Making a Strat sound like a Les Paul

[Eric***]

So I'm thinking I'll probably order a Rose humbucker at some point too, but I'm vacillating between a New Dawn and a California for the bridge humbucker. Any input on which you think would work better for Paul-ifying the strat?

Here's the link to the website:
http://www.rosepickups.com/humbuckers.htm

[FrankenFretter***]

So I'm thinking I'll probably order a Rose humbucker at some point too, but I'm vacillating between a New Dawn and a California for the bridge humbucker. Any input on which you think would work better for Paul-ifying the strat?

Here's the link to the website:
http://www.rosepickups.com/humbuckers.htm

I'm a big fan of A2 pickups. I'd pick the California. Of course, YMMV.

[Eric***]

I'm a big fan of A2 pickups. I'd pick the California. Of course, YMMV.

I put in an order for one of those last night, so I'll report back on how everything sounds once it's in.

[Duffy]

How are the super Kitty mods coming?

I put the SD Alnico II Pro pickups in my MIM standard tele today; and didn't even burn myself. It worked out great on the first try and really is an improvement, sounding really, really good compared to what it had sounded like.

Good luck with the mods. If yours go anything like mine did you will be very happy, to say the least.

[Eric***]

How are the super Kitty mods coming?

I put the SD Alnico II Pro pickups in my MIM standard tele today; and didn't even burn myself. It worked out great on the first try and really is an improvement, sounding really, really good compared to what it had sounded like.

Good luck with the mods. If yours go anything like mine did you will be very happy, to say the least.

The pickup is on its way and the new concentric pot, knobs, and capacitor(s) should be delivered on Tuesday. So hopefully I'll be able to install the stuff this week. After that, I may shim the neck and put on new tuners, but those aren't very pressing upgrades -- just kind of some long-term potential tweaks. I'll update once I have the new electronics in.

[Eric***]

Update: I got the concentric pot and caps yesterday and the new pickup today, and I picked up a cheap soldering iron and some solder on my way home. So I'm set to go, but now am working on understanding how to wire up a guitar.

The biggest thing I don't yet understand is which lugs do what on the pot. I feel like I need to understand this before I dive in, since there aren't really any pre-made wiring diagrams for a single conductor, shielded single bridge pickup going to a concentric pot with a tone control that I've found yet.

If anyone wants to give me a link or a quick primer on pots and wiring, I wouldn't mind...

[t_ross33]

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/pro...-Parallel.html

[Duffy]

I bought two new Weller pencil type electric soldering irons. You only need one, fifteen to twenty watts. <br>
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Also, you need to use solder that contains "lead" and is for use with "electronics", not the lead free type designated for "plumbing". The main place I find "electrical" solder is at Radio Shack and it is called 40/60.<br>
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In addition, for a couple dollars, I would recommend getting some "electrical" type soldering paste "flux" and a small flux brush - very cheap. Apply the flux to places you want to desolder and to the soldering iron tip and place you are going to solder at, just before applying the hot soldering iron to the soldering joint. Apply the solder to the items being soldered - not to the tip of the soldering iron. This requires heating the place to be soldered a little before applying the solder and having some small amount of paste flux applied at that spot prior to applying the soldering iron tip helps melt the solder quickly and greatly aids in the solder sticking and flowing out around the place to be soldered, instead of beading up and rolling off, refusing to stick. The "flux" greatly helps the solder stick to the metals.<br>
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Before you first use your soldering iron you should "tin" the tip. This means to very slightly sand the tip, apply some flux, and apply some electrical solder to the joint. The solder should flow onto the tip and coat it with a layer of shiny solder. This keeps the tip from turning black. Make a small square, about two by two, of a sponge with the green scrubby layer on one side. Wipe your tinned tip off on the wet sponge while soldering when you notice black slag building up on the tip. You can use the green abrasive mesh scrubby side to gently work off harder to remove black slag. You should re-tin the cleaned tip when done with the job. Be careful not to scrape off the steel plating over the copper tips, as this will ruin them<
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Plumbing solder will corrode the soldering joint when used on electronics equipment. A rosin core solder, available easily from Radio Shack is for electrical - "acid core" solder is for plumbing. These are known as "flux core" solders, but you will benefit greatly from using paste flux at all soldering joints. The flux burns off impurities from the soldering site and lets the solder stick and flow on and around the location that the solder is to be applied to and the wire ends. The burning flux may smoke a little. Just a little paste flux will work. Don't use paste flux for "plumbing solder". Lead free solder is for plumbing. Electrical solder melts at a much lower temperature and contains lead.<br>
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Soldering can actually be easy and fun if you gather together the right materials and tin the tip of the soldering iron. Taking your time and moving with precision are keys to doing a good solder job, and paying attention to not getting burned also helps a lot.<br>
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I hope I have not tired you out, but if you apply some of these methods your soldering job will be easier and more likely to be successful. Also, use as little solder as possible to get a good solder joint.<br>
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You will find that previous applications of solder may appear as big "piles" of solder. You want to avoid making piles of solder. People want to do this because they haven't fluxed the solder location before soldering. The solder should flow out at the base of the solder joint and adhere to the surface at the solder joint. It takes only a little bit of skill to get it right. <br>

One other thing - "grounding" is a big thing when soldering together circuits. One thing I liked when I put the pickups in my tele recently was that Fender had done a great job of grounding the pickups. You might want to consider doing what they did - they ran the black ground wire from the pickup to a wood screw inside the bottom of the pickup rout. The wood screw had a star washer connector on it, screwed down tight. The black wire from the pickup went to the star washer connector on the wood screw - then another black wire went from the star washer grounded screw on to the top of the pot where all other grounds met. This was essentially double grounding that pickup wire. You don't have a bridge plate to additionally ground to from the wood screw ground, but you might be able to use another existing ground. Watch where the original ground wire comes from and try to use it like in the original wiring - if it is attached to the top of the pot, replicate that pattern. I followed the pattern Fender used when they made the tele, not the diagram that Seymour Duncan provided. You will want to avoid grounding problems and things called "ground loops", this is why a common grounding point like a "star" ground on top of the pot is a good idea, it avoids ground loops. They call it a "star" ground because it sort of looks like a star fish or something, with all the wires coming in from different directions and being soldered onto the same spot.

In T-ross33's attached diagram you may notice where the ground wire comes off of the pickup - at this point you may want to attach the black ground wire to the tab on a "star washer connector" attached with a wood screw into the body of the guitar inside the rout under the pickup. Then run another length of black wire from the tab on the star washer connector to the common grounding point on top of the pot - on the back of the pot. A star washer connector looks like a star washer, not a flat washer, and has an integral metal tab attached to it with possibly two small holes to solder wires into. Radio Shack should have these.<br>
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If the soldering job doesn't go nice and smooth, with the solder flowing out and adhering to the metal something is wrong. The solder should not bead up and roll off the intended solder joint. When this happens try brushing on a little more flux and trying again. If it turns out you have the wrong solder, go to Radio Shack.<br>
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You might want to practice on some pieces of copper wire, twisting them together and trying to get the solder to flow "into" the twisted wire by placing the soldering iron "under" the wires and applying the solder to the fluxed top of the wires. Remember, apply the solder to the items being heated up by the soldering iron.<br>
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Take a picture of the original wiring scheme, or make a sketch of every wire and where it goes. This could save you a lot of time. <br>
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Try to "keep it simple". Look at how one tone pot hooks up to the volume pot on a strat diagram for a "regular" wiring scheme. The Seymour Duncan website may even have a diagram for wiring up just one volume and one tone circuit.<br>
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If you already know most of this stuff, disregard it. You may find some of the ideas and methods useful - especially the one about adding the additional ground to the wood screw star washer connector directly below the pickup in the pickup rout. The better the grounding, the better it will sound in the end. You don't want to end up with the pickup buzzing.<br>
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I hope you find these ideas useful.

[Eric***]

Update: I managed to put the whole thing together today. There were a couple of hiccups with the hole for the pot needing to be drilled out to 3/8" to accommodate the concentric pot and filing the machine screws that came with the pickup to screw it into the body (the stock pickup screws into the body with foam on the bottom of the pup, rather than springs and screws attached to the pickguard). But after some additional thinking through it and a little googling, I managed to get it all together.

And surprisingly, it worked the first time around. I guess I can't really complain. Everything works as it should, and while I can never remember what the 'before' sounded like, it seems pretty good now. Still slightly stratty, still sounds mostly like a bridge pickup, but a bit more versatile than before. It would be nice to be able to A/B the old and new pup, but I just wanted to get everything in and working, so I guess I won't be able to give a proper review of the pickup.

I'll know more the next time I take this guitar out and play at band volumes, since that's where real problems/merits seem to shine through. But for now things are looking good. I was worried that with a 0.047 pF cap and an A2 bridge pickup, it might be a little too muddy or dark, but that definitely doesn't seem to be the case.

Thanks to everyone for all of their help.

[Spudman***]

Cool Eric. Thanks for the update and I'm glad that it worked out.