fixing" SimpleMod-e.
Background
The modifications required for this design are fairly simple and don't require a lot of work:-
- The wiring to the Dream 90 is reversed to provide "normal" phasing when combined with the Middle pickup.
- A DPDT switch is installed so that the phasing of the Dream 90 pickup can be switched with reference to the Middle pickup, so that it's "in-phase" or "out-of-phase".
- A "tone capacitor" is incorporated in the DPDT installation, so that the frequency cancellations that occur when the Dream 90 is running "out-of-phase" are not too severe. The side effect of this is that when the Dream 90 pickup is running alone, there will be a much less rich sound coming from the pickup when the "out-of-phase" position on the DPDT is selected.
- The "tone capacitor" is wired using long leads, so it can be accessed from the rear of the guitar, making it simpler to "tune" the capacitor value as the guitar does not have to be completely disassembled just to change the tone capacitor.
Schematic (571x598, 18kB):
Wiring Diagram (797x598, 257kB):
Pickup Combinations:
5-Way | DPDT: Normal | DPDT: OOP Bridge |
1. | B | B¥ |
2. | B+M | (B¥°+M)¤ |
3. | M | M |
4. | (M+N)¤ | (M+N)¤ |
5. | N | N |
...where:
+ = pickups are combined in parallel
° = out-of-phase pickup (compared to Middle pickup)
¥ = special tone
¤ = humbucking
Edit: 13-Mar-2011 ... Just to update the combination table with what I think sounds like humbucking sounds or not.
When the DPDT is in the "Normal" position (toggle bat is upward), we have the 5 standard Stratocaster pickup combinations.
When the DPDT is in the "out-of-phase" position (toggle bat is downward), most of the sounds are exactly the same except that:
- when the (Bridge + Middle) position is selected, the Bridge pickup is connected "out-of-phase" with the Middle pickup and the "tone capacitor" is included in the output signal path; and
- when the (Bridge only) position is selected, the Bridge pickup sound travels through the "tone capacitor" before reaching the output signal path.
Sample Sounds
SimpleMod-g-P1.mp3 (128kbps, 950kB) - Some simple chord sounds when switching from 5-Way Position 1 (Bridge pickup only) through to Position 5 (Neck pickup only), with the Bridge "out-of-phase" switch set to the "Normal" position.
SimpleMod-g-P2.mp3 (128kbps, 1.2MB) - Highlights the differences the "tone capacitor" makes. The sounds you hear in this file are:
- Bridge (Dream 90) alone, Normal
- Bridge (Dream 90) alone, with "tone capacitor"
- Bridge (Dream 90) + Middle, in-phase sound
- Bridge (Dream 90) + Middle, "out-of-phase" sound
SimpleMod-g-P3.mp3 (128kbps, 402kB) - A simple sequence, where one track of the sequence is panned hard left, one is panned hard right. Left channel is Bridge pickup alone (Normal switch) and Right channel is also Bridge pickup alone but includes the 1.8nF capacitor in the signal line. It sounds pretty raw but I think the two sounds blend Ok, after some very basic editing and level modding. Edit: 9-Mar-2011 ... This 3rd sound file added today.
Discussion
Not much to talk about here, as we're basically just getting the wiring to the Dream 90 "correct" and installing a phase switch and special tone capacitor. Refer to the SimpleMod-e write-up for more detailed information of the fundamental wiring.
One problem I came across... The wires between the control pots and the 5-way switch were just long enough, with no slack to speak of. This meant I couldn't mount the DPDT in the pickguard and wire it directly as I had originally planned. So, I had to connect all the wires to the DPDT and to the pots, etc with the switch "floating" and then manipulate it underneath all the previously-connected wires - a little bit fiddly... and some might have decided to completely re-wire the circuit. YMMV.
Deciding on the value to use for the tone capacitor was a bit of a job as well... but I finaly decided on 1.8nF (0.0018uF). The (Bridge + "tone capacitor") sound is still a bit thin but it could still be useful - you just need to up the volume a little. The main thing is that when the (Middle + Bridge) position is selected and the DPDT phase switch selects the "out-of-phase" sound, having the 1.8nF "tone capacitor" in the signal path seems to give a bit brighter sound.. or more accurately, cuts some of the mid-range frequencies from the sound, which I quite like.
Edit: 5-Mar-2011 ... I've been playing this quite a bit throughout today and it's getting pretty close to something I might 'freeze' on. Maybe some more tuning still to do on the OOP cap.. and I'll probably look at installing a G&L Legacy -type pf tone control sometime.. but I like the range of sounds I'm getting out of this now...(!)
Some photos:
Again, the guitar looks pretty-much the same as it did for SimpleMod-e, except we now have the phase switch installed:
A view of the completed re-wiring, showing the lack of space around the installed DPDT switch.
...and here's a rear view. Note that I've soldered small alligator clips to the wires that connect to the "tone capacitor"; another trick to help make it easy to change the capacitor value:-
I think it would be best to post any further thoughts, comments, etc about "SimpleMod" in the SimpleMod + ToneMod = ... thread.
Hope this proves useful...
John