Ok I bought a set of CS '54 Strat pickups and installed them on a guitar that had Vintage Noiseless pickups in it. I left the 500k volume and 1 meg tone pots (it's wired to one tone knob, don't use the other one) in there and just swapped the pickups.

Now, I was under the impression that unless a middle pickup was RW/RP, it was basically the same as the neck pickup. Is this the case? Reason I ask is during the installation, I might have installed the neck pickup in the middle and the middle in the neck. If they were the same, it obviously wouldn't matter. This set doesn't include a RW/RP middle pickup.

Now, after installing the pickups and correcting a ground issue, everything sounds pretty good except the neck pickup. It just doesn't sound right to my ears. Sounds more thin and trebly than a neck pickup should. The others sound alright. Anybody think the pots might have something to do with this?

if it was an sss set then you would want 250k pots in there , 500 would be for a bucker and i meg tone pot would be bright to say the least , if i was you i would get some 250k cts pots and a nice pio tone cap , that should sweeten things up , cheers
Alan

_________________

Yeah.....well the 500k and 1 meg came with the Vintage Noiseless set. The tech who installed them described the Vintage Noiseless pickups as basically stacked humbuckers....or at least single coils that were wired like humbuckers.....hence the "noiseless" or hum-cancelling feature. So that's probably why they had those particular pots. He did install capacitors as well.

I have a couple of 250k pots that came out of that guitar. One is actually still in it, installed as the 2nd tone knob but not wired. I could use these pots, or I could buy news ones. Think it's worth buying new ones?

if you have the pots from the guitar , throw them in , it'll get you up and running cheers
Alan

_________________

you could use the 500K and 1MEG pots, wouldn't hurt anything, you'll just get a brighter tone. A good cap can help to correct if you'd like, but if the bridge and mid pup sound good, then I say leave it be. As for your neck pup, it sounds like you have it out of phase. Is this happening when the neck is alone, or with the mid/neck together?

Mainly on the neck pickup by itself I think. Or at least that's where it's most noticeable. It's just a much sharper, trebly tone on the neck pickup than what I get out of my CS '56 Strat that has the same (or at least very similar) pickups. I A/B'ed both guitars plugged through the two input jacks of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III on each pickup position. Most positions were pretty close to my ears. Only the neck position seemed to have a very distinct tonal difference. What would make a pickup out-of-phase? I've always heard that term but never really knew exactly what it meant.

out of phase is a fancy term for opposing polarity, sometimes you could just swap the wires around to correct.

thanks

Well I took the 500k and 1 meg pots out and replaced them with 250k pots. I haven't put strings back on the guitar yet though. I got a new neck from Warmoth but the Fender Vintage style tuners that I bought for it didn't fit the holes in the headstock so I had to send them back and order more. According to UPS tracking, those new tuners should have arrived today but they didn't. So whenever they do, I'll string her up and find out if the different pots make any difference. Appreciate all the input.

I have a set of CS '54s and they do not have the hum canceling ability of reverse wound middle pickups.

Yeah I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that. If I didn't then I meant to.

Anyway, I switched the pots. My tuners finally came in and I installed them. Had to tough time with those. I was drilling pilot holes for the screws and the drill bit broke off even with the wood. I had no way of getting it out without tearing up the wood around it so I tried to drill another hole right beside of it. Didn't work as well as I'd hoped but at least I got them on and the tuners appear to be doing alright. I put strings on the guitar and plugged her up and the tone I got was much more of what I expected. Not as sharp or trebly. Much more like my CS '56 Strat.

I'm have to take the guitar to luthier though and have him work on the nut. The pre-cut nut from Warmoth is pretty high, leaving the action high. I could take height off the overall nut but don't have the proper files for the string slots. I set the intonation and attempted to lower the action at the saddles but started to get string buzz. The guitar is certainly playable, very good for slide, but it would be a little better if the action were lower.

I was thinking about it a little more, and the thin tinny sound could also be caused by the low impedence of the pup along with the 1 MEG pot. Once you change the pots down to 250K, that may correct it. Keep us posted.

It did. It made a big difference.

glad to hear it worked out with the pot change , it's amazing how a pot can effect the sound from a guitar ( along with caps) cheers
Alan

_________________

Ok.......here we go again......

I realised my tone pot isn't working. The previous pickups were wired to a master 1 meg tone pot. I changed the 500k volume and 1 meg tone pots to 250k pots. I was happy with the overall change it made in the sound but I didn't mess with the tone control any. Don't use it alot anyhow, and the volume and pickup selector were working fine and I over looked the tone control. But I discovered it wasn't making any difference in the tone of the guitar. So I opened it back up, couldn't figure out the problem. Looked up wiring diagrams online for a Strat with master tone, took the pot out and replaced it with another 250k pot and followed the wiring diagram exactly, and it's still not working. Otherwise, everything else is in order.

Is there something simple that I'm missing?