Mccarty pups and tone knob

Whodat84

Dadbod model
Joined
Jun 15, 2022
Messages
40
Location
Lafayette, Louisiana
I installed a set of mccarty pups back in my mccarty and they sound great but it almost sounds like the tone knob is rolled back a hair, like really mid heavy I don’t remember them sounding like this) I checked the wiring and the grounding and the only thing that changed was going from a .022 to a .033 tone cap, could that be it or something else?
 
Depending upon what pickups you were coming from (you know, like what you were accustomed to hearing in that guitar) the wiring could be fine. They're not bright pickups at all--in fact, IMO the McCarty pickups are kind of dark and very middy.

That being said, though, I still appreciate them and I like them in my older McCarty. I feel like back in the mid-90's (when these were designed) everybody thought great PAF pickups sounded a particular way: powerful, mid-heavy, and not bright. Fast-forward 20-25 years later, and all the best PAF recreations (58/15LT, Lollar Imperial, etc.) now all low-output, scooped, and jangly/bright. Go figure!
 
Depending upon what pickups you were coming from (you know, like what you were accustomed to hearing in that guitar) the wiring could be fine. They're not bright pickups at all--in fact, IMO the McCarty pickups are kind of dark and very middy.

That being said, though, I still appreciate them and I like them in my older McCarty. I feel like back in the mid-90's (when these were designed) everybody thought great PAF pickups sounded a particular way: powerful, mid-heavy, and not bright. Fast-forward 20-25 years later, and all the best PAF recreations (58/15LT, Lollar Imperial, etc.) now all low-output, scooped, and jangly/bright. Go figure!
I love the tone of them, I think they’re probably the most versatile pickups I’ve played. I was looking at the pre 2007 vs the current wiring diagram and I noticed a couple of things change with the grounding of the tone pot. Does anyone know what the difference is and why it was done that way?
 
I don't know why the wiring changed but I do know a wiring change and a tone cap value can definitely change things. Hopefully it is a simple fix for you and you can get it sorted to your liking. :)
 
The tone pot wiring on the new drop in vs the pre-2007 makes a difference (or I really suck at soldering and fixed a bad spot when I switched the tone pot) still trying to figure out how it changed the tone and working on my soldiering skills
 
Oh! And maybe adding a "treble bleed" (I don't know if that's in yours or not?) will keep it brighter as you turn the volume down away from 10.
 
I only have a McCarty Treble which I acquired used many years ago. Even for a hot PAF it is fairly dark. BTW what did you have in the guitar before?
 
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