Fender Bullet

yoreel

I have an 80's Fender bullet that I use as a 2nd guitar.

I am an accomplished player in a Funk band, the guitar has 2 single coil pick ups which I beleive were the same as the strat/tele at the time. It is also a great player that is as good as any strat or tele I have played ( I just have a penchant for old quirky guitars).

The problem I have is with the hum when using the distortion channel on my Marsahll TSL 102 ( & 2X12 Cab), I use quite a high gain setting on the amp. I want to pick your brains because I am not electrically minded, I need to know what would be the best replacement pick ups for the 2 single coils without losing that Fender tone ? Or would shielding the routes & guard be sufficient ?

My main guitar is a 77 Gibson Les Paul Dble cut with P90's, I have no problems with this guitar at all, but I can't quite get the Fender tone for certain numbers out of it.

Any ideas on pick ups please ?

Malik

You're probably just using the bridge and neck pickups right? Well if you swap one of the pickups for the original middle pickup (or any Strat middle pickup) that's reverse wound, it should cancel the hum. I think.

Pedro

Yeah, that would work if you're using both pickups at once. As far as replacements go, fender make "noiseless" p'ups for strats and teles that you might come across. I bought my dad a couple last year, they had nice fender tone, but you they might not totally cure the problem. See the earlier thread - http://www.jag-stang.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14754

He uses a marshall amp too, and there is still hum on the dirty channel, albeit a lot less

yoreel

Thanks for the info guys, I will give Seymour Duncan an email, they will probably blind me with electrical science, but well worth a go.

I want to make sure that theres nothing wrong wiring wise, there doesn't appear to be , but I don't know much where guitar electrics are concerned ?

Bob_the_godly_dude

There's nothing wrong with your guitar, the pickups on the LP are called Humbuckers because they Buck the Hum, I.E. cancel it out. The fender pickups are single coil, so they won't have that luxury, if you use high gain your making the noise louder, there's nothing changing the wiring would do. Do you use both pickups at once or one at a time generally, because like someone said, swapping one for a RWRP pickup will make the difference, but it won't do anything with just one pickup alone.

Hope that helps.

yoreel

Thanks for the info.

I have only started using fenders again recently, my main guitar is a 77 les paul special dble cut with P 90's.

The P 90's are so much more powerful & do not hum, even with high gain distortion levels, & they are also single coils, its probably down to windings or something.

I need to do a crash course in guitar electrics, I have been playing for years but still don't really understand how a guitar works.

The Bullet sound is so sweet, I will just have to control the hum, I think changing the pick ups will alter the sound.

Bob_the_godly_dude

Yeah, you really should learn the electronics, I kinda consider it a pretty essential skill if you want to use an electric guitar, and certainly if you want to own more than one electric guitar.

You may be able to reduce the hum using some form of Capacitor, I don't have my nice little reference guide with me here in Nepal, but when I get back home I'll try to give some suggestions. My biggest suggestion though is, simply turn down the gain a little!

Doog

Bob_the_godly_dude said: Yeah, you really should learn the electronics, I kinda consider it a pretty essential skill if you want to use an electric guitar,

Only if you intend to fix or modify it yourself, I doubt Hendrix knew how to wire a geetbox.

Pedro

yoreel wrote said: The P 90's are so much more powerful & do not hum, even with high gain distortion levels, & they are also single coils, its probably down to windings or something.

Yeah, and look where that approach got him! Maybe if he'd had more of an interest in switching resistors he wouldn't have taken all those damn sleeping pills.

I've never owned a guitar with P90s so don't know how they behave, but I'm surprised they don't hum as much as the fender. It might be worth having a quick look under the scratch plate of the bullet to make sure there's no dodgy connections anywhere. Is all the hardware earthed properly etc? And do you play it with both pickups engaged at once? Cos that would make it easy to solve (just a case of identifying what polarity the existing pups are and getting a reversed strat one) (which I actually have no idea how to do, so maybe not that easy!).

yoreel

Thats the second suggestion on the reversed coil strat thing, must be something in it. I use the neck pick up for most lead parts in high gain mode, it sounds so nice. I suppose its really about controlling the hum, you don't hear it when playing, only between songs, if I leave the that side of the amp on. The electrics appear ok under the scratch plate, although I have not checked anything on a meter (wouldn't know what to do). I am going to leave it alone, I don't want to spoil the tone.

I must sound like a real novice, I have been playing for 34 years (basically I'm an old f***er), & I play regular in a good band. I do tamper with guitar electrics mainly restoration projects, but that don't mean I understand it.

On the P90's & the Les Paul DC - I love them, you will never get that Fender twang out of them, they are bright & jazzy when clean, & sound really nice overdriven as well, they are much more powerful than stock Fender USA single coils & they don't hum. The guitar is stock & I have not had to touch the truss-rod since I set it up in 78 when I got it, a testament to the workmanship I suppose. I have used it for all sorts of styles for all of those years, its just a great guitar that suits me, everyone thinks its an SG when I play it.

Bob_the_godly_dude

Bob_the_godly_dude said: Yeah, you really should learn the electronics, I kinda consider it a pretty essential skill if you want to use an electric guitar,

True, but Hendrix did have a lot of money and a personal Tech, most of us don't have that luxury. I'm pretty sure Cobain knew how to mod the wiring on his guitars because he used to do it when Nirvana where still touring in a van.

It's not that dificult a thing to learn, just takes a little patience, if you have the money, don't spend 50 quid on a tech to chang a pup, buy a Gear4Music strat (or equivelant) and learn to dismantle and reassemble it, will cost you the same amount and save a fortune in the future.