My "Gretchen" Rig Clips - Ty Tabor Tone

  • Thread starter Thread starter Krinkle
  • Start date Start date
Black Flag rhythm

 
i was thinking about buying some used 1U preamp for under $100 and gutting it to make a L5 preamp. of course it would be even cooler to throw the elite preamp section into the preamp's front end. all of that in one box would make my day. better still: someone make a Ty Tabor foot pedal! bring your single coil strat and the box does the rest.
 
me and VSA on the elevenrackpresets.com forum came up with a few king's x presets last year that are pretty close. i need to post some clips and see how they stack up.
 
singtall":373qqac2 said:
me and VSA on the elevenrackpresets.com forum came up with a few king's x presets last year that are pretty close. i need to post some clips and see how they stack up.
Click to expand...
I was trying to find those but all I kept getting was links to the presets, I couldn't find the clips. Would be cool to hear them.
 
Lost in Germany, a little too fast like most of my other clips, I'm noticing after listening back to them and comparing to the real thing. Something for me to work on.

 
I received some questions about documentation to build the Elite preamp, pdf was sent to me by Fender support and is not on their site, so it should be okay to attach to this post.

Traced schematic
http://www.eledar.net/Music/walnelite/p ... schem2.jpg

Picture of preamp pcb, component and trace side
http://eledar.net/Music/walnelite/photos/web_WSpcb.jpg

My partslist to automatically order from Mouser.
http://www.mouser.com:80/ProjectManager ... 72c981f438

DISCLAIMERS

My partslist only includes parts to solder on the preamp PCB, plus the Mid Boost pot. It does NOT include the pcb, wires, and other pots or pickups, switch, etc. Please examine the partlist and compare part designations, R4, C23, etc, so you understand what you are doing before you start this project.

The part numbers for the volume and the TBX pots are in the pdf. Order the right pots from a Fender dealer (just about everybody), you need the same volume pot taper to get the proper roll off to clean tone that Ty does.

I did not use the 3 switches that were used in the Elite, I used a regular 5 way switch. I don't have a drawing of that change, it is not hard, probably half the people here could figure it out or help with that.

I haven't tried this preamp with any other pickups than the actual Elite PUPs that I bought on eBay. They are all just above 7k DC resistance, 7.3k. 7.2k, and 7.15k. I put the hottest one in the bridge, next hottest in the middle, etc. I have read that they are Alnico 5 magnet PUPs, no proof found anywhere. I do not know if they have 6 polepieces or a bar (like the Bill Lawrence or SD Hotrails PUPs). Elite PUPs are sealed, unless somebody gets a busted one and takes it apart we may never know.

I did not buy a dummy coil, it was not available. You can try to find a suitable replacement, I really don't think it would be anything special. I am assuming that if you have an extra PUP at 7k, you should be able to pull the polepieces/magnets out and hopefully that's what they did. DON"T FORGET TO WIRE OUT OF PHASE IF YOU USE A DUMMY COIL, THIS IS HOW THE NOISE CANCELS, JUST REVERSE THE WIRES. This could be a topic for another thread. I had a Suhr/Ilitch BPSSC system (Google if you do not know what that it) so I used that to get rid of hum instead of the dummy coil. You can still build the circuit as is if you use the BPSSC, no changes required to omit the dummy coil.
 

Attachments

awesome stuff. I keep searching craigslist for "fender elite" and I continuously come up with about 10 matches all within $200~$400. Unfortunatly every one is actually a SHECTER. And...wouldn't you know there are a few Fender Elites in my area with "upgraded electronics"...meaning the pickups have been removed and replaced. Typical of craigslist also, damn near impossible to get a reply from anyone who is trying to sell stuff.
 
Havent played either my Lab or my elite or the elite single rack pre amp. Now I must go do it!

Great job on the clips! The reason why Ty stopped using this set up? Well when you start the clips there is serious noise. Now take that on stage and try to keep it under control!
 
Jeff Hilligan":31y4u5gv said:
Havent played either my Lab or my elite or the elite single rack pre amp. Now I must go do it!

Great job on the clips! The reason why Ty stopped using this set up? Well when you start the clips there is serious noise. Now take that on stage and try to keep it under control!
Click to expand...
Thanks Jeff, I can hear a bunch of stuff I can improve on already.

I didn't use the dummy coil as I couldn't find an original from an Elite, so I went with the Suhr BPSSC system. I'm still getting some noise, even with that installed. I may try a dummy coil just for kicks.

The noise sounds really loud at the beginning because the camera input is adjusting for sound level, but make no mistake, there's still more noise than I care for. I can turn to a certain direction and get rid of almost all of it but that's annoying. I'm going to keep working on it, I should be able to get the noise levels down somehow. I get the feeling that Ty didn't have this much noise. I'm a tech so I can put my knowledge and experience to work. Now that I have the tone I was looking for, I'll wire the rack up properly, the wires are every which way in the back, singnal crossing over AC, etc.

I figured out a lot about the volume and mid boost settings with this setup, so I'm going to revisit my Elite in a pedal that I built, the pedal version of your rackmount. I actually think I can make that work with a regular Strat, whereas I didn't think so before I modded the MIM to Elite specs. With this setup I had to back my volume/gain on the L5 back to 8 to get the proper roll off to a clean tone. That will fix one of the problems that I thought was the pedal. Also, I found that most of the time my mid boost is between 3 and 5 for rhythm, and at about 8 for leads. I had it at 10 all the time when I was using the pedal, and it was too muddy for me.
 
WOW - blown away by the great Ty tone you achieved - GGTN is also one of my all time favorites. Great stuff & inspiring.
 
Awesome job!

This is such a cool thread it deserves to be bumped.
 
Hi jacking the thread!
Lab Series L5 chassis for sale $350 plus shipping. No head shell just a chassis
 
So, big question here is how are you running\connecting the Lab? Do you have a load on the speaker outs? Or are you just using the preamp out with no load?
 
Awesome clips! You nailed it for sure! I second the motion for Ty to bring back his Gretchen rig for the next Kings X CD... We ought to start a petition! :rock:
 
i had pretty much given up on perfecting that tone, now this thread has me wanting to try for that tone again....without buying all of the gear.

i just got an axe-fx ultra....time to put it to the test.
 
ok, i'm working on king's x tone using my axe-fx ultra and it sure isn't an easy tone to get dialed in. i ain't there yet, but i made a clip of my progress so i can refer back and see what works and what doesn't. excuse the rushed playing and sloppiness:

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/gretchen-1
 
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