Loss of tone with Alloy scratchplate?

paulnb57

So the Stratobastard sounds great with a plastic scratchplate but I thought it looked a bit, well, black, so swapped out the plastic for a silver aluminium jobby, it really affected the tone, it was muffled and muddy, all the bass went from the bass strings, output was down a bit....why? In terms a fucktard can understand?

http://i.imgur.com/wGr0rRj.jpg

Alegree

Capacitance. Like a Tele neck pickup cover.
Nothing you can do about that if you want to keep it.

paulnb57

It will reside in the cupboard or Ill sell it.......cheers!

MartinB

Eddy currents could be a contributor too, where the metal surrounding the pickups acts somewhat like if you'd added an extra coil to your pickups and shorted it out.  Again, there's not much you could do about it - an aluminium pickguard will do that, especially if it's thick. 

paulnb57

It is very thick.......interesting, thanks!

ICBM

Alegree said:

Capacitance. Like a Tele neck pickup cover.

MartinB said:

Eddy currents could be a contributor too, where the metal surrounding the pickups acts somewhat like if you'd added an extra coil to your pickups and shorted it out.

Yes, both these things.

You could eliminate the capacitance by fitting insulating washers around the pot bushings so they don't contact the plate, but firstly that will remove the shielding provided by the guard, and secondly I think the eddy currents are the bigger problem, since 60s Strats with a full shielding plate (which is more of a thick foil than a plate really) don't seem to suffer as much from it, and in any case capacitance shouldn't affect the bass response, whereas eddy currents will.

For what it's worth I think an anodized aluminium guard improves the sound of a traditional Strat, but I've never tried it on one with hotter pickups.

MartinB

Thinking about it, if you were inclined towards experimentation you could try sawing two small slots into the pickguard - between the bridge pickup and bridge and between the neck pickup and neck pocket, so that there is no longer a complete loop of metal around each pickup.  I'm not certain to what extent that would help, but it might be interesting to find out...

Gagaryn

There's a lot of chat on OSG forum about whether aluminium guards affect tone on Jazzmasters. I fitted one and didn't notice any difference.

Gassage

I know single ply plates are said to 'tramopline' more than 3 ply ones.