Fender Strat Noiseless pickup installation HELP!

[progrmr]

I picked up an early 90's USA Peavey Predator in trade and I'm doing a total rewire.

I bought a set of Fender Noiseless pickups and have a couple of problems.

1) The kit includes 3 new pots - 2 are 1M and 1 is 500K. The instructions show 3-1MB pots.

2) Aside from the tone cap, there is a resistor and some other electrical think that looks like a tiny cap. The resistor and this other thing are not shown on the wiring diagram.

I put the 500K as the volume and the 2 1M as tones - nothing is soldered yet, just on the pickguard. Do I have it right? And what do I do with the resistor and other thing?

Pics:

http://www.daverancour.com/peaveyrw1.jpg

http://www.daverancour.com/peaveyrw2.jpg

http://www.daverancour.com/peaveyrw3.jpg

[progrmr]

ok, I think I found the answer in an American Deluxe Strat wiring diagram. Looks like these extra pieces parts go on the volume pot:

http://www.digitaldarrell.com/guitar/pdf/Fender/Strat%20Wiring%20Diagrams/AmericanDeluxeStrat.pdf

[tunghaichuan]

I would guess that the volume control for the pickups would be the 500k and the two 1meg pots are for the tone controls. Are the noiseless pickups stacked humbuckers? Even if they are, a 1meg pot might be a tad bright. The cap on the left is a .022uF, the resistor in the resistor in the middle is a 220k ohm (red, red, yellow, if I"m reading it correctly) and the cap on the right is a 680pF cap rated at 1kV.

According to the Fender wiring diagram, the .022uF cap goes on the middle tone pot, the 680pF cap and 220k resistor are in parallel on the volume pot.

HTH.

[progrmr]

Thanks - the wiring diagram I found was correct. The guitar is totally silent and everything works (my first total strat re-wire). I had a fender American 5-way switch laying around so I put that in as well. Polished the frets and put a fresh set of 10's on it. Freakin' awesome!

pics:

Finished wiring:
http://www.daverancour.com/peavey/peavey1.jpg

Kitty approves:
http://www.daverancour.com/peavey/peavey5.jpg

Body shot:
http://www.daverancour.com/peavey/peavey3.jpg

[Spudman]

I think you have it right, but just in case, the pickup with the yellow lead is the bridge pickup. Many folks think it is the middle but it's not.

Tidy soldering job BTW.

[Duffy]

Congratulations on getting it right the first time.

From what I have read, the way people install the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups has changed since they first came out.

What happened was that guys thought the guitar sounded too bright with the one meg pots, so they used five hundred K pots or even two fifty k pots to warm up the sound.

So, if you find the sound too ice picky you might want to consider changing the pot values to a lower value.

What kind of tone change did you notice? I suppose it sounds way better than the standard Peavey pickups, any way you look at it. Does it have a less thin and more full and round, satisfying type sound? Much more powerful sounding?

[progrmr]

The bridge is very thin sounding, tele like. But the other 4 positions sound warm and clear, varying levels based on the selected pickups. Guitar really sounds fantastic. Fat SRV sound on the neck pickup which is what I like. "Cold Shot" is coming along nicely :)

[Duffy]

You might want to raise up the bridge pickup significantly to fill it out and get some fullness.

The bridge pickup should sound nice and powerful, not less powerful than the others.

Usually you can balance this out by raising up the bridge pickup with no problem, or lower the other ones if you have to. But it sounds like the other ones are set at the right heights because you get some great tones out of them.

Do you like the sound way better than the stock Peavey pickups?

[progrmr]

Oh yea, there's no comparison. The stock pickups are very insubstantial and cheap. Granted it's a cheapie guitar so that's to be expected. The Fenders smoke the original pickups in embarrassing fashion.

[bcdon]

Great kitty! The axe ain't bad either! :dude



Kitty approves:
http://www.daverancour.com/peavey/peavey5.jpg