Metropoulos Forum

Having a guitar built after collecting parts for 2 years (money is tight). I got everything figure out except this part. I am using either a duncan custom or duncan 78 with a 6 point trem. Any thoughts on the a brand? I am looking to keep it vintage accurate to the 60-70's. I'm thinking an iskra 1/2 watt and a El menco mylar cap but shit I really don't know. Any thoughts are appreciated.

I like your choices in pickups for Plexi's.

"if" you play with the volume knob while performing, then it will keep you a little tighter rolling off and getting your desired affect. No rules on pickup/pot formula, just how you want it to feel & sound to the pickup/guitar.
The res/cap values vary from guitar to guitar/circuit to circuit, but are within range.

I like going with an all Fender vintage bridge assembly. Steel or Brass block. 4 Hardened steel springs and mid '70 "solid" traditional saddles for max resonance. Density factor.

Sounds good through just about anything out there...

Anyway "just do it" and take it from there nothing is permanent, right ?

Hey JimiJames thanks for the input. I hadn't thought of those 70's saddles being more resonant before, but I could see that give the amount of steel in those saddles. I wonder how that affects the brightness as well? I really have to get to the experimenting once I get the guitar built. I am going with all pre-cbs hardware on this one, including the bridge.

I may just start without a cap or resistor as I think the custom and 78 will have a lot of top end for the clean tone. Maybe a non issue.

Anyway, I just love the VHII tone on songs like DOA and Beautiful girls. Hoping to get somewhere in that relm of woodiness and drive.

Velva, I don't use any resistors or caps at my volume pot in my strat.... I really don't need (I use bare Knuckle VHII) because my pickup doesn't get dark rolling off the volume... No tone pot either... but...

probably in that era Fender used small ceramic capacitors, mainly because the small value... I understand you want to make it as original as you can, but iskras and old capacitors are too expensive IMO for that porpouse.
I used once a treble bleed circuit in an old strat (single coils) that used a huge resistor and a siemens 001 capacitor... worked as fine as the other ceramic I had earlier... no difference actually...

just my 002 cents

Can't speak for the 78 but a duncan custom does real well without resistor and cap for rolling of the volume. Sounds to me like Ed had picked his notes closer to the bridge when playing clean stuff. Gives it a bit of a treble sting without any need for a resistor/cathode thing.

Jnew, sorry for the delay in responding. You were reading my mind in what I expect the custom to do in terms of the "treble sting". I imagine that translates well in the cleans...soon I will be able to report back about the differences on the custom and 78.

What a coincidence. Yesterday I changed out the pot in my favorite guitar with the Duncan Custom. I had a 150K bypassed with the .001 cap. When I put it back together, I left that stuff out and now realize I don't like it without. I will be putting it back in and maybe experimenting with values from there. 150K/.001 is a good starting place though. I think the higher you go with the resistor value in this configuration, would yield more treble effect as you roll down. Sort of forcing more signal through the cap. I could be wrong as I'm just guessing though.

Do you only notice the difference when the volume is backed off? Does it change the more driven tones as well?

I don't notice any differences when the vol is rolled all the way up. Only as I start to turn it down do I hear the trebles stay more even.