FrankenWashie’s Korean Deluxe ST

[DarkMark]

Hooray for FrankenWashie! Looking forward to your sound demo.

[WeirdBits]

Good noises = good news.

[wazkelly]

Great news. Jack sockets tend to be the most likely cause.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[FrankenWashie]

Great news. Jack sockets tend to be the most likely cause.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Yes, it was just some fiddling to find the right orientation to clear everything. I am going to open it up again to line the jack rout with an insulation layer just in case stuff shifts.
The pots are 500k, and to be honest it sounds quite muddy at the moment. I am contemplating changing them all out for 250k CTS and rewiring with push back wire.
The PUPS seem clear, just not enamoured with the way the tones are working at the moment.

The nut spaces the strings properly but it starts too far in from the bass side. This also heightens an issue with lateral angle on the string pull across the board. I have some bone blanks so i'm going to upgrade from the plastic.

The other upgrade that is likely is going to be the machine heads, they are all shiny and look good but with string tension on them, a couple are stiff, a couple less so and a couple have some massive backlash on tuning. Almost a quarter turn before they bite going back the other way. I've some string trees inbound for it as well.

[Simon Barden]

With 250k pots, things should sound even 'muddier' with more treble roll-off, though there's probably a different reason for things sounding muddy, and maybe damaged pots from overheating if the soldering is as amateur as you say it is. Are the pickups ceramic bar magnet on the back types, or alnico pole piece types? You haven't shown any pics of the back of the pickups or the wiring harness as far as I can see.

[FrankenWashie]

With 250k pots, things should sound even 'muddier' with more treble roll-off, though there's probably a different reason for things sounding muddy, and maybe damaged pots from overheating if the soldering is as amateur as you say it is. Are the pickups ceramic bar magnet on the back types, or alnico pole piece types? You haven't shown any pics of the back of the pickups or the wiring harness as far as I can see.

I don't think i actually took any photos of it before i re-wired the volume pot, i will take some tonight of it's current state. I need to check the value on the Cap across the Neck tone as well.
we shall see.....

[wazkelly]

Pardon my ignorance but with everything fully wound out on 10 wouldn't that negate whatever effect a tone cap might have? For those with more knowledge than myself, if volume knob is permanently set at 10, does the 250k v 500k make a difference? Acknowledge if you fiddle with vol & tone that should make a difference but just wondering if all flat out provides a base reference point for the sound/tone/levels of the PUP's regardless? If so, that could save a lot of time and hassle wiring in replacements just to find out the PUP's are duds?

I await responses from those more knowledgeable on these matters than me.

EDIT: A test might be to bypass all controls and straight the output socket for each pup as that gives just their pure signal.

[Simon Barden]

The value of the tone cap is basically inaudible with the tone control set on 10. You can use different value tone capacitors in conjunction with say a 500k pot, and with the tone on 10, you wouldn't hear any difference in the sound. There might be a 0.1dB difference in the higher frequencies that you could measure with a scope, but not enough for the ear to differentiate.

However the resistance value of the tone pot does make a much bigger difference, and you'll certainly hear a difference between a 500k tone pot and a 250k tone pot, with the 250k pot giving a darker tone in any given circuit. Taking the tone pot and cap out of circuit altogether can certainly give a very noticeable extra brightness to the sound - hence the popularity of 'no load' tone pots that do this. The Fender TBX circuit basically provides a variable extra resistance when taken above a 5.5 setting by dialling in more resistance in conjunction with a treble bleed cap, and turned full up you get an equivalent brightness to a no-load pot - but the treble gain is obviously more controllable than the on/off gain a no-load pot gives.

The lower the resistance of the tone pot, the more likely you are to hear slight changes in the tone capacitor value when the tone is set to 10, but at 500k and 250k, you really won't notice any effect until the tone pot gets turned down a bit.

250k vs 500k volume pots also make a difference to the tone, as anything in the guitar circuitry is forming a resonant low-pass filter circuit with the resistance, inductance and capacitance of the pickups (and also the input impedance of the amp), and the pot values affect the cut-off values of the filter. The higher the pot value, the higher the cut-off point and resonant peak of the resultant filter circuit is, so the brighter the pickup sounds. The position of the resonant peak can also play a big part in emphasizing any excessive treble or mids that the pickup naturally has on its own.

[FrankenWashie]

Well We've lived and loved this thing for a while now, and i am still not enamoured of the Korean/Chinese pups or electrics.
The neck is great, i still love the look and it feels great to play but this boy just ain't right.
So.
The stock electrics are going to get junked. I am going to re-wire with some Alpha 500K pots.
The Tone Riders that were destined for the Reverse Hendrix/SMST are going to sub in. The Korean ones should do for the SMST experiment.
The slightly high action (to my feel) at the heel end is going to be addressed with a bit of work on the nut; possibly a bone replacement, and potentially a bit of a shim under the rear if needed.
The other upgrade that is going to have to happen is some quality Gotoh or Grover machine heads as the stock ones were quite frankly rubbish, wishy-washy sticky, grindy awful rubbish.

So stay tuned happy campers for the reprise!

[FrankenWashie]

So, I've been messing with this off and on since October.
The Tone riders went in and it still didn't sound quite right, i sorted out the electrics everything functions the way it supposed to, yet I couldn't get a decent tone out of it.

It didn't really sound like a Strat, not even remotely. It sounded boomy and muddy and i couldn't figure out why.

It wasn't until I'd watched a YT vid with a guy testing a USD 100.00 Indio Classic that it all made sense. I had the pickups set WAY too high!

I have dropped these down to about half the height they were (they now sit about 1/8" above the scratch plate) all of a sudden i have something that sounds like a strat...A GOOD Strat!

There are a couple of things still to sort, nut height, still has a highish action, but now it is sounding like it should.

Sometimes its just those little things...