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Post subject: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:50 pm
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Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?

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Post subject: Re: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 5:46 pm
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gregbluesjr. wrote:
Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?


OK contrary to popular belief, the Vintage Noiseless pickups are of a lower output than even their OEM single coil counterparts.

A very popular remedy to coax more frequency response out of pickups is to use higher resistance pots. Higher resistance pots however will not increase output, only clarity to an extent. Here too, one has to be careful as oftentimes, the frequency response can get farmed out to the point of where the pickup then sounds 'anemic'.

In your particular situation, you may want to try 500K and/or 1,000K audio taper pots and hope for the best.

FWIW, IMO, Vintage Noiseless pickups sound best with 250K pots; YMMV.

Your only other possible remedy is to use some sort of preamping.

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Post subject: Re: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 4:00 am
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Martian wrote:
gregbluesjr. wrote:
Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?


OK contrary to popular belief, the Vintage Noiseless pickups are of a lower output than even their OEM single coil counterparts.

A very popular remedy to coax more frequency response out of pickups is to use higher resistance pots. Higher resistance pots however will not increase output, only clarity to an extent. Here too, one has to be careful as oftentimes, the frequency response can get farmed out to the point of where the pickup then sounds 'anemic'.

In your particular situation, you may want to try 500K and/or 1,000K audio taper pots and hope for the best.

FWIW, IMO, Vintage Noiseless pickups sound best with 250K pots; YMMV.

Your only other possible remedy is to use some sort of preamping.


Is this the reason that the Clapton Strat comes with the 25db mid-boost Martian? I'm guessing yes.

-T

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Post subject: Re: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:45 am
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tyronne wrote:
Martian wrote:
gregbluesjr. wrote:
Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?


OK contrary to popular belief, the Vintage Noiseless pickups are of a lower output than even their OEM single coil counterparts.

A very popular remedy to coax more frequency response out of pickups is to use higher resistance pots. Higher resistance pots however will not increase output, only clarity to an extent. Here too, one has to be careful as oftentimes, the frequency response can get farmed out to the point of where the pickup then sounds 'anemic'.

In your particular situation, you may want to try 500K and/or 1,000K audio taper pots and hope for the best.

FWIW, IMO, Vintage Noiseless pickups sound best with 250K pots; YMMV.

Your only other possible remedy is to use some sort of preamping.


Is this the reason that the Clapton Strat comes with the 25db mid-boost Martian? I'm guessing yes.

-T


Actually, yes but not because of the VNs per se. Remember, the original Clapton models came with Lace Sensors and the mid-boost. The real reason is, if you look at Clapton's musical portfolio, so much of his music was made with full sized humbuckers. Due to natural design, any OEM ilk Strat pickup cannot deliver like his Gibsons with the HBs did, especially with Cream. So, the boost is to mimic humbuckers. Do I personally think it does? No way. Listen to the Cream 'reunion' album and although the grit and power is [arguably] there, the OEM HB tonality surely is not. Yet, for some reason or other and in spite of everyone and his mother telling Clapton his Strat don't cut it for the Cream stuff, he obstinately continues to use it.

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Post subject: Re: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:27 am
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Martian wrote:
tyronne wrote:
Martian wrote:
gregbluesjr. wrote:
Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?


OK contrary to popular belief, the Vintage Noiseless pickups are of a lower output than even their OEM single coil counterparts.

A very popular remedy to coax more frequency response out of pickups is to use higher resistance pots. Higher resistance pots however will not increase output, only clarity to an extent. Here too, one has to be careful as oftentimes, the frequency response can get farmed out to the point of where the pickup then sounds 'anemic'.

In your particular situation, you may want to try 500K and/or 1,000K audio taper pots and hope for the best.

FWIW, IMO, Vintage Noiseless pickups sound best with 250K pots; YMMV.

Your only other possible remedy is to use some sort of preamping.


Is this the reason that the Clapton Strat comes with the 25db mid-boost Martian? I'm guessing yes.

-T


Actually, yes but not because of the VNs per se. Remember, the original Clapton models came with Lace Sensors and the mid-boost. The real reason is, if you look at Clapton's musical portfolio, so much of his music was made with full sized humbuckers. Due to natural design, any OEM ilk Strat pickup cannot deliver like his Gibsons with the HBs did, especially with Cream. So, the boost is to mimic humbuckers. Do I personally think it does? No way. Listen to the Cream 'reunion' album and although the grit and power is [arguably] there, the OEM HB tonality surely is not. Yet, for some reason or other and in spite of everyone and his mother telling Clapton his Strat don't cut it for the Cream stuff, he obstinately continues to use it.


Ahh, that's right! I forgot about the original Lace Sensors in his strat.

Forgive me one more question please and I apologize if this sounds so "basic" a question but... The reason for the 25db mid-boost circuitry is because humbuckers have more mids to them than the single coils? I'm still new to the "tone" of various pups, so I know this seems like kid-stuff to everyone but me. :)

-T

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Post subject: Re: fender vintage noiseless pickup question
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:09 am
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tyronne wrote:
Martian wrote:
tyronne wrote:
Martian wrote:
gregbluesjr. wrote:
Ok i bought two sets of the vintage nioseless pickups, one set for a strat and one set for a tele. The strat set came with new pots and other little components that really sound good. The tele set just came with the pickups and screws. I just installed the tele pickups with my stock tele harness and the pickups sound like crap. no real out put and muddy. Do i need to buy different pots? I think the strat pickups came with 1 meg pots? They were both new sets so i know nothing was missing out of the package, but i need to know what i need to change to get a better sound?


OK contrary to popular belief, the Vintage Noiseless pickups are of a lower output than even their OEM single coil counterparts.

A very popular remedy to coax more frequency response out of pickups is to use higher resistance pots. Higher resistance pots however will not increase output, only clarity to an extent. Here too, one has to be careful as oftentimes, the frequency response can get farmed out to the point of where the pickup then sounds 'anemic'.

In your particular situation, you may want to try 500K and/or 1,000K audio taper pots and hope for the best.

FWIW, IMO, Vintage Noiseless pickups sound best with 250K pots; YMMV.

Your only other possible remedy is to use some sort of preamping.


Is this the reason that the Clapton Strat comes with the 25db mid-boost Martian? I'm guessing yes.

-T


Actually, yes but not because of the VNs per se. Remember, the original Clapton models came with Lace Sensors and the mid-boost. The real reason is, if you look at Clapton's musical portfolio, so much of his music was made with full sized humbuckers. Due to natural design, any OEM ilk Strat pickup cannot deliver like his Gibsons with the HBs did, especially with Cream. So, the boost is to mimic humbuckers. Do I personally think it does? No way. Listen to the Cream 'reunion' album and although the grit and power is [arguably] there, the OEM HB tonality surely is not. Yet, for some reason or other and in spite of everyone and his mother telling Clapton his Strat don't cut it for the Cream stuff, he obstinately continues to use it.


Ahh, that's right! I forgot about the original Lace Sensors in his strat.

Forgive me one more question please and I apologize if this sounds so "basic" a question but... The reason for the 25db mid-boost circuitry is because humbuckers have more mids to them than the single coils? I'm still new to the "tone" of various pups, so I know this seems like kid-stuff to everyone but me. :)

-T


Ask as many questions as you like as this is how one gets answers!

In a direct answer to your question, yes. It is to mimic a humbucker both in tonality and output.

Be it a single or double coil, the 'balls' of any pickup comes from its midrange. The more wind to a coil, the more midrange of the pickup and the more powerful the pickup is.

A full sized humbucker sacrifices high-end and concentrates itself inherently in lower frequencies by design from being wired (two coils) in series. So right off the bat, a humbucker will have more midrange and obviously, two coils wired in series doubles the output of one coil.

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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 9:53 am
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Thank you Sir.
-T

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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:57 am
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tyronne wrote:
Thank you Sir.
-T


Anytime!

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Post subject: Bridge strat pickup to weak ?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:36 pm
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The Neck and Middle pickups are perfect but my bridge pickup is low volume i'd like to say... I have the Neck and Middle pups as low as possible almost inside the pickguard ..and the bridge cranked the highest ..it just sounds almost ok but still way to weak in my opinion .. or is it just my pickup is bad ? I was thinking on installing a Base Plate to try and fatten it up. What do yous think could help. :D


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Post subject: Re: Bridge strat pickup to weak ?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:42 pm
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aLinux wrote:
The Neck and Middle pickups are perfect but my bridge pickup is low volume i'd like to say... I have the Neck and Middle pups as low as possible almost inside the pickguard ..and the bridge cranked the highest ..it just sounds almost ok but still way to weak in my opinion .. or is it just my pickup is bad ? I was thinking on installing a Base Plate to try and fatten it up. What do yous think could help. :D


Output wise, all Vintage Noiseless pickups are all identical, regardless of position. Vintage Noiseless pickups are also quite frail by design and do break down. There may very well be something wrong with it. On the other hand, again by design, a baseplate will not help your problem. Your best bet at this point would be replacing the bridge pickup with that of another brand, more to your liking which will have the output (and tonality) you require.

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Post subject: Re: Bridge strat pickup to weak ?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:24 pm
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Martian wrote:
aLinux wrote:
The Neck and Middle pickups are perfect but my bridge pickup is low volume i'd like to say... I have the Neck and Middle pups as low as possible almost inside the pickguard ..and the bridge cranked the highest ..it just sounds almost ok but still way to weak in my opinion .. or is it just my pickup is bad ? I was thinking on installing a Base Plate to try and fatten it up. What do yous think could help. :D


Output wise, all Vintage Noiseless pickups are all identical, regardless of position. Vintage Noiseless pickups are also quite frail by design and do break down. There may very well be something wrong with it. On the other hand, again by design, a baseplate will not help your problem. Your best bet at this point would be replacing the bridge pickup with that of another brand, more to your liking which will have the output (and tonality) you require.


I'm going to check fleabay for a bridge pup .. (i think your rite ... cause I never noticed the problem until I installed a new pickguard and Im pretty sure I moved the pickup cover by accident on the bridge pup but didnt think that would foo'bar it ..) I'll try another pickup if I find one. I love this set .. long as I get that pup back to life :) btw way ..I use a 1 Meg Tone
pot for volume with the treble bleed trick .. strange and sweet :P


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