Anyone re-wired their F-100?

[scelerat]

The tone of my '81 F-100 is leaving me uninspired. The tone is very clear, but there's a lifeless, somewhat compressed quality to it. Almost as if a lot of the harmonics have been removed. Yes, I've experimented with pickup height: it doesn't really address the fundamental lifelessness. As far as I know, mine is completely stock... and I'm wondering if anyone else has felt the same about theirs and done anything that improved the tone*

Googling around for "F-100 pickups tone" yields some threads here referencing a G-200 wiring mod... but I couldn't find information on what the mod itself entails.

Others have mentioned wiring an F-100 MFD directly to output and finding that similarly-described "lifeless" tone gone and replaced with something more full and complex.

Just wondering what experiments others have performed with wiring their F-100 and what they've found. If there were major differences, did they come down to a particular replaceable component?

* tone. at this point I'm nine guitars into a G&L obsession that started with a screaming, throaty '87 SC-3 and now includes several early ASATs, two SC-1s, an early S-500 and even a '90s Legacy. I love the way all these guitars play and sound. As much as I like the features and playability of the F-100, I feel it falls very short of its brethren when it comes to tone.

[john o]

I have the same gtr ('81), but i have not been displeased with its tone. It's tone is unique, that is to say it doesn't sound like my other gtr's. I would not describe it as lifeless though. It is reasonably bright for a humbucking gtr. It's actually brighter in the full humbucking mode than it is with the coil tap engaged. I have been pleased with its unique voice both in lower volume/clean basement playing, and higher volume - band situation, driving the tube amp. I like its versatility and feel, and do not feel tempted to modify. I haven't had it for very long though, still in a honeymoon period.

[neutralomen]

could just be that the ceramic magnet has lost its strength.

take it to a guitar tech and see if they can test the pups output. if it is in yhr 5k or lower range, the magnet is probably just weak.

[Elwood]

a couple quick links:

http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewt ... 13&t=14502

http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic ... 031#p20031

[Danley]

Figured I was the only one to notice the pickups are darker split

[dhgleaves]

The tone of my '81 F-100 is leaving me uninspired. The tone is very clear, but there's a lifeless, somewhat compressed quality to it. Almost as if a lot of the harmonics have been removed. Yes, I've experimented with pickup height: it doesn't really address the fundamental lifelessness. As far as I know, mine is completely stock... and I'm wondering if anyone else has felt the same about theirs and done anything that improved the tone*

Googling around for "F-100 pickups tone" yields some threads here referencing a G-200 wiring mod... but I couldn't find information on what the mod itself entails.

Others have mentioned wiring an F-100 MFD directly to output and finding that similarly-described "lifeless" tone gone and replaced with something more full and complex.

Just wondering what experiments others have performed with wiring their F-100 and what they've found. If there were major differences, did they come down to a particular replaceable component?

* tone. at this point I'm nine guitars into a G&L obsession that started with a screaming, throaty '87 SC-3 and now includes several early ASATs, two SC-1s, an early S-500 and even a '90s Legacy. I love the way all these guitars play and sound. As much as I like the features and playability of the F-100, I feel it falls very short of its brethren when it comes to tone.

I have the same guitar. This may sound like a dumb question, but I assume you have ruled out that it's an issue with the phase switch? I mean, you're not somehow stuck in the out-of-phase mode, which produces a thinner sound, with reduced bass? What differenced do you get in tone when you use the phase switch?

[Danley]

I agree the tone of an F100 is already rich/full/complex to my ears (quite bright and yet quite bassy in the G&L idiom.) Fairly high output pickups, and to me "compressed" means more harmonic content. If he has it in phase switch mode, the pickup selection would have no effect; I'd figure that would be the first complaint. I almost wonder if there's a ground issue; I'd read the DC at the jack and make sure a full resistance output is showing.

[y2kc]

Rat,

This is what F-100's sound like. Personally I would not try to change anything. This is how Leo wanted this guitar. It is like a painter coming up with a particular color.
The sound of the F-100 is unique and you will never make it sound like your other G&L's.

my .o2

y2kc

[DanDoulogos]

Electronically speaking, a cold solder joint has been known to muddy up a guitar's tone... I might check the wiring before trying any other fixes. You can identify a cold solder joint by the solder "peaks" that happen when you pull the soldering iron away from the joint, and the solder is pulled up with the iron to form a little peak that hardens.

There's a good chance I am not telling you anything you don't already know - but I like to provide this kind of info in case someone else reads the thread in the future - it's always better to over-share when it comes to troubleshooting, it may not help you, but it could help some future reader as
they troubleshoot their own dilemma.

I'm not saying that a cold solder joint is "definitely" the problem here, but it would be the first thing I'd check.

In general, all of you who are reading this - if you do your own wiring, make sure you use flux every time - even if you buy flux core solder. Flux core is great, and you should use it - but it isn't as effective when soldering wire to flat surfaces (like a potentiometer). I'm not saying you can't get a good solder joint without flux - I'm just saying that your odds of doing it right the first time go up exponentially.

[vgalo7]

My F-100 is the guitar that started my love for G&L. The sound is unique as others stated above and yes It has a lot of harmonic content. The split sounds are amazing, very balanced. Maybe you have to check for cold solder joints as Dan said. If everything is OK then maybe this is not the guitar for you. Maybe you are more used to traditional tones and as you know the F-100 is anything but traditional. I love mine. To make It my go-to guitar for gigs I routed the body and added a S-500 middle pickup, put a Freeway Switch to keep the stock tones and have the in between kind of sounds of the S-500. It's fantastic.

[scelerat]

Nope, there's nothing electronically wrong with the guitar. It's just "how it sounds." I've since had the opportunity to try another F-100 from the same era and it sounded essentially the same.

My expectations of how a humbucker sounds like was mostly set by guitars I've had with Duncans (antiquity, JB, Jazz, Custom Custom) and Ibanez Super 70s. My favorite HBs are low-output like the the Antiquities and Super 70s which have an open uncompressed quality, and a nice high end.

I think the F-100 pickups have a good frequency range, but there's still a slightly compressed quality to it.

All that said, like others have said above, the F-100 is its own thing and you have to approach it on its own terms. I've ended up using the guitar a lot for some gigs, and it was great. Mostly I simply had to adjust the amp differently and everything worked out.