[darkbluemurder]

Has anyone tried this combination in a strat with 500k pots? What were the results?

The reason I am asking is that I am not quite happy with the Chopper - 58 - 67 and 250k pots in that strat. The 58, 67 and the combination Sound fine but the Chopper in the bridge is too soft and the bridge + middle combo does not quack properly.

I am thinking of either replacing the Chopper with a Virtual Solo or replacing the 58 and 67 with a pair of Cruisers (I still have one left over) and change the pots to 500k. The Chopper T in my telecaster with a 500k pot sounds terrific.

Any particular preference whether to use the Cruiser bridge or neck (my model is a bridge one)? I am thinking to get a neck model to put in the neck and put the bridge model in the middle.

Thanks for your input,
Stephan

[wxs3]

I use the Chopper in the bridge of my strat with a pair of Fast Track 1's.  Sounds great and covers a lot of ground.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

I generally don't like the Chopper with 500k, but the cruisers demand it, so if you already know you like the Chopper with 500k, go for it.  The Cruiser is an interesting pickup.  If you find the chopper too bright, you can always use a resistor to drop the load until it sounds ok.

[corypheus]

I run my chopper with 500kohm, but it's on the middle or neck, I really wouldn't put a chopper with 500kohm load on the bridge, way too bright. Make the 2 vol/1 tone mod to your strat, and use 250kohm for the chopper bridge, and 500kohm for the cruisers, best of both worlds.

[darkbluemurder]

Make the 2 vol/1 tone mod to your strat, and use 250kohm for the chopper bridge, and 500kohm for the cruisers, best of both worlds.

Thanks. I strongly prefer one master volume to two separate volumes. Besides, the Chopper with the 250k volume is not bright enough for me so I will try the set up with the 500k pot.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

I use the Chopper in the bridge of my strat with a pair of Fast Track 1's.  Sounds great and covers a lot of ground.

That would also be an interesting combination but since I already have one Cruiser I will try that first.

Thanks,
Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

I generally don't like the Chopper with 500k, but the cruisers demand it, so if you already know you like the Chopper with 500k, go for it.  The Cruiser is an interesting pickup.  If you find the chopper too bright, you can always use a resistor to drop the load until it sounds ok.

Ray, many thanks for this. Since I use a regular 5-way (not a 24 pole) I will try the "bending the rivets trick" if I need to use a resistor on the Chopper.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

Finally scored a neck model on the bay after having been outbid four times. We will see how the conversion works.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

Just did a rewiring of the guitar with the existing pickups and found that I used a .022uf tone cap on the 250k master tone control and that in addition to the .0022uf cap with another 250k tone control on the bridge pickup made it too tame. For now I put a .0047uf on the neck pickup and left the .0022uf on the bridge pickup. That made the bridge pickup considerably brighter. Now I would agree that a 500k volume pot is not necessary for the Chopper.

I will play it now for a while as is and see whether any further tweaks or pickup swaps are necessary.

Many thanks for all your input.

Cheers Stephan

[RayBarbeeMusic]

That would do it!

A tone pot is a rheostat, so unlike a volume pot, a 250k tone pot all the way up is a 500k audio pot turned down to about 7.5.  With a .022uf tone cap that would definitely darken things up.