Now whats that???

[lupo]

Hi there!
I just opened up my recently bought used strat, and found this strange little device inside:
It looks like the pre-owner made some kind of coil out of cables, and connected it with the PU's.
Anybody has a guess what this is for? Should I keep it or throw it out?
Any help is appreciated, thanks!!

[spud1950]

LOL! I have never seen anything like that inside a guitar.The only thing I can possibly think of,and this is really a stretch, is that it was the previous owners warped idea to create some sort of dummy coil to reduce pickup hum. Does it work?

[cubby01]

It looks like a self made inductor coil or something to reduce noise. If you take spud's advice and get rid of it then do it in such way that you can put it back the way you found it. Could be the person that installed it knew exactly what they were doing and you wish it back.

[lupo]

its hard to tell for me if it works, as i've only played lp's before so i got no experience with single-coil humming.
i probably unsolder it and give it a shot without it, if it starts humming like crazy i can put it back....

[spud1950]

It looks like a self made inductor coil or something to reduce noise. If you take spud's advice and get rid of it then do it in such way that you can put it back the way you found it.

Whoops! I edited out the remove it part when I flashed on the idea that it may indeed be some sort of inductor/dummy coil type thing.You got your post up before I got my editing done.

i probably unsolder it and give it a shot without it, if it starts humming like crazy i can put it back....

Let us know what happens when you remove it.I'm real curious to know if it actually does anything to reduce pickup hum.

[John_H]

Wow that's different. Are there any capacitors in there? I don't see any in the picture. It looks like an old mod done years ago.

[oahu]

?

hello.

its hard to tell for me if it works, as i've only played lp's before so i got no experience with single-coil humming

i've been playing many stratocasters, and i never had a REAL problem with hum or noise. they just sound great the way they are...

make some photos of that thing, in case you ever want to put it back in your strat, and then just get rid of it...

greetings from vienna.

[Jag]

My first thought was some kind of DIY dummy coil too. Personally I would yard that thing right out the door.

[lupo]

Ha! Auch ein Wiener hier! Seas!
Well, as I said I'm going to remove that thing for now, and as soon as I can afford I'll it probably go for some quality pots, caps and pu's. Pitty is I can't tell what kind of electrics i got right now. Its a tokai strat from around 81/82, but I don't know if (one of) the pre-owners replaced something...
pu's are non-staggert and got a 'T' stamped on them..
Anybody got a guess?
Thanks for the help so far!!

[spud1950]

I've looked quite a few of those for sale on eBay with pictures of showing the back of the pickguard assembly. The "T" stamped pickups are the original Tokai pickups. The rest of the electronics also look original.Those old Tokai Strats are quality guitars and used very good components.

[Sweetfinger]

A clue would be found about the purpose by knowing where the coil is inserted into the circuit. There seem to be three coils bundled together-one for each pickup? I can only think of three possibilities for a mystery coil in a passive guitar:
1. Dummy coil, 2. inductor for tone shaping, 3. Loop for RF rejection

Since the thing isn't wound with nearly enough turns to function as either a dummy coil, or an inductor that would affect guitar frequencies, it is either an attempt at a dummy coil, or was done to minimize RF interference, which can be a problem in some areas and not so bad in others. Those loops are probably sufficient to block RF, but a ferrite bead with just a couple loops would be much more compact.

[David Schwab]

You can't make a dummy coil, or an inductor with shielded coax cable.

My guess it it's like the old PRS sweet switch, which simulated a length of cable to roll some top end off, which was useful when the guitar was used with a wireless setup.

[PeteRH]

Sorry too drag up an old thread but I have asked the same question on the Tokai forum after finding the coils in 3 Tokai guitars of 1983 1984 vintage.

Tokai definitely made these little magic boxes and not any previous owners. Thats for sure.

I originally thought the package was a dummy coil. Flipping the coil over or moving it towards or away from the pickups made no difference to the hum. Kills that theory.
There is absolutely nothing in series with the wires of any resistance so no caps or resistors inside either.

I think David is on the money. Just lots of cable to roll off the highs.

I have read about guitarists who use 100ft guitar cables for tone reasons and Ken Fischer used a really long amp speaker cables to achieve the same results. Cudos to the Tokai guys for going to the effort.

[eggle]

wow

personally, i think the original owner carried a mini pocket portable tv around with him at gigs, at half time during shows he would get out his tv and plug this cable into it,,,he must have been watching PIMP MY AXE.....lol

[David Schwab]

I think David is on the money. Just lots of cable to roll off the highs.

I have read about guitarists who use 100ft guitar cables for tone reasons and Ken Fischer used a really long amp speaker cables to achieve the same results. Cudos to the Tokai guys for going to the effort.

The guy who designed the PRS circuit used a passive delay line but said later that an RC network would have probably done the same thing.

I'm a big fan of tuning pickups with small value caps, and I use fairly small value caps in my basses. I like .02 tone caps. They don't make it muddy, and give a nice upper mid honk.

Sometimes you like the tone of the pickup, but you might want to get rid of the glassy top end, while keeping the rest. A 0.005 mF will do that nicely.