If you like watching independently funded guitar content like this video consider supporting the channel on Patreon: www.patreon.com/60CycleHumcast $179 Leo Jaymz Guitar: amzn.to/3TfPTJv Saphue Telecaster Bridge Hotrail: amzn.to/42Ph1lm Illusion plastic: www.eplastics.com/films/rowlux-illusion-film Stringjoy Use code: HUM to save 10% (stringjoy.com/partner/60cyclehum/)
Heyyyyy so it looks like Sonicake just released the A-Factory and B-Factory pedals (Acoustic, Bass) and they look really cool. I would love to see a review on these, love your channel btw
I definitely liked the sound @6:55 before the change... Sounds great for a $1000 guitar, let alone a sub $200. It was bright enough on the bridge, and lovely and dark when the neck pup came in... Great content, sir.
I actually prefered the before-sound. Seems more spanky or what you would call it. But I don't know if it's just because he played it a bit differently. And actually when I heard that bridge, I felt that it was the ideal sound that I want. We all have our personal preferences of course 😄
Since you already removed the tone pot, look into a Spin-a-Split mod. It’s like a volume control on the second coil of the Humbucker so you can have a gradient of single to full Humbucker tones.
FUN TIP: if you buy a pickup thats not hot enough you can take the baseplate off and add or swap out the ceramic magnets on the bottom, and if its not potted already go ahead and dip that puppy in some hot paraffin wax,or epoxy resin if your a real mad lad
I really like this Tele! The color is fantastic, and your pickguard idea is PERFECT. And I’ll be damned if that thing doesn’t sound great. Sometimes for no apparent reason, things just come together in a guitar. I think that happened here. Yes. Yes this IS a good video.
I bought this same pickup for about the same price about 10 years ago for a Tele style guitar I built. I’m a pickup maker and figured it was a cheap way to get the parts. I had every intention on rewinding the pickup. Put it in the guitar. It sounded fine. It’s been in there ever since!
This was great, thanks for the "shout out". I say you gave the guitar an identity and character. Visually stimulating and amazing what $16.00 pickup can do. Kill switch is good idea. Things like this is why I love your channel so much. Nice job Ryan!!🫡👍
The Neck pickup loads down the bridge in the middle position. If you have two pickups that are rougly equeal in volume, middle position will be more quiet.
@@60CycleHumcastYeah ! But have the first 2 notes of Sailing looping underneath. Immediately recognizable, but too short for copyright infringement .
With the pickups in the middle position you're throwing two pickups in parallel and changing the total impedance, but you'll also find that you can change that combo sound by messing with the pickup heights. Lower the bass side of both pickups (it'll slant up towards the treble side) and you may find yourself some more twang in the middle, too.
I’m a tinker and mod everything…watches, guitars, boots, guitar straps..you name it. My big problem with my mods is I never end up using anything I mod. I think it’s because I know all the flaws so I’ve made mistakes, it isn’t perfect and I can’t stop seeing it. But the process is so much fun. This was fun to watch. You have a great vibe that really cheers me up.
I just have to say I absolutely love your attitude in videos like this. Pure, genuine interest in guitar gear and tone. Totally love it. I feel like I'd be interested if you were presenting quilting gear or early Hungarian cabinet making. Super funny and engaging. Great stuff!!
I agree with @joshjordan here, adding a second pickup into the chain changes the load resistance based on how it's wired. Where they are so mismatched, you are "pulling back" toward the neck in the parallel calculation.
At the end of the day all pick ups are just magnets and wires. The build quality is the more important part as badly wired and unpotted pups for example will rattle an feedback like hell and be microphonic etc. That's why a well made cheap one can sound as great as an expensive one but there might not be a consistency to it and the next one could be wound differently.
Dude I took a risk and bought the UK flag tele and was very pleasantly surprised. I swapped pups, tuners and nut and it screams. My primary tele now as opposed to my us made tele.
Playing cards would be pretty cool behind that clear pickguard too. I love it when there are opportunities for people to personalize and be creative with their instruments.
Ry, a few points mate! That is a hot pick up for sure. Replacing that cheapo 250Kohm pot with a 1 Meg ohm pot DID make that neck pick up a bit brighter but it improved the ATTACK! IF you want to brighten it further, take OFF that metal shell! On cheap guitars those cover are usually made out of really cheap, pot metal & act like a filter! ALSO, Adjust the neck unit up a bit & the bridge down to balance the volumes! As to why the mix position was defaulting to the neck pick up more, was in parallel, you are basically getting a voltage DIVIDER, so the signal will be cut in half, making it cleaner but you WILL still get a bit more bass freqs come thru from the neck! The split worked well, just sounded a bit thinner, but there WASN'T a great volume drop between them! I'd say you GOT a bargain!
Actually looks like a cool guitar! I don’t blame you for wanting it to modify, kinda a fun guitar to mess with. Also both plastics look cool, I think I’d go gold because the neck looks a lil darker yellow.😊 thought you where about to play some “social D” when you went into that bridge 😂 sounds pretty good for 16 bucks! Crazy!
Not rly a pickup guy, but I put a clean hb on my bullet mustangs neck position and when I adjusted pickup heights by volume the middle was not there, like an exact copy of the neck. I went on some forums and found smth like what people here are saying here abt weaker pickups being favored. So I purposefully raised the bridge louder and it worked! Mismatched the volumes juuust until the middles tone was unique enough - and that each position jumps in vol/ gain more than normal is fun lol
Parallel middle position will favor the weaker pickup. Maybe try raising the neck pickup for more volume. Also the volume pot should move the tone spot for volume swells.
This is a great video I actually enjoyed it. I've watched a couple of your other ones but I got a real kick out of you doing this. Awesome work man Great job
Sounds like the 1 Meg pot is what the bridge pickup really needed. It sounded so dull before and with the new pot it seems to have just come alive. I bet the original bridge pickup would have sounded better too. Such a shame about that clear spot under the scratch plate, that would really wind me up.
The new bridge pickup might now be out of phase with respect to the neck pickup if the middle switch position seems too weak. Try swapping the hot wire and gnd wire positions for the neck pickup, tune up and try middle position again.
I saw you do some bass, as you did in the POD Express video. On the budget side of things I've used Guitar Madness with great results. I used the GM Alnico Standard Precision Bass pickup and Alnico Standard Jazz Bass pickups. I even put the Standard P in a friend's Peavey Fury with great results. I also have one of their ARTEC JB Twin Humbuckers to go in the bridge position of my Jazz Bass for a fatter bridge tone. They also have guitar pickups.
24:40 add a series/parallel switch to fix this. I'd drill a hole in the Tele control plate for it between the volume and the other hole and put a killswitch in the big hole.
I am not a pickup scientist, but I play one on the internet. A lot of times if you solder in a humbucker where a single coil was, and go to the middle position it will be out of phase. Sometimes it is very thin and nasally and almost unusable but sometimes you get lucky and you get a wicked good sound out of it.
Nice work! I got a bag of 5 of those dual hot rails for under £22 a couple of years back, they work great. Although I have to file the curve of the rails flat as I use them in Ukulele builds.
Bye bye Stringjoy sponsorship 😂😂😂 I love you Ryan. You could have just unscrewed the switch and flipped it but with how the knob removal was epic so i think you made the right choice
I did the pickup replacement on my squire affinity tele, started with a tele hot rail, didn't like it went with a similar cheap single coil upgrade, been happy ever since... also did the 4-way switch mod to that tele, its pretty much my fav guitar now, over much more expensive ones.
I have a Cozart gold metal flake, a Glarry, and a LyxPro. I put on pickups, tuners, bone nuts, and the LyxPro got brass saddles. All under $200 and they play great. And I mean really good.
The white paper underneath the pickguard would make the texture look way deeper. An idea for that empty hole left from the tone pot in put in a mini kill switch to use it up.
i like the white fabric that was added. Although the Gold version would look good on that body shape, but for me if the primary body color was Eucalyptus Green with sparkly elements like with this pink guitar, but also with a rose wood, or some other darker looking wood. The good fabric would look with that.
You can wire the single coil in reverse to solve the small volume in middle position. Put your hot wire to ground in the volume and your ground wire to the switch. Did it to my HSS guitar, it sounds very weak before in position 2 after a new humbucker was installed now it's normal again.
It wasn't the intention of this video, but I think it definitively settles the "cheap guitar/expensive amp vs expensive guitar/cheap amp" debate. Ryan found the literally cheapest guitar and cheapest pickups on the internet and got great tone through those amps.
I picked up a lake placid blue squire affinity and swapped out both bridge and neck pickups with guitar madness hot rails a couple years ago and love the way it sounds with them. Stock pups were really muddy sounding now I can get the same sound as olga from toy dolls, and joe strummer of the clash, nice and clean tones that can easily be dialed in to a nice bitey distortion if i want.
Might note my setup consists of: guitar -> korg ax30g -> vox tonelab st -> circuit tweaked early 80's kustom lead III/vox ad50vt/or direct to a mixing console
Have you tried raising the neck pickup and lowering the bridge pickup? That will help with the impedance (output) difference between the pickups. The neck pickup would get more higher frequencies and get a slight gain boost. Lowering the bridge pickup would cause you to lose some higher frequencies but help tame some of the almost too much gain and help them blend.
My affordable Vintage Phase is Saphue and I like it a lot. The KMISE version is the same pedal and wonder if the same people made your hot rail. Sounds good though. Well done, Ryan
in my mustang i had a 1 meg tone pot i found running it middle is where i liked it turning up made it brighter turning down made it darker it was something i did in a pinch because i needed to fix the pot before practice and i was out of 250k and 500k
I used the same cheap Hotmail pup with a push pull pot on a tele project last year. Easily one of the best investments ever. Sounds great, pushed or pulled through anything!
The tone pot adds a small load , and cuts a small amount of the highs, by virtue of it being in the circuit, even when turned all the way up, but most people probably wouldn't be able to hear it. As for the pickups blending together, you are cutting resistance by sending the signal through two pickups in parallel, just as you would with a lower output pickup.
I'm still trying to understand why Ryan is changing the bridge pup when it's the neck pup he said he didn't like. I was saying if it's too dark, that's what the tone knob is for. Too dark? Turn it up. Too bright? Turn it down. What does Ryan do? Changes the bridge pup, and eliminates the tone knob. I also am under the belief, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that a 1 meg pot would be better served as the tone pot in order to give you a larger sweep of tone. I dunno, I was smoking a bowl while I'm watching this. I also think that the gold plastic would make the guitar pop more.
I did the same with my squier affinity tele that i bought on german craigslist. It now has a hotrail which was originally in a contemporary tele. Unfortunatele it was not meant to be split, but it sounds great with my vaporizer 😻
I tried that before on a Donner bass a few years ago. I wanted to remove that annoying leftover plastic foil from the pickguard, so I had to take of the knobs. But one of the pot-shafts broke of just like yours did. Donner were so kind to send me a completely new bass free of charge without having to return the other one though 😊 Btw, I don't know if it's a difference in playing, but I definetly prefer the sound of the original pickups. The bridge (and middle) sounds more "spanky" to me. I almost only use the bridge on my very cheap and trusty HB TE-20 (a similar dark sound) anyways. But since I do like jazz, I don't mind the darker neck as an option on hand 😊
I’ve bought/played a bunch of the cheap single coil rail/blade pups for strat, tele and humbuckers from the big name sites (no free promos Amazon and eBay). They range from $10/$50, 7k to 15k and sound good, surprisingly when the coil is split. Then I found a DiMarzio Tone Zone single coil blade and it blew away the cheapies…defined, articulate and a flame thrower! You get what you pay for.
Just picked up a Tone Bakery Jazzbird, basically a what-if Firebird-Jazzmaster mashup. Mahogany body, roasted maple neck, reverse headstock, 3 firebird pickups, strat wiring and bridge (there’s versions with the Jazzmaster bridge too, but I was going more for a Doheny before I found these. There’s also p-90 versions, Jazz-tele and single pickup models. It shipped from Anaheim, and I think they also make pedals.
I've built a few of their kits. Neck seems like poplar and the body is normally oak or maple so they are pretty light compared to other kits and decently balanced. That said the hardware as you see in this video. You can upgrade to all high end gear for 1/4 the price of a top shelf guitar though.
I've come to truly believe that the amp and especially speaker are the most important part of the sound. Really after experimenting with cheap vs expensive pickups. And a simple magnet swap can turn a turd into a great sounding pickup.
I would recommend taking the cover off the neck pickup. It is hands down the best tele mod ever and it’s free. I’ve tried every tele pickup out there and every mod and that alone changed the tone more so than a pickup swap.
If you like watching independently funded guitar content like this video consider supporting the channel on Patreon: www.patreon.com/60CycleHumcast
$179 Leo Jaymz Guitar: amzn.to/3TfPTJv
Saphue Telecaster Bridge Hotrail: amzn.to/42Ph1lm
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Stringjoy Use code: HUM to save 10% (stringjoy.com/partner/60cyclehum/)
Heyyyyy so it looks like Sonicake just released the A-Factory and B-Factory pedals (Acoustic, Bass) and they look really cool. I would love to see a review on these, love your channel btw
I definitely liked the sound @6:55 before the change... Sounds great for a $1000 guitar, let alone a sub $200. It was bright enough on the bridge, and lovely and dark when the neck pup came in... Great content, sir.
I actually prefered the before-sound. Seems more spanky or what you would call it. But I don't know if it's just because he played it a bit differently. And actually when I heard that bridge, I felt that it was the ideal sound that I want. We all have our personal preferences of course 😄
Every time Ryan asks "Is this a good episode?", the answer is always "YES".
Since you already removed the tone pot, look into a Spin-a-Split mod. It’s like a volume control on the second coil of the Humbucker so you can have a gradient of single to full Humbucker tones.
Depending on the pot your using it will act as a tone pot as well, because you will add resistance into the circuit.
@@johanneschristopherstahle3395 I always use no-load 500k pots, I haven’t noticed a different in full humbucker mode when the dial is on 10.
FUN TIP: if you buy a pickup thats not hot enough you can take the baseplate off and add or swap out the ceramic magnets on the bottom, and if its not potted already go ahead and dip that puppy in some hot paraffin wax,or epoxy resin if your a real mad lad
I'm somewhat relieved that you said "FUN TIP" and not "PRO TIP". 😄
Totally agreed. Magnet swap can make a turd into a diamond.
The music for the sped up sections is so whimsical i love it
It gave me 90s Japanese platform game vibes.
I really like this Tele! The color is fantastic, and your pickguard idea is PERFECT. And I’ll be damned if that thing doesn’t sound great. Sometimes for no apparent reason, things just come together in a guitar. I think that happened here. Yes. Yes this IS a good video.
I bought this same pickup for about the same price about 10 years ago for a Tele style guitar I built. I’m a pickup maker and figured it was a cheap way to get the parts. I had every intention on rewinding the pickup.
Put it in the guitar. It sounded fine. It’s been in there ever since!
You should cut a piece of that pickguard material and screw it over the low spot on the headstock
Would look sick!
That's a great idea.
I did the same thing to my Harley Benton Tele. Ordered my dual rail pickup from AliExpress. Sounds nice.
This was great, thanks for the "shout out". I say you gave the guitar an identity and character. Visually stimulating and amazing what $16.00 pickup can do. Kill switch is good idea. Things like this is why I love your channel so much. Nice job Ryan!!🫡👍
What, no two Princetons? Unsubbed.
Well now I’m not even gonna watch.
Take care
Thanks for spoiling the whole video.
@@calebbhawkins 🤣
Dude literary plays more expensive rig than normaly and there is a riot in whole community 😂😂😂
The Neck pickup loads down the bridge in the middle position. If you have two pickups that are rougly equeal in volume, middle position will be more quiet.
The yacht club graphic should have a boat horn and segull sounds with it. :)
Yeah I’m still working on it. I was thinking about a captains whistle too. Go for maximum annoying.
How about some bland, stereotypical Yacht Rock?
@@gerardlabelle9626A "Sailing" sound alike would be perfect. Then have all the other noises over that.
@@60CycleHumcastYeah ! But have the first 2 notes of Sailing looping underneath. Immediately recognizable, but too short for copyright infringement .
I just did this to my teleclone, and im so happy i did. I have similar results but balanced them a little better and reallt enjoying it.
You need fluorescent lime green behind the holographic plastic.
With the pickups in the middle position you're throwing two pickups in parallel and changing the total impedance, but you'll also find that you can change that combo sound by messing with the pickup heights. Lower the bass side of both pickups (it'll slant up towards the treble side) and you may find yourself some more twang in the middle, too.
So much smoother than your usual installs, getting good at this!
I’m a tinker and mod everything…watches, guitars, boots, guitar straps..you name it. My big problem with my mods is I never end up using anything I mod. I think it’s because I know all the flaws so I’ve made mistakes, it isn’t perfect and I can’t stop seeing it. But the process is so much fun. This was fun to watch. You have a great vibe that really cheers me up.
Very cool project that turned great! 👍👍And love the Surfrajettes!❤
I just have to say I absolutely love your attitude in videos like this. Pure, genuine interest in guitar gear and tone. Totally love it. I feel like I'd be interested if you were presenting quilting gear or early Hungarian cabinet making. Super funny and engaging. Great stuff!!
I have 3 dual rail humbuckers in 2 of my strats that only cost me $30 and I get great sounds out of them!
Each? Or 30 for the three of them
@@jonthehermit8082 $30 for all 3 off Amazon. It was a loaded pickguard!
Series vs parallel might make a good difference with those pickups
I agree with @joshjordan here, adding a second pickup into the chain changes the load resistance based on how it's wired. Where they are so mismatched, you are "pulling back" toward the neck in the parallel calculation.
That not only is a sick guitar, love the pickguard mod a lot. But I'm more surprised how good that $16 pickup sounded. Great video!
Pickups don't have to be expensive at all to be rad! Cheap pickups are best pickups.
@@immy4104 idk, I’ve never heard anything better than a burst bucket from Gibson
At the end of the day all pick ups are just magnets and wires. The build quality is the more important part as badly wired and unpotted pups for example will rattle an feedback like hell and be microphonic etc. That's why a well made cheap one can sound as great as an expensive one but there might not be a consistency to it and the next one could be wound differently.
the difference between expensive and cheap p/ups is pretty minimal, the BS around them is immense
@@immy4104 absolutely agree - they're just magnets with wire wrapped around them, the BS is massive
Dude I took a risk and bought the UK flag tele and was very pleasantly surprised. I swapped pups, tuners and nut and it screams. My primary tele now as opposed to my us made tele.
I see that West Creek Racer peeking around in the background. I put a set of P90's in my racer. Love that guitar.
I have a pickup I’ll be putting in mine soon. It’s a weird one too.
I like the neck pickup after the new pot and new strings. It's a nice compliment to the new bridge pup
As someone who’s made my own killer pickguards a handful of times…I can confirm that’s one of the coolest custom pickguards I’ve ever seen!
Playing cards would be pretty cool behind that clear pickguard too. I love it when there are opportunities for people to personalize and be creative with their instruments.
Ry, a few points mate!
That is a hot pick up for sure. Replacing that cheapo 250Kohm pot with a 1 Meg ohm pot DID make that neck pick up a bit brighter but it improved the ATTACK! IF you want to brighten it further, take OFF that metal shell! On cheap guitars those cover are usually made out of really cheap, pot metal & act like a filter!
ALSO, Adjust the neck unit up a bit & the bridge down to balance the volumes!
As to why the mix position was defaulting to the neck pick up more, was in parallel, you are basically getting a voltage DIVIDER, so the signal will be cut in half, making it cleaner but you WILL still get a bit more bass freqs come thru from the neck!
The split worked well, just sounded a bit thinner, but there WASN'T a great volume drop between them!
I'd say you GOT a bargain!
Actually looks like a cool guitar! I don’t blame you for wanting it to modify, kinda a fun guitar to mess with. Also both plastics look cool, I think I’d go gold because the neck looks a lil darker yellow.😊 thought you where about to play some “social D” when you went into that bridge 😂 sounds pretty good for 16 bucks! Crazy!
Not rly a pickup guy, but I put a clean hb on my bullet mustangs neck position and when I adjusted pickup heights by volume the middle was not there, like an exact copy of the neck. I went on some forums and found smth like what people here are saying here abt weaker pickups being favored. So I purposefully raised the bridge louder and it worked! Mismatched the volumes juuust until the middles tone was unique enough - and that each position jumps in vol/ gain more than normal is fun lol
Parallel middle position will favor the weaker pickup. Maybe try raising the neck pickup for more volume. Also the volume pot should move the tone spot for volume swells.
This is a great video I actually enjoyed it. I've watched a couple of your other ones but I got a real kick out of you doing this. Awesome work man Great job
That thing looks and sounds great! Nice video!
I just had the shaft pull out of a pot on me too. That pot was shot after. Thanks for the links. I ordered some of those plastic sheets
Sounds like the 1 Meg pot is what the bridge pickup really needed. It sounded so dull before and with the new pot it seems to have just come alive. I bet the original bridge pickup would have sounded better too. Such a shame about that clear spot under the scratch plate, that would really wind me up.
Sounds very crisp with that new volume pot. Very nice and crisp.
I’ve bought like 30 of those pickups over the last few months.. they are awesome!
Why so many?
Modding a cheap guitar in a fun way is where I feel like you really come alive the most
Had a blast watching this!!! Blessings to you!
Is the middle in parallel or series. Then you will know why it drops down
The new bridge pickup might now be out of phase with respect to the neck pickup if the middle switch position seems too weak. Try swapping the hot wire and gnd wire positions for the neck pickup, tune up and try middle position again.
It doesn't sound OoP. Its just impedance mismatch
I saw you do some bass, as you did in the POD Express video. On the budget side of things I've used Guitar Madness with great results. I used the GM Alnico Standard Precision Bass pickup and Alnico Standard Jazz Bass pickups. I even put the Standard P in a friend's Peavey Fury with great results. I also have one of their ARTEC JB Twin Humbuckers to go in the bridge position of my Jazz Bass for a fatter bridge tone.
They also have guitar pickups.
24:40 add a series/parallel switch to fix this. I'd drill a hole in the Tele control plate for it between the volume and the other hole and put a killswitch in the big hole.
33:34 ah, good man.
Damn, that looks pretty cool. I like the headstock shape. The sparkle pink finish is really cool too, especially with the clear pickguard.
I actually love that neck pickup sound 😍
I am not a pickup scientist, but I play one on the internet. A lot of times if you solder in a humbucker where a single coil was, and go to the middle position it will be out of phase. Sometimes it is very thin and nasally and almost unusable but sometimes you get lucky and you get a wicked good sound out of it.
Nice work! I got a bag of 5 of those dual hot rails for under £22 a couple of years back, they work great. Although I have to file the curve of the rails flat as I use them in Ukulele builds.
Bye bye Stringjoy sponsorship 😂😂😂 I love you Ryan. You could have just unscrewed the switch and flipped it but with how the knob removal was epic so i think you made the right choice
I'd say that's a big win and it was a lot of fun to watch.
I did the pickup replacement on my squire affinity tele, started with a tele hot rail, didn't like it went with a similar cheap single coil upgrade, been happy ever since... also did the 4-way switch mod to that tele, its pretty much my fav guitar now, over much more expensive ones.
I’m guessing because of polarity/phase cancellation issues the middle position sounds weaker than it should.
Loving the fretless bass synth dorkiness. Makes me giggle. Thanks Inspector Gadget.
I have a similar pickup in my tele partscaster, for a high gain it sounds really good in series and out of phase with the neck pickup
Looks fun, sounds great. That's what budget guitars are for, modding and experimenting. 49/7 Henrys!
That's not a legal Henry score and you know it!
@@mjdbruyn Thanks for catching that, I edited it so it should pass now. 😸😺🐱
Yes! It is a good video & the sonic upgrade was worth your time and $$. A textbook example of Modification 101...
I have a Cozart gold metal flake, a Glarry, and a LyxPro. I put on pickups, tuners, bone nuts, and the LyxPro got brass saddles. All under $200 and they play great. And I mean really good.
The pick guard segment of the video was really cool! Seems like Ryan’s graphic design background added a lot of depth.
I hope it was as much fun to make, as it was to watch. I’ve got a few higher-end guitars but cheep is a blast. Do a Teisco!
I love that bridge pickup, and that new volume knob. 😮
The white paper underneath the pickguard would make the texture look way deeper. An idea for that empty hole left from the tone pot in put in a mini kill switch to use it up.
Got to love the Duane Eddy, Rebel Rouser! I like how it turned out👍
That really is a nice sounding guitar in the raw. Changing the electronics is all it needs.
i like the white fabric that was added. Although the Gold version would look good on that body shape, but for me if the primary body color was Eucalyptus Green with sparkly elements like with this pink guitar, but also with a rose wood, or some other darker looking wood. The good fabric would look with that.
You can wire the single coil in reverse to solve the small volume in middle position. Put your hot wire to ground in the volume and your ground wire to the switch. Did it to my HSS guitar, it sounds very weak before in position 2 after a new humbucker was installed now it's normal again.
Yes, I am glad you did "this". Love it, man.
It wasn't the intention of this video, but I think it definitively settles the "cheap guitar/expensive amp vs expensive guitar/cheap amp" debate. Ryan found the literally cheapest guitar and cheapest pickups on the internet and got great tone through those amps.
I picked up a lake placid blue squire affinity and swapped out both bridge and neck pickups with guitar madness hot rails a couple years ago and love the way it sounds with them. Stock pups were really muddy sounding now I can get the same sound as olga from toy dolls, and joe strummer of the clash, nice and clean tones that can easily be dialed in to a nice bitey distortion if i want.
Might note my setup consists of: guitar -> korg ax30g -> vox tonelab st -> circuit tweaked early 80's kustom lead III/vox ad50vt/or direct to a mixing console
As soon as I heard you play the Inspector Gadget theme ( 7:10 ) you gained every ounce of respect in my body
I put one of those cheap pickups on a plastic, 3D printed guitar and it sounds awesome! I record with it all the time.
wow that rail sounds badass. cool mods, i like it.
I like to find listings for guitars that are wrecked, or buy kit guitars or just really cheap no-name stuff and hot rod them
Have you tried raising the neck pickup and lowering the bridge pickup? That will help with the impedance (output) difference between the pickups.
The neck pickup would get more higher frequencies and get a slight gain boost.
Lowering the bridge pickup would cause you to lose some higher frequencies but help tame some of the almost too much gain and help them blend.
I think it turned out great! I love the look and it sounds fantastic! Definitely put a kill switch in that empty spot on the control plate.
I put Dragonfire stacked tele pups in one of my Tele's, and it growls. Love it.
I can vouch for Leo Jaymz as well. Mine is the same style, but my 2 color flake combo is purple and pink.
Sounds great! I bought the same pickup recently I believe…so good news. Maybe I should go for a 1 Meg pot like you did.
My affordable Vintage Phase is Saphue and I like it a lot. The KMISE version is the same pedal and wonder if the same people made your hot rail. Sounds good though. Well done, Ryan
My friend bought two Wilkinson tele bridge pickups, and a b + n humbucker for his 335. They were all about $30, and sound great.
in my mustang i had a 1 meg tone pot i found running it middle is where i liked it turning up made it brighter turning down made it darker it was something i did in a pinch because i needed to fix the pot before practice and i was out of 250k and 500k
I used the same cheap Hotmail pup with a push pull pot on a tele project last year. Easily one of the best investments ever. Sounds great, pushed or pulled through anything!
Hotmail pups are even better than Gmail kittens.
The tone pot adds a small load , and cuts a small amount of the highs, by virtue of it being in the circuit, even when turned all the way up, but most people probably wouldn't be able to hear it. As for the pickups blending together, you are cutting resistance by sending the signal through two pickups in parallel, just as you would with a lower output pickup.
I like that pickguard idea. A lot of potential with it.
Aliasing on my tv went bananas when you brought up that pick guard stuff
Yes, White. The gold would look AMAZING on a gloss-black guitar.
I agree
I'm still trying to understand why Ryan is changing the bridge pup when it's the neck pup he said he didn't like. I was saying if it's too dark, that's what the tone knob is for. Too dark? Turn it up. Too bright? Turn it down. What does Ryan do? Changes the bridge pup, and eliminates the tone knob. I also am under the belief, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that a 1 meg pot would be better served as the tone pot in order to give you a larger sweep of tone. I dunno, I was smoking a bowl while I'm watching this. I also think that the gold plastic would make the guitar pop more.
I did the same with my squier affinity tele that i bought on german craigslist. It now has a hotrail which was originally in a contemporary tele. Unfortunatele it was not meant to be split, but it sounds great with my vaporizer 😻
Is eBay Kleinanzeigen the german craigslist?
@@summersendband yes 😂
Pulling off the knobs, tore out the pot spindle, same thing happened to me with my 2014 Epiphone Les Paul
I tried that before on a Donner bass a few years ago. I wanted to remove that annoying leftover plastic foil from the pickguard, so I had to take of the knobs. But one of the pot-shafts broke of just like yours did. Donner were so kind to send me a completely new bass free of charge without having to return the other one though 😊
Btw, I don't know if it's a difference in playing, but I definetly prefer the sound of the original pickups. The bridge (and middle) sounds more "spanky" to me. I almost only use the bridge on my very cheap and trusty HB TE-20 (a similar dark sound) anyways. But since I do like jazz, I don't mind the darker neck as an option on hand 😊
I’ve bought/played a bunch of the cheap single coil rail/blade pups for strat, tele and humbuckers from the big name sites (no free promos Amazon and eBay). They range from $10/$50, 7k to 15k and sound good, surprisingly when the coil is split. Then I found a DiMarzio Tone Zone single coil blade and it blew away the cheapies…defined, articulate and a flame thrower! You get what you pay for.
That pickguard looks good!
The word he was looking for is lenticular.
I have an Amazon bass humbucker in my build... Nice and loud.
Just picked up a Tone Bakery Jazzbird, basically a what-if Firebird-Jazzmaster mashup. Mahogany body, roasted maple neck, reverse headstock, 3 firebird pickups, strat wiring and bridge (there’s versions with the Jazzmaster bridge too, but I was going more for a Doheny before I found these. There’s also p-90 versions, Jazz-tele and single pickup models. It shipped from Anaheim, and I think they also make pedals.
I bought a headless kit on amazon from this Leo Jaymz builder, it's pretty well built and I threw it together in less than 2 days. Fun guitar!
I like headless , what's the neck like thickness/contour wise.
What is the name of that stuff you put underneath the pickguard? You could use a preamp in the tone position.
hows the weight? and I vote to leave the pickguard as modded now, leaves color bleeding thru which looks cool
I've built a few of their kits. Neck seems like poplar and the body is normally oak or maple so they are pretty light compared to other kits and decently balanced. That said the hardware as you see in this video. You can upgrade to all high end gear for 1/4 the price of a top shelf guitar though.
that pick guard is perfect for that color!
I've come to truly believe that the amp and especially speaker are the most important part of the sound. Really after experimenting with cheap vs expensive pickups. And a simple magnet swap can turn a turd into a great sounding pickup.
I would recommend taking the cover off the neck pickup. It is hands down the best tele mod ever and it’s free. I’ve tried every tele pickup out there and every mod and that alone changed the tone more so than a pickup swap.