F
Fusioninspace
New member
Hey, I just got done with modifying my MIM Strat. I know a lot of people hate the MIMs, but the neck is perfect, it's got the sunburst finish and I wanted to play with the tone and looks. So....
1. I did some web searching and found a nice site on shielding - so I did the shielding routine to help with the hum.
2. More web searching to the Shavano site - they have a number of wiring mods. So I reduced my knobs to just volume and one overall tone control. Put a "treble bleed" capacitor on the volume (with a microswitch so I can turn it on or off) to give it that Tele sound. Put a push/pull switch on the volume - in is normal - out leaves the bridge pickup on no matter what the 5 position selector is on.
3. Put a Lace gold on the neck position, left the stock single coil in the middle and put a Danelectro Lipstick in the bridge. I took the white cover off the middle pickup and painted the copper with this liquid electrical tape stuff.
4. Replaced those sad-sack bridge pieces with GraphTech ones. It's a 6 screw tremolo bridge - I replaced the screws with black ones. So it's now the chrome bridge with black accents.
5. Replace the pickguard with a nice white turtleshell one. Replaced the two remaining control knobs with knurled chrome ones. Replaced the white tip on the selector switch with a black one. I noticed a G&L ad that my guitar looks like now.
6. Went with LIGHTER strings - .09 Fender Bullets. I usually use .10 or .11's on my other guitars.
The result?
After about 1 hour of reseting everything....
It JAMS!!!!! The little Tele treble bleed really works - sounds like a Tele
Or a Strat, then a Tele, and then a Strat and then... I'm glad I put it on a switch.
There's considerably less hum - but the stock middle p'up still hums. So I think the hum reduction is due mostly to the change in the other two pickups and not so much from the shielding. The Lace has no hum and the Dano has just a little hum. When any combo of two p'ups are selected, there's no hum.
Going with the lighter strings seems to help with the three spring trem. With light trem action, the guitar stays in tune. But with a divebomb it still goes out.
I've had this thing out of commission for over six months - So it was awfully nice to finally get it back into playing condition! I'm just happy now, so pardon me for rambling.
1. I did some web searching and found a nice site on shielding - so I did the shielding routine to help with the hum.
2. More web searching to the Shavano site - they have a number of wiring mods. So I reduced my knobs to just volume and one overall tone control. Put a "treble bleed" capacitor on the volume (with a microswitch so I can turn it on or off) to give it that Tele sound. Put a push/pull switch on the volume - in is normal - out leaves the bridge pickup on no matter what the 5 position selector is on.
3. Put a Lace gold on the neck position, left the stock single coil in the middle and put a Danelectro Lipstick in the bridge. I took the white cover off the middle pickup and painted the copper with this liquid electrical tape stuff.
4. Replaced those sad-sack bridge pieces with GraphTech ones. It's a 6 screw tremolo bridge - I replaced the screws with black ones. So it's now the chrome bridge with black accents.
5. Replace the pickguard with a nice white turtleshell one. Replaced the two remaining control knobs with knurled chrome ones. Replaced the white tip on the selector switch with a black one. I noticed a G&L ad that my guitar looks like now.
6. Went with LIGHTER strings - .09 Fender Bullets. I usually use .10 or .11's on my other guitars.
The result?
After about 1 hour of reseting everything....
It JAMS!!!!! The little Tele treble bleed really works - sounds like a Tele
Or a Strat, then a Tele, and then a Strat and then... I'm glad I put it on a switch.There's considerably less hum - but the stock middle p'up still hums. So I think the hum reduction is due mostly to the change in the other two pickups and not so much from the shielding. The Lace has no hum and the Dano has just a little hum. When any combo of two p'ups are selected, there's no hum.
Going with the lighter strings seems to help with the three spring trem. With light trem action, the guitar stays in tune. But with a divebomb it still goes out.
I've had this thing out of commission for over six months - So it was awfully nice to finally get it back into playing condition! I'm just happy now, so pardon me for rambling.
