socalscott
December 8th, 2007, 02:44 AM
Don't be in such a hurry to buy new pups. Especially if you are starting to lean towards SC tones. For me, P90's are the 'holy grail' of pups and Fendery flavors are the shyte.
Maybe you want the N pup to have less muddiness, to have openness sorta P90 or Strat.
You know, that deep round SC fullness.
Maybe you want B pup Twang, yet still still push the pre-amp.
So what I do is remove screws and slugs from the coils. Three from each coil to be specific.
For wound strings 3 poles remain in the front coils and 3 remain on the rear coil for the plain
strings. This will deliver hum-free P90-ish tones in spades. Clarity, spank, twang just not as much raw grind or honk. Will still offer breakup. More dynamics with the vol pot too.
For Fendery colors I displace the poles with mag rods. I drill out the screw coil threads.
When the rods are loose I heat some of the potting wax onto the rods, install them. After I
remove the bar mag and use a replacement piece of wood. I heat the pup base in place where the rods are, this lets the wax further secure the rods in place. Fender delivered.
Regular output pups will offer more twang than hi-output obviously.
The mag rods in N pup and steel in the B pup has the most variety. Especially if you install
creative switching, i.e. series and parallel in combo. I use MegaSwitch blade or rotory type
selectors as I employ resistors and caps to get those Strat 2 & 4 positions tones from 2 pups.
For best results you may want to try different mag types, i.e. AlNiCo 2, 3, 4. Your pups
are likely using AlNiCo V, if Ceramic I'd opt for AlNiCo. Search for a small pup maker, he can
likely sell you some at a fair price.
BTW, if you want the Tele HB tone. The ones with 6 screws showing. They actually have 6
others hidden under the covers. They're just screwed in from the bottom side of the coils
as they are threaded mag rods.
Go ahead and have some fun with those pups.
Maybe you want the N pup to have less muddiness, to have openness sorta P90 or Strat.
You know, that deep round SC fullness.
Maybe you want B pup Twang, yet still still push the pre-amp.
So what I do is remove screws and slugs from the coils. Three from each coil to be specific.
For wound strings 3 poles remain in the front coils and 3 remain on the rear coil for the plain
strings. This will deliver hum-free P90-ish tones in spades. Clarity, spank, twang just not as much raw grind or honk. Will still offer breakup. More dynamics with the vol pot too.
For Fendery colors I displace the poles with mag rods. I drill out the screw coil threads.
When the rods are loose I heat some of the potting wax onto the rods, install them. After I
remove the bar mag and use a replacement piece of wood. I heat the pup base in place where the rods are, this lets the wax further secure the rods in place. Fender delivered.
Regular output pups will offer more twang than hi-output obviously.
The mag rods in N pup and steel in the B pup has the most variety. Especially if you install
creative switching, i.e. series and parallel in combo. I use MegaSwitch blade or rotory type
selectors as I employ resistors and caps to get those Strat 2 & 4 positions tones from 2 pups.
For best results you may want to try different mag types, i.e. AlNiCo 2, 3, 4. Your pups
are likely using AlNiCo V, if Ceramic I'd opt for AlNiCo. Search for a small pup maker, he can
likely sell you some at a fair price.
BTW, if you want the Tele HB tone. The ones with 6 screws showing. They actually have 6
others hidden under the covers. They're just screwed in from the bottom side of the coils
as they are threaded mag rods.
Go ahead and have some fun with those pups.