My favorite Strat MOD w/ P90? | Passive Mid Control (Part 2)

[@widmer64]

Andy Rothstein is a friggin' genius! All my 5 strats have a version of his creations and I couldn't be happier!

[@TheSoundCoop]

So glad to find other fans of Andy's work. He truly is a legend. Cheers 🙌🏻

[@demosfromthecrypt2403]

Sounds great mate ❤

[@TheSoundCoop]

Thanks brother!! I truly appreciate it 🙌🏻

[@julianosorio818]

im starting to thing that the only one guitar that i need its a one single neck pickups guitar with a lot of tone controls (mid treble and bass)

[@TheSoundCoop]

It's really funny you say this. I'm a long time neck pickup guy. Mainly a Strat player. Cannot stand bridge pickups. Super thin and brittle. No weight. I got a Gibson Junior recently and that changed everything. Maybe it's the one pickup. Maybe it's the slab body, neck angle and headstock angle. Maybe it's the 24.75" scale. I don't really know. But it's terribly addicting. I'm a convert. I finally get it. Who would have known? 😂 With that said, if I'm gonna play a neck pickup, this Mod really helps get the most from that pickup position.

[@aleksandrnestrato]

Why? Why push-pull? Put a concentric (dual) pot -essentially two pots stacked- and have same freedom as with the two Strat's tone knobs.

[@TheSoundCoop]

Unfortunately I can't say exactly why. You'd have to ask Andy. If I had to guess, getting a stacked pot minimally means you'd have to change the knobs. Maybe potentially more routing? You can't get stacked knobs in every type. There'd be no way to match up the witch hats I'm currently rocking. Whether or not there'd be an advantage to running a stacked pot depends on what kind of a setup we're talking about. I suppose with this current mod, you could have the high-end roll off AND the mid scoop available for use at the same time. For me, I don't get much use out of the high end roll off in a guitar like this and haven't really found myself wanting to use them at the same time. But there are definitely people out there who might get something out of that. If you're curious as to whether or not Andy could set up one of his mid scoop mods in a stacked pot, just reach out to him. I think he has the RG500d mod made by CTS. But he builds the MTG mod, shown in this video, in house. If you explain what you're looking for, you could probably get him to build you a stacked pot. If you end up having this done, report back and let me know. I'd be curious how it all works out 🙌🏻

[@aleksandrnestrato]

@@TheSoundCoop Oh, man! Thank you for your care! Lemme explain smth :) I every now and then assemble mid scoop/mid boost pots for my guitars for over a decade now. I'm also a huuuge fan of no load tone pots, I convert every tone pot on every guitar of mine into a no load one. It's easy, I just scratch off a tiny piece of the graphite strip near one outer lug. So now the tone pot completely disengages from the circuit at 10. At the same time I still do have the high-end roll off feature. I always convert my volume pots so that the wiper touches the metal lug at 10-i.e. the pickup's hot goes straight to the amp as if there were no pots at all. For last like 15 years I assembled don't know how many configurations of mods for my guitars, I kinda know what I'm talking about. Stacked pots almost never require routing. (Only once I had to remove some wood: I assembled a 'double dual' concentric stacked pot based on two stereo pots and a push-pull. Thus there were four pots on top of each other, plus a DPDT switch at the bottom of the stack.) More than that, stacked pots take same space as a single pot with a push-pull. For me havin' the _pot arsenal_ you've shown on the Strat is better (cause it's ) than this one on your Novo (cause it's ). The only reason to go with the fewer sounds solution, is like you wrote, in order to preserve the knob, cause it is a part of the overall guitar's looks.

[@aleksandrnestrato]

​@@TheSoundCoop I think I'll comment here about the bridge pickup-the question you asked in the first vid on this channel. I see the pup is still the same, so the info might be still actual. The Fralin Split Blade Tele already has a bit of a push more than normal and is already a little bit darker than normal. At the same time it's very Tele, Lindy nailed it. Thus. You presumably don't know how to make sound on the Telecaster and the Telecaster is not for you (till you learn how to make it play). I had problems with Teles for about 20 years, I hated them, later I just didn't like them. About five years ago I started sniffin' around and digging into the Teles and... It's freaking magic! I taught myself how to make Teles sound great and fell in love with them. The other way is just to swap the pup. I like what British Bareknuckle makes, mainly their Fat 50s set. They also have a metal sounding pup with 11K resistance, the Cobra T model-a true single coil. I like what Jason Lollar makes, the company has some darker sounding Tele singles. The Seymour Duncan has a line called Quarter Pound, they use larger magnets. I have a Tele bridge pup of this type. Sound-wise it is very close to a P90. Considering you have a P90 in the neck position on your Novo the Quarter Pound Tele Bridge may be the way to go for you. Or you may wanna go into a completely different direction-try a humbucker in the size of the Tele bridge pup. There are couple of dozens of those. Also, as a standalone gem, I wanna mention Kurtis Lambertones. They do completely different thing from everything there's out there, they do a very low output pups that give you goosebumps when they sound. The company has a very small model range of pickups-like a menu in a very fancy restaurant. They have only one set for Tele: The Blondie. To my taste both rabbit holes are great. However teaching yourself how to create sound on a 'typical Tele' pup is insanely rewarding! It completely 'out-pleasures' any swap of pickup. Cheers mate!🙂

[@Drunken_Hamster]

I wanna hear the mid scoop at zero vs the normal tone at zero. Not sure I'm hearing what it's doing correctly.

[@TheSoundCoop]

@@Drunken_Hamster 3:38 I play the guitar with tone pot at 10, unaffected. And I immediately follow that with the "normal tone" at 0. Immediately following that I play it again with tone pot at 10, unaffected. And I immediately follow that by playing with the mid scoop at 0. This shows off all the sounds. Your playback medium is gonna matter here. Phone speaker or inexpensive buds won't give you the full experience. The "normal tone" at 0 sounds like a typical pot, rolling off all the highs. At 0 it sounds like the guitar is underwater or dull. No treble at all. Very muffled. When the mod is set to 0, it leaves all the highs and only scoops the tone at 850Hz. The bell curve of the cut leaves plenty of treble above 3kHz. But will remove mud down to 300Hz and harsh/bright stuff up to 3kHz You can hear more of the mod at 6:44 You'll probably notice the mod at 0 sounds more like an acoustic guitar. Kinda strummy. Not as harsh or in your face. More like a Strat. Hope that helps a little. I have 2 other videos showing this Mod off in a Strat, and with distortion. So there's more examples available if you're interested.

[@Drunken_Hamster]

@@TheSoundCoop 3:49 vs 4:11 Also I'm on PC with good speakers, I just wasn't paying attention. Thanks for the video. Been off-and-on deep-diving guitar science for a few years now. Trying (however in vain it might be) to come up with "the perfect formula" for a guitar despite not even playing. It's fun to think about, especially given how many variables there are in construction, tuning, and design. One of the things I'm trying to do is eliminate un-needed complexity and potentially substitute it with other ways to achieve similar effects with differently applied complexity. For instance, one pickup instead of two or three, but allowing that pickup to be moved along a track. Keeps the signal and wiring cleaner and simpler, but still gives you the psychedelic neck sound, the cutting harmonic bridge sound, and the stable middle sound that has some interesting physics that would make this comment too long if I tried to explain.

[@TheSoundCoop]

It sounds like you're onto a fun project. Keep me posted if you get things going. A sliding track would definitely give you all the pickup position variety. I do think the vibes you get from various pickup types will be a little tough to replicate with only one pickup. But this kinda depends on how close is close enough. The one thing you'll have the hardest time getting from one guitar, IMHO. The variety of feel, and the subsequent vibe you get for different specs or combinations of specs (pickups excluded). Stratocaster is home base for me. I recently got that Junior and it feels totally different. The strat feels stiff and tight. Really snappy and dynamic. The Junior feels really loose and sloshy. I can totally make one sound somewhat similar to the other. But they'll never feel the same. The difference in the way they feel inspires me to make different musical choices. They also inspire me to write different types of songs. There's no ballads in that Junior for me but there's a million in that Strat. Meanwhile the Junior has a million rock riffs hidden inside waiting to be found. One of them is a bow & arrow, the other is a battle axe 😂 All that to say. It took me a long time to realize that pickups SOUND different. But it's the Scale Length, Fretboard Radius, Bridge Type, Tuner Orientation, Neck Angle and Headstock Angle that really change how an instrument FEELS. And how much you can manipulate it... or not.

[@Drunken_Hamster]

@@TheSoundCoop I've delved into those topics as well. I actually saw a guy who used hand-fitted roller-everything in order to make a Bigsby tremolo that can do huge divebombs and still retain tuning stability. HeavyMetal ATC is the channel name, so check him out. He also does his own pickups and he and I have discussed pickup theory based on his testing and videos. The reason I pursue learning the way I do is because if I ever end up doing anything with it, I'd like to do it from a holistic perspective/onset to get the baseline result as good as I can, then optimize for taste/personal preference from there. Obviously without trying, I won't know what body shapes, finish feels, fretboard radii and etc would be "optimal" for me, but I can deal with generalities for that as I work on the more objective parts of the guitar and the sound and capabilities it'll produce to start with and figure out ergos once they "matter" and I have an axe in my hands.

[@leehenderson8132]

LOVE NOVO GUITARS.ITS EITHER GONNA BE A NOVO OR A FRANK BROTHERS.

[@TheSoundCoop]

I've been eyeing those Frank Brothers guitars too. They look amazing!!!

[@DrTortoiselle]

Where’s the strat?😂

[@TheSoundCoop]

This video is Part 2 of a 3 part series. The original video was made with a Strat. People had asked what this Strat Mod would sound like with a P90. Clearly not many Strat options with P90s. So this is the situation we find ourselves in 😂 Here's the original video with the Strat...🎸 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2iWooWwqsyYntU

[@TheSoundCoop]

More Strat but with Overdriven tones... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpfPhWNnrcuSe6s