I dropped a set of Texas Specials in a MIM Strat this weekend and the result was disappointing. The middle pickup sounds great but the neck and bridge sound weak and raspy. I'm pretty sure I wired everything correctly (just soldered the white wires back where the old ones were on the switch and soldered all the black wires to the back of a tone pot to ground). The only other thing I did was cover the inside of the pickup cavities with DiMarzio copper foil to reduce hum and I'm sure none of the connections are touching the foil. I'm not sure if I got a bad set of pickups or there's something else I missed. Has anyone else had a similiar problem?

The Texas Special pickups are color coded for neck and bridge, blue and red, and the middle has a yellow wire, are you sure that you put the pickups in the right place? Any shielding that you have must be connected to the negative also (back of pot). Just a thought, because I think that Texas Specials should be a very nice improvement in sound from the standard pickups. You might also try it without the cavity shielding, to be absolutely sure that it isn't causing a problem. Personally, I think that shielding the body cavities is a waste of time on a Strat. The noise (interference) is from the pickups in the front of the guitar, not the back.

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Did you properly set the pickup distance from the strings?

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Bill

Those Texas Specials are indeed very sensitive to height. I have mine back a little farther away from the strings than other pickups. Pulling them back increased the chime in the 2 and 4 positions, too.

IMHO, the bridge pup is still a little thin for my taste, but responds well to a clean boost.

But that neck pup is one of my all time faves, and I would never describe it as thin or harsh.

Good luck!

What value are the potentiometers in the circuit?

Also copper shielding does change the sound of the guitar.

Did you wire the bridge pickup to a tone control? That often tames things down a bit.

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No no and no

Maybe you have a cold solder joint on the ground? Sometimes, it's hard to get the pot good and hot to secure a nice hot joint.

String height was 1/8" low E side and 1/16" high E side on all pickups with the string depressed at the last fret which I figured would get me close for the Texas Specials. Tone pots are the original 250K pots that came with the MIM Strat. The Texas Specials are in the correct positons according to the color codes on the pickups. I took the copper foil back off and the tone livened up dramatcially on the neck and bridge pickups. I don't understand why this didn't effect the middle pickup though. I had a ground wire soldered from the copper foil to the tremolo block. This was removed with the foil. There was also a ground from the tremolo block to the back of a pot and I used a multimeter that showed a good connection from the trem to the back of the pots. The copper foil also made a good connection all the way around the cavities (checked with the meter). Any ideas why the foil didn't effect the middle pickup?

That seems a little high for Texas Specials. You might have better luck lowering them a bit - you could be getting too much magnetic pull on the strings.

You mentioned the middle pup was much brighter - did you wire the bridge pup to the tone pot rather than the middle? I like connecting the bridge to the tone pot which leaves the middle wide open and noticibly brighter.

Your pickup height may be a little high. I find a good clear 1/4 between the string and the pickup around the best setting. I suppose thats my prefrence though.

No clue as to why your middle pickup wasn't affected by the foil. The again you did say you liked the sound of that one before you removed the foil.
Obviously the magnetic doohickery that was acting on the neck and bridge pickups wasn't affecting the middle pickup, or it was being cancelled out by probably the pickups reverse polarity.
My best guess, nothing definite.

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No no and no

It must be that it is reverse wound/reverse polarity. The shielding actually acts as a capacitance in the circuit, affecting the tone of the neck and bridge pickups (unpleasant sound). The reverse polarity of the mid pickup would cause a different effect on that pickup (pleasant sound). Remember that copper and aluminum are not magnetic, but when either is close to the pickup, it appears like a capacitor has been added to the circuit.

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.