curing deadly highs!?

[jewellworks]

this is my official second post.

ive got a squire strat that was my "test" guitar for a number of years. i upgraded and modified the crap out of it. now, with the economy being what it is, i decided to sell it. but ill never get the money i want out of it with all the upgrades. its still a "squire", dig?
so i scrounged around and found an old set of 3 single coils, and wired it up back to stock, with 3, 250k pots and a 5way. i remember the single coils squeeled a bit, so i had a friend wax pot them to quiet them down. they work great.

except theyre unbelievably BRIGHT! the high end can kill you! maybe if it was a tele that'd be great, but... yikes!
(sorry you tele players...)

im wanting to roll off the highs just a TAD overall. i noticed that if i turn down the volume pot, just a hair, not even to 9, then it sounds just about right. better. livable. so i took it apart, and measured the value of the volume pot turned up all the way (240.2k, using a digital meter), then turned it down just a hair, -not even to 9, and measured again... and it still read 240.2k. -huh???

so... what can i do to knock a LITTLE bit of highs off the whole thing? rather than getting into a big discussion as to whats wrong with it...? -unless you guys WANT to talk about "whats wrong" is my volume pot bad? theres a definate difference from when its on 10, and 9+. its weird. its deadly bright when on 10.

thanx!!

[D2o]

Hi, jw

I suppose you could just swap the cap to adjust the tone, but could it be that you've reversed the wires to the wipers of the volume post, or that you are using a linear pot instead of an audio taper?

How does it look compared to this schematic?

Cheers,
D2o

[newey]

its still a "squire", dig?

Actually, it's a "Squier", but that's just nit-picking on my part.

You say that backing off the Vol to about 9 helps- what about the tone pot(s)?

As far as your measurement of the Vol pot goes, you may just not have turned it quite as far when you measured it as you did when you noticed the difference in brightness.

It may be that this set of SCs is just particularly bright.

[JohnH]

Presumably the bridge is the brightest of all, and particularly so since, if you have standard wiring, it has no tone pot?

Apart from allowing the tone to be turned down, a tone pot takes away the edge just be being there and losding the pickup, even at 10.

So if it is just the bridge that is the main problem, you could wire the tone controls so for example, one does bridge and the other does neck and middle.

And/or, wiring resistors across the output of the offending pups will curb the highs, again by loading them. You could try say 270k and 150k.

John

[ChrisK]

so I took it apart, and measured the value of the volume pot turned up all the way (240.2k, using a digital meter), then turned it down just a hair, -not even to 9, and measured again... and it still read 240.2k. -huh???

You should measure the resistance change from the "10" terminal to the wiper when it's turned slightly down.

I know that this is counter-intuitive, but the sum of the resistance from one end lug to the wiper plus the resistance from the wiper to the other end lug does not always equal the resistance from end lug to end lug, especially near the ends of rotational travel.

I suspect that you will find some resistance from the "10" terminal to the wiper when it's turned slightly down. You could use that value as a series fixed resistor from the 5-way switch to the "10" lug on the volume pot.


However, on the other hand, you indicated that you are restoring the guitar to its former state for sale, so what do you care about the sound. ;D

Your ears may have matured beyond the world of things Squier.

If you're worried about it being too bright, just demo it with a crappy cord.