Author Topic: Trilogy bridge riffage! (Read 7015 times)

_tom_ · « **on:** September 18, 2007, 04:53:14 PM »

Its actually a neck trilogy but I stuck it in the bridge position and it sounds allright. I used to have it hooked up to a tone pot but I prefer the sound without it, its more raw and nasty. Straight into my GH50L for the first bit (probably a bit too much gain - sounds muddy with chords) then switched on my Keeley Rat for the Van Halen solo.

Elliot · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2007, 05:30:55 PM »

That's pretty awesome - if it were me it would be a keeper in that position.

_tom_ · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2007, 06:07:53 PM »

Cheers elliot, the main thing turning me away from the bridge single is that its really noisy - you can hear the hum when playing stuff and its really annoying.

opprobrium_9 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 19, 2007, 05:56:45 AM »

Not my tone, but i did fancy the playing!

kevincurtis · « **Reply #4 on:** September 19, 2007, 09:03:38 AM »

Hey fella

Nice to hear some Blackmore riffs, top stuff :) your right about the noise where you here it come in at the end...very odd that, the shielding around the control cavity is earthed ok?

Cheers

Kevin

_tom_ · « **Reply #5 on:** September 19, 2007, 10:04:12 AM »

I think so, yeah. There are 2 wires attached to a bracket on the shielding, but I cant remember where they go to now :lol: I think one goes to the trem claw and the other to the output jack sleeve lug if I remember right. Where should they go?

kevincurtis · « **Reply #6 on:** September 19, 2007, 11:55:07 AM »

Is this how the guitar came? It sounds right, basically you need shielding (i have put aluminium foil around the cavity space where it didnt exist on 2 of my guitars) around the whole cavity that is earthed - the earth comes from the output jack..and should go to the bridge as well (so that when you have your hands on guitar you are earthed and the noise should drop noticeably) . If you have an ammeter you can check that all parts are earthed...but you should be able to check by simply plugging in, getting it noisy and then touching the shielding - if it is earthed the noise should drop.

Are the other pickups just as noisy (that would be the simplest test of all - if they arent then its the pickup..but i wouldnt expect that form a BKP! :) )

you can fnd articles on shielding the guitar online (i found this one that seems very detailed - http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php ), so might be worth doing a search...

Cheers

K

_tom_ · « **Reply #7 on:** September 19, 2007, 12:02:38 PM »

Well its a parts strat so it didnt really come wired up :lol: The cavity is shielded with some kinda copper tape, pickguard has no tape on it though other than around the pots.

kevincurtis · « **Reply #8 on:** September 19, 2007, 12:23:49 PM »

Ahhh... well you need to put some foil on the pickguard (if the shielding isnt surrounding the whole system then the pesky interferance can get in and get nicely amplified by the high gain amp :(

however - its easy done, get some doublesided tape and some ali foil. cover the underside of pickguard, cut holes for pickups etc and then tape down - jobs a good un :) it should come into contact with the copper shielding, if it doesnt just tape a bit of foil to the copper and bend it over onto the body so the pickguard will sit on it - you may also need to put foil in the pickup cavities - again doublesided tape should do, and have it go over the edge so it contacts the foil on the plate... you should find this gives a dramatic improvement in noise :)

K

_tom_ · « **Reply #9 on:** September 19, 2007, 01:30:46 PM »

Cheers Kevin, I'll give that a go whenever I can be bothered to take apart my guitar again :lol: Probably not till xmas now. I'm tempted to make it HSS though, bit more versatile though I'm sure the shielding will be useful. The pickup cavities are allready shielded btw, its just the pickguard that isnt. Is it really worth paying extra for copper tape, or will sainsburys kitchen foil work fine? :P

kevincurtis · « **Reply #10 on:** September 19, 2007, 08:32:51 PM »

no worries, hope it helps...and yes, sainsburys foil will be fine - as long as it covers the scratchplate and conducts electricity :)

Regarding HSS - you can always coil tap of course, and there are nice ways to do that to add flexibility. Me, Im going the other way- thinking of turning my Tokai HSS into a 'proper' single coil with some nice BKP's :)

_tom_ · « **Reply #11 on:** September 19, 2007, 08:43:37 PM »

Cool cheers. I think when I temporarily had my Rebel Yell in this strat, it was accidentally coil tapped anyway! The white wire had some strands exposed and I think they shorted out on the bare causing some kinda splittage to occur - sounded really good for a split, meatier than the Trilogy but still with that nice stratty twang.

gwEm · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2007, 09:04:07 AM »

thats the kind of strat tone i like :) (also - really good playing)

kevincurtis · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2007, 09:50:09 AM »

sounds like you are sorted on what pickup to go in there then - if the white was shorted then you had a single coil, and if you were happy with the sound then top stuff :) just get a push/pull pot from BKP and you can do an easy coil tap, you can also set the 5 way selector to do a coil tap when selecting bridge and middle so it automatically taps the bridge pickup.

K