CE-100D w/new GFS pickups

[Scotter]

I've been pm-ing jp on his Starfire re-wiring job, and FWIW, I have a pic of a new wired pot before it was installed into my CE.

If you've been following the thread, this is a 500K pot (485K measured) with a 1Meg across it, bringing it to about 325K. This allows slightly more twang than usual, which is good by my ear, and if needed, is easily tamed with the tone control. It is installed on the original harness. It is now installed and sounds good.

jp told me that some have recommended not grounding the case on a DeArmond style pickup, which is what the GFS NYii's are. Letting the case float supposedly gives a better tone.

From a tonality POV, I'm guessing you would loose the effect of any capacitance between the case and coil (less high frequency bleed-off), but from a practicality POV, you'd also loose the case as a shield and probably have more hum problems. An engineer's guess on my part. Has anyone experimented with this, tone-wise?

Scottie

 

[Walter Broes]

I say ground those covers - the pickups will be quieter, and not grounding them can lead to clicks, pops, and other issues. The current Gretsch models that have DeArmond pickups have them with ungrounded shells, with all kinds of problems as a result.

The original DeArmond 200 pickups did have grounded shells btw.

You might lose some high end, but IMO it's the kind of high end you only hear in a very controlled situation, playing by yourself in a good sounding room. Potting pickups supposedly "kills the tone" too, but in my experience it turned completely un-useable pickups into great performers. Once the drummer comes in, with my Super Reverb on six blaring away, I dare anyone to tell me whether my pickups are potted/grounded/etc.. or not!

 

[Scotter]

Walter,

Your comments confirm what I suspected. Having an electrically floating piece of metal that close can have some odd effects at times, so my impulse would be to ground it, which is what I did with the NYii's. If you were to leave them ungrounded, then you would be better off without them, like they do with the Gibson-style PAF humbuckers that don't have covers. In the case of DeArmonds and NYii/NYiii's, however, the case is used for mounting, so you're stuck with it.

Part of what this thread is talking about is how shrill these pickups were when using 500K pots, even with the covers grounded, so I have a feeling that the loading of these pickups with a lower pot resistance kills more highs than the covers do.

Once the drummer comes in, with my Super Reverb on six blaring away, I dare anyone to tell me whether my pickups are potted/grounded/etc.. or not!

Exactly -- That last little piece of golden tone that we all search for is usually drowned out... when the band comes in.

Or, from the Single Coil Manifesto:

Don’t get your feelings hurt if non-guitar playing people in the audience don’t notice your awesome tone. They’re probably watching the singer anyway. That’s just the way it is.

Take Care,

Scottie

 

[jp]

I say ground those covers

I agree Walter, most especially for gig settings. I hate that crazy buzzing in live performance.

In another thread matsickma first suggested that I ground the reissue Dynasonics I had bought, claiming they are too buzzy and noisy. I noticed that they are the only variation that isn't grounded, while many others, if not all--200s, 2Ks, 2000s, Seymour Duncan reissues, have a metal plate to which the ground lead is soldered, and which also holds the bobbin in the housing. On these Gretsch-Dearmond Dynasonic reissues, there is no plate and the bobbin is poorly held in the housing by two blobs of hot glue. The whole inner PU is easily pushed out of the chrome housing.

A tech in a local music shop, as well as someone on another forum said that ungrounded reissue Dynasonics sound better. I don't buy it, though. Ungrounded single-coil hum is a drag.

 

[Scotter]

jp,

The NYii coils look like they're held into the cover with some kind of black hot melt glue -- maybe silicone? It's not very hard, like other potting compounds. I have the feeling I could push the coil out, unless it's crimped in somehow.

Scottie

 

[jp]

Scotter,
Here's some nudies of mine from a previous thread. Thankfully, you've answered my questions from this thread.