TV Jones in a Tele - Bass Flub

chris45

Update.  @TheGuitarWeasel rewound my pickup so it's now really an Oil City Cowtron.  Great turnaround from Ash - posted Thursday arrived Tuesday.  I've just come back from @ICBM where we installed it and as soon as it was plugged in we looked at each other and said "that's it".  Smooth and articulate - I particularly like it in the middle position with the bridge single coil together, a great characterful clean pop sound.  Many thanks to both @TheGuitarWeasel and @ICBM for getting this sorted for me.  Here's a picture:

ICBM

Glad to help - and that you could help me restring it, it would have been hard work with only one good hand .

Jalapeno

... and they all lived happily ever after !

The End.

(I do like a happy ending )

The_Whisper_Thief

That's a great looking guitar and a very smart pup choice, phwoar

Moe_Zambeek

One-armed guitar repair, impressive

OilCityPickups

The TV Jones was a real tale of woe inside ... ... some pics:
The cover soldered on crookedly with pigeon poo soldering didn't help things ... 

 No strain relief on the output wire ... leaving it free to wobble about and foul the pickup mounting screw.

The baseplate had been crudely ground down ... presumably to let the cover fit ... but left with this burr and shard of brass that was sticking into the side of one of the coils.

So I installed proper strain relief ... with a nickel cable clamp.

Stripped the wire off the bobbins ... which seemed to have been wound WAY too tightly for a Filtertron style pickup ...and rewound to classic 50s spec.

now all the wiring is held properly away from the mounting screws and won't move about.
Finally the cover was soldered on properly ...

And we have a ready to rock pickup ...

impmann

Thats a shocking set of pics as those are *not* cheap pickups.

OilCityPickups

impmann said:

Thats a shocking set of pics as those are *not* cheap pickups.

Vintage pickups have their issues too don't forget. The original Filtertron design didn't incorporate any cable clamping ... 
But I was fairly shocked myself at the sheer number of issues this one pickup had. I checked if it was in someway a fake or had previously been tampered with ... and neither seemed to be the case ... so one would have to put this down to a Friday afternoon job. 

ICBM

Was that shard of brass causing a partially shorted coil by any chance?

It was instantly obvious it was fixed today - even before tuning the guitar properly it was clear the ‘turned-down tone control’ sound was gone.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

Was that shard of brass causing a partially shorted coil by any chance?

It was instantly obvious it was fixed today - even before tuning the guitar properly it was clear the ‘turned-down tone control’ sound was gone.

It was difficult to tell ... I think it may have done ... but I couldn't even see it till I'd taken the bobbins out. The brass shard may have been the culprit ... or the super tight wind ... I mean there was no scatter and it was WAY tight, almost parallel laid coils tend to build capacitance rapidly. The wobbly lead issue was not going to be the cause ... but certainly the earth connection to the case would have soon broken with a bit of pickup movement. 
Still, all fixed ... 

stickyfiddle

It's interesting. I've always assumed TV Jones are really high quality pickups since they're not cheap and generally sound great, but clearly they don't always hit the mark.

chris45

stickyfiddle said:

It's interesting. I've always assumed TV Jones are really high quality pickups since they're not cheap and generally sound great, but clearly they don't always hit the mark.

This is the first time in a long period of playing where I have had a genuinely faulty component.  I've had guitars where I have replaced the pickups to taste, but the ones that have come out have all sounded as I expected them to.

This One:
At first it was The Emperor's New Clothes given that it's a bit of a non-standard configuration so I told myself "well maybe that's what it's meant to sound like".  Then after a while I realised it was just a bit rubbish and that an internet search didn't come up with any similar complaints.  Even after @ICBM tweaked the setup it was... meh.  Then I found this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JiVpXqGc3SA

And realised it was miles away from the tone I was getting.  If I have learned anything from this is that you trust your ears not reputation.

Moe_Zambeek

I’ve had a few TVJs and they’ve all been great, and the construction immaculate, so this is a surprise. I wonder if it’s been dropped or damage done in the fender factory and they stuck it in anyway... 

normula1

That's a cracking looking guitar

ICBM

normula1 said:

That's a cracking looking guitar

It's as nice in reality too - it is a Relic, but my ideal kind where they've done nothing much more than just age it, and not do the fake wear and damage... there may be a little, but it must be pretty minimal. Basically it just looks like an extremely well-cared-for old guitar. If only I could actually play a guitar at the moment .

guitars4you

I love that set-up on a Tele - TV Jones neck and something like a Boadcaster in the bridge - Looks cool but I love the voicing - Glad it has worked out and praise to @icbm and @TheGuitarWeasel - many would have given up at this stage so praise to them

OilCityPickups

I adore bound Teles ... and that one is a real looker ...