help with tone on my new built frankenstrat

[VanZeppelin667]

i built my first "replica" out of a mexican made fat strat, put a SH-1 59' seymor duncan bridge humbucker, tilted at the bridge, wired to a 500 k volume pot with a vintage tone knob, etc, etc, heres my question though when i plug it in, it seems like it needs more bass, (i know the strat has alder, and the original was ash) but is that it? because it also seems that it takes a lot more for the gain to get a beefy sound, not like my Les Paul (even though the wood difference in mahgony and alder is huge im sure), id appreciate any input, heres a link to my myspace, so you can see my guitars if you wish, thanks in advance!

http://www.myspace.com/vanzeppelin667

[nast2112]

I put one of Axcessories' Wolfgang pickups in the bridge of my 5150 replica. More bass, sounds awesome (full). I had to use a black permanent marker on the 'white' coil to make the pickup all black, but no big deal to me. Last I looked he was out of them, but shoot him an email and I think he will let you know when they come in. Mitchell's a cool guy.

Chris

[Charvel2]

i built my first "replica" out of a mexican made fat strat, put a SH-1 59' seymor duncan bridge humbucker, tilted at the bridge, wired to a 500 k volume pot with a vintage tone knob, etc, etc, heres my question though when i plug it in, it seems like it needs more bass, (i know the strat has alder, and the original was ash) but is that it? because it also seems that it takes a lot more for the gain to get a beefy sound, not like my Les Paul (even though the wood difference in mahgony and alder is huge im sure), id appreciate any input, heres a link to my myspace, so you can see my guitars if you wish, thanks in advance!

http://www.myspace.com/vanzeppelin667

I think it's possible with Duncan vintage style pickups to accidentally tap them by putting the coils out of phase. I remember doing it years ago when putting a Custom Custom into an Epi LP. Someone with more wiring knowledge might be able to tell you more about that, but it would explain the thinner sound and lack of gain.

[solo-ed]

Don't forget the Duncan SH-1 59 is low output paf type pup, maybe thats why it seems like there not a lot of gain as normally.

[VanZeppelin667]

I think it's possible with Duncan vintage style pickups to accidentally tap them by putting the coils out of phase. I remember doing it years ago when putting a Custom Custom into an Epi LP. Someone with more wiring knowledge might be able to tell you more about that, but it would explain the thinner sound and lack of gain.

im still a lil' green round the ears. i got half of what your saying, but why would they accidnetally tap the coils out of phase, i know people do this, but do i need that on a franky replica? my dad has been an electrian for more than 30 years, and he wont take the time of day when it comes to guitars, nor is he a van halen fan (poor soul) lol, so i guess i should hit up the guitar luthier at my local shop for more detail?

[HipCat5]

VanZep,
Start by looking over this schematic:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...1hum_1vol.html

In addition, just double & triple check your wiring & solder joints. A cold solder joint may make a connection but there might be a short or cold joint causing the poor tone.

As for the bass and gain, the previous posters are correct: the SH-1 isn't exactly a high-output pickup. The bass should be fairly good but its not going to have that modern high gain sound without an amplifier to match (Soldano SLO or Peavey 5150).[I'm sure you knew this but its mentioned for clarity].

A word about pickups from my own perspective :The "tone" of a pickup is more what I would call "timbre". Its the VOICE that the pickup has. Some pickups have accentuated mids (like the Duncan Custom Custom or DiMarzio Evolution) and some have accentuated lows (take the DiMarzio DP100, for example) . But its not the same as reaching for the tone knob on your stereo or amplifier and torquing it to "10" or "1" and listening to the changes in tone ... its more subtle than that. Placement of the pickup (how far away from the bridge it is) effects the treble/bass response as well.

Also, some Les Paul's are known to have 1Meg volume pots. This helps send more signal to the amp when its wide open (100%) because the signal to ground resistor at that point is a 1Meg, not a 500k (thus bleeding off less of the signal to ground).

Good Luck

[Charvel2]

im still a lil' green round the ears. i got half of what your saying, but why would they accidnetally tap the coils out of phase, i know people do this, but do i need that on a franky replica? my dad has been an electrian for more than 30 years, and he wont take the time of day when it comes to guitars, nor is he a van halen fan (poor soul) lol, so i guess i should hit up the guitar luthier at my local shop for more detail?

Does your pup have four conductor wiring - four sleeved wires and an earth? Two of them (the red and white) should be joined, while the others are soldered to your volume knob to make it work as a standard humbucker. On some older duncan pickups they don't have the four conductor wiring, but it's possible to wire them incorrectly (I can't for the life of me remember how) so that the coils are out of phase and you get something more like a single coil sound (not to be confused with coil splitting, which people usually incorrectly call coil tapping). I did this by mistake on my Epi LP and had more or less what you're describing.

Unfortunately, it's been too long since I performed surgery on my guitars to help you more with this. I don't think it's an issue with the pickup itself being a vintage PAF type - it should still sound gutsy, even if it's not a distortion type pup.

UPDATE: I just did a Google on this. Your pup should be wired in series and in phase. Wiring it in parallel in phase wil give a thinner, lower output sound with hum cancelling. Wiring it in parallel out of phase will give a thin sound, higher output without hum cancelling. At a guess, I'd say you might be in parallel/in phase, but you'd be wise to get a tech to have a look.