I've a telecaster with a single coil bridge and a TV Jones in the neck. The guitar is great to play and the bridge is classic tele but the neck pickup is bugging me. Strings D and higher sound fine, but the A and particularly the E string are very bass heavy; the E sounds like it has it's own tone control set permanently all the way down. Definitely not my experience of Filtertron type pickups.
The distance between the top of the pole pieces on the low E to the bottom of the string is 0.15 inch which seems to be within the bounds of the recommended setup. Also the pickups seem to be volume balanced i.e. no perceivable volume change when switching from neck to bridge.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Comments
Neck low E = 3/16 to 7/32"
Neck high E = 3/16"
Bridge low E = 5/32"
Bridge high E = 3/16"
More significantly, perhaps, the TVJ is expecting a 500k volume pot. Time for the @ICBM resistor mod.
The TVJ clearances are a guideline, not a rule book.
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I suspect that running the 'Tron through a 250k volume pot would be significant.
TV Classic
Mounted direct to body
250 pots
No circuit mods
Tone King Imperial - I don't see the same behaviour on any other guitar (single coil, humbucker)
TV Classic
Mounted direct to body
250 pots
No circuit mods
Tone King Imperial - I don't see the same behaviour on any other guitar (single coil, humbucker).
250 pots - perhaps alluding to what several posters have suggested I see that similar, newer models have a stacked 250/500k volume control.
The ICBM mod would involve changing to a 500k volume pot and adding a resistor on the Telecaster side of the circuit. I shall let the man himself explain what to do and to suggest component values.
Try running it through a series 0.047uf capacitor.
It's a common cure for muddy/ bassy neck pickups on Les Pauls, and should work equally well with your TVJ.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
Used the parallel resistor trick so the bridge "sees" a 250k pot, but neck/neck+bridge see the full 500k. The 'Tron definitely sounds miles better with a 500k, and I just wish that I'd done it sooner.
The problem is that the Filtertron has a very noticeable capacitance, which can easily be heard when you switch from the bridge to the middle position - it's like engaging a small extra tone control. There was - as is normal for Fender CS - an excessive amount of messy wiring in the control cavity, including about 3"-4" more cable than necessary on the neck pickup, which I tidied up but which probably didn't make any difference, it's in the pF range. I also lowered the pickup further and raised the polepieces.
I did wonder about disconnecting the pickup cover to reduce capacitance, but that's likely to cause noise when touching the cover. I often do this with muddy standard Tele neck pickups, but the cover is much smaller and you don't tend to touch it as much as you do the big Filtertron cover.
I think the next step is either to add a series cap to the pickup, or possibly to partially lift the cover ground with a resistor and see if there's a value which both preserves the shielding enough, and reduces the capacitance. If not, then replacing or rewinding the pickup may be the only option.
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Hummmmmmm ... a Filtertron is not normally a higher capacitance than usual design (I make and measure them regularly) so I would suspect some manufacturing issue.
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Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein