John's X300...

Right. Kids are back at school - YAY! - so I hied me forth to the shed to have a look at something that's been bugging me since forever... in that the Pantera has a backwards wired switch, i.e. the middle position gives the neck p/u and the top position gives the middle p/u. I know, I know; it's not a major but it has bothered me forever so let's have a look at the thing....



... this was my fast and dirty solution.





middle and neck out. They have never, ever been lifted, I reckon; the magnets pulled off the bottom of the coils! Note the litttle rubber foot in there. The p/us have no adjustment springs and are set really close to the line of the top of the fretboard...



A little surprised as I would have guessed they'd have been adjustable??

Anyway, having gathered the colours of the wires, I whipped open the cobtrol cavity, located the appropriate wires on the switch terminals and swapped 'em!



... here in unswapped mode!

Then having noticed that the 45 seemed a little weaker than I remembered - yes, Dorothy; I actually played it before removing the strings!! - went to take it out of circuit and measure the voltage and found that my bloody meter has died of a flat battery...

So at the moment it is sat on the bench, getting the fretboard oiled, awaiting a new 9V battery for further testing....

These are crying out for alnico pole piece pickups, not for the sound as they're pretty good for cerami, but more to have a llittle wiggle room to lower them some. 

Want a hint John? 






Rechargeable batteries

corsair wrote:





A little surprised as I would have guessed they'd have been adjustable??



.

That's what the foam rubber is for.

The bridge pup looks miles away from the strings. Probably why it sounds weak.

These need to be close to the strings for any decent sounds.

Yep... that's what I figured! The readings were in the 12k/6k region so up it will go.

...having gathered the colours of the wires, I whipped open the cobtrol cavity, located the appropriate wires on the switch terminals and swapped 'em!

Was it not possible to simply rotate the switch assembly John? Not enough wire length maybe.

The readings were in the 12k/6k region so up it will go.

Yeah, kinda low'sh for a '45. Lifting her a bit should help.

Just to clarify for those who may not follow what's going on, raising the pup closer to the strings will generate more magnetic energy and subsequently a louder output, since you're utilizing more of whatcha got. This does not increase the actual output of the pickup itself though, it remains at 12/6.

I often need to do this on *ahem* entry level guitars whose owners complain of them not being loud enough. Did one this weekend on an Epiphone Special, a right piece of poo with plastic machine heads and a terrible plastic nut. In these cases you do get a louder guitar, but it's usually something you don't want to hear. Louder crap is still crap...but louder!

Barry wrote:
 Louder crap is still crap...but louder!

................. Priceless

Barry wrote:

...having gathered the colours of the wires, I whipped open the cobtrol cavity, located the appropriate wires on the switch terminals and swapped 'em!

Was it not possible to simply rotate the switch assembly John? Not enough wire length maybe.

Rotate the switch,,,err, think about it.

Westbone wrote:

Barry wrote:

...having gathered the colours of the wires, I whipped open the cobtrol cavity, located the appropriate wires on the switch terminals and swapped 'em!

Was it not possible to simply rotate the switch assembly John? Not enough wire length maybe.

Rotate the switch,,,err, think about it.

Hee hee hee.... Barry, mate; it's the middle and neck connections that were reversed, not the bridge and neck, eh!!

Cranked the pickup up to about 6mm from the strings and "Whacko!!" Instant racket.....

Ahhh...the old middle-neck switch-aroo.

...about 6mm from the strings and "Whacko!!" Instant racket.....

No crap there!