Asat special pickups and pickguard

[Ale]

Hi guys,

Where can i find in europe custom pickguards for an asat special? The problem is that i have an asat tribute special but i'm not so happy with the bridge pick up so i was considering a real p90 for a more p90's gibsonish sound. To do this i need a new custom pickguard. Thanks

[Craig]

Hi guys,

Where can i find in europe custom pickguards for an asat special? The problem is that i have an asat tribute special but i'm not so happy with the bridge pick up so i was considering a real p90 for a more p90's gibsonish sound. To do this i need a new custom pickguard. Thanks

Before you change out the pickup, you might try raising or lowering the bridge pickup. You also can adjust the individual pole pieces up or down to
balance each string.

If that does not work for you and you want to replace the MFD pickup, you will need to route out the existing route because a P-90 pickup
is slightly larger. See: Re: Gagon's P-90 vs ASAT special jumbo G&L MFD.

Sorry, but I can't help regarding sources for custom pickguards in Europe.

Hope this helps.

[Philby]

There's a guy here in Australia called Mick Brierley who custom makes P90 pickups that drop straight into an ASAT Special.
You could look him up on Google. It might save messing around with pickguards and possibly routing.
Just a thought.....

[GeorgeB]

I have no experience with P90 pickups and how they sound in comparison to a big MFD.... but if the problem were to tame the MFDs to have less bass and/or treble and/or a lowered self-resonance (all effectively giving more mids) then this could be done easily by a few electronic components added to the circuit. No changes to the instrument except added parts for a few pennies and a solder job.

[john o]

Hi guys,

Where can i find in europe custom pickguards for an asat special? The problem is that i have an asat tribute special but i'm not so happy with the bridge pick up so i was considering a real p90 for a more p90's gibsonish sound. To do this i need a new custom pickguard. Thanks

Have you played a p90 guitar before?? My [limited] experience with p90's is they have a more constricted tonal range, more midrange, less highs than the large coil mfd's on the asat special. I have a gibson SG that i switched out the stock gibson bridge p90 for a Lollar p90, 5% overwound, for a more satisfying lead pickup, more midrangy, slightly higher output and better tone.
see http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/mercha ... 90-pickups
happy hunting!

[Fumble fingers]

when I use the P90 in my Fallout the tone is set on 10/high ...... you could probably level the High E and B pole pieces even with the pick up , then raise the G, D and A string pole piece two or three turns and maybe roll the tone back just a touch and get about the same thing as the P90 if you play with it a little ..... one nice thing about the MFD pick ups is you can tailor the pole piece and balance it they way you need it .... it's worth a try anyway

[supereiv]

Did you try a Rio Grande replacement set for the ASAT special ? Alnico etc

[Ale]

I haven't tried it and i don't think i will because reviews are not good...i will try to tweak the pole pieces

[NickHorne]

If you're confident with soldering, and protecting the instrument while you do it, I think it is definitely worth trying one other method:

Get yourself an assortment of capacitors (please don't waste any money on hyped-up parts, they make zero difference), with these values:

.0022 microfarad (aka 2.2 nanofarad, or nF, or n)
.0033 microfarad (3.3 nF)
.0047 microfarad (4.7 nF)
.01 microfarad (10 nF)

Exact values not essential. One of each will do.

Get yourself a wire soldered (just a quick "tack" connection, so you can get it it off again easily) to the "hot" of the bridge pickup, which should be fairly easy to find at the 3-way switch.
And another wire to ground (which can be had easily wherever's convenient).
Loosely refit the control plate (really gently, so as not to bend it) with these wires hanging out, to prevent it moving about and damaging your finish.

Try conecting (just twisting) each cap in turn, one at a time, to these two connections, and see what you like.

The larger the capacitance, the lower the pickup's resonant frequency will become, which will take you into the sort of tone territory you're thinking of.
The effect of this is different from a regular tone control.

If you want more than .01 (though I think this might be unlikely) just connect more than one, in parallel.

I would give the MFD a good chance. Its music-to-noise ratio is very good for a single-coil, and you can get it to balance really well across the strings and up / down the neck.
If you like the capacitor treatment, you could just fit your chosen value on a pull / push pot.

[GeorgeB]

Agreeing with Nick here.
For testing you can also use short leads with "alligator clips". If the 'honk' is too much, try a 10kOhms series trimpot with the capacitor (Note earlier ASAT circuits had a 6.8k resistor in series with the tone cap).

One can change the tone pot so that it cuts treble on both end points, one using the standard cap and one using that smaller cap so you can have both and don't need a push-pull. Best to increase pot value by 2 though, that would give 500k typically.

FWIW, I never had a use for the standard values of the tone control in most any guitar, especially on anything fender'ish I need no 'woman tone'. On my ASAT Special I reduced the tone cap to 1.5nF (from 100nF, IIRC) which gives a sound quite close to a good humbucker, it just cuts off the sparkle and reduces self-resonance a bit. Also the tone pot is rewired to adjust a big treble bleeder across the volume, acting as effectively as a bass cut. See posting in the tweakers corner that I'll post in an instant.

[NickHorne]

George,
thanks for mentioning your 1.5 nF.
I had wondered whether to include a .001uF (1nF) cap at the top of my list, and I should have done.

[Ale]

Thanks guys. Great guitar, great color but it's not for me so i decided to sell. If anyone interested in Europe send me pm