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Post subject: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 8:31 am
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Hey everyone,

I have an American Select Mahogany HSS strat. Love the feel of the guitar (best neck ever!) and the tex mex single coils sound great, but I am considering swapping out the diamondback humbucker.

The diamondback is not bad, it just seems a little thin for me and is a bit heavy on the highs (although rolling the tone off definitely helps). I am considering putting a gibson 498t in there; I have had this for a bridge pickup in an SG and a Les Paul and love it. I don't expect it to make my strat sound like a gibby but think it is a great humbucker that could sound very good in my mahogany strat. I'm wondering if anyone has done this and has any advice for me. I have a few questions...

1) Would I be able to use the same pots and just do a straight swap of the pickups?
2) Is the 498T splittable in position 2 (bridge and middle)? The diamondback works very well in this position.
3) Would the 498T dramatically overpower the tex mex single coils? I usually shoot for relatively even volume over the pickups even if I have to lower the humbucker a bit; I usually have the humbucker just slightly louder than the single coils but not dramatically.
4) This guitar has the S1 switching system; would the 498T be compatible with that?

Thanks for your help guys! Also, I would likely have a pro do the install for me; I'm not that handy and a great local shop only charges about $20 for pup swaps.

If the 498T doesn't seem like a good idea I am also considering a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. I think it sounds great from clips on Duncan's website and some youtube videos, and it is a lower output pickup so it might match better with the tex mex singles.


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Post subject: Re: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:59 am
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JLAMO7 wrote:
Hey everyone...

Greetings.
JLAMO7 wrote:
...1) Would I be able to use the same pots and just do a straight swap of the pickups?

Yes. However, the 498 was designed around 500K pots for optimum tonality so there would be a conflict if you continued to use the OEM 250Ks.
JLAMO7 wrote:
2) Is the 498T splittable in position 2 (bridge and middle)?...

498Ts come with four conductor wiring and single conductor wiring. If you have the four conductor, yes. If you have the single conductor, the pickup would have to be disassembled, rewired and reassembled in order to accomplish this.
JLAMO7 wrote:
3) Would the 498T dramatically overpower the tex mex single coils?...

Yes.
JLAMO7 wrote:
4) This guitar has the S1 switching system; would the 498T be compatible with that?

See 2).

JLAMO7 wrote:
Thanks for your help guys! Also, I would likely have a pro do the install for me; I'm not that handy and a great local shop only charges about $20 for pup swaps.

You're welcome. I caution you though, regardless of whether the 498 is one or four conductor, there will be a phasing problem so this "great local shop" may or may not be able to handle certain issues and premising they can, the $20 may not stand.
JLAMO7 wrote:
If the 498T doesn't seem like a good idea I am also considering a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. I think it sounds great from clips on Duncan's website and some youtube videos, and it is a lower output pickup so it might match better with the tex mex singles.

The 498 and the JB are very similar in output. The frequency response however, is very different. Here too, a phase problem will exist with the JB vs. the Fenders. Of note is the fact that the JB would do better with the OEM 250K pots as this is what the JB was designed around.

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Post subject: Re: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 11:45 am
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Thanks for the detailed response Martian. I think I may be better off putting together a separate loaded pickguard and keeping the stock pickguard as is. That way I could load the second pickguard with 500K pots and either have a HH setup (maybe 59/JB or 490/498?) or a HSS setup with the humbucker of my choice and single coil size buckers for the other positions. I haven't checked but I think this guitar should be routed for HSH. Even if I am not the best at tech type work, pickup swaps probably don't get much easier than changing out loaded pickguards so I should be able to learn that and get versatility that way.

The current setup sounds good and the diamondback seems to match the tex mex singles pretty well, so I don't really NEED the change, but I am curious to see how the guitar would sound with a different humbucker in there.


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Post subject: Re: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 3:03 pm
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JLAMO7 wrote:
Thanks for the detailed response Martian. I think I may be better off putting together a separate loaded pickguard and keeping the stock pickguard as is. That way I could load the second pickguard with 500K pots and either have a HH setup (maybe 59/JB or 490/498?) or a HSS setup with the humbucker of my choice and single coil size buckers for the other positions. I haven't checked but I think this guitar should be routed for HSH. Even if I am not the best at tech type work, pickup swaps probably don't get much easier than changing out loaded pickguards so I should be able to learn that and get versatility that way.

The current setup sounds good and the diamondback seems to match the tex mex singles pretty well, so I don't really NEED the change, but I am curious to see how the guitar would sound with a different humbucker in there.


You're quite welcome.

There is a very simple and economical solution to your 500K vs. 250K pot conflict. See, the volume pot is the most critical in shaping the 'personality' of any given pickup and therefore, this is your chief concern as the tone pots are mostly dedicated to dealing with their capacitor(s) and rolling off highs in the guitar's circuit. But I digress. For typical pot/pickup conflicts such as yours, install a 500K volume pot. This will accommodate the full sized HB. Next, for the single coils, you solder one 470K ohm resistor to each single's terminal at the selector switch with the other tail of the resistors to ground. This will fake the single coils out to where they'll electronically 'see' a 250K volume pot. These resistors are typically sold, 2 for 99 cents at Radio Shack. Problem solved.

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Post subject: Re: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 12:52 pm
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Just wanted to give an update; I wound up having my local shop make and install a new loaded pickguard with a Duncan 59 in the neck and a JB in the bridge along with a 3 way switch and 500K pots. I kept the original pickguard stock so I can swap it back in easily if the mood strikes. So far I am LOVING the Duncans....I know it makes me a bad strat owner haha, but this is just what I was looking for; strat playability and comfort with fat humbucker tone.


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Post subject: Re: Considering Humbucker Swap to 498T
Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:29 pm
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JLAMO7 wrote:
Just wanted to give an update; I wound up having my local shop make and install a new loaded pickguard with a Duncan 59 in the neck and a JB in the bridge along with a 3 way switch and 500K pots. I kept the original pickguard stock so I can swap it back in easily if the mood strikes. So far I am LOVING the Duncans....I know it makes me a bad strat owner haha, but this is just what I was looking for; strat playability and comfort with fat humbucker tone.


It's YOUR guitar and that's ALL that matters; if you're happy, we're happy. Enjoy! :D

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