Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: dubster82 on July 13, 2012, 12:06:48 AM
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Hi folks, new to the forum but really looking forward to joining the Bare Knuckle fam when i get a Sinner set this month for my birthday. As a background on this, my first guitar is a stratocaster copy and I learned to play on it. I bought it in the early 90's when I was very young but then in 98 I bought a Les Paul which being the new shiney one took my attention. Unfortunately girls drink and cars got in the way followed by life and houses and its only in the past year I've gotten back to playing, and only in this past year I've started properly modifying guitars as I was rarely allowed to play amp'd as a kid (which is probably why I stopped playing for so long!). It's crazy especially thanks to the internet I've learnt more about guitars in this past year, than I did from starting in primary 4 or 5! Still loads to learn though hence the questions.
In an sentimental turn that first strat is getting an overhaul with a new maple neck with a 12" radius, (recommendations on where to get this appreciated) and new electronics basically just leaving the body and scratchplate. I'm used to Les Paul wiring and humbuckers. I usually fit EMG's and prefer a bassier neck derived tone. I play basically mostly metallica too. This has pushed me to the sinner set and I'm in love with the soundclips on the bkp site. These will be flat magnet profile with the middle phase flipped for humbucking and the bridge pup to have a steel base which I believe helps bass response?
Any way when it comes to wiring I'm going for 3 volume with no tone control, standard 5way switch configuration with a push pull on the bridge or neck for override function so I can have a sixth neck/bridge combination.
Experience is what I need next and I just don't have it.
1. With the specs of these sinner passive single coils, am I ok simply running no tone control or would I be better wiring in a fixed resistor and cap? What values?
2. I read a lot about the sound going muddy with the volume backed off, something I'll probably be doing a lot. Is this better for me what with having no tone control? Is it really that bad? Will the specs of the sinners show it up more or less? Am I better just fitting treble bleed caps on the volume controls from the start? Resistors in parallel too or not bother? What values?
3. Is it worth getting the steel base on the bridge pup? Is it removable? Should I do them all?
And that's me. Sorry for the novel but I thought I'd stick in the effort for a first post :D
Thanks in advance!
Brian
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Hi,
if you're unfamiliar with wiring, the easiest option is to give your pickguard and pickups to a qualified tech and he'll wire them no problem.
I personally would do a two volume-master tone-blend pot -wiring in your case, but that's of course your choise. I had it in one of my previous guitars and the ability of gradually blending the neck pickup to the bridge pickup tone is really good. With that and some use of the master tone, you can do a fair impression of a bridge humbucker. And of course the full neck+bridge in parallel when the pot is turned to zero. For me, the volume pot placement is so convenient on the strat that I'm used to very quickly adjusting it. No need for another volume pot.
You can ask BKP for a pre-wired pickguard too.
Anyway, if you're wondering about the baseplate, here's an official BKP tutorial video on them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_lVIWPc38E
The Sinners sound pretty damn thick and punchy already, so I probably would install it just on the bridge, if at all. It's not a night and day difference however.
Damn, makes me wonder if I could fit a baseplate on the neck pickup of my IT-IT-HD set..would be fun to try and I would probably like it, based on that video..
-Zaned
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Hi, Thanks for the reply.
Im not unfamiliar with wiring, I am a qualified electrician working as an electronics tech so trust me, doing the work is zero issue. Also, the guitar already has a customised pickguard so i won't be buying a pre wired one. I prefer the individual control of a volume pot per pickup as i believe you can get more variations in output, so if i run the neck and bridge i can roll back one or the other which i can't do with one master volume. I never could get my head around strat controls when i used to play it, so like i say i'm making it more les paul like.
My questions are stemmed from inexperience not in wiring but in the output from a strat and the cures to its many 'problems'. Im simply trying to skip stringing it up and being disapointed then having to alter it with a fixed tone circuit, or tone bleed's or wishing i put base plates on. for example, I know what it sounds like to have not tone circuit at all on a humbucker, but I don't know if its better to wire in a fixed circuit on single coils to take the edge off a bit. Which is also part of the reason i'm buying sinners in the first place.
Thanks for the video, its really good. I see he said at the start Fender was originally going to fit them to all 3 pickups. I wondered if the sinners needed them at all as according to the bkp site they already class them as bass heavy pickups.
thanks
Brian
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Hi,
both of my strats were wired by a somebody else, but I have no trouble with the volume rolled back on them. Maybe someone here will chime in whether the typical strat needs the 'treble bleed' mod. I did install it in my PRS McCarty, as on that guitar turning down the volume pot made the tone darker. Lost it's edge, so to say.
You might want to shoot an e-mail to BKP staff about the baseplate recommendation and the tone pot thingy. That's part of what I meant with a guitar technician; I can solder no problem, but first I need to know what to solder and where exactly :)
-Zaned
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Hi, so on the guitars someone else wired, there dont have a problem but its possible the tech fitted a treble bleed cap and you don't know?
I did think about mailing them direct but figured that's the point of forums. Also by questions are tone based which is subjective opinion, so I was looking for the opinions of people that fitted sinners to say things like, "fit the treble bleed because they need all the help they can get" or, "You won't need a tone circuit as they're so bassy having them output a bit brighter isn't a bad thing" or even "I wouldn't bother with base plates as if your playing metallica with the outputs of the pickups already you might find it overpowering and it'll lose a bit of cut"
I know what size of caps and resistors I can use to make these things work, I was hoping people had already experimented with different values and setups to achieve different results from tried testing.
Cheers
Brian