The Cat & The Strat

[toomanycats]

Vintage Porcelain Cat . . . 3$
Squier 2005 Affinity Arctic White Strat . . . 42$
Not having to scoop the litter box or worry about scratching the guitar . . . Priceless

[Partscaster]

They go well together.
Gonna do any mods to the strat, or cat?

[toomanycats]

They go well together.
Gonna do any mods to the strat, or cat?

Somebody had used a glue gun or something to attach a horribly tacky lace bow to the cat's neck. I pulled it off, but the gunk is still on the cat. I'm spraying Goo Gone spray on it and still having a hard time removing it. Its gonna take some time and persistence.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the Strat. It definitively needs new strings and a set up. Apparently the body on these is alder and the pickups aren't too bad. The neck feels really nice in the hand.

[Partscaster]

Ever put a copper plate behind your bridge pup? It adds some beef and rolls off some highs. They're cheap and ready bought.. Drip of solder.
I wonder if it would be interesting to do all three pups on an affinity...unless they are beefy already. Easily reversible mod too.
It would be fun to have an inexpensive affinity sound big and deep without having to do much to it.

I still need to make myself a nashville tunning strat, and a sitar bridge strat. I'm staring at the bodies and necks across the room, now.
You got a good deal with it feeling nice to play.

some acetone ragged onto cat neck might work if googone doesnt.

[toomanycats]

Ever put a copper plate behind your bridge pup? It adds some beef and rolls off some highs. They're cheap and ready bought.. Drip of solder.
I wonder if it would be interesting to do all three pups on an affinity...unless they are beefy already. Easily reversible mod too.
It would be fun to have an inexpensive affinity sound big and deep without having to do much to it.

I still need to make myself a nashville tunning strat, and a sitar bridge strat. I'm staring at the bodies and necks across the room, now.
You got a good deal with it feeling nice to play.

some acetone ragged onto cat neck might work if googone doesnt.

Check out the pickups. They look exactly like the ceramics you’d see in a Fender MIM Standard Strat.

Bridge: 3.87 k
Middle: 3.67 k
Neck: 4.05 k

[mozz]

That seems awfully low for strat pickups. Either the volume control wasn't fully on 10 or the switch is wired wrong and there is always 2 in parallel. Could also be they changed wire gauges to something heavier? That low with 42 awg wire would only fill about half the bobbin. Then i would expect them to be very bright.I may have a extra handwound strat set here as i have been swapping some out.

[toomanycats]

That seems awfully low for strat pickups. Either the volume control wasn't fully on 10 or the switch is wired wrong and there is always 2 in parallel. Could also be they changed wire gauges to something heavier? That low with 42 awg wire would only fill about half the bobbin. I may have a extra handwound strat set here as i have been swapping some out.

Yes, that does seem surprisingly low. I made sure I had all the controls at 10 when measuring. However, I found this thread on the Squier-Talk Forum where a guy is talking about his 2005 Indonesian made Squier Affinity and he says the pups measure in the 3.5k range. Could they have possibly made them that low at the factory on purpose? The only other single coil pups I've ever seen with that little resistance are those in my early 80s, MIJ Washburn Force 30.


https://www.squier-talk.com/threads/200 ... ld.150558/

[Partscaster]

That seems awfully low for strat pickups. Either the volume control wasn't fully on 10 or the switch is wired wrong and there is always 2 in parallel. Could also be they changed wire gauges to something heavier? That low with 42 awg wire would only fill about half the bobbin. I may have a extra handwound strat set here as i have been swapping some out.

Yes, that does seem surprisingly low. I made sure I had all the controls at 10 when measuring. However, I found this thread on the Squier-Talk Forum where a guy is talking about his 2005 Indonesian made Squier Affinity and he says the pups measure in the 3.5k range. Could they have possibly made them that low at the factory on purpose? The only other single coil pups I've ever seen with that little resistance are those in my early 80s, MIJ Washburn Force 30.


https://www.squier-talk.com/threads/200 ... ld.150558/

So, I'm not used ro working with ceramic strat pups. Are they somehow normally low ohm and still achieve high Henries? I' ve only got a few ripped out sets of ceramic single coils. I'm going to measure their ohms.

[Partscaster]

My two ceramic set remains do measure relatively low...at 5.1/5.1/broken.....4.2/4.2/4.1.
What do I know.? Do stronger ceramic mags let a winder skimp on number of wire winds? Hence the low reistence/ohms?
That would make sense as to why ceramic mags are so often used for low end guitars...to save from using copper. IDK.

[toomanycats]

My two ceramic set remains do measure relatively low...at 5.1/5.1/broken.....4.2/4.2/4.1.
What do I know.? Do stronger ceramic mags let a winder skimp on number of wire winds? Hence the low reistence/ohms?
That would make sense as to why ceramic mags are so often used for low end guitars...to save from using copper. IDK.

I actually own a lot of Squiers from various years, including models labeled Bullet, Affinity, Standard, SE, Classic Vibe, as well as the Starcaster that is strictly speaking not a Squier, but a Strat "by Fender." They have various kinds of pickups.

Most have the ceramic bar magnet on the bottom, and these typically measure in the 7K plus range. Those are my least favorite. I once took a set of those, removed the ceramic bar magnet, knocked out the steel slugs, and installed ALNiCo 3 rod magnets. I ended up with just about the best sounding set of single coils on any Strat I own, bar none. Just a freak occurrence, because I'm not knowable enough to have planned it like that.

I have an older, Fiesta Red, thin plywood body, hardtail, top-loader Squier Bullet Strat that has pickups completely constructed inside the cover. Those pups sound particularly good. On paper this guitar should be a P.O.S., but it is insanely resonant acoustically, plays phenomenally good, and sounds awesome plugged in. Even the stamped tuners don't suck. It's a cork sniffer's worst nightmare!

I've never tried the copper plate mod on the bottom of Strat single coils. Sounds interesting.

I'll see if acetone helps clean up the cat.

[jtcnj]

There's always more than one way to skin, err, get the glue gunk off a cat.
Nice Score on both the kitty and the guitty!!

[andrewsrea]

Ever put a copper plate behind your bridge pup? It adds some beef and rolls off some highs. They're cheap and ready bought.. Drip of solder.
I wonder if it would be interesting to do all three pups on an affinity...unless they are beefy already. Easily reversible mod too.
It would be fun to have an inexpensive affinity sound big and deep without having to do much to it.

I still need to make myself a nashville tunning strat, and a sitar bridge strat. I'm staring at the bodies and necks across the room, now.
You got a good deal with it feeling nice to play.

some acetone ragged onto cat neck might work if googone doesnt.

Yep. This is easy and excellet: https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-Strat-baseplate

[andrewsrea]

@toomanycats i think I have a set of 2016 Affinity pickups in the archives, which are similar in design, but in the 6.2K range if you want them.