Tribute S-500: some questions

Hello everyone!

I have this guitar, bought it a year ago, and this is my first electric guitar. Just love it.
Well, i have just a couple of questions that are killing me:

1-is the wiring in the tribute s500 equal to the USA s500? I mean, i shielded the inners and i saw that i have 3 capacitors where in the schematics there are 4... (I think the missing one's the C3 (0,001uF) but im not sure - have to take the pickguard off to be sure).
UPDATE: This is the missing cap:



2- i saw in GL store some humbucking pickups for the bridge, like Genuine G&L Dual Blade Humbucking. Will this fit in bridge position of my S500? Also, will it "mix" well with the other MFD pickups (M and N). I was hoping to do some parallel-coiltap wiring also. If this pickup is not appropriate, could you please suggest another one (dimarzio or SD) that would mix well?
I am asking this because I already have a ToneZone S on the bridge right now with all the parallel-coiltap wiring thing, but it seems that the MFD's are more "punchy", louder... and im thinking of changing the pickup so that i could get the same punch like MFDs while in single-coil mode, and even more punch and tone when in parallell/series mode.


Thank you so much!

Zeds

PS:This is my fisrt post in this forum, sorry for so many questions.
(also, sorry for my lousy english)

Just updated the first post.
Help or suggestions anyone?

This sounded familiar...I found another post that mentioned a missing cap on a tribute.

http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1816&p=9826&hilit=capacitor#p9826

Sounds like a batch may have left the factory without them.

The guitar sounds good...
Maybe it's just a protective cap for any surge that could come from de amp, i don't know...

And what about a pickup? Any ideas?

Thanks for your reply!

I've heard good things about the dual blade pickups, I don't have any so I can't say from experience.
I'm pretty sure they will fit in a standard single coil cavity.

Maybe someone with a Legacy special (with the dual blade HB's) will chime in.

cheers

Yes, i was hoping that the dual's could be hotter and single-coil sounding (while in coil-tap mode) than my dimarzio ToneZone S...

Anyone?

Hello everyone!

I have this guitar, bought it a year ago, and this is my first electric guitar. Just love it.
Well, i have just a couple of questions that are killing me:

1-is the wiring in the tribute s500 equal to the USA s500? I mean, i shielded the inners and i saw that i have 3 capacitors where in the schematics there are 4... (I think the missing one's the C3 (0,001uF) but im not sure - have to take the pickguard off to be sure).
UPDATE: This is the missing cap:



Thank you so much!

If you bought it new from an authorized G&L dealer, you should return it to them and have them take care of getting
it fixed under the 2 year Tribute Warranty. Make sure to have your original receipt with you when you return it for repair.

Hope this helps.

If you bought it new from an authorized G&L dealer, you should return it to them and have them take care of getting
it fixed under the 2 year Tribute Warranty. Make sure to have your original receipt with you when you return it for repair.

Hope this helps.

Well, that might be a problem, altough the guitar's stiil in warranty period, because of these couple of reasons:

1- since i customized with a different bridge pickup (Dimarzio) and needed to make a small hole in the pickguard to install 3-way DPDT switch for coil-tap/paralell/series combination of this pickup, my warranty is voided i think... (stiil have the original MFD bridge pickup though)

2- i bought this guitar in a local MI shop. If i return it for repair, they will send the guitar to G&L's distributor in my country (i live in Portugal), which i know they will not fix anything because they are only distributors, and only distribute guitars (not parts of any kind, just receive guitars and distribute them), and they don't even have a repair shop of their own.

So i guess i'm stuck here... or... i could buy a cap and solder it on my own risk

Anyway, as i told you on my previous posts, i would like to know if the G&L's dualblade humbucker would fit and mix well with the MFD's, even though i know i will have to buy it from G&L's store and ask them to send it to Portugal, since the distributor doesn't sell parts, only guitars...
That's the main reason why i also asked if i could buy another pickup (dimarzio or SD) that would do the work, better than my current Dimarzio Tonezone S, wich i feel is a bit "weak" in single coil mode, and has a noticeble difference in terms of tone and sound compared to MFDs (mind you that in series humbucker mode is hot and sounds pretty good). For exemple, if i select M+B pickups (bridge in single-coil), the MFD middle pickup almost "shuts" the bridge pickup (dimarzio)...

What do you think?

If you bought it new from an authorized G&L dealer, you should return it to them and have them take care of getting
it fixed under the 2 year Tribute Warranty. Make sure to have your original receipt with you when you return it for repair.

Hope this helps.

Well, that might be a problem, altough the guitar's stiil in warranty period, because of these couple of reasons:

1- since i customized with a different bridge pickup (Dimarzio) and needed to make a small hole in the pickguard to install 3-way DPDT switch for coil-tap/paralell/series combination of this pickup, my warranty is voided i think... (stiil have the original MFD bridge pickup though)

2- i bought this guitar in a local MI shop. If i return it for repair, they will send the guitar to G&L's distributor in my country (i live in Portugal), which i know they will not fix anything because they are only distributors, and only distribute guitars (not parts of any kind, just receive guitars and distribute them), and they don't even have a repair shop of their own.

So i guess i'm stuck here... or... i could buy a cap and solder it on my own risk

Anyway, as i told you on my previous posts, i would like to know if the G&L's dualblade humbucker would fit and mix well with the MFD's, even though i know i will have to buy it from G&L's store and ask them to send it to Portugal, since the distributor doesn't sell parts, only guitars...
That's the main reason why i also asked if i could buy another pickup (dimarzio or SD) that would do the work, better than my current Dimarzio Tonezone S, wich i feel is a bit "weak" in single coil mode, and has a noticeble difference in terms of tone and sound compared to MFDs (mind you that in series humbucker mode is hot and sounds pretty good). For exemple, if i select M+B pickups (bridge in single-coil), the MFD middle pickup almost "shuts" the bridge pickup (dimarzio)...

What do you think?

You might still check with the Distributor and ask if they can get you the missing cap. Since you have done mods, adding the cap
should be no problem for you.

Regarding the bridge pickup replacement, I have no experience with this combination.
The bridge Power Blade pickup is a hot (7.5k) pickup, so it might work for you.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your replies!

I did a research regarding the missing cap and what i found is that its a bypass filter. It's job is to filter noise coming from the pickups or others.
Well, my s500 cavities are shielded with aluminium foil, so that it's quiet like dead silence, even with single-coil MFD selected - no hum at all
I was worried that this cap would influence the tone, but looks like it's not... so i'm thinking of leave it as it is.

Regarding the powerblade pickup, well Dimarzio's Tonezone S (the one i have in bridge at this moment) according to the specs in their website is 12.39k (DC resistance) and 300 (Output - there's no unit measure, but probably it's current in mA ?).
If more DC resistance means more output, then Dimarzio's hotter than Powerblade, right?
But this is a big IF... probably the whole circuit will mix better with powerblades, and for some reason Dimarzio's output could not be "mixable" with this pots/caps.
Don't know if you see what i mean...

From my brother's estate I was recently awarded his 2004 G&L Tribute Legacy HB with the blade pickups; It is scheduled for delivery by UPS TODAY - I will change the strings and try it out immediately and give a report; this G&L Legacy Tribute HB has 2 sets of switches, apparently a 3 way and a 2 way; I hope I can figure it out; the instructions are something like this according to a fellow musician:

In his own words -
If I remember correctly: the 2-way adds the bridge to the neck p/u. when the main switch is in neck position.
The 3-way is for the bridge p/u only: 1 setting full on in seriel (normal setting) another setting is parellel (brighter-less mids, not quite as loud) the last is "split" which on a normal humbucking p/u would be only one coil on (strat-like) even less volume. On that p/u, however, it's 2 humbucker sets, so if You "split" it, it's still in noise cancelling for the "strat" sound
, much the same as the other 2 p/u's are hum cancelling. W/o trying the guitar out, all I can tell you is that on the 3-way, loud/fat- series/full on, not quite as loud/less fat- parallel, less volume still/ strat- "split".

Upgrades:

Replaced the top nut to metal roller bearing type.
Replaced tuning gears to self locking.
Replaced pickups to blade type pickups. No hum with on the single coils. The bridge pickup is a humbucker with split coil taps and added an extra switch just for that. I'm not sure if it has an out-of-phase switch setting. I'll try to find the email regarding the switch.
The pickguard may have been upgraded due to the pickup upgrade.

Here it is:



Thanks,
RCSBlues