Hello All! I need some help again and I'm hoping you fine folks may have the answer -- last year I bought a preloaded pickguard with Texas Specials and put it in my strat. Sounded great until recently... now my Texas Specials don't sound so special... they sound, well... "quacky". They no longer have the punch that they did, and the tone is kind of flat. Any ideas as to what might be going on? I should note that I also installed a Villex Passive Midrange boost at the same time last year, which still adds a boost, but not like it did. When it's off the pickups just sound terrible! Any help is appreciated!


Bud

"Keep on pickin'... What else is there?"

ahh yes, the love / hate syndrome with Texas Specials! Let me ask you this --- have you just started picking this axe up again after maybe a few weeks or so with it in the closet, maybe favoring something else in the arsenal and then decided, "It's time to play this one again" ? (that's usually the beginning of the end with the love affair and those pickups)

I have a set of Texas Specials in my only strat (I play mostly gibsons) and they do it for me and my rig, but I know many people who put em in,, at first, LOVE THEM, about 6 months later, they can't get them out of there fast enough! biggest complaint is the bridge pickup and the word "harsh"

Try to drop the pickup height a bit - maybe on all three, (get those poles away from the strings) or if it's easily done, remove that mid-range boost thing, if some cap or filter in that is starting to get weary it can certainly impact your over all tone. Just turning it "off" doesn't mean it's out of the circuit path, it's "still" in the signal chain.

one other though -- how old are those strings?

and maybe it's just time for you and those PUPS to part ways --- It happens!!

Thanks for the response KidBlast! I use this as my main guitar, and I have Texas Specials in my other Strat. The pickup height is already pretty low, but I will see if I can get them lower. As for the mid range boost I will take that out -- its fairly easy to do, as it's built into the input jack -- and solderless at that! If that doesn't work I'll post it here!

Oh -- the strings are new -- been on about a week!


Bud

Hi again Bud -

since your other strat isn't givin you any obvious trouble, it's probably something specific to that configuration.. so based on your reply - 1st thing I would do would be to eliminate the mid-boost to rule that out. Good luck!!

/KB (Ray)

Ok... So I removed the Villex unit (which had fallen apart!) and installed the original input jack.... and the pickups don't sound any better. They just sound flat, thin, and without the chunk and grit of previous Texas specials that I have owned. Could it possibly be the capacitor? I've read that some have installed an "orange drop" capacitor to modify the sound (I'm not sure how it affects the sound), so I was wondering if a bad capacitor could have an adverse effect on the sound? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!


Bud

Keep on pickin'... What else is there?

Bud,

Any proper valued capacitor would not exhibit the radical change in tonality which you are experiencing. So in a direct answer to your question, no, you can rule the cap out.

With your complaint, three things come to mind:

1. You have a bad and/or inappropriate resistance volume pot;
2. Your polepieces have all somehow degaussed;
3. Moisture has corrupted the windings of all three pickups.

Obviously, the odds are kind of against 1 and 2.

Check your volume pot and also the two tones while you're at it.

_________________
You dig?

Have you noticed any buzzing that wasn't there before? You might have a ground issue. I know that when the guitar isn't properly grounded, it can make it sound really thin with no body to the tone.