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Post by chronicinsomnia on Jan 24, 2020 15:17:19 GMT -5
I got my set of pickups today and they came with the control plate w/ 5 way switch and pots. The pots in the guitar currently are 250k value. The pots that came with the pickups are 1 meg. I have some brand new 500k pots as well. Any preferences? Advice etc. This will be my project this evening or tomorrow.
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 24, 2020 18:16:11 GMT -5
Hi Chronic. I'll give the short version here, but post a couple of links to the FDP Archive where I discussed this in greater detail. I use 3 x 250k pots in all but one of my guitars fitted with FVN's. That one exception has 3 x 500k's, and I can't hear or feel a difference. That said, beauty is in the ears of the beholder, so you may hear it differently. In the link below, I share my experience with pot values using a set of Gen 4 Noiseless Tele pickups. End result (spoiler alert) - 250k pots. Tele with Gen 4 Noioseless postNote: the above was the only one of my old posts I could find. Don't where the others are
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 24, 2020 23:50:40 GMT -5
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Jan 28, 2020 9:49:15 GMT -5
I ended up going with the 1 meg pots. I installed them over the weekend and have been pleased so far. I haven't compared them to my other teles yet. I will try and do that at some point this week. I'm not missing the hum though.
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 29, 2020 6:18:50 GMT -5
I ended up going with the 1 meg pots. I installed them over the weekend and have been pleased so far. I haven't compared them to my other teles yet. I will try and do that at some point this week. I'm not missing the hum though. That's great! Post back after you've had some A/B time with your other teles. I'll be interested to hear what you think. Cheers, Mick
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Jan 29, 2020 9:44:24 GMT -5
I did a comparison between this Nashville and one of my bone stock ones (which has ceramic magnets). I have both guitars pickups at exactly the same height measured with a machinist ruler.
The FVN are slightly brighter but not unpleasantly so. I can possibly tweak the treble side of either one to get them to sound almost identical. I played rhythm and lead lines swapping between the two repeatedly. I will give the 1 meg a ride for a bit.
I have another Tele that has GFS Neovin noiseless pickups and I will do a comparison between them hopefully tonight.
The FVN w/ 1 meg pots is not ice-picky at all which was what I was worried about. I do like the tone of these pickups as they are now. I couldn't compare the middle position because the other guitar isn't a Nashville. However, I do like what I'm hearing thus far.
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 29, 2020 18:23:25 GMT -5
Thanks for the update. Keep em' coming!
I'd be interested to know what you think of the Neovin Noiseless in general. I've looked at them a few times for strats (their True Coil ones as well) but never took the plunge.
In my old FDP post my comparison was with the Gen 4 Noiseless with 500k & 250k adn there was an audible difference. So if you decide the 1M are too bright, you could always try 500's.
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Jan 30, 2020 18:18:06 GMT -5
I've got the Neovins in a strat with 500k pots and love them very bell like. I have Neovins in a tele with 500k and they sound remarkably close to my stock single coils.
I have Truecoils in 2 Yngwie clones one with 500k the other with 250k. I highly recommend the truecoils for tone. However, they are very tall pickups and required depth routing in the cavity for them to fit.
Over the last few years playing at a church with ancient wiring I have been trying to alleviate some of the buzzing and removing the 60 cycle hum has helped my sanity. I just don't want bad tone with no hum.
Between the Truecoils and the Neovins: The neovins were easier to install but you really need to get them close to the strings to make them speak. Like a quarter (coin) from the string while holding at the last fret.
The Truecoils have more of a normal single coil perceived output.
Sidenote: Didn't get to compare the FVN to the Neovins last night hopefully this evening.
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 30, 2020 18:41:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the additional info chronic.
I had read about the pickup/string height relationship being important. Lace Sensors are similar in that way. As close as you can get them.
Also the height/depth issue with the True Coils has hindered my trying them. From memory, the TC's are roughly a 1/4" taller than a Fender Vintage Noiseless.
Do you notice a significant difference in tone between the 500k vs 250k pots with the TC's?
Cheers
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Jan 31, 2020 9:07:29 GMT -5
I don't notice any discernible difference between the two TC's. Also, yes roughly 1/4" taller.
On the subject of pickup height. Do you have any recommendation for the FVN. I went with specs I found online but....sometimes the specs I find are far from the ideal.
I did do the comparison between the FVN and the Neovin last night. (this may be due to the pots I don't know) the Neovins were slightly darker/warmer than the FVN.
I played it with my wife in the room. She was looking at me like I had lost my mind. I would play a couple of chords or lead lines and almost frantically swap to the other and play the same thing. She was like "what are you doing?". I told her I was comparing she (her humble opinion) said they don't sound any different. So there's that.
I feel like I could probably EQ them to sound closer. I was doing all my testing with a clean sound with a boost compressor. I used the compressor because I almost always use that on my clean sounds at church to keep it from getting peaky and the boost gives it a almost imperceptible amount of hair. I very rarely run an amp 100% clean. Most people would call it sparkly/jangle.
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Jan 31, 2020 22:33:56 GMT -5
I initially set them to the Fender recommended height(s) and adjust from there for balance across the 3 p/ups and from bass to treble on each. Fender VN spec: 8/64" E6 (low) 6/64" E1 (high)
I just checked the two strats sitting next to me and this is what I found:
Low E's on all were consistently 6/64" and high E's ranged between 5/64" to 8/64", with the Bridge p/up high E being set the lowest (furthest away). As I said this would have been done by ear, but it kind of makes sense that the higher pitched strings would be most variable, especially at the bridge p/up, to balance out any spiky frequencies.
Pre-zactly! I think too many people forget there are typically lots of tone knobs between the guitar and the speaker when comparing pickups, pedals, strings (pretty much anything guitar) and that they're there for a reason. I don't think it's reasonable to have an amp (or pedal) EQ'ed for single coils, then switch to humbuckers and not expect the need to make any adjustments.
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Post by bluzcat on Feb 10, 2020 11:09:36 GMT -5
I just installed a set of FVN (originals) that I had handy in my VG Strat. I set them to Fender specs for now and they sound better than I recalled. The VG Strat has one 250k volume and tone that is stacked with another value for the Roland pickup, so not sure how that is affecting the tone. So far so good though.
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