i recently tried swapping out my SCN noiseless pickups for Texas Special pickups... Yeah - it didn't work, as the Tx Specials are not compatible with the S-1 switching button... in my efforts - I messed around with the SCN pickup housing (yes i pulled it off and then replaced)... Now they have a lot of humming and distortion especially in the middle and bridge... you think i ruined my pickups? help please!!!

down and out in texas

Hello and Welcome!

I don't know about the humming issues your having......but..

The Texas Specials should work with the S-1 switch. Just ignore the green ground wires that come with the SCN's and follow the wiring diagram that matches your guitar.

You can look it up here:

http://www.fender.com/support/wiring_di ... _lists.php

Hope this helps

Andy (ooooh this is my 300th post! I'm now an "Aspiring Musician".....I think i prefered being a Roadie ) Enjoy!

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Pending Greatness

Well, I'm not trying to be deliberately rude here but to me it sounds like maybe you don't have a lot of experience with wiring pickups? If that's the case, my first suggestion would be to go back and check your wiring and your soldering...make sure your grounds are all properly connected, make sure you don't have any cold solder joints and no wires touching that shouldn't be etc.. Wiring a new set of pickups isn't really -that- hard but soldering, like anything else, is a skill...for someone who may be a bit inexperienced, it's not hard to have a bad solder joint on the ground wire that goes to the spring claw (or on the back of a pot). I've been doing soldering and electronic work for years and I still screw it up from time to time, LOL!

As far as the S-1 switching system and the TS pickups go, while I can't be totally certain about it, I believe Andy is right there and that they should indeed be "compatible"...just follow the schematics

Peace,
Jim

M problem is that-I have found that the guitar will hardly sustain with notes on the 12th fret, I toke it in & had a decreasing volume right after. I had the truss rod professionally calibrated nothing has seemed to help.... I know fender is know for this problems. Would a bad neck be the cause for this problem? I don't have much time to invest in another start...vintage bridge saddles i heard have better sustainably. What do you think?

I think 'What did you do that caused the problem to show up?'

Did you change pickups? If so it could be any of the things Lomitus mentioned. Or you could just have your pickups too close to the strings.

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No no and no

Alrighty, I'm not exactly sure what problem you're referring too exactly here. If you mean that Fender's have problems with sustain in general, that's not really true...most of that comes down to the hardware though. For example if we're talking an older MIM with a half-sized trem block, yes...the sustain isn't going to be as good as say an American Standard will be (which is why a great many of us MIM owners install large steel aftermarket blocks on our MIM's). That said, there are some very significant differences between Strats and other guitars that should be taken in to account. For example, even a top shelf American Strat isn't going to have the same amount of sustain generally as something like a Les Paul (or a PRS) which uses different woods, has a glued neck joint, 2 humbuckers instead of 3 single coils, different type of bridge, etc.. That doesn't make the American Strat "bad" by comparison, just -different-.

Now that said, I have a '96 MIM Standard Strat with a Callaham trem block and that suckers got -plenty- of sustain. My '03 MIM and my partscaster are the same way...both have plenty of sustain. Now my '08 Squier Standard, I'm still working on. It's got the two point trem but it's got a small, half-sized zinc trem block which just eats sustain. I suspect with a better trem/block, she'd be -a lot- better...so in this case it's not a "Strat thing" as much as in inexpensive guitar thing.

Now if you're only having problems at the 12th fret, that's a bit of a mystery. Could be the intonation is off, could be as Nick suggested that the pickups are too close to the strings or a number of other things really. Without knowing what the exact problem is, it's hard to say what's causing it.




Well, I think my question here is what exactly do you mean by a "bad neck"...there are a couple of ways to interpret that? Typically speaking, Fender and Squier make some very good guitar necks for their instruments. I've even played a couple of really inexpensive Squiers where with some work, they'd be really sweet to say the least. Very simply, the quality on even inexpensive guitar necks has come up very dramatically over the years...even on cheap guitars you don't see a lot of genuinely "bad" necks...it does happen, but not often. While it's extremely unlikely, I suppose it is possible that maybe you have a sonically dead piece of wood for the neck...and yes, that would certainly cause problems with sustain. Again however, that is -really- unlikely. As long as the neck is straight (i.e. not twisted or anything), I wouldn't suspect the neck itself. However...

There are a lot of parts on that neck and it does bolt on to a guitar body with even more parts. Have you check the nut? Are your strings wound properly? Is the neck screwed on to the body tight enough? Is the intonation set correctly? Does the instrument have a decent bridge and trem block? Again not knowing exactly what the problem is makes it hard to suggest a solution.




I think this is a little subjective. Vintage-styled steel saddles will certainly produce a bit more sustain and generally have better tone than say, pot metal saddles found on some inexpensive imports (Squier or otherwise). I know the folks at Callaham claim that their saddles sound better than stock Fender steel saddles though even though they are a very similar style (supposedly a better quality of steel I guess). However I'm sure there's a few folks who would insist that the powered stainless steel saddles found on American models sound better than the stamped steel saddles. Then of course, you have the folks who prefer graphite instead and I'm sure I've seen brass saddles once or twice in my travels. So really as with many guitar related issues, it kind of comes down to personal preference more than anything else.

I would also add that I tend to think there really isn't too much of a difference between "vintage" and "vintage styled" as far as saddles go. I'm sure there are a few folks who would split hairs over this but honestly, a stamped steel saddle is a stamped steel saddle regardless of whether is was made in 1966, 1986 or 2006. I'm sure the quality of the metal itself can vary a little bit but generally speaking you're still talking about a stamped piece of steel so to that end, personally I prefer "new and shiny" compared with "old and rusty"...it really doesn't affect the sound that much either way.

Seriously, as far as things such as tone and sustain and such go, in most cases you'll notice a far greater difference by changing your pickups or your trem block (depending on the guitar) and/or having the guitar properly setup than you will by just changing your saddles. If your guitar does in fact have pot metal parts, then instead of just the saddles, I'd recommend replacing the whole bridge because chances are you have a really cheap trem block too.


Just my $.02 worth,
Jim