blues specials for sundown

[candid_x]

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I sprung for an SSS set of Fralin blues specials for "sundown". (see silo special avatar)

I need some "clang" tone, and the choice came down to buying a cheap strat, or taking my best shot with a set of proven stratty pickups. If it doesn't work out in sundown I can drop it into "blue", currently a rosewood board HSS. But I already know I like these pickups, so it should be interesting.

I don't plan on selling the stock p'ups, unless someone here really needs 'em. I still like them, just looking for something else right now. Not sure whether to remove the silent circuit or not, I don't know if it could cause more hum with the fralins rather than quite them.

Anyhoo, will let anyone who is interested know the outcome.

Bruce

 

[beej]

Awesome Bruce! I say leave the SC wired up. You'll definitely get some hum reduction, how much is up to the pickups.

 

[candid_x]

Hey, J man.

Ideally I'd like to leave the SC in, but there's always some voodoo notion that it may take something out of the tone. And since my eyesight and skills with a soldering iron are sorely limited, I thought it might be easier just to eliminate it.

While I have your attention, Beej, let me ask you, is it considered a poor installation to clip and attach the wires before the silent circuit? In other words, leave everything the way it was at the 5-way switch? (I'm not even sure if the question makes sense...)

Bruce

 

[robelinda2]

Good thinking Bruce!

 

[whitestrat]

Any clips from the Fralins yet?

 

[candid_x]

Dude, I just ordered them! lol S'posed to get them next Monday.

Do you guys do your own pickup swapping or give it to a tech? Only local tech I know of charges a hundred usd to swap out pickups. Thinking that's a little steep, no?

 

[beej]

Ideally I'd like to leave the SC in, but there's always some voodoo notion that it may take something out of the tone. And since my eyesight and skills with a soldering iron are sorely limited, I thought it might be easier just to eliminate it.

While I have your attention, Beej, let me ask you, is it considered a poor installation to clip and attach the wires before the silent circuit? In other words, leave everything the way it was at the 5-way switch? (I'm not even sure if the question makes sense...)

Fair enough, nothing wrong with taking it out.

Removing it is easy- One wire to the wiring harness, one to ground, one to battery +, two to the grounds of the the pickups. Better yet- since you're taking out the old pickups, keep the p'up ground wires still attached. So you only need to remove three leads- ground (black), red (battery, to molex connector), yellow (wiring harness).

You can snip those wires rather than unsolder them. You're not going to have to re-solder anything in their place. Just try to keep the wires on the SC as long as possible, they're pretty short to start with.

Should be an easy job for any tech, but it's easily done yourself if you want to try. Just practice soldering on something else first.

 

[candid_x]

Just practice soldering on something else first.

LOL, are you volunteering anything of yours to practice on? j/k

As you can tell, I'm lame with this kind of thing. However, I've decided to get a finer soldering kit, shrink wrap insulation, wire strippers, clips, whatever I need to do it properly, and give it a go myself, keeping the SC intact. I figure if I just replace one wire at a time I should be ok with it. I've replaced pickups before, but with a larger rout cavity and longer wires to work with, plus no SC to deal with. Shouldn't be that difficult though.

Thanks, Jay.

 

[candid_x]

Quickie report on the dirty deed.

Does it deliver bell-like piano tones? Yes
Am I happy with it? Yes
Would I do it again? Yes
How do cleans sound? Stunning!
How does overdrive sound? Excellent, but with a typical bit of Fralin raspiness.
Are there any down sides? Yes (see below)

The Fralin blues specials (w plate) do indeed deliver what I was looking and hoping for. But, I can't sneak by with sloppy playing nearly as easily as with the more forgiving and modern sounding stock p'ups - so articulate and dynamic are the Fralins in a Silo Special. Don't expect sound clips anytime soon until I get some practice in .

I've had vintage hots twice before but this is my first go-round with the blues specials, and first time with Fralins in a Silo. I think they're better balanced and suited for the Silo Special than the VH, though a friend is perfectly happy with vintage hots in his Silo Special. He's playing a rosewood board too, which more than likely is a little darker sounding. For the maple board, I'm liking the blues specials lots so far.

Almost forgot, the silent circuit isn't as effective as with the stock pickups, but it does cut a little of it out.

 

[whitestrat]

The Fralin blues specials (w plate) do indeed deliver what I was looking and hoping for. But, I can't sneak by with sloppy playing nearly as easily as with the more forgiving and modern sounding stock p'ups - so articulate and dynamic are the Fralins in a Silo Special. Don't expect sound clips anytime soon until I get some practice in .

I've had vintage hots twice before but this is my first go-round with the blues specials, and first time with Fralins in a Silo. I think they're better balanced and suited for the Silo Special than the VH, though a friend is perfectly happy with vintage hots in his Silo Special. He's playing a rosewood board too, which more than likely is a little darker sounding. For the maple board, I'm liking the blues specials lots so far.

Almost forgot, the silent circuit isn't as effective as with the stock pickups, but it does cut a little of it out.

Did you order it with the bassplate? Yeah... the SS seems to work best with stock pups.

The Blues Specials would generally be a bit darker than the Vintage Hots given the higher DC resistances. That's probably why they suit a maple more than the Vintges do. Though the vintages are still not as low as I'd like.

Clips please!!!!

You know, I just noticed. This is the ONLY official site forum where we post MODIFICATIONS of our guitars, and you don't get any staff running in shouting about void warranty issues...

 

[candid_x]

Did you order it with the bassplate? Yeah... the SS seems to work best with stock pups.

The Blues Specials would generally be a bit darker than the Vintage Hots given the higher DC resistances. That's probably why they suit a maple more than the Vintges do. Though the vintages are still not as low as I'd like.

Clips please!!!!

You know, I just noticed. This is the ONLY official site forum where we post MODIFICATIONS of our guitars, and you don't get any staff running in shouting about void warranty issues...

Yup on the baseplate, they use a very beefy steel plate. Yes, the bs's are 5% more wound and 5% hotter than the vh's. I like the vh's, but found them to be just a bit much in the high end fizzy dept. Add to that a maple board and swamp ash body... b r i g h t

Welcome to Lindy Fralin Pickups: Fralin Strat® Style Blues Specials - the Finest Guitar Pickups Available Today!

I'll try to get a clip up of some clean chords without effects, through an actual amp. I think that's the most helpful way to actually hear the guitar/pickups.

I think it's pretty obvious from the molar connectors that the Silo Special was intended to facilitate pickup mods. I personally still like the stock pickups, I think they're a wise choice to cover a wide variety of styles. The Fralins (and I think your CS69's as well), throws back to more a vintage niche - not something MM is generally associated with. I think of MM more as being cutting edge than traditional. But that's kinda a cool too, me thinks, cuz one wouldn't expect to hear genuinely juicy vintage tones from the nimble little hotrod - Silo Special.

 

[Jack FFR1846]

Sounds like you were able to make the mod with the silent circuit in place. I am not positive, but I would think that you could test with/without by leaving it in place and removing the battery.

jack

 

[Shadowbox]

Sorry to waste thread space, but I love threads like these. Thanks to all for posting.

 

[candid_x]

Sounds like you were able to make the mod with the silent circuit in place. I am not positive, but I would think that you could test with/without by leaving it in place and removing the battery.

jack

I did exactly that, testing with/without a fresh battery. But ya know, I don't play high gain or very high volumes so the difference isn't going to be very dramatic anyway. As Beej pretty much predicted, the SC does work with the Fralins, even if not as well as with the stock pups. It's possible that the SC could be dialed in a bit more, something the tech was supposed to do but didn't bother with. It's fine though.

 

[whitestrat]

The Fralins (and I think your CS69's as well), throws back to more a vintage niche - not something MM is generally associated with. I think of MM more as being cutting edge than traditional. But that's kinda a cool too, me thinks, cuz one wouldn't expect to hear genuinely juicy vintage tones from the nimble little hotrod - Silo Special.

It's nice when the SS sounds old. very sweet guitar. I see your point on EBMM not intending to sound vintage.

At least the bass plate works for you. I'm beggining to wonder about this plate and how it actually works. I attached the ones from the stock DiMarzio pups to my SS, and my bridge pup became microphonic! I took it out immediately.

P.S. I'm no longer on CS69s... Heheheh...

 

[whitestrat]

I did exactly that, testing with/without a fresh battery. But ya know, I don't play high gain or very high volumes so the difference isn't going to be very dramatic anyway. As Beej pretty much predicted, the SC does work with the Fralins, even if not as well as with the stock pups. It's possible that the SC could be dialed in a bit more, something the tech was supposed to do but didn't bother with. It's fine though.

Because I use the Silo Spec for relatively lower gain tones, I've realised that the shielding of the guitar itself is good enough NOT to require the Silent Circuit at all. So I usually don't bother putting a battery in. hahahaha...

 

[candid_x]

Lionel, I hear ya. For quite a while I stopped feeding mine batteries too. Not only did I not require the use of it, I thought it was robbing some tone from the rig. Until one day when I decided to A/B with and without a 9v, and came to the surprising conclusion that I liked the tone better with it in; it sounded somehow more refined. How much of that was pure imagination? I honestly don't know. It's not that important either way to me. But if I was running through a kazzilion pedals, still playing smokey bars with neon and fluorescent lighting, and plugged into an already overloaded and/or dirty circuit, then I suspect the SC would become very important indeed!

 

[whitestrat]

Lionel, I hear ya. For quite a while I stopped feeding mine batteries too.

Just want to add to something I've experienced recently. I dumped in a set of John Mayer Big Dippers into my Silo Spec. Damn! They're REALLY nice...

Here are the specs:

Black bottoms.
Vintage Staggered non bevelled pole pieces
Enamel Formvar wire (dark brown)

Readings: (from my set, though YMMV)
Neck - 5.8k
Mid - 6.5k
Bridge - 7.2k

All in all, this set, is VERY punchy, has a bit of ice-pickyness, lotsa bass and highs, but lowered mids (as they claim). Though I'm not sure if they lowered the mids only, or raised the other 2. But it does seem different from most of the other sets.

The closest tonal cousin I can think of would be the CS69s, or rather, a more beefy set of the Custom 65 pickups.

(here's the personal opinion bit)

Yes, it seems Like there's a lot of hype, and being someone who's bought the hype and paid many a pretty penny for a set on eBay, I'm glad to say my purchase was justified. They are indeed nice. Nicer than what I've tried recently on other pups, Fender or otherwise. They drive easily. No loss of thump or highs under gain. What' really impressive are the in between tones. They're bright, snappy, and very prominent even under high distortion. They seem very "vintage" (to coin a term), yet are rather agressive if played hard. The inbetweens are sparkly, and the neck and middle are chimey. The bridge is a bit underwound for my taste, but the overall package seems to be rather tight and responsive. One key thing to observe is that while inder mild or intense gain, the tones are very tight, big and surprisingly airy. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but that's what it seems to sound like to me.

I'm so glad I found one set on the bay, and not have had to buy the entire guitar just for the pups. Though the price I paid for this set could have gotten me a nice CIJ Fender at discount. Ouch! At least, I have a set of tones I like so much in my fav SSS guitar now.

But there's something odd. I've upped the Silent Circuit to the max, and there's still some inherent buzzing. Very little, but it's there. The CS69s has this buzzing too (sort of like hum, but more gritty. Definately interference related), but much much lower. The Big Dippers have a bit more of it, but I think that's cos they're hotter than the CS69s... For the in-between positions, it's dead quiet. But the full on positions will have that noise. Hahaha...

 

[candid_x]

Lionel, thanks for the report on the Big D's. I've wondered how they are working out for you. Other than the neck being under 6k, the others' output seem quite average. Maybe Mayer plays in the neck position a lot?

Don't know what to say about the SC issue. There must be some reason it works better with certain p'ups. I'm waiting till next string change to again adjust the SC trim pot on mine. Pretty sure I can trim most of the hum out of the Fralins. Until then I'm ridin' bareback. haha!

 

[TonyEVH5150]

Lionel, thanks for the report on the Big D's. I've wondered how they are working out for you. Other than the neck being under 6k, the others' output seem quite average. Maybe Mayer plays in the neck position a lot?

Don't know what to say about the SC issue. There must be some reason it works better with certain p'ups. I'm waiting till next string change to again adjust the SC trim pot on mine. Pretty sure I can trim most of the hum out of the Fralins. Until then I'm ridin' bareback. haha!

I just watched the "Live in LA" DVD. He seems to play in the neck/neck-middle position alot.