Hello Kitty Stratocaster Demo

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:36 am

I've been requested to do a proper demo of Hello Kitty before, so here goes. There's a lot of me talking on it because I still kind of suck at guitar and I like to talk.

[youtube][/youtube]

So the pink one is 100% stock, the black one just has an SD TB-5 installed and stacked Alpha pots, nothing special other than that.

I actually like it a lot stock, and really nothing needs replacing. The neck is fine. Once set up, it stays in tune. The pot is a 500k Alpha mini-pot, so it's actually a pot I'd use for myself (I don't believe in full-sized pots) so if you like the pickup, and I actually do, nothing NEEDS to be changed. Anyway, that's that.

Lucamo · Post by **Lucamo** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:54 am

I voted pink.

The Trembucker does sound better, but the pink one is prettier.
Why are all your straps so awesome? Where do you get them? I have seen solid pink, green and red.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:28 am

Yeah I love the TB-5 on it. Wiring it in parallel makes it work for me. In series, it was too rockin' for me, but in parallel, it works very well with the chopped chords I love playing. I'm thinking of transferring the TB-5 to the pink one and putting a Lace Dually on the black one with a Spin-a-Split and a Series/Parallel push-push pot, but I'd have to drill into it, but it's the black one, so I wouldn't feel that bad about it.

As for straps, other than the Hello Kitty, which you can't get anymore, I use DiMarzio ClipLocks for my locking straps, which are available in a huge number of colors, and the cheapest of the cheapest Ernie Ball straps. I used to put ClipLocks on every single guitar, but then I realized that most of my guitars are super light and are fine with a basic strap.

DiMarzio ClipLock
DiMarzio ClipLock Neon
Ernie Ball 2" Poly Straps

Ernie Balls are so cheap that I buy one strap per guitar and never take them off, which in turn makes them last forever. They are good straps in my mind. Can't beat the price either.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:35 am

pink, purely on aesthetics

Lucamo · Post by **Lucamo** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:33 am

Okay, I am a noob to Parralel and Series.

In my local guitar shop, the mustang nerd always called the switching options in phase or out of phase... out of phase is the quacky Mustang sound.
Is he really meaning to say in Series or in Parralel?

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:49 am

Well, think of it like this. Humbuckers are basically two single coils side by side so all the terminology applies. Pickups are basically a magnet surrounded by a coil of fine wire, and the more windings you have, the higher your output.

Most humbuckers have the coils in series. What that means is that the end of first coil is connected to the start of the second coil. So basically it's like you have one massive coil, and your output gets added.

You can also wire the coils in parallel, this means that the starts of the first and second coils are joined, and the end of the two coils are also joined. So, it's kind of like you're creating a fork in the road of the circuit. In terms of output, it's kind of like you're taking the average of the two coils.

Most guitars are wired with the coils of a humbucker in series, but the pickups themselves tend to be in parallel. If you had a series setting you would know because your output would increase by a great amount and your tone gets very fat. Some Teles are modified with a 4-way switch for this.**

Phase is like inverting the signal, so the start and end of your coil is reversed. You can have out-of-phase in series or parallel. When two coils are out of phase, their outputs subtract from each other, and what you're left with is like the difference between the two coils.

Mustangs have phase reversal switches, but their pickups are wired in parallel.

** I'm convinced that a lot of what we consider humbucker vs. single-coil tone has to do with the parallel vs. series nature of their usual wiring. Two single coils in series sound very fat, and a humbucker wired in parallel has a great deal of clarity and have about the same output as single coils. But since the blend position of single coils tend to be parallel and humbuckers are almost always series, you can bridge the gap between the two by mixing up series and parallel. I mean, look back at the video and listen to the black guitar closely. Does it sound that different from a pair of hotter ceramic single coils blended in a Strat?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:33 am

i want the pink, but with no pickguard, so it's just pepto bismol with a maple neck.

StevePirates · Post by **StevePirates** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 3:58 am

gaybear wrote:pink, purely on aesthetics

QFT.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:21 am

Don't change either guitar. I don't like strats, but I would rock a Hello Kitty strat. Of course my daughter would steal it in 2 seconds when my head was turned.

Steve! · Post by **Steve!** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:29 pm

swap you for my USA Strat????

Hello Kitty Stratocaster Demo

Which is more you?

Hello Kitty Stratocaster Demo