153 posts
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Post by r3v3nt0n on Apr 21, 2017 18:20:06 GMT
Has anyone tried to change pickups and/or electronics on SC 450Plus VS. I would like some opinions on which ones to go for. I do think that stock pickups aren't bad and they don't sound cheap at all. But for me, the guitar has a nice vintage look, but sounds more classic rock than vintage rock or blues.
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Post by intenselycalm on May 3, 2017 13:35:18 GMT
r3v3nt0n , a tough couple questions to answer. I have a SC450Plus VB, and it is currently stock. Haven't changed much on it at this time. Personally I'm not overwhelmed with the pickups, so they will go at some point. However, I have an SC400 SGT, which I've completely overhauled, really there is only some original wood left. Changing the pickups and electronics is definitely doable, and depending on the parts you choose you'll have a totally different instrument. The process of swapping things out isn't bad if you've done it before. If you have never soldered, or rewired, it could be overwhelming. Choosing pickups is a bit of a gamble depending on the sound you are looking for. Sorry, I can't/won't offer any advice as to which pick-up choice will be most Vintage, or whichever sound you are looking for. I'd miss your target by a mile if I tried. The problem you will face will be which pickups, pots, caps, wire... Oh, a better selector switch will make you smile for sure. You may also want to consider, during your rewiring, if you'll stay with the PU splitting, or just wire more traditionally. There are some diagrams floating about for LPs for a "new" or "old" wiring harness. Sorry for the lack of direction, but I encourage you to start upgrading. Maybe you start with pots, caps and a new switch, or... Good luck with the 450 project.
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Post by Banana on May 4, 2017 5:42:38 GMT
Bit late to answer, but these will give you all the blues sound you will ever need. Swapping the pickups isn't hard, it all depends on what type of wiring you choose (as said above).
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153 posts
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Post by r3v3nt0n on May 4, 2017 18:00:49 GMT
Thanx, Banana. I was thinking about the same ones for neck position.
intenselycalm, thanx for a good answer and to teel you the truth, I'm not exactly looking for advice which pickups to choose. I'm more intrested in opinions wheather a pickup upgrade would be a good direction to go next. I was thinking to change the pickups first, you know, try to get a little more 'tone' out of it. I think that change of pots isn't really necessary for now but in the future I will think about using, maybe a push/pull knobs and more advanced wiring to achieve different sounds and combinations. Just something for later. I've allready done changing the nut, replace the bridge and tailpiece and I polished the fretboard and leveled the frets. It's got now a nice low action of 1,25mm on the 12th fret and it plays really nice.
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Post by DerAlex on May 5, 2017 6:41:57 GMT
TO be honest I think the least expensive and IMHO most worthy upgrade to a LP is the 50s wiring. Look out for some TAD 0.22nf caps and 500k log pots from Alpha and you will experience a whole new level of playing. Now the pots react and give you amazing tonal varities. And costs should be way less then 20 EUR.
Then you can still think about changing pups if you don´t like them.
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Post by Banana on May 5, 2017 7:27:16 GMT
TO be honest I think the least expensive and IMHO most worthy upgrade to a LP is the 50s wiring. Look out for some TAD 0.22nf caps and 500k log pots from Alpha and you will experience a whole new level of playing. Now the pots react and give you amazing tonal varities. And costs should be way less then 20 EUR. Then you can still think about changing pups if you don´t like them. Caps are couple of bucks. It should already come with 500k pots, as long as the value is close to the 500k, there will not be difference in sound.
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153 posts
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Post by r3v3nt0n on May 6, 2017 17:04:53 GMT
The caps and pots change won't be noticeable by many but the 50s wiring will. You may not like it though. Some do, some don't. But would a 50's wiring be resonable on a lefthand guitar. As far as I understad, they usualy use ordinary pots on leftys, but just wire them differently. So the audio taper pots 'operate' in different direction. When I turn down the volume,for example, the most change hapens beetween 1 and 3 on the knob if you know what I mean (it's not much of a volume change from 3 to 9). It is the same on all my lefthanded electric guitars.
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on May 6, 2017 17:22:43 GMT
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Post by tarn on May 7, 2017 7:22:29 GMT
TO be honest I think the least expensive and IMHO most worthy upgrade to a LP is the 50s wiring. Look out for some TAD 0.22nf caps and 500k log pots from Alpha and you will experience a whole new level of playing. Now the pots react and give you amazing tonal varities. And costs should be way less then 20 EUR. Then you can still think about changing pups if you don´t like them. i can only attest that the standard HB pots are not the most sensitive, and can degrade(even affect the sound of the pickups) quickly in time. this happened on my TE52 where at a certain moment i became clear that i had a loss of volume even with the volume pot on full. and the tone pot sounded like on full open it was at 50%. the pickups became muffled sounding, even more noticeable on the neck pickup. plus they became so loose that even very slightly brushing the knob or even moving the guitar around would change its position. hence i didn't even bother to us the standard pots on my FLT and did a direct upgrade. upgrading the pots is the most worthwhile and less costly to do. after all no matter what price range you pic, HB's are budget guitars. they cut the corners of the corners to get to these prices. changing the wiring is not necessary but while your in there its easy to do.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on May 7, 2017 8:17:08 GMT
I've never tried the 50s wiring myself but in theory it should work with 'lefty wired' pots too as the only difference is the taper of the log curve. But you are right to say that lefty wired log pots are a nuisance as most of the effect is in the last 20% of rotation. I plan to fix this in all my guitars at some point and I already have a couple that use right-handed wiring. Two approaches to fix it are 1. Replace the Log/Audio taper Tone pot(s) with a Linear taper pot. (Linear is symmetric as regard direction of rotation). Doing this you can leave the existing Linear taper Volume pot(s) alone ....assuming that's what you have - and it is usual for HB guitars. I actually prefer Linear taper for Tone pots. 2. Reverse the wiring in all Tone and Volume pots to switch everything to right-handed. A bit more soldering with this one. I did this last week with my TE-52. (Pity there are no markings on Tele knobs as I'm still getting used to the right handed direction). But the best solution is as tarn states to replace the pots altogether with better quality ones. (Note I don't buy into the whole 'orange drop' capacitor debate but those components are cheap enough that it's no big deal either way). I plan to do this with the rest of my guitars when I get time - and also fit treble bleed circuits to a few of them.
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Post by DerAlex on May 8, 2017 16:46:12 GMT
TO be honest I think the least expensive and IMHO most worthy upgrade to a LP is the 50s wiring. Look out for some TAD 0.22nf caps and 500k log pots from Alpha and you will experience a whole new level of playing. Now the pots react and give you amazing tonal varities. And costs should be way less then 20 EUR. Then you can still think about changing pups if you don´t like them. Caps are couple of bucks. It should already come with 500k pots, as long as the value is close to the 500k, there will not be difference in sound. The TAD caps are just a couple of bucks (less than 2 EUR) each. And to be very honest there is a lot more to pots than the crappy stock ones. It is a) feel while turning it and the resistance and b) the way the pot reacts to changes. The very cheap ones are more like on/off switches while with better ones you get many tonal options. And to me the Alpha pots are the best (and the CTS ones for example turn too quickly for my taste).
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