Hey, this is my first time installing an over-wound pickup into one of my Stratocasters. This issue is that how ever I setup the pickup, the volume of this hot pickup is much louder then the other pickups.

I had a feeling this would be a problem as the new hot pickup is a Duncan TB-4 over-wound trembucker with Alnico 5 magnet. So it has a very high inductance and a strong magnet as well. The other two pickups are Fender noiseless single coils.

My question is, is it even possible to get the volume of the humbucker even with the single coils? I can do it with non over-wound humbuckers but i cant pull it off with this humbucker.

Anyone know any tricks, or is this just a fact of life? Thanks

As the JB has approximately 3x the output (+/-) of the other two, raising and/or lowering the pickups will offer NO tangible relief. Try one of the following remedies:

- Instead of the JB being wired up in series with itself, rewire it in parallel with itself.

- Make your lower tone pot a master tone control and with the (now) left over middle pot, make that a volume control for the JB only.

- Leave your guitar's and the JB's wiring outwardly stock. Install an additional volume pot internally to function as a trim pot for the JB. Adjust the pot to where you find the volume most compatible, immobilize the shaft, insulate the pot and secure it inside the guitar. In essence, set it and forget it.

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Nice tips! I like wiring them in parallel the best. I wonder how that would change the tone?

I dont like the idea of adding pots/resistance as it will kill some of my highs and the JB has a lot of those.

Right now im thinking of setting them up so the volume is at the same level for positions 1,2,3,4 and not the normal 1,3,5.

Rewiring it in parallel will make it more trebly and increase the highs, believe it or not.

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Yes they will have a brighter sound but the volume output will come down.

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Last but not least, what do you think of these pickup heights? I don't think its to far outside Fender standards. I have a feeling im loosing sustain on the neck and middle coils, but im not sure how to judge that.

I got the two Fender noiseless pickups (neck and middle) with 2mm (5/64ths) and the JB (bridge) is 3.5mm (9/64ths).

Bottom of string to pole piece, pushing down on fret 21.

On the high E side, push down at the 21st fret; on the low E side, push down on the 12th, yes, 12th fret.

Speaking for myself, I don't go by 'established' height measurements for pickups and never did. As a starting point, I have the treble side approximately a nickel's thickness from the strings and on the bass side, two nickels. I raise or lower the pickup to taste as required after this, finding the, "sweet spot" for my purposes. Needless to say, if a pickup is too high, it will lose sustain and create false tones. Conversely, if it is too low, it may or may not have a prolonged sustain yet, a lot of the pickup's inherent frequency response will not be realized.

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I had the same problem with those same pickups. They're really good all around pups but when I needed something with more bite, I'd either kick on Blue's driver using it as a boost only. But I knew that was only a work around. I ended up switch to Texas Specials.

As far as string height, I tend to back off a little to prevent those unusual and unwanted vibrato sounds.

Thanks for the help guys

Anytime!

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