Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

[Firebird V]

I have a hot rails in one of my strats and it doesn't compare to any of my Humbuckers in terms of sounding like a humbucker. Yeah... It is fatter sounding but it sounds like a lower output humbucker than I like. Try wiring in a capacitor maybe.... I tried a double tone pot but that didn't help much. I think the bottom line IMO is that a single coil pickup stacked or whatever is still going to have a bit of single coil characteristic to it.

[Firebird V]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Another thing too. It gets some of the tonal quality from the pickup being angled (Bridge on strat I am talking here). I have a gunslinger that has an angled humbucker and whatever I put in there it has a stratty tone.... Hmmmm. Any thoughts?

[Chuckracer]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Yeah, beat it! We're not talking about Hotrails here, ya Jersey punk. Stay the hell out of this thread!! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[mm2002]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

I'd route that puppy out and put an aftermarket pickguard (HSS) on it. I don't really think the route is going to hurt the value of the guitar much as long as you leave the original parts alone and do a nice route job. The only way to get a hum sound is to put in a hum. At least that's my opinion.

[jgcable]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Hmmm.... I have always felt that the jr. sounded very much like the full sized version. Switch the pot to a 500K or even a 1meg pot and you will notice a big improvement. Also, make sure you have it wired to be in full humbucking mode. That pickup can be coil tapped and that might be the way you have it set up.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

I have a Lil 59 in the neck position of my silver GMW. I actually prefer it to a full size 'bucker for this position cause under high gain and low volume, a full size can "mush out" wheras this Lil 59 in a tad brighter and sharper sounding. I hear a marked difference.

[Firebird V]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Heh heh! Okay Okay.... I got lots of questions on this that I need to pick your brain Chuck. I will save everyone else the reading though and not hijack this thread. I will call you on the weekend and maybe you can help me out.

Anyway. If you are looking for the tone of a humbucker you will need a full size humbucker to get it IMO.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Aw, I'm sorry Chris. I was practicing letting go of my aggresions and, well, you can see what happened!
You are cordially invited to join us in this thread. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Firebird V]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Okay! I feel all warm and fuzzy now. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Firebird V]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

So here I go. What you said about the neck pickup Chuck... About it not going muddy on you. I have one particular guitar (a firebird) that has a Humbucker in the bridge and a minibucker in the neck. This guitar gets that tone that you described out of the neck pickup. It sounds like the Hot Rails I have when I move it around to different positions in the pickguard of my Strat. I personally have tried capacitors and different pots and everything I could think of and I can't ever get a fat humbucker sound out of any single coild sized humbucker that I have ever owned. The funny thing is that Duncan claims it is the hottest pickup that they have and it still doesn't get that fat tone that any of there full sized humbuckers get. I think it is a great pickup but it doesn't live up to its humbucker brothers...

[Chuckracer]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Yup, yup and yup. Just like P90s don't sound like strat pickups largely because it is "sampling" a larger area of string. Same with humbuckers. Like I said, when I get smokin on the front pickup using high gain (ie; pretending I can shred), the Lil 59 won't mush up like a full size bucker will. It is thinner sounding than a full size, more articulate. I like it. I like it alot!

[mm2002]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

And some like that "thinner" sound but I don't. In my experience when you get to that level where the hum starts to "mush up", that's where I like it. The guitarist is forced to use more technique to get the note seperation at that level but to me it sounds cool if played correctly. Also, there's tons more sustain available at that point.

[straycat]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

But that is only on a neck thru thats been broken and screwed back together [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Subvamp]

Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

Hey folks...
I recently put a Lil' Screamin Demon in my '76 Strat, because I didn't want to go routing the thing out for a full-sized humbucker. I plugged it up and started playing, and while it did sound 100% better, it didn't quite sound like my other guitars that have the full size Screamin Demon....it's still a little "single coil-ish". Could it be that I need to change to original Strat pot to a 500k instead of the 250k that's in there?

[Chuckracer]

Re: Humbuckers on a 250K pot?

The 500k will shift the peak frequency of the pickup to an ever-so-slightly higher range. It would be slightly brighter with the 500k.
To my ear, the Lil series pickups do not sound exactly like their full size humbucker versions, simply because the pickup is smaller and sampling a narrower segment of string. My theory anyhoo.