| Author |
Message |
Hazy
Username: Hazy
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, October 30, 2006 - 7:17 am: | |
This past Saturday night, after several glasses of scotch, I decided that it was time to wax pot my microphonic Super 50 bridge pickup that came with my recently acquired AS120. BTW, I love this guitar.
I had previously bought a small $20 teflon fryer to use for the wax potting operation and put in the recommended 20%/80% beeswax/candle wax combination, using the pot exclusively for wax potting pickups. Seems, I've been plagued by more than my fair share of microphonic pups over the last year and I found a solution...not pretty, but a solution.
1st, I dropped all of the guitar pots, the output jack and the 3-position switch into the guitar body to get the bridge pickup to dangle about 8 inches out of the pup cavity. Then, after heating the wax to 150 deg F, I dropped the victim in for 10 minutes. Now picture this, the pickup is only dangling, not loose, so I have to invert the guitar horizontally and lower the pickup into the wax, holding the guitar suspended for 10 minutes. I didn't remove the pickup completely, well, because it's so friggin hard to get it all back in.
Potting done, and I love this part, I had to go on the 'net to get a way to put the pots back. Dental floss...that's what I found, dental floss tied to the pots and fished through the body to the pot hole and then pulled through. That guy was brilliant because, while there may be a better way, this worked relatively quickly...about 45 minutes to get them back.
All that done, the potting did help the microphonics considerably and I hosted a jam Sunday using the AS120 the whole time. Very little squeal as long as I payed attention to the tone/volume/pedal gain combination.
Final thought: Those Super 50s sound pretty good when they're cranked, with plently of bite at the bridge and a great woody tone at the neck. Really, not bad at all once the microphonics go away.
Rick |
Hazy
Username: Hazy
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 9:43 pm: | |
How do all of you take out the electronics and then put them back? If I get new pups, the process is harder. How do you do that?
Thanks,
Rick |
Gemberbier
Username: Gemberbier
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 7:44 am: | |
Some programmed instruction:
If you don't want to cut any wires, use the dental floss again, but longer pieces (about 75cm or 30 inch. Attach a piece of floss to each potmeter before you loosen the attachments nuts.
The idea is to let the pots sink into the guitar and pull the whole harness out through the nearest f-hole. (I use a surgical tool called artery clamp. I bought a bunch of these in different shapes and sizes from a tool trader. Since the borders are open you can buy cheap surgical and dentist tools from Poland and Russia. Very useful)
It can be necessary to do the same with the jack input. First loosen the nut a little bit, then put on the floss tightly. You could also use the shaft of an old jack plug soldered on 1 meter of wire.
Then you loosen the nut totally and let the input sink into the guitar.
So now the whole harness can be pulled out of the guitar through the nearest f-hole and you can see exactly where the pickup leads are connected to the pots. So now you must lead the new pickup leads through the opening in the pickup hole and copy what you see, but with the leads of the new pickups.
The rest of the harness stays the same.
If you're done with the soldering you can use the jack shaft to measure the resistance of the soldered pickups in open position (10 but you can't see that). If these values are normal, you did a good soldering job.
For Korean Super 58s Mike and I measured about 7.8 KOhm for neck and bridge. In the middle position it should measure 50%, so about 3.9 KOhm.
Improve your soldering until your values are normal, then put the stuff back in place, using the floss and the provisional lead on the jackplug. Put the nuts over the floss and the lead and then back on the pots and jack input.
Mount your pickups with the pickup rings.
Put your strings back on and tune them to the right pitch. Now adjust the height of the pickups. Try if the strings touch the pickups in any position. If so, lower them so much that the strings can just vibrate freely, even in the highest position (last fret). Plug the guitar in. Search for the balance between maximum output and no string/pickup buzz.
Are you satisfied about the sound?
No? > Adjust the pickup height.
Yes? > You're ready. Congrats, you did a great job.
Ginger |
Jazzzbo
Username: Jazzzbo
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 3:07 pm: | |
Is it true that SUPER 80 S PUPS are soaked in epoxy of some sort and not wax,?? and is there a difference between the two in sound etc, jazzz |
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