warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

[Hotrodder]

Re: warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

Here's something I'm planning to do with my Special for the bridge position.

Get a Strat pickup set that has 2 vintage style (neck/middle) and one blues style (bridge) pickups. Make sure the set has the middle pickup reverse wound/reverse polarity. My plan is for the Big Bottom Set from Rio Grande pickups http://www.riograndepickups.com/2.html

OK the idea is to wire the "bridge" blues and the "middle" in series so it's just like a real humbucker. The output of both pickups together will be in the distortion class and the mis-matched coils have a diffrent sound, but you can still "split" the pickup for 2 cool Strat bridge tones.

I'd probably use the 4 pole 5 way switch that stu-mac sells and set it up like this

1 neck vintage
2 neck + "middle" vintage
3 "middle" vintage bridge
4 'bridge" blues bridge
5 "middle + bridge" Humbucker

edited to add...

I almost forgot, you will need to cut the tabs off the strat pickups so they will fit side by side (and fit the neck route).

[zeegler]

Re: warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

The 250k pots are a good idea. And here's a thought, why not add a tone control. If you don't want to drill holes, just install one in the cavity, set it how you like it, and close the back.

[Hotrodder]

Re: warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

After all that stuff I wrote about my plans for my Special, what did I do tonight?? I took a chisel to it and put in a Duncan Distortion. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

All I can say is [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

It looks cool too.

[charvelguy]

Re: warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

EMG SA's swap into those single slots, or SD live wires singles.. wire the first two together in the first pos of the selector to act as a humbucker. I personally do not mind the tonal range of the Special.. I think it's quite flexible without a tone knob. Just swap out the bridge and replace the pups and it is a decent axe.

[etaeniura]

Re: warmer tone from Fusiuon Special?

Yeah, I bought it on a whim, but after doing a thorough cleaning and setup, it is an excellent playing guitar. Earlier this week I replaced the 5 way switch and the tone got better. I currently have two Jackson J-200's up in the bridge slot and a lil'59 in the neck (killer pickup by the way) THe old switch was noisy and I am pretty sure it had a short or something somewhere because The range of tones from this guitar has increased greatly witht he new switch. Next project is the trem-the single locker certainly has its issues, like the complete inability to utilize the fine tuners. I'm debating whether or not to replace the whole trem, or just find a set of double locking saddles.