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Post subject: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:26 am
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If I wanted to try different Fender pickups in my powerhouse Strat are they just replaceable with standard passive pickups (eg. Noiseless ) or are there special pickups to match the onboard electronics.
Also all the information I have read concerning active mid boost controls have a detent in the #5 position, my powerhouse has a detent in the #10 position on the Master Tone Control, not sure why it's there?
Any info would be appreciated.


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:53 am
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ironhoss wrote:
If I wanted to try different Fender pickups in my powerhouse Strat are they just replaceable with standard passive pickups (eg. Noiseless ) or are there special pickups to match the onboard electronics.
Also all the information I have read concerning active mid boost controls have a detent in the #5 position, my powerhouse has a detent in the #10 position on the Master Tone Control, not sure why it's there?
Any info would be appreciated.


Welcome.

Yes, you can replace your OEM pickups with any standard passive pickups. Here's a whole bunch of FYI stuff for you. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible:

The OEM pickups in your guitar are also standard passive pickups. As a matter of fact, they aren't even humbucking. Fender has placed a dummy coil in your circuit so that when you go through your pickup selections, this dummy coil reduces or outright cancels the hum in the circuit. So, if you do go with a humbucking pickup set such as the Noiseless, that dummy coil has to be removed or it will prevent the Noiseless from being humbucking, believe it or not. Of course, you'd leave this dummy coil intact if your were to use for example, a 57/62 single coil pickup set.

The on-board electronics you have in your guitar boosts your circuit up to 12db. There are two resistors which can be removed which will allow your circuit to be boosted up to 25db.

In the context of your questions, all guitar pots are variable resistors. Internally, these pots have a resistor path, literally a strip which increases resistance as you dial down and decreases resistance as you dial up. Hence, volume and/or tone (depending on what the pot is wired for) increases or decreases when the pot is dialed. Again, in this context, the tonality of a circuit is affected by the overall resistance value of the pot. This resistance is called a, "load". Typical for Stratocaster tone pots is a load of 250K ohms.

The TBX Pot, short for, "Treble-Bass Expander" is a ganged pot, meaning, one pot on top of the other, mechanically configured to work together. What's going on here is that when dialed from one to five and hitting the detent, this is the 'normal' run of a 'normal' tone pot. In this case, only one of the ganged pots is utilized. From six to ten is where the other pot kicks in. Essentially, all it does is it thins out the tone all the more, above and beyond what a 'normal' tone pot can do based on it's resistance value as these ganged pots have different loads and additional resistors soldered into them. Or to put it another way, it radically broadens the load spectrum.

Since your tone pot detents at '10', you do not have a TBX pot. Rather, you have what is called a, "No Load Pot".

Keeping in mind the aforementioned pot resistor path explanation, with a "No Load Pot" the resistance path is terminated at '9' instead of '10'. Hence, the detent on your tone pot at '10'. What's going on here is, the resistance load of the pot is completely removed. The strip is terminated at '9' and on '10' the pot is now offering zero resistance. As the load dampening the circuit's signal is now gone, the perceived increased treble will go up to hypothetically speaking, say, "13".

Be it a TBX Pot or a No Load Pot, some people love them, some people hate them. It all depends on the individual player's stylings. And yes, either can be replaced with a 'normal' pot if it is so desired.

Hopefully, some or all off the above will help you.

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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:41 am
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Thanks Martian for your detailed answer.
Now I understand why they have the dummy coil in there, I thought it was just boosting the signal. So basically I already have noiseless pickups installed. So if I am hearing a loud hiss through my Princeton Recording amp when the overdrive and compressor are on with no signal played, it is a function of the effects in the amp and not coming from my pickups.
The signal is clean with just reverb engaged.
I usually have the pots cranked to 10 most of the time, now I know why the treble drops of so quick when I take it of 10.
I guess I found the right place to answer my Fender questions, thanks again.


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:23 am
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ironhoss wrote:
Thanks Martian for your detailed answer.
Now I understand why they have the dummy coil in there, I thought it was just boosting the signal. So basically I already have noiseless pickups installed. So if I am hearing a loud hiss through my Princeton Recording amp when the overdrive and compressor are on with no signal played, it is a function of the effects in the amp and not coming from my pickups.
The signal is clean with just reverb engaged.
I usually have the pots cranked to 10 most of the time, now I know why the treble drops of so quick when I take it of 10.
I guess I found the right place to answer my Fender questions, thanks again.


You're quite welcome and yes to all your observations. :D

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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:22 am
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After looking at the available pickups on Fender's webpage I noticed a couple of Custom Shop kits have the RW/RP middle pickup for hum cancelling (50's Strat & Texas Specials).
Would I be able to use these in my Powerhouse Strat since I have the dummy coil installed already for hum cancelling or would they cause a conflict. Martian already informed me about the problems if I installed noiseless pickups (I would have to remove it).
Would anyone know the magnet type and the ohm & henries rating for the 57/62 kit. Nothing is listed on the webpage and it is not listed as a Custom Shop kit which are all listed as Alnico V magnets.
Mostly in to the blues and looking for that kind of tone, more clean than distorted.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:27 am
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ironhoss wrote:
...I noticed a couple of Custom Shop kits have the RW/RP middle pickup for hum cancelling (50's Strat & Texas Specials).
Would I be able to use these in my Powerhouse Strat since I have the dummy coil installed already for hum cancelling or would they cause a conflict. Martian already informed me about the problems if I installed noiseless pickups (I would have to remove it).
Would anyone know the magnet type and the ohm & henries rating for the 57/62 kit. Nothing is listed on the webpage and it is not listed as a Custom Shop kit which are all listed as Alnico V magnets.
Mostly in to the blues and looking for that kind of tone, more clean than distorted.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.


If you choose a pickup set with a RW/RP middle pickup,
it would indeed cause a conflict with the dummy coil. In this case, only your neck and bridge pickup when selected alone would be humbucking.

FYI: The 57/62 set does not have a RW/RP middle pickup and would be a good choice for your requirements.

The magnet type in the 57/62s is Alnico 5. The DC resistance of the pickups is in the 5.6K area; the henries are at 3.

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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:10 am
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Thanks Martian for steering me in the right direction before I make a decision. I think I will check the ohm rating for the pickups that are already installed. I am pretty sure they are the orginal ones for this guitar. While I am in there I will see how easy it would be to remove the dummy coil ,which would open up more options. I have already re-fastened that coil back in postion once before, found it laying loose the first time I looked under the hood. Thanks again!


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:22 am
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ironhoss wrote:
Thanks Martian for steering me in the right direction before I make a decision. I think I will check the ohm rating for the pickups that are already installed. I am pretty sure they are the orginal ones for this guitar. While I am in there I will see how easy it would be to remove the dummy coil ,which would open up more options. I have already re-fastened that coil back in postion once before, found it laying loose the first time I looked under the hood. Thanks again!


You're quite welcome. Keep in mind that a pickup's DC resistance is NOT the 'de-facto' indicator of what it is going to sound like or how loud it will be.

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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:09 am
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After looking at the wiring diagram for the Powerhouse Strat I noticed the dummy coil is wired between the 5 way switch and the center tab on the tone pot. There also is a wire to the same center tab coming from the PC board. If I removed the dummy coil should I install a jumper wire between the 5 way switch and the tone pot to keep the tone pot functioning. Looking to open up my options for pickup replacement eg. 50's Strat or Texas Specials.
Also I noticed the two resistors on the mid boost control, one is 47KCF and the other is 24KCF as per the detail sheet. Martian you mentioned these could be removed to boost the output from 12db to 25db , is that just a straight removal of both resistors or is there something else involved? Not sure I want to do that since the guitar is loud enough as is, just curious!


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:15 am
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ironhoss wrote:
After looking at the wiring diagram for the Powerhouse Strat I noticed the dummy coil is wired between the 5 way switch and the center tab on the tone pot. There also is a wire to the same center tab coming from the PC board. If I removed the dummy coil should I install a jumper wire between the 5 way switch and the tone pot to keep the tone pot functioning. Looking to open up my options for pickup replacement eg. 50's Strat or Texas Specials.
Also I noticed the two resistors on the mid boost control, one is 47KCF and the other is 24KCF as per the detail sheet. Martian you mentioned these could be removed to boost the output from 12db to 25db , is that just a straight removal of both resistors or is there something else involved? Not sure I want to do that since the guitar is loud enough as is, just curious!


Yes to installing a jumper wire and yes, the resistors are a straight removal.

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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:21 am
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Thanks Martian now I know my options.


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Post subject: Re: Replacing active pickups
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:30 am
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ironhoss wrote:
Thanks Martian now I know my options.


Any time! :D

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