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]

Originally Posted by candid_x

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]

Originally Posted by beej

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]

Originally Posted by candid_x

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]

Originally Posted by whitestrat

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by candid_x

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...