I modded my Mexi Strat with the "add bridge" pickup toggle switch. Also did the copper foil shielding thing, and placed a resistor/cap across the volume pot to keep the treble intact as the volume is turned down. I really like the guitar and how it sounds now-for the most part. The pickups are generally still too shrill for my tastes however. I have to roll the tone pots down to 3 or 4 for the shrillness to be completely gone. At that point the guitar sounds noticeably muted though. Is there a way to get some smooth treble back with out it being harsh? I suppose new pickups can always help, but what else can a guy do without having to invest another $170 into the guitar.

Hi TrapperDoo: is it possible that you have pots of too high a value in there by mistake? Are they 500k, rather than the recommended 250?

Even if they are 250k, I guess you could search out some lower value ones. Try 100s and see how you feel they sound. Not quite so easy to find, but they're out there - check out electrical parts suppliers. A few bucks for some potentiometers is a lot cheaper than buying new pickups, at least as an experiment.

Just a thought.

And what size is your capacitor, by the way? Not that it'll make a lot of difference, but...

Cheers - C

250k-ohm pots. I think the cap is the stock 0.22 mfd. Maybe i'll try the 100k pots - it will be cheap and easy to do. Thanks for the suggestion.

The resistor/cap across the volume pot is in part, what is causing your treble, "overload", especially if you have no tone pot wired to the bridge pickup. Compound this with the weaker the pickups, the less bass the pickups have to begin with and in your case, the pickups are indeed a weaker design by industry comparison. This is NOT to say that they are defective and/or deficient; this is by design. The harshness is also in part, due to the ceramic magnets of your pickups.

In this context, the shielding is for the most part, irrelevant as it only ever so slightly cuts down the treble to where most would probably never hear any difference.

If new pickups aren't an option, essentially, you only have two choices:

1. Spend some time with your amp(s) doing some serious resettings and if you can't find an acceptable tonality,

2. Buy an EQ (which is a preamp).

I'd also remove that treble retention circuit (the resistor/cap across the volume pot) as it really serves no constructive purpose unless of course, you feel otherwise.

Changing to an even lower resistance pot is not a good way to go either as it will really strangle what little dynamics a weaker pickup has and the pot will not work properly in terms of "1" to "10" dynamics, there will be bald spots and jumps.

Any guitar's circuit which does not involve at least one preamp is called a, "passive circuit". Your guitar's circuit is a passive one. Meaning, you can't add to it, you can only take away. In other words, you can't go beyond '10' but you can dial down to '0'. So, whatever you feel is missing would have to be introduced into the circuit using some sort of preamp which then makes an, "active circuit" thereby allowing you to boost the volume/treble/bass (depending on the preamp's function) to well beyond a passive circuit's '10', so to speak.

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Well then maybe I do go with some new pickups. I know this is a vast and hotly debated subject, but which are the best sounding for the money if I want to add some clean sounding trebel clarity to the mix without it sounding harsh.

I would experiment with pickup height and amp settings before deciding for sure to change the pickups.

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

What he said.

I don't understand why you would have added the treble cap if you thought the pick up was too shrill. Shrillness usually refers to too much treble compared to the mids or highs. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I would think if anything you would want to try a way to accentuate the midrange, rather than preserve the highs.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

So you put a treble bleed across the imput and output of the volume pot. Thats supposed to keep sound from being to muddy and thick sounding when you reduce volume it should be a .001 cap. I suggest an orange drop.

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I did all of the mods at once, including the shielding. I did not know what the overall sound of the guitar would be after shielding, but I did know that I wanted to do mod the volume pot so that tone would not change - whatever it was to be - when the volume was turned down. I don't believe that the tone is really any different than it was before I added the resistor/cap to the volume pot.

The guitar is actually really pretty good. The "add bridge" switch was definitely worth the effort. The copper foil shielding did not quiet the guitar as much as I would have thought, but it is quieter. I like the sound I get with all three pick-ups on. I am just trying to further "optimize" what I have and I would like to fine tune the treble harshness out of the neck and mid pickup without losing clarity. I have played with the pick-up heights a little bit, but not really scientifically. Can anyone suggest a height adjustment "method" for optimizing tone? Is there a general relationship between tone and PUP height?

Maybe this isn't the right place for this, but could someone please tell me a dumb-man's explanation of what a pot is?

I think it means 'potentiometer', and wiki sure didn't help.

kinda covered here:
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=24315

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Right, thanks.

So basically, it's something that measures how loud a guitar is?

A potentiometer in this context is a variable resistor. "Potentiometer" is the big (and proper) word for a volume or tone control. Substitute the word, "control" with, "potentiometer" or, "pot" for short.

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