It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:20 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 14 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:55 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
So I got this beastie on Saturday for my birthday as per my other thread and really wanted to use it as a base for doing mods I wouldn't do on my Strat Plus Deluxes.

Last night's mods were:

1. Hook up the bridge to the middle pup tone pot
2. Install a Grease bucket tone circuit but only on the bridge/middle tone pot as not enough capacitors in my stash yet
3. Install a mini toggle switch to allow the 7 way switching
4. Fit callaham springs to the trem

Results?

Love the grease bucket tone circuit (have it on one of my teles already)

The bridge pup is now more usable with the tone pot hooked up.

The two extra pup positions are cool, neck and bridge gives my strat some Tele character.

The callaham springs well, meh, from examining them they look identical to the springs in there already. So much so that I reckon they're probably from the same factory. No real benefit.

Next up when parts arrive:

Brass trem block from GFS
Grease bucket tone circuit on the neck tone pot
Treble bleed mod on the volume pot
New strings - gonna strings it up with my custom guage elixirs 52 42 32 16 11 9

Keep rockin y'all!

Image

Image

Image

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:56 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Image

Image

Image


Last edited by Sacha Plus Deluxe on Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:56 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Image

Image

Image


Last edited by Sacha Plus Deluxe on Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:57 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:37 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:34 pm
Posts: 10760
Location: Athens, Greece
Kinda sorta of Gilmourish mod.

Image

Dave installed the 2-way toggle after replacing the stock white pickguard with a 1-ply beveled black vinyl.

The Black Strat in its original form lacked off that switch.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:17 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Well the GFS blocks came down on Saturday so I popped the brass one in to start off.

Acoustically it sounds sweeter with more overtones and slightly more sustain. I haven't had a chance yet to plug in but will be doing so tonight.

I'm impressed so far though and incredibly it only took 5 working days to each me in Jersey Channel Islands from the US awesome service!

Oh and the trem bar hole is more exact than the standard block!

Image

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 5:24 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Update on the project:

Fitted Custom Shop 69's which were too low output for my liking so the Tex Mexes went back in and I'm happy once more (likely I'll be popping a hotter bridge pup in mind).

At the same time as replacing the Tex Mexes I put in the Greasebucket tone circuit onto the neck tone pot and put a treble bleed mod onto the Volume which made a huge difference in usability of both volume and neck tone.

All in it's just getting better and better and has now become my number 2 Strat and my go to guitar for practice.

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:45 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:55 pm
Posts: 723
When you talk about your Strat plus deluxe are you talking about one of the new plusses with the card installed? or does your strat plus have lace sensors installed.

I only ask because you say you swapped BACK to the tex mexs after the cs69s, and I would have put lace sensors, in terms of OUTPUT (not eq) closer to the cs69s. where as the Tex Mex is a hot single coil pickup.

If your plus is infact fitted with lace sensors could you post a pic of how close you have the pickups to the strings?

and finally, regardless of all of that: Great mod job :) playing around with switching and pickups and installing a toggle for the s1/tele sound, great mod, love it :) Your wiring looks neat and tidy and you clearly care for your instruments and like experimenting, exactly what this forum likes to see, keep us posted :)

_________________
My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:14 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Hi Impulse

They are indeed old school Plus Deluxes with Lace sensors. The pickups are extremely close to the strings, almost as close as I could go without them touching when they vibrate!

The CS 69s are really great pups just not to my taste. The Tex Mexes although hot are definitely not as high output wise as the Laces in my plus deluxes BUT bear in mind I have the plus deluxes which don't have gold lace sensors, the 89 strat has Silver Silver Blue (neck to Bridge) and the 91 has Blue Sliver Red although I'm thinking of swapping the blue in the 91 to a silver.

Basically my Plus Deluxes almost match the output of my Slash Signature pups in my Les Paul Standard when clean!

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:17 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:25 pm
Posts: 1162
Location: In a house....unless I'm at work....then I'm in a shop.
HI there.
Your build mirrors many of the hot rod upgrades I did with mine, the brass GFS block but I used the 69s with a fat 50 revers wound in the middle so could have the hum canceling.

While I like the Tex pick ups, I feel there a bit midrangy too my ears. I have come to love the sweeter more complex tone of the 69's.
I guess that's why they make so many different pick ups.
I am curious about the greasy bucket circuit you installed, do you have any sound clips of it we could hear?

Oh and since you know of GFS, have you tried one of the Greenie pedals?

Try one.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:26 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Sorry no sound clips but to put it into perspective I NEVER used to use the tone pots before on standard single coils (on laces I did especially on the bridge with the TBX) but I couldn't stand the almost immediate muddiness which came with using the tone controls on single coils, now I wouldn't be without them and I can still get an almost les paul sound from my Tele Neck pickup with the Grease Bucket tone circuit.

For around $5 for the relevant parts (enough to do a lot of guitars) its really a no brainer to at least to try. Some love the grease bucket circuit some hate it but a lot of pros apparently use it and I now know why!

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:56 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:25 pm
Posts: 1162
Location: In a house....unless I'm at work....then I'm in a shop.
Yes, I hate the all too fast roll off of the stock caps, that is why I dislike the ceramic caps they use. I replaced mine with a PF22 "Paper and Oil" old school cap.

I got mine off e-bay from a guy that gets them from Russia, they never learned how to make solid state caps there, so these are there military grade fully sealed paper and oil caps, they don't dry out.

They roll off very slowly, even at 5 there is still some bright highs coming through, it really opens the tone pallet to more jazzier tones.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:00 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:32 am
Posts: 14
Hey guys, regarding the midrangy sound of TexMex, I've read an excellent article from Alan034 (or something like that) where he suggested we should move theD ang D magnets.

I've also read in Dan Erlewine's book that pups magnets should follow the neck radius. I've slighty pushed down the D and G plots, and slighty pulled the B plot, it sounds great.

You should try it, it's easy to do and effective. Do no try this on any pup, it is not do-able on all pups, but on TexMex it is.

_________________
'14 Fender Stratocaster FSR - TexMex pups and 22 frets


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Project Mod my MIM is go!
Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:31 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:56 am
Posts: 99
Another phase complete!

Got a fret leveling beam in the post the other day so decided to level the frets, they weren't to bad actually. As I had the fret board taped up I rounded the fret ends for good measure and polished everything to a mirror shine.

Lastly I installed a back plate to the bridge pickup which has given the pup a bit more spank, probably still not quite up to where I'd like it (i think a stacked seymour duncan will end up in there). But its a fair amount better now and will tide me over until i can afford a new pup.

Sorry guys, no photos as I did these bits in between doing work on my home build which has taken up my main focus at present:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/other-guitars-other-instruments/480015-new-custom-build.html

_________________
89+91 Strat+Dlx
MIM FSR Strat
LP Std
MIM Tele
Tele Lite-Rswd
MP Jag
Homebuild Colt
Dano U2
Charvel SDI Lacewood US
Tokai V
Hondo II LP Jnr
Martin 00028-EC
Hand-made 000 acoustic

Marshall DSL100H/TSL100/MA100H
Fender Bls Dlx
Bugera V5
Orange Micro-terror


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 14 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: