Wiring guru's question

[Spud]

I have a standard reverse plate tele wiring with a Lawrence/Wilde L-280 TN neck and a Dimarzio Fast track bridge pickups. I have tried a 500K Volume pot with a 250K tone which I really like for the Dimarzio, but the Wilde gets a little bright. I switched out for a 250K Volume and the Wilde sounds better, but the Dimarzio not. Can I solder in a cap in series with the neck pickup to make it "see" a 250K volume pot? while leaving the Dimarzio alone? I have done it on a bassy humbucker before but dunno on this? Hip me please!

 

[Strat Avenger]

I've never heard of a Tele neck-position pickup that was too bright. But since your bridge pickup is a humbucker, you don't need a tone control on that anyway, so I'd wire the tone control to the neck pickup only.
I am doing the opposite of that on mine.

 

[Spud]

I've never heard of a Tele neck-position pickup that was too bright. But since your bridge pickup is a humbucker, you don't need a tone control on that anyway, so I'd wire the tone control to the neck pickup only.
I am doing the opposite of that on mine.

Maybe, but that seem slike it would be really bright.

 

[Spud]

Where the hedouble toothpicks is Stratamania!? I don't care what time it is in Britain.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Maybe, but that seem slike it would be really bright.

The Fast Track is not really a bright pickup. You could try my suggestion and if the result is not satisfactory, it's easy enough to reverse.

 

[Spud]

The Fast Track is not really a bright pickup. You could try my suggestion and if the result is not satisfactory, it's easy enough to reverse.

I hear you, but it was perfect with the 500k volume pot/250K tone. Any brighter and nope. And I know it will be brighter direct.

 

[Hodgo]

I have a standard reverse plate tele wiring with a Lawrence/Wilde L-280 TN neck and a Dimarzio Fast track bridge pickups. I have tried a 500K Volume pot with a 250K tone which I really like for the Dimarzio, but the Wilde gets a little bright. I switched out for a 250K Volume and the Wilde sounds better, but the Dimarzio not. Can I solder in a cap in series with the neck pickup to make it "see" a 250K volume pot? while leaving the Dimarzio alone? I have done it on a bassy humbucker before but dunno on this? Hip me please!

You need to solder a 500k resistor in parallel with the neck pickup with a 500k vol pot. Easiest way to do that is soldered to the switch where the neck input is located and ground on the other side (back of vol pot)

This will leave it in parallel in the middle position. There’s fancier ways to wire it so the resistor is not in the middle position too, depends on what kind of switch you have.

 

[stratamania]

@Spud effectively what @Hodgo said above. A 470K resistor might be easier to find than a 500K but would get you close enough.

 

[Spud]

Ok the Frailin website helped old Spud get what you guys are telling me to do. Got it through my obtuse outer layer and into the off white matter.

Thank you!

 

[Hodgo]

Thank you. Question if I am understanding correctly, won’t this effectively send all of the
neck pickups signal to ground? Running a jumper from resistor-switch-top of volume pot?

One side of the resistor has to be wired to the neck pickups “hot” wire, usually white or yellow on Tele style pickups. The other side of the resistor is soldered to ground. Take the pot out of the equation and you will see what we essentially are doing is soldering a resistor between the two leads of the pickup, which is parallel resistance.

Series would be running the resistor inbetween the pickup input wire and the first lug on the volume pot (bad idea) or the third lug on the volume pot and ground (also a bad idea). You could in theory do this with a 250k pot and a 250k resistor in series as I just described to make the humbucker “see” 500k but you should not because this ruins the taper and functionality and of the volume pot.

Parallel resistance REDUCES the overall circuit resistance, serial resistance INCREASES. Funnily enough, the exact opposite is true for capacitance.

 

[Spud]

One side of the resistor has to be wired to the neck pickups “hot” wire, usually white or yellow on Tele style pickups. The other side of the resistor is soldered to ground. Take the pot out of the equation and you will see what we essentially are doing is soldering a resistor between the two leads of the pickup, which is parallel resistance.

Series would be running the resistor inbetween the pickup input wire and the first lug on the volume pot (bad idea) or the third lug on the volume pot and ground (also a bad idea). You could in theory do this with a 250k pot and a 250k resistor in series as I just described to make the humbucker “see” 500k but you should not because this ruins the taper and functionality and of the volume pot.

Parallel resistance REDUCES the overall circuit resistance, serial resistance INCREASES. Funnily enough, the exact opposite is true for capacitance.

Thank you Hodgo!

 

[Spud]

One quick last question. My soldering iron only has a temperature setting dial. To ensure it has reached optimal soldering temperature, should I touch the tip on the end of my finger to verify?

 

[Rick]

I use my tongue ... (just kidding my Man!)

 

[Spud]

I use my tongue ... (just kidding my Man!)

I will try that! (kinda like the old 9V battery test) perfect

 

[stratamania]

One quick last question. My soldering iron only has a temperature setting dial. To ensure it has reached optimal soldering temperature, should I touch the tip on the end of my finger to verify?

Not recommended.

 

[Spud]

Not recommended.

Still.................the idea could have merit.

 

[stratamania]

Still.................the idea could have merit.

Perhaps if you have a cybernetic borg type heat sensing finger it is a possibility

 

[Strat Avenger]

Touch the tip to your cat's nose. If the cat shrieks and it leaves a burn mark, you know it's hot enough.
All joking aside; my cat tried to sniff the tip of my soldering iron last week. Got her nose super close to it.
Thank God it didn't actually make contact!

 

[Spud]

The Fast Track is not really a bright pickup. You could try my suggestion and if the result is not satisfactory, it's easy enough to reverse.

Actually the fast track is fairly bright.

e Guide​

Output

191





















Bass

1.5





















Low Mid

3.0





















High Mid

3.5





















Treble

6.0

 

[Strat Avenger]

Actually the fast track is fairly bright.

Maybe I was thinking of the Chopper-T.