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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2014 5:26:50 GMT -5
Hello this is reviewed here. After some comments i read about the chopper being muddy in the neck, and after many tests i did, somehow i started to think that the chopper sounded dark. Not muddy, exactly but dark. I remember when i moved FT1 to the middle and installed chopper in the neck, at first it sounded less "muddy" than the FT1. However i *still* didn't like *totally* the neck position of that strat no matter what. Today i did a test : just disconnected the neck tone pot from the switch's lug. Result? a much much much better tone in the neck, to the point of having all harmonics, squeelies on par with the FT2 in the bridge... So.... the guitar has .. issues to solve... either my (supposedly 500KOhm) neck tone pot "bleeds" treble somehow, or the 0.033uf cap value is too large, bleeding/cutting off tremble from a lower threshold ? Should i go for better (no-load) tone pot? smaller cap value?
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Post by JohnH on Feb 7, 2014 6:26:57 GMT -5
Id say do the no-load. It will give you the same good sound that you have found. You can convert a standard pot, or buy one. Also, with tone at max, the tone cap value makes almost exactly no difference at all.
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Post by newey on Feb 7, 2014 6:31:27 GMT -5
Now that it's disconnected, check it with your meter- outer lug to outer lug with the shaft turned full CW.
The cap value doesn't come into play until you turn the knob, so if it's too dark with the knob turned full CW, changing the cap value won't solve anything. A no-load pot would solve the issue, you should get the same sound as you now have with the pot disconnected. Or you could go to a 1M pot.
But check your existing pot first.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2014 6:40:06 GMT -5
Thanx for your prompt response John and Newey! John do you know if there exist any no load push/pull pots? Newey you are right i will have to measure it first. I think i'd check not only outer to outer but also outer to inner at 10 and 0 to see if there are any issues there.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2014 15:36:54 GMT -5
Hello again, Just measured the tone pot, the meter reading was about 475KOhm. Both end to end, and middle to end at 10. Reconnected the chopper to that pot, and the sound became dull again, no sparkle like it was when disconnected... i am puzzled.. Shouldn't 500KOhms (or 475K) be enough for a humbucker? I was aiming to install some dimarzio EP1201PP for series/parallel switching, but most probably i am going for a no-load pot.
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Post by JohnH on Feb 7, 2014 16:01:08 GMT -5
Even 500k is still taking a bit off the treble, which is usually fine, but if you want it back, go with no load. I don't know of a P/P pot that is no load though, and it would be very difficult to convert one due to all the switching mechanics.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2014 1:13:57 GMT -5
Even 500k is still taking a bit off the treble, which is usually fine, but if you want it back, go with no load. I don't know of a P/P pot that is no load though, and it would be very difficult to convert one due to all the switching mechanics. Haven't tested it yet in-vivo, but to actually make it, it was a breeze : All i had to do is disassembly the pot part and scratch the material from the right lug side where the arrow shows. By the meter measurements it seems ok, lets see how it performs when installed.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2014 2:43:03 GMT -5
installed it. plays like a charm. What i forgot to say is that i applied one drop of nail lacquer to the spot of the removed material, and now i get no more scratches when the tone pot returns to 10.
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Post by JohnH on Feb 9, 2014 15:53:47 GMT -5
That's neat to convert a p/p pot. As I said, I didn't think it could be done. Did you have to release the switch mechanism in some way to access the track?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2014 0:30:03 GMT -5
Hi John, I didn't have to touch the switch mechanism. Just released the pot part, and there was enough room and visibility by the sides to scratch the material, and apply the nail lacquer. The difference with classic pots, is that you can completely disassemble them.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2014 6:36:47 GMT -5
Coming from here : guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7127/ngd-chopper-strats-neck-position?page=2After i did the grounding thing (more) correct, the same problem persisted and also experienced really harsh scratches when turning the tone pot. For some reason it seems that looseness of the whole pot assembly severely affects the function of the push/pull mechanism. What i finally did was to tighten up the pot with the help of a wrench, as much as i could, and apply a little contact cleaner inside the push/pull circuit (from the holes in the chassis). After this last one, the readings got back to normal, and also the rest of electrical problems went away (some of them still inexplicable to me).
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Post by newey on May 5, 2014 21:44:49 GMT -5
Sometimes these things just don't make sense. Just be glad that it works, to heck with the explanations . . .
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2014 3:48:32 GMT -5
yes, I agree!
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