Potting PU's in Canada...

reverb11

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I've got a 1960 Guild T100D and (as I was warned by Walter) I need to get the Franz pickups potted-- the guitar sounds awesome but has a tendency to get a bit "squealy" at stage volumes. I try to be very careful how and where I stand on the stage, but if the monitors are loud, I'm usually in trouble.

Anyone had any experience with potting these pickups in Canada? Or should I just send them to Jason Lollar? Suggestions welcome.

Thanks,

Shawn
 

Walter Broes

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Hey Shawn,
I meant to reply to your email about that, but I honestly forgot... :oops:
Things have been a little hectic here. (good hectic, but still..)

Why not do it yourself? I did it myself with both the pairs of Franzes I have, with good results, and no bodily harm or housefires.

All you need is two thirds pure uncolored, unscented parafin wax (candlewax), one third pure beeswax, two pots, and a stove.
Suspend the (smaller) pot with the wax in it into a (larger) pot with water. A
cut-up coathanger bent around the smaller pot works great for making that work.

Bring the water temperature up until the wax has liqiufied completely, and suspend the pickup in the molten wax by a piece of string until no air bubbles come up any more, and you're done!
Wipe off excess wax, let it set, and install the pickups back into the guitar.

It's extra easy taking Franz pickups out of the guitar, as you don't need to unsolder them from the pots, they have solder tabs on the pickup baseplate.

Word of caution : don't be tempted to put your pot of wax straight on the stove, always use a double boiler : wax catches fire at a pretty low temperature. Also, you don't want the pickup bobbin touching metal that is in direct contact with your stove's flame.
With the double boiler, you're very safe, and the process is really very simple, easy, and fast.
 

reverb11

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Thanks, Walter. I'll try it tomorrow! Question: Anything I should know about taking the covers off? I know getting the covers from old P-90's can be a bit dodgy.... I don't want to break the wire.
 

matsickma

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Hi Shawn,

I also potted my Franz pickups from a old Aristocrat I am restoring. The bridge pickup squealed at LOW volume. I used a formulation similar to Walters but with 20% of bees wax. If you do a Google search on the subject you will get a lot of info.

The Aristocrat pickup covers come off with the removal of a small screw in the middle of the pickup/cover. I would think the dog-ear models would also lift right off of the pickup however, I never tried to remove the covers on my X375.

The potting really improved the microphonic / squealing problem in my Franz pups.

An observation I made when potting my pickups was that someone changed the ground connection on my bridge pickup from the tab to the base plate. Why this was done I can't answer but I suspect that this solder connection change may have caused the pickup to become microphonic. When soldering to the back plate of the pickup the heat would easily reflow the origional potting. This may have created a void that eventually caused the pickup to go microphonic. When soldering any wires to these pickups you need to stay on the tabs.

Good Luck,

Mike
 

Walter Broes

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reverb11 said:
Question: Anything I should know about taking the covers off? I know getting the covers from old P-90's can be a bit dodgy.... I don't want to break the wire.
Shawn,
just make sure the covers didn't shrink over the years. Try moving (screwing) some polepieces up and down and all the way down to see whether the holes in the cover shrunk or not. If they did shrink, you run the risk of tearing the whole pickup apart when taking off the cover.
Once you're sure it's safe, or you managed to get the poles "under the cover top", just remove the screws holding the cover down, and remove the cover.
unlike with a Gibson P90, these aren't the same screws holding the pickup itself, as you'll see immediately once the cover's off.
Good luck!
 

reverb11

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Walter and Mike:

Did the "potting" today and as far as I can tell it worked like a charm. I'll have to take it to a gig and find out for sure, but it already seems quieter.

Thanks for the advice.

Shawn
 

Walter Broes

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That's excellent news Shawn, glad I could help. Mine are not 100% squeal free at all, but totally manageable with a Super on six - before I potted them they were hardly useable at band volume.

Who wants to use high gain or distortion pedals with these guitars anyway?
 

reverb11

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Quite so, Walter, quite so. It's been a good long time since I stepped on my Boss distortion pedal (about 10 years or so).

Thanks again,
SB
 

reverb11

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Hi Daryl,

The potting worked very well indeed. I kept a very close eye on the temperature during the process and made sure every last air bubble had vanished. I'd recommend the process to anyone with Franz pickups. As Walter said, it's not that hard to do once you get over the initial fear that you are going to melt your pickups!

Have a great Saturday!
 

Darryl Hattenhauer

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That's a fear I'd never get over.

I don't play my P90s very loud--just at home. They're in an X 175, y favoritest electric of all time. However, if i played out, I think if might prefer a 50s Bluesbird for its lightness.
 

santfe

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I haven't had any problems heating the potting was directly over a gas flame (you're not supposed to splash!), any more than I did when I used to immerse my hands in melted paraffin, as recommended by my orthopedist.

I turn off the gas before the potting procedure begins. In fact, you should turn off the gas before the wax is even completely melted, as the pot will retain some residual heat energy, so that the temperature of the wax will continue to rise after the heat is turned off.

Potting does work wonders for microphonic pickups. Both my Epiphone WildKat p90s (which are supposedly "double wax-dipped" during manufacture) and Gretsch DynaSonics responded very well to being wax potted.

I didn't need to pot my pickups to eliminate squeal so much as to eliminate the loud clicking sound produced by accidently striking the pickup shell with my thumb pick (especially a problem when playing Atkins-style).
 

Walter Broes

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santfe said:
I haven't had any problems heating the potting was directly over a gas flame (you're not supposed to splash!)
Lucky for you, but I wouldn't advise this to anyone. The pot retaining residual heat, whether your gas flame is on or not, could also melt pickup bobbins that come into contact with it.
 

santfe

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You're right about that, Walter.

But after a few minutes, the temperatures are stabilized (the profile is relaxed, as we engineers are fond of saying) and everything is at the same temperature. The potting takes place with the heat source turned off.
 

parker_knoll

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Santfe, can you give some more details about how you potted your Dynasonics? I have a 1960 Starfire III with Dearmond 200s which I think are the same thing. I thought you couldn't remove the cases from those things?
 
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