I recently got a very good condition S-500 Tribute off of Reverb, and it has some things that need sorted -- some that directly relate to base playability, others that I'm finding are preference. I was told it was PLEK'd after purchase by the previous owner, which may have been total fluff. I find the low E to be really buzzy when unfretted and depending on the day I can get mild buzz on some of the higher frets therein. I asked for the PLEK calibration information so I could compare it to the setup as is, but I probably screwed myself on that by asking for it AFTER the sale... Whoops. Anyway, it feels really nice on the other strings so I'm inclined to trust or turn a blind eye, it's just that damn low E... (Haven't changed the strings or tried to do a full setup myself, so this could be easily remedied, not sure.)For the curious, here's the good stuff about the guitar (and it's really good):
- Excellent neck -- I usually don't like gloss finishes, and this S-500 Tribute doesn't feel sticky at all. Perhaps it's a similar formulation to the USA ones?
- Fretwire seems to be good quality and polished well. I was told the seller took the guitar on a trade and was told by the person they got it from that it was PLEK'd -- I'm inclined to believe them, but maybe I'm just being naive here. I likely should've asked the hard questions before buying, but hey... I like the guitar.
- The "Sonic Blue" colour (I think that's what it's called?) is beautiful. I usually find the flashy flame tops /veneers that show off the wood grain to be what I gravitate towards, but there's a lot to be said for a really good standard colour finish applied well.
- High quality electronics -- proper volume and tone pots with decent friction that don't feel sloppy or loose.
- The MFD Single Coil pickups are very "hi-fi" and sound great. I'm more of a humbucker person I suspect, but that's just personal preference.
- The tremolo bridge works really well. It doesn't have locking tuners, but they don't actually seem essential, since the tuning keys are actually a high ratio and work!
- Holy bananas, the so-called Passive Treble Bass (PTB?) system is the real deal. I don't even record myself with anything other than a looper for practicing, but it's immensely useful at shaving off frequencies on either end of the spectrum without reaching over and fiddling with the amp settings. (which I find overwhelming as I have an older modeling amp, should've got something simpler... that'll be rectified in the near future, hopefully.)
- - That @#$^ing low E string! I tried to find some info via Google, and it seems that it may well be that the nut slot is cut too low, especially as it's only the one string.
- The treble tone pot uses a push / pull that's kinda hard to grip with the standard Fender style tone knobs. I'm not playing live, but it's just not that easy to grab and use for the blending option. Also, it doesn't have anywhere near as much friction as the other ones, which I find annoying, now that I know what a good knob (for my tastes) feels like!
- 60 cycle hum since I'm often trying to figure something out while looking up references online or trying to figure out fingering or something from a video. It's probably not all that efficient as a learning method, but that's partly why I want to try swapping the pickups out for the Lace Sensors and see what happens. (I suspect I should shield the cavity and back of the pickguard as well, and I have copper tape leftover from a DIY project guitar kit, so a lot of this stuff will all happen at once.)
- I think I prefer more tension on the vibrato, which I guess can be fixed by adding another spring or two? Something like that.
- I have it tuned to E flat standard with the strings it shipped with -- the seller said they're D'addario EXL 110s, not sure if I want to stick with similar or start fiddling with different gauges. I assume drop tuning lower (no lower than C-standard for some doom metal type stuff) typically necessitates a thicker gauge to prevent things from getting floppy, but I'm nervous about recutting the nut. I've never refitted a nut myself, but I'm probably going to order a couple pre-cut Tusq nuts and see if I can figure that out on my cheap POS beater project guitar first. (I should've just got a cheap overseas / used one and used that as a baseline instead. Lesson learned.)
- - I saw a post from one of the G&L folks that was pinned (I think?) indicating that the necks can shift in shipping, so I guess I'll try that loosen and realign method, as the pickups don't quite line up with the string spacing. If it's still off, maybe I'll have to take measurements and cut myself a custom pickguard that's re-aligned slightly.
- Regarding possibly finagling a custom pickguard of my preference, I was thinking of trying my hand at that anyway since I'm not a big fan of the standard positioning of the master volume knob on a Strat, as it's so close to the bridge and I find I stick my hand at a really weird angle and can't consistently palm mute over to the high E string. (not that I do that often, but it was something I was trying to do and couldn't pull off consistently.) I'll probably shift the Treble rolloff over as well.
- Once I figure out what brand / value of pots are inside the guitar, I'll try to order one of the same for the Treble pot and maybe wire the neck blend switch back in as a standard mini toggle. I could get by with a push-push switch (my personal preferences, as I've had too many sloppy push pulls on my cheap guitars) but that feels like a gamble at this point.
- I got a pack of Lace Sensors awhile ago to try out -- the Red / Silver / Blue "Value Pack" combo -- partly due to the fact that it's apparently a big part of the old Smashing Pumpkins sound, but also since they were marketed as quieter single coils, and I've been learning stuff while looking bits up on the computer, which causes electrical interference galore and tons of hum.
I'd like to swap the pickups out while retaining the PTB system, and I'm not really sure what value of pots / caps to use with the Lace Sensors, and if any of the capacitors in the diagram should be changed or removed entirely. I read in another thread (possibly with input from Mr. Gagon, the designer of the circuit / pickups?) that the cap values are particular to filtering certain frequencies since the MFD pickups are more sensitive / higher output than a traditional single coil design, such that a bit of additional tone shaping via cap values is necessary for the MFDs in particular.
- As mentioned, I think I should strip it down a bit to add some shielding behind the pickguard and in the cavity. I don't have any shielding paint but might order some if I can find it for a reasonably cheap price. I think I saw some on the Guitar Fetish website that was affordable enough compared to other prices I had seen, so hopefully that stuff works well if I decide to go that route.
I'm new to a lot of this stuff, so any advice or input you have is appreciated! I tried using the search feature on the forum to find related threads to these topics to avoid topic duplication, but I didn't see anything specific at a glance. Apologies if I overlooked it.I also tried to use the list feature to break this post up a bit, but I'm not sure if I formatted that right -- couldn't make sense of the forum code so I tried to help it along. Thanks for reading this and any insight you may have! Lurking in various threads gave me the impression that this is a rather welcoming and helpful community. Glad to be here!
