ShortScale.org

Just ordered the parts from Small Bear.

If I can get my recording gear to become functional again, I'll see if I can record before and after demos...

!!!
Sorry Astro, Looks like I got in here a little too late.

http://www.addison-electronique.com/

I buy all my electronic crap from these guys.
They're basically a Reno-Depot sized, electronic component store located like, one block west of Pie IX and one block north of the Met.
The staff is overall super helpful but you wanna zero in on the old timers that work at the audio counter. They'll set you straight.

You should definitely check 'em out next time you need this kind of stuff.

laterallateral wrote:!!!
Sorry Astro, Looks like I got in here a little too late.

http://www.addison-electronique.com/

I buy all my electronic crap from these guys.
They're basically a Reno-Depot sized, electronic component store located like, one block west of Pie IX and one block north of the Met.
The staff is overall super helpful but you wanna zero in on the old timers that work at the audio counter. They'll set you straight.

You should definitely check 'em out next time you need this kind of stuff.

Awesome! Thanks, dude!

I just ordered the parts yesterday from Small Bear, but as soon as I have a chance, I'll check these guys out!

The parts arrived from Small Bear today. I ordered exactly the ones Mike suggested, plus a spool of wire.

I soldered them in tonight (in my usual sloppy fashion), using the .02 cap and a spare Neutrik jack, and it works!

I didn't expect the change to be so drastic, I had imagined that it would be a very subtle difference. The pickups (Blue Lace Sensor in the neck, Red Lace Sensor in the bridge) both sound like fat single coils now, all chimey and sparkly but retaining thick lows and mids. Previous to the change, the clean tone of the Red was so bad that it was unusable. Now it actually sounds quite nice. I might even have to turn the treble EQ down a bit on the amp! That's exactly what I wanted, and now I don't want to change the pickups like I had planned. Yay!

Two questions:

Question one: I noticed that the taper on the tone knob is weird. From full on to about 2 thirds down, I can't hear a difference in tone. The tone only starts to change in the last third of the turn. But that last third stills gives a good range, and fully off the tone sounds all woolly and thick like before. I don't consider this to be a problem, since I usually play with the tone fully on. Is this an effect of using 1 meg pots? I checked, they're both audio taper. Could I have somehow screwed something up in the wiring? I'm not bothered by the situation at all, I'm just curious as to the mechanics of it.

Question two: The holes in the Mustang control plate were much wider than the shafts on the pots. I got around this by tightening the bolts pretty tightly with a wrench, and now they're no longer loose. Is this going to be a problem down the line? Is there a way to secure the pots so that I don't end up having to tighten them in the future? I just don't want the pots to get loose because I'm afraid that if they twist around the wires and soldering might get broken off.

astro wrote:Question one: I noticed that the taper on the tone knob is weird. From full on to about 2 thirds down, I can't hear a difference in tone. The tone only starts to change in the last third of the turn. But that last third stills gives a good range, and fully off the tone sounds all woolly and thick like before. I don't consider this to be a problem, since I usually play with the tone fully on. Is this an effect of using 1 meg pots? I checked, they're both audio taper. Could I have somehow screwed something up in the wiring? I'm not bothered by the situation at all, I'm just curious as to the mechanics of it.

Nope, you've done it fine, that's just a feature of the pot/cap combination you have. Smaller cap will yield less wool over more of the dial

astro wrote:Question two: The holes in the Mustang control plate were much wider than the shafts on the pots. I got around this by tightening the bolts pretty tightly with a wrench, and now they're no longer loose. Is this going to be a problem down the line? Is there a way to secure the pots so that I don't end up having to tighten them in the future? I just don't want the pots to get loose because I'm afraid that if they twist around the wires and soldering might get broken off.

Nope, that's the way to do it.

Thanks, Mike!