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Post subject: Finicky Stagemaster.
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:20 am
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:23 pm
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Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
This will probably be kind of a long post. Let's see if I can explain it correctly.

I have 3 Stagemasters.

1- Blue
1- Red
1- black

(and one Squier Tobacco SB Affinity which I'll bring up later)

I've never had any problems with pickups sounding good in the blue or black one. But for some reason, I have a hell of a time with pickups sounding good in the red one.

The red one was bought on ebay. It came with a Dimarzio Air Norton pickup in the bridge. The pickup sounded like complete crap, so I swapped it with a Dimarzio Super dist. Better, but it didn't sound as good as it did in the black one.

For experimental purposes, I modified it to use a single coil Duncan Cool Rail that I had in one of my other Strats. The sound seemed restricted. It just seemed to lose the hot output and attack. It seemed to drag.

The other day I came across a 2003 Tobacco sunburst Squier in a Pawn shop. It was in bad shape with the exception of the body. BEAUTIFUL FINISH!! Has it's share of dents and dings, but it's definitely a nice start of a natural relic looking body. The neck and pickguard were toast. Talked 'em into selling it to me for $50. It had a Duncan JB jr. in the neck and bridge, and graph-tech saddles. :D

I dismantled it, and dropped the Duncan JB jr in the Red Stagemaster and once again it sounded restricted. So I wired it just to the volume pot. Better, but still restricted. Lower output than a Humbucker by far.

I had enough parts lying around here to make a mutt guitar out of the Affinity body. I had a black EVH pickguard, Westone neck, but the only pickup easily on hand was the Air Norton. So I spent the day pimping the Affinity. HOLY GOOD GOD!! That Air Norton hooked up directly to the Vol Knob freaking blew me away!!!

So my question is... Why does everything sound like crap in my Red Stagemaster? Can a volume knob restrict tone at 10? The Air Norton sounded extremely shrill. The Super Distortion sounded muddy. The Cool rail and JB, week and flat. The outputs seemed to be about half of a humbucker. Or could it be that the wood is just different than the other Stagemasters and it's being finicky to achieving a great tone out of it? All 3 Stagemasters were made in Korea. But I hear a definite difference when I hear a pickup in the Black and the Red. Both have the same exact kind of pots in them. (I don't mess with the Blue anymore, if it ain't broke don't fix it. SD PA-TB1s in it). Is the Air Norton better served hooked up to just a volume knob?

**The difference between the Air Norton in the Affinity body and the Stagemaster are mind-numbingly different. That's what made me question this the most. I hated that pickup, and now I've found a sound that I want to hear every night out of it. My Affinity mutt is in my top 4 now (out of 15) which include a Fender 57 RI Strat, 92 Plus Deluxe, and my blue Stagemaster. Won't be messin' with this one either.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:04 pm
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Posts: 5189
Location: Magnolia, Texas (just north of Houston)
Maybe the pot is bad in your guitar. If you have a humbucker, I suggest 500k, if single coil 250k. A good place to start for buying one below:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=pots

RK

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2007 Fender Highway 1
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2010 Fender Blacktop
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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:22 pm
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:23 pm
Posts: 1009
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Thanks man. Yea I wondered about that. I think this might be the first time I've run across a bunk Vol Knob.

On a good note, I did finally get a pic of my Squier Mutt.

Image

Freaking LOVE this guitar!!


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