SCN vs Vintage Noiseless vs N3...help

bluesky636 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:35 pm

windwalker9649 wrote:

Have fun wiring up the S1 switch, be prepared to swear and burn all day...

The OP doesn't have an S1 switch. His guitar is only an American Standard, not an American Deluxe.

jeff737jeff727 · **Joined:** Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:05 pm **Posts:** 12

Unless I buy a pre-wired SCN with S1 switching, I will probably NOT attempt to wire this myself. I'm not too bad with a soldering iron, but if I throw it across the room in a fit of rage, I don't want to burn my house down.

Sounds like the Area 61-67-58 DiMarzio combo may do the trick. I like to keep things simple, so I may just add a push/pull to one of the tone pots so that I can have a neck-bridge combo. Should I add the switch to the neck or bridge pick-up to accomplish this? Does it matter in the way it will sound?

The string magnet pull on the SCNs concerns me a little because you have to keep them a good distance from the strings so as not to get false tones. I like the string response when the pick-ups are as close as possible to the strings. But even with the stock pups on my Standard, I have to back them about twice as far away from the strings compared to my other guitars with hum-buckers. I will have to bring my guitar to a local music store that has a Deluxe with SCNs so that I can A-B them together before I make a final decision.

Thanks again for the info.

Retroverbial · **Posted:** Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:12 pm

You might give some thought to grabbing one of those Deluxe Players Strat pickguards off of Ebay -- the one with the push-button to access the neck-bridge combination. The down-side is, they're only available in 4-ply tortoise shell. But the switching works well.

Arjay

bluesky636 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:26 pm

jeff737jeff727 wrote:

Unless I buy a pre-wired SCN with S1 switching, I will probably NOT attempt to wire this myself. I'm not too bad with a soldering iron, but if I throw it across the room in a fit of rage, I don't want to burn my house down.

Sounds like the Area 61-67-58 DiMarzio combo may do the trick. I like to keep things simple, so I may just add a push/pull to one of the tone pots so that I can have a neck-bridge combo. Should I add the switch to the neck or bridge pick-up to accomplish this? Does it matter in the way it will sound?

The string magnet pull on the SCNs concerns me a little because you have to keep them a good distance from the strings so as not to get false tones. I like the string response when the pick-ups are as close as possible to the strings. But even with the stock pups on my Standard, I have to back them about twice as far away from the strings compared to my other guitars with hum-buckers. I will have to bring my guitar to a local music store that has a Deluxe with SCNs so that I can A-B them together before I make a final decision.

Thanks again for the info.

You don't need an S1 switch to get great tones with SCNs. 5-way switch is all you need. The fact that you have to set the SCNs well away from the strings is what gives them their great tone.

windwalker9649 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:55 pm

bluesky636 wrote:

windwalker9649 wrote:

Have fun wiring up the S1 switch, be prepared to swear and burn all day...

The OP doesn't have an S1 switch. His guitar is only an American Standard, not an American Deluxe.

He said he might put one in .
Jesus, what's with this site now???

Retroverbial · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2011 3:16 pm

windwalker9649 wrote:

He said he might put one in .
Jesus, what's with this site now???

Indeed he did!

"I have a 2000 American Deluxe Start and I am thinking about swapping out the stock pups for a "noiseless" version and possibly adding the S1 switching."

(the very first sentence of the O/P's initial query)

:shock:

Arjay

bluesky636 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:51 pm

Oh, well. My mistake.

Wally Dow · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:51 pm

I love the SCNs in my guitar.

It seems like a lot of anguish, tears, and frustration could be avoided if buyers would just go out to a well stocked music store and try out the guitars that have the various combinations they dream up. Then there would be no need to have to do any rewiring, or replacing of anything, and no holes drilled, etc.

windwalker9649 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:08 pm

Wally Dow wrote:

I love the SCNs in my guitar.

It seems like a lot of anguish, tears, and frustration could be avoided if buyers would just go out to a well stocked music store and try out the guitars that have the various combinations they dream up. Then there would be no need to have to do any rewiring, or replacing of anything, and no holes drilled, etc.

It just doesn't work out that way. I can't remember the last time I bought a guitar because of the pickups and wiring. I use the same humbuckers in all my guitars that use them, but I don't know of a mainstream manufacturer that uses them. Too me, they're so inconsequential to my buying decision because I know I can put ones in I like, and rewire it how I want, that even plugging them in is just an afterthought. I look for the feel, natural tone of the body, weight, etc.
I really enjoy making it how I want it, instead of living with what's in there if I find it lacking.

Retroverbial · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:12 pm

windwalker9649 wrote:

Wally Dow wrote:

I love the SCNs in my guitar.

It seems like a lot of anguish, tears, and frustration could be avoided if buyers would just go out to a well stocked music store and try out the guitars that have the various combinations they dream up. Then there would be no need to have to do any rewiring, or replacing of anything, and no holes drilled, etc.

It just doesn't work out that way. I can't remember the last time I bought a guitar because of the pickups and wiring. I use the same humbuckers in all my guitars that use them, but I don't know of a mainstream manufacturer that uses them. Too me, they're so inconsequential to my buying decision because I know I can put ones in I like, and rewire it how I want, that even plugging them in is just an afterthought. I look for the feel, natural tone of the body, weight, etc.
I really enjoy making it how I want it, instead of living with what's in there if I find it lacking.

+1

There isn't anybody doing what I want done, and that includes the "heavy hitters" in a certain southern California city. Ergo I build what I want myself.

Arjay

Wally Dow · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:47 pm

It does make sense that if you know this, then you should start from scratch with the body style you want, and build the one you want. Why spend a lot of money on an instrument that you know you are going to start replacing parts on.

windwalker9649 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:28 pm

Because sometimes, I'll come across something used (i havent bought, and kept a new one in years), and I really like it. It just may be lacking in the electronics area. I build my own too. While, for the most part, i cant build a strat cheaper, and with better hardware, wood, neck, than the American Vintages, or Am. Dlxs, or even some Artists, but its still going to cost over $1000, sometimes a few hundred more. Im going to be waiting a couple months for the right one piece body to use, I use nitrocellulous finish, and that takes a month from first spray, to fully cured and ready to mount. So i'll see a used strat or tele, or anything for the right money, and if i have it i buy it. I deal with the electronics later, then keep or sell it.
Like I said, while some people anguish, I dont, and Im sure Retroverbial doesnt either. I get a lot of enjoyment doing it, especially when i can take a dog, and make it into a guitar people play, then beg me to sell it.
Plus a lot of these cats talking about changing stuff have had the same guitar for years, and now want to tweak it a bit. You learn A LOT when you do this, and the more you do it, the more you end up learning.
That's the reason, at least for me it is.

Wally Dow · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:38 pm

windwalker9649 wrote:

Because sometimes, I'll come across something used (i havent bought, and kept a new one in years), and I really like it. It just may be lacking in the electronics area. I build my own too. While, for the most part, i cant build a strat cheaper, and with better hardware, wood, neck, than the American Vintages, or Am. Dlxs, or even some Artists, but its still going to cost over $1000, sometimes a few hundred more. Im going to be waiting a couple months for the right one piece body to use, I use nitrocellulous finish, and that takes a month from first spray, to fully cured and ready to mount. So i'll see a used strat or tele, or anything for the right money, and if i have it i buy it. I deal with the electronics later, then keep or sell it.
Like I said, while some people anguish, I dont, and Im sure Retroverbial doesnt either. I get a lot of enjoyment doing it, especially when i can take a dog, and make it into a guitar people play, then beg me to sell it.
Plus a lot of these cats talking about changing stuff have had the same guitar for years, and now want to tweak it a bit. You learn A LOT when you do this, and the more you do it, the more you end up learning.
That's the reason, at least for me it is.

Makes sense to me. I just have been lucky, I guess. Being a technician, and having done a lot of luthier work in my younger years, I guess I just pretty much know right up front when I shop a guitar. but your explanation makes sense to me, also. Don't let the Hobbyist rank fool you on my posts. I am a veteran Pro of 54 years, and been there, done most of it all. I guess I just have mellowed in my old age .... LOL

Retroverbial · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:39 pm

Wally Dow wrote:

I just have been lucky, I guess.

+1

However I never buy "dog" guitars or cut corners using budget-priced generic parts -- as they say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Likewise, I don't consider myself a "luthier" in the traditional sense (I use the services of a great one when it's time to get the guitar into playing condition). I merely conceptualize the instrument's electronics, hardware, and cosmetics, purchase the parts that fit the vibe I want, then perform the basic assembly. I let my luthier dial everything else in then I begin the "bonding" process that will ultimately render the guitar ready for comfortable stage use. I apply similar precepts to my amp restorations and "what-if" re-creations. Some folks seem to think I'm pretty adept at it......

Rawk on!

Arjay

windwalker9649 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:05 pm

I work in a shop myself, that's another major reason that, unless its a really good deal, i just build my own. I get the parts, and do the labor myself. I build a strat
1-piece body
quarter sawn maple neck with a completely custom carved and shaved profile, headstock was thinned about 1/4".
Callaham Tremolo with a KCG high mass brass block
Area 58/58/61 pickups
Bone nut
Sprezel locking tuners
Heavy gauged stranded core wires
switchcraft jack
CTS Pots w/ a treble bleed circuit and custom tone controls
switching of series/parallel, and in/out of phase ( which will soon be changed to something else)
and the whole thing is done in thin skin nitrocellulous finish.

I probably dropped $1100, you cant even come anywhere close to it with an off the rack guitar at that price.

	Page 2 of 3	[ 39 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next

	Page 2 of 3	[ 39 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next

Andorra	EN	ES	FR
Belgium	EN	DE	FR
Croatia	EN
Czech Republic	EN
Estonia	EN
France	EN	FR
Germany	EN	DE
Italy	EN	IT
Latvia	EN
Lithuania	EN
Malta	EN
Netherlands	EN
Poland	EN
Romania	EN
Slovakia	EN
Sweden	EN
United Kingdom	EN

Austria	EN	DE
Bulgaria	EN
Cyprus	EN
Denmark	EN
Finland	EN
Greece	EN
Hungary	EN
Ireland	EN
Liechtenstein	EN	DE
Luxembourg	EN	DE	FR
Monaco	EN	FR
Norway	EN
Portugal	EN
Slovenia	EN
Spain	EN	ES
Switzerland	EN	DE	FR	IT

Mod Shop

Custom Shop

SCN vs Vintage Noiseless vs N3...help

Who is online