It's all so quiet... shhh

[badgermark]

I love Bjork. Hate the shhhh quiet song though. All is full of love is an awesome song.

Anyway my telecaster is lacking in the volume department. I whapped in some Piledrivers and got a tech to set them up, neck is sitting about 3mm from the strings at the depressed 21st fret, and the bridge is moved to match the output. Everything sounds all right to my ears.

But there is a noticable drop in volume when switching from the tele to my stock strat, the strat being louder in volume. Now the strat has been professionally set up, the pickups are all angled and adjusted, lower on the bass side and stuff.

Could my problem be that the strat is better set up? I know the output doesn't match the beasts that are the Piledrivers, so whats up my brothers?

[Transcend]

i always found my miracle man to be quiter than the stock pickups in my other guitars.

i arent sure why either

[FELINEGUITARS]

i always found my miracle man to be quiter than the stock pickups in my other guitars.

i arent sure why either

Depends what your stock pickups were -they sound pretty loud

the closest I will go with pickups is about 1-1.5mm with the strings held at the last fret - I would often use a thick plectrum on top of the pickup as a distance guide when adjusting the pickup as close as possible - when the pick just touches the strings it is as close as I will go

Experiment and see what works for you

[Transcend]

i always found my miracle man to be quiter than the stock pickups in my other guitars.

i arent sure why either

Depends what your stock pickups were -they sound pretty loud

the closest I will go with pickups is about 1-1.5mm with the strings held at the last fret - I would often use a thick plectrum on top of the pickup as a distance guide when adjusting the pickup as close as possible - when the pick just touches the strings it is as close as I will go

Experiment and see what works for you

old ibanez v1

[Philly Q]

neck is sitting about 3mm from the strings at the depressed 21st fret, and the bridge is moved to match the output. Everything sounds all right to my ears.

3mm is quite a big gap, and a Tele bridge pickup is (usually) a fair bit hotter than the neck.  I wonder if both pickups are just too far from the strings?

I would usually set the height of the bridge pickup first, then the neck, rather than vice versa.  It doesn't particularly matter, but I think it's harder to get the bridge "just right" - most neck pickups sound pretty good anyway.

[WezV]

I would usually set the height of the bridge pickup first, then the neck, rather than vice versa.  It doesn't particularly matter, but I think it's harder to get the bridge "just right" - most neck pickups sound pretty good anyway.

I do it the other way round but either way should work fine, i cant remember why i do them the other way round but there was a reason that made sense

[badgermark]

Well the neck pickup wont go down, for some reason the screw just raises out of the scratchplate.

I have the pickups set up so they sound alright, we'll see. I'll try again when I get my MM set for my strat (as soon as Paypal gets my money into my bank account...)

Another question, I stuck some CTS pots on the tele, and they suck. Seem to have a very little range of spin, like half a spin gets them all the way down, and they sound very mushy when wound down.

And I hate tone controls, is there anything interesting I can do with the tele tone control? Or what do I do to remove it from the signal.

Oh and pot values, right now they are 250k, I read somewhere that Tim recommends 500k for the piledrivers, as their output is 9k neck and 13k bridge? Will the 250k's make much difference if I don't use them much?

EDIT! I unhooked the tone pot, sounds much louder and clearer now. $%&# tone pots! $%&# them in the ass!

[Philly Q]

EDIT! I unhooked the tone pot, sounds much louder and clearer now. $%&# tone pots! $%&# them in the ass!

Well, OK....  but nobody $%&# mine please, I'm quite fond of them.

From the sound of it, it might be worth experimenting with 500Ks.

[ailean]

Your pots didn't get fried soldering them in did they? I've heard this is quite easy to do. Take it back to the tech and see if he thinks they sound right (of course if he fried them he might just say they sound fine :) )

I've heard differing opinions on how much difference a 250k to 500k pot makes, but the general concensus seems to be 500k is a good bet for hot pups.

[WezV]

nah, if the pots were fried there would be a much more noticable problem.

I have been asking some electronics experts about the effect of volume pot value because i am looking to do a wiring scheme with independant volumes and a master volume and wasnt sure what the effect of the extra volume would be.

anyway, generally when you add a volume pot you loose some brightness from the pickups.  The higher the value of the pot the less brightness you loose.  thats with everything turned up full.  but 500k pots will loose treble more in the middle of the taper than a 250k pot will

[badgermark]

I put the pickups in myself, so no mistakes there...  :roll:

I thought the whole pot values thing didn't affect anything when up full, what difference will upping the pot values make? The volume knob just mushes when going down. Time for a treble bleed attachment? (resistor and cap trick)

[WezV]

they have an effect just by their presence in the circuit, not much but its still there.  I dont think its generally an issue though, like i say - i have been looking into it a bit more because i want this wiring scheme with a extra volume and i feel the effect may be pronounced by the extra pot.

If in doubt about this try wiring a pickup straight to the output jack!

[telemonster]

hi,
i'm afraid this isn't a bkp related query, but could possibly relate to any make of pickup...possibly.

i replaced the stock bridge pickup of a friends new guitar recently with a well known brand of pickup.
now, he never ever uses the middle both on position-except he's just started to use it for some of the 'clean sound' songs, and when he flips into the both on setting, the volume drops in comparison to either of the 'either on' sounds.

the cable on the pickup was too short to reach the (master) volume pot and the leaf style selector switch. so i put a length of (4 conductor) cable in to make it reach.

i'm as sure as i can be that i connected like to like. if i didn't, could he be getting some kind of 'out of phase', or whatever volume drop?
i've used generic 2 humbucker and master vol master tone diagram (which was the same as the set up on the guitar) and well known pickup maker diagrams and followed them to the letter.

he says he's only just started using the middle setting, so it could have been doing it all along!?