I have a 1987 E-series Japanese Strat that I had gutted. It was rebuilt to mimic the American Fat Strat . Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus with two Texas Specials. The electronics are IDENTICAL. The bridge set up is two point tremelo, but the block and saddles are Callaham. For whatever reason the guitar sounds thin. This is the first basswood bodt Strat I have owned but according to everything I have read about guitar woods... basswood should be a little deeper sounding. The pickups are wired correctly as it was done according to the Fender diagram. That leave the Callaham block and saddles. Has anyone ever installed them and noticed a thinning of the guitars sound? Any suggestions? Thanks to all who reply.

i've read in this forum about the height of the pick ups?
maybe play around with those?

height of the pick ups can affect the sound?

i haven't been able to play with it myself cause i'm waiting for a new trem but supposedly...

lower = more tone

higher = more volume

or something liek that...

humbuckers shouldnt thin out that much. Maybe the mod isnt giving the expected results, a strats never going to sound like a lespaul. I doubt its the trem block, i found it lent to a thicker sound if anything.
Maybe its your amp/effects setup.

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No no and no

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sounds like the pots are not matching the pickups causing an influx in tonal capabilities, eg thin sounding.

What value pots and caps are you using?





In answer to another question in this thread: Yes, Pickup height does have an effect on the tone of a guitar.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

The most important factor of your sound - the amp. What amp are you playing it on?

I can grab a stock low-end squier and get a good thick tone (though noisy) out of a mesa boogie, and I get get an anorexic tone from a Les Paul in a cheap practice amp.

I would have to disagree with that. The most important factor in your sound is your hands, guitar second, and amp third.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

The guitar is wired exactly like the American Standard Fat Strat. (HSS) The pots are all 250K. I have had the American STD Fat Strat before which is why I set up this guitar like one only it doesn't sound anything like it. The humbucker and the Texas Specials all sound thin. I have had at least 7 or 8 Strats and this one sounds the worst. I wanted the Japanese one for one reason only.... the neck. It is a 12" radis with a slim C profile. It is THE nicest Strat neck I have ever played. Why Fender won't offer a 12" radius on their American Standard series is beyond me. Anyway... any other ideas????

Well, aside from the other issues that folks have mentioned...pickup height, amp, pot values, etc., if you wired it yourself, another thing I would do is go back and double check all your wiring points very carefully. It could be something as simple as a cold solder joint going to the tone cap or possible a crossed wire at the switch. I have had guitars where I've wired them up and something wasn't right...everything looked right but once I sat down and re-wired, suddenly everything was fine. Also, did you replace any of the actual wiring with new wiring? Different gauge wiring can have odd effects as it will change the resistance of the wire a bit. Strings? Is the neck making good contact at the pocket? Is something acting as a damper perhaps? Process of elimination my friend...in the words of the immortal Sherlock Holmes, "Once you've eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbably must be the truth".

Good Luck,
Jim

I'm not an expert on electronics but it might be something simple like your cord or your jack or something ,sorry just a thought.

After reading and rereading this thread a couple of times and going over things in my mind it sounds to me like you have bypassed the tone circuit. Are the tone controls functioning as they should?

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

I recently did a similar configurationon a Strat and had weak output on switch position 5. I suspected a phase problem with the pickups and inverted the wires for middle pickup and voila! All pickups came to life.


Aloha!

Yes, hands are the most influential on tone, but you can't check his hands across the internet through the forum.

As far as hardware, amps affects tone much more than any guitar mods would, unless you're installing a synth unit or something.

A strat on 10 different amps (twin, uberschall, recto, buddah, D13, soldano, etc) is going to sound completely different.

Various strats and strat copies through the same Twin are going to sound very similar to most, and completely simliary to most people.

Even on a great, top notch amp - using a clean tone, a good strat deluxe won't sound much different than a MIM. You'll only start to notice small difference when you start bumping up the gain and see how the pickups react to the gain.