Squire 50th anniversary strat s/c pickups

[critter01]

Hey Guys, have come into possession of these p/ups.all associated wiring,pots and selector were included (cheers Jodie) upon inspection i noticed the value of pots to 500k? i thought that the general rule of thumb is "500k for H/B and 250k for S/C" thinking of swapping out the 500's and dropping in 250's.has anyone got one of of these 50th Anniversary Squire strats? and if they could describe what they sound like with the stock pots? is it a good idea to change the pots? also would anyone know why these had 500k pots in them in the first place?.look forward to your replies.cheers..

[critter01]

Okay, have just read a thread on "Tone pots" and most of my questions were answered, the only one that i need answered concerned the p/ups themselves, so are these "50th Anniversary p/ups" wound differently? ie vintage sounding,higher output or are they just stock.cheers

[Ears]

250K pots won't give the p ups quite the same high frequency response, they will have less brightness with 250K cf 0.5Meg. Whether you like it or not depends on you, how the p ups were wound, your amp and the particular guitar.

[critter01]

thanks for the reply,i am trying to find some info on these particular pickups at the moment,hoping to hear from someone who has one of these Squire strats.cheers...

[calling card]

Hey critter, I don't know what junk that things got under it's trunk but here's a photo of the junk that my Alden came with. Check it out in see if it looks familiar, has it got flat magnetic bars on underside of pups?, mine also had lil' eeny weeny pots @ 500k.

It's all been replaced with Kent Armstong pups & Apha pots now - life is good.

If yours isn't like what you see pictured then disregard this post.

[critter01]

yeah, thats them, but the pots i have are a bit more chunker!!! how did they sound? thin?weak?.cheers..

[calling card]

Maybe the 500k are to brighten up a slight dullness to those kind of pups. My lil' cheapy always sounded way better than it should have out of the box - it was a guitar I bought on impulse.
It's poplar wood with maple top laminate & I really liked the feel of the neck, a very resonant thing unplugged, in the end I couldn't live with the headstock shape & now it has an 80's Japanese Fender neck.

I changed the pots first, I'd discribe the sound as more direct & solid than before couldn't say if was less bright, I did fit a 0.22 orange drop cap too.
Those type of pups are adequate to make music but you always know that it aint got that genuine vintage vibe.

The middle pup is reverse wound with the stock setup, The KA's I noticed are not reverse wound, it makes little noise or hum as it is now. The KA's are seeming to sound better with time too.

[critter01]

cheers mate, i am going to drop them in a Korean tele copy this weekend, perhaps just to hear what they are like.

[willow13]

Hey Guys, have come into possession of these p/ups.all associated wiring,pots and selector were included (cheers Jodie) upon inspection i noticed the value of pots to 500k? i thought that the general rule of thumb is "500k for H/B and 250k for S/C" thinking of swapping out the 500's and dropping in 250's.has anyone got one of of these 50th Anniversary Squire strats? and if they could describe what they sound like with the stock pots? is it a good idea to change the pots? also would anyone know why these had 500k pots in them in the first place?.look forward to your replies.cheers..

mine had 500k pots as well....I think its to make the single coils brighter for a more classic straty tone.....It explains for me why the sapele body that it now has sounds a lot darker than I wanted ( didn't realise until now why..always blamed the wood haha)...I have an all maple body strat with 250k pots just to take away some of the brightness off the wood, and it work really well....

so as far as changing the pots goes you need to look at 2 things.....

1) I assume you are putting these into a guitar with a different body so what is the wood??? then research the properties of that wood
2) what tone are you after.....if you want a classic slightly twangy strat tone then leave the pots as is, if you want it slight darker then change (again it depends on the wood as well)

hope this helps

[critter01]

cheers for that Willow,it just a Korean plywood tele copy all routed out to fit sss p/up configaration. (i call it "the Frankentele" as its been chiseled out for various humbuckers i have had, good and not so good. drilled for all types of input jacks,and now routed to take the sss config.)on this guitar i have learnt how to do an adequate re-fret that i am happy with not perfect but works for me,replace the nut with all types of material (aluminum,perspex,glass..!!)i now have a bone/brass laminated nut again not perfect but works for me,experimented with different types of bridges( standard strat type,tele,f/rose) only thing i cant do with it... is kill it !!!....it wont die,besides i have had it for about 20 years. and i cant afford to have a guitar"collection" any way.so thanks for your advice, when get around to lashing together another high E string out of some snapped ones i have lying around i will install them and listen to what these p/ups are like.cheers...

[willow13]

from my experiences ply bodies need the 500k pots other wise your sound is way to muffled...you might want to try disconnecting the tone controls all together and even maybe try a 1K pot to see if it makes much difference