Fat Fully Upgrades

[duhvoodooman***]

I'm in the process of making several upgrades to my $24 Fullerton ST4 HSS, a.k.a. the "Fat Fully". Changes include the following:

Pickups - The stock p'ups were remarkably good for such a cheap guitar, but they're a bit on the harsh side and lacking warmth. I picked up a set of black-cover overwound Strat p'ups from Guitarfetish.com on a "blowout sale" that I read about here--the whole set for $17! The description sounds like they're intended to be "Texas Special" clones. I have Fender CS Texas Specials in my Strat Plus and love 'em, so we'll see how close in tone these are. For the humbucker, I had the one that came out of my Epi Dot when I bought it, which the seller said was a Gibson '57. I'm not sure if that's true, but it was a very nice sounding 'bucker that I only replaced because it was a single-conductor braided-shield type and I wanted to do some fancy wiring on the Dot that required a 4-conductor model (see THIS THREAD). I physically swapped all the p'ups last night but didn't have time to solder the new ones in yet. Will get that done tonight or Saturday.

Nut - The Fat Fully came with the kind of cheap plastic nut common to many budget guitars. I got a pre-slotted Fender-style Tusq nut from StewMac (#4750, $6.29), but it's got a raised "key" in the middle of the bottom surface that will need to be sanded or ground off, since the nut slot in the guitar doesn't have a corresponding cutout to accommodate this key piece. Also, the Tusq nut is a bit wider than the stock nut & slot, so I'll grind that down a bit to fit the slot.

String Trees - I've noticed that the stock metal string trees on the Fully tend to squeak on hard string bends down low on the neck. I ordered GraphTech string trees ($5.13) to replace them, which should eliminate this minor nuisance. However, the GraphTech trees are both of the "tall" type, and the Fully uses one tall tree and one short one, so I'll have to grind one of the GraphTechs down to the shorter height.

I'll make a follow-up post after I complete these changes to describe the impact of these changes on the tone and playability of the guitar. Hopefully, these will be positive impacts, since I'm sinking an additional $28 into the guitar, ballooning it's cost to over $52!!

[grungeiceman]

Yeah definatly tell how the pick ups sund i was thinking about getting the same ones,

[Big K]

finally got around to wiring up the GFS Overwounds in the neck & mid positions and a 14k bucker in the bridge.. really smoothed up the harshness I heard in the stockers.. like the sound..

[kerc]

Yep, those cheap overwounds sound damn nice and very, very Stratty...I put those in my Hamer and couldn't be happier!

[WackyT]

Thanks Kerc! Just ordered a set of the closeout black overwound Strats and a set of black knobs for my Fullerton sunburst.

[duhvoodooman***]

OK, all back together and working great. Had a couple of interesting minor snafus. First, the pickup selector switch wiring was not exactly intuitive--it's not a standard 5-way Strat type--and the middle and neck pups ended up switched. After fixing that quickly, when I fired the guitar up, position # 2 (bridge + middle) sounded very hollow and thin, like the two p'ups were out of phase. Sure enough, when I switched the leads around on the middle pickup, I got a nice quack like you'd expect. So I swapped the leads on the neck, also, to keep it in phase with the other two. So the GFS overwounds and the Gibson/Epi humbucker were indeed different polarities.

Installing the new nut was a breeze, but I had to shim it up a bit with a piece of business card on the low string side. The string tree replacement was trivially simple. Here are a couple of photos of how the guitar looks now. The only thing that's really noticeably different is the chromed cover on the humbucker:



As far as tonal improvement goes, I'll let you decide for yourselves what you think. The following linked clip was recorded using my modified Fat Fully along with a stock model that I bought at the same time. The clip contains 3 pairs of riffs, each played first on the stock ST4 and then on the modified one. The first pair is recorded on the bridge humbucker, the second pair on the middle pickup, and the last on the neck p'up. They were all recorded through the Boutique Clean model of my Vox AD30VT, with overdrive added courtesy of my ZYS pedal.

http://www.box.net/shared/q986ip2sbl

The biggest difference to my ear is the humbucker upgrade, with the modified Fully sounding much smoother and fuller. The improvement from the single coil upgrades is much more subtle, but I find the modified guitar to sound a bit smoother and rounder in both the neck and middle pickups. So, overall a nice tonal benefit for very little incremental investment.

[Spudman***]

The bucker does sound smoother. Less grainy. Thanks for all the tech input and hard work.

[duhvoodooman***]

I've been dying to try out a Seymour Duncan SH-14 "Custom 5" humbucker for a while, because (1) I'd read some great things about it from people who used them, and (2) the description of it's tonal characteristics per the Duncan website were very appealing to me:

Application: Like a higher output '59 Model with a deeper bottom end and expanded output. Perfect for pop, country, blues, classic rock and heavy rock.
Description: Developed by contributors to our web user group who replaced the ceramic or Alnico 2 magnet in an SH-5 Custom or SH-11 Custom Custom with an Alnico 5. Compared to the SH-5 and SH-11, the Custom 5's tone is more vintage, with less distortion, but it's still very strong and powerful. Clean sounds are rich and full with enhanced presence. Comes with four-conductor hookup cable.

So basically a high-output, vintage tone humbucker with a stronger bottom end than something like a JB or Pearly Gates, which I have in my Dot and LP, respectively. Plus, the Custom 5 is a 4-conductor humbucker, meaning that "fancy wiring" is a possibility.

Anyway, I came across one at a decent price on eBay and snagged it. The previous owner said it only had a few hours of use, and it does indeed look pretty much brand new. I checked continuity and coil resistance with a DMM when it arrived, and it was right on the money. So last weekend, I popped the "mystery '57" humbucker out of the Fat Fully, and wired in the Custom 5. Additionally, I replaced the stock tone pot (500K) with a push/pull and wired the pickup for stud coil-cut. It looks a little funny, because it's a "zebra" version with the black and cream colored coil tops, and the guitar really needs all black. But, hey--with a $30 guitar, aesthetics are definitely way at the back of the bus!

Result: Sounds great!! Definitely a richer, thicker tone, as you'd expect, and the bigger bottom end is very evident. Played with a Marshall overdriven sound (UK'70s model on my AD30VT with the gain way up), it has a beautiful, singing midrange. The single coil mode is bright and snappy, as you'd expect. I'll try to get a clip and a photo or two posted later this week....

[Tone2TheBone]

Voo slap a nickel plated pickup cover on that zebra like I did with the Duncan....

[duhvoodooman***]

Nah! Not worth the effort, plus I prefer the "open" look. Maybe I'll color it in with a black Sharpie!

[Tone2TheBone]

LMAO! I'm certainly way pickier than you but I wouldn't do that to a zebra pup!

[sunvalleylaw]

Tone helped me think visually through the mods I want to do on my Fat Fully when I install his DiMarsizio Zebra humbucker in the bridge and ultimately get a rails pup for the neck. I was thinking I would leave the stock single coil in the middle after talking to Spudman. Here is a mock up that Tone did that then I modified to add the rails pup in the neck. The program allows a true strat body only, so you have to think sharp due to the sharper lines of the Fully. The logo on the head stock is obviously wrong too but gives you an idea. I plan to trace the PG on my son's Fully and see if I can get one cut for not too much $$$. I like the look. What do you think?

[Spudman***]

That looks great SVL. Very stealthy and business like....but, ahem, it could use a nice floral print necktie.

[duhvoodooman***]

Sun, don't know if this will be of any help, but here's what my Fat Fully currently looks like with a Duncan zebra Custom 5 in the bridge. BTW, that's a weird reflection at the lower right of the body, not a dig in the finish:

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah that helps DVM. I am liking the idea of the tort. PG. I think it will blend and dress it all up a bit.

Spud, now where'd you get that floral print neck tie idea? ;-)

[Spudman***]

Spud, now where'd you get that floral print neck tie idea? ;-)

I think I saw some corporate yuppie sellout somewhere the other day and thought his tie was cool and that it would make a great finish for a guitar. After thinking about it...it's probably too busy to go with a tortoise pick guard anyway.

[sunvalleylaw]

Ooo! . . . . . . . . ouch!

[sunvalleylaw]

Ok, I have Tone's DiMarzio virtual hot PAF bucker coming. Now I want to choose a rail type bucker to go with it in the neck. I was eyeing this one:
http://store.guitarfetish.com/lilkiblhurap.html
The Dimarzio is a little hot but still vintage, so I was thinking either the vintage 6k, or maybe the modern 10k model. I was going to leave the center single coil stock. Anyone have any experience with these little killer rails? Other suggestions? I have been reviewing the humbucker mods threads (Thanks DVM) and am still looking for one that specifically deals with HSH with a 5 way switch. I plan to replace one of the two pots with a push/pull pot to tap the humbuckers. This is my first mod project so any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!