Squier Paranormal Rascal – split coils and active circuit

[SimonH]

Just acquired a Squier Paranormal Rascal and enjoying short scale on a long scale body (if that makes sense). Also enjoying the looks, if I'm honest. It comes with a pair of passive Squier humbuckers which sound pretty good at home but they lack 'sparkle' in a band setting – I've an Ibanez SR1200 (with Nordstrand Big Single passive pickups and Ibanez three-band preamp) and my bandmates said, A/B, that the Ibanez sounded "more hi-fi, more clarity, sweeter". 

So here's my plan for the Squier – and I'd really appreciate any input or advice! 

1) Split both doublecoils. As standard, the pups route to a 3-way toggle, then single vol and tone. My idea is to install a pair of mini two-way toggles next to the three-way, and split both coils (the coils are wired together with a solder join so easy to spit them). That would give me the option to combine both humbuckers and/or single coils in any config. 

Don't know if that will help get me closer to the sound I want, but I think it might reduce the muddiness of the humbuckers. 

2) Add a preamp. This is the bit I start to get confused about – I've installed a Noll in a Precision, a John East in a Jazz (pre-prepared), a Glockenklang in... I can't even remember now... what was that in? Anyway... they were all kinda like-for-like, or fairly obvious. This will be a bit more involved and will mean adding an extra pot for bass and treble eq. And a push-pull somewhere (vol?) for active/passive. Fortunately there's plenty of room under the scratchplate. Or can I can always rout out a bit more. I'll worry about the wiring later (the guitarist in the band is a professional amp builder). 

What I'd like to know before I start is, does that sound like a plan that might get me closer to the sound I want? Or do I need to simply replace the stock pups (with what tho?).

All advice/critiques welcome (ie buy a different bass, play the Ibanez instead, etc).

Thank you for reading this!

[Andyjr1515]

Hmmm...not sure.

 

My first thought was 'wide range in the bridge??'  Shades of mudbucker came to mind.  And, compared with your other basses that may still be the case.  

 

But this video is actually quite interesting (SUPER irritating, but actually quite interesting):

 

Skip to 8:12 and then direct to 9.02 for his demo of DI neck to bridge ('direct to' so as to miss all of the changes in tone position and introducing an amp emulator which just confuses everything).

 

Then to his comments at 14.32.  He is clearly unimpressed with the neck pickup so maybe it is a fairly objective review, but is clearly quite impressed with the bridge pickup. 

 

Now, regardless of the above, my guess is that it is always going to sound a bit like a mudbucker - but, before you shell out cash on it, try this:

-  try raising bridge pickup - and if you have enough gap, then raise the back of the bridge pickup more than the front of it..say 3-4mm at the back and 2mm at the front (and so tilting the pickup higher at the bridge side than the neck side)  

-  if this helps but still a bit muddy, then raise the 4 poles on the bridge pickup a couple of mm above the casing - from the photo it looks like they are all screwed down below the casing

 

If this doesn't get you there, then I reckon different pickup for at least the bridge is probably on the cards as a split coil, in my opinion, will not get you there.

 

If you try the above, then let us know if it makes a difference.     

Edited September 16, 2023 by Andyjr1515

[itu]

To understand the capabilities of the pickups you could bypass everything in between the pickup and the amp. One at a time. Yes, a bit long way, but will lessen the need to buy preamps or other parts that could turn out useless.

 

The split of the pickup is a natural step forward, if the mud is too much. If even that does not please your ear, consider new pickups.

 

The basic sound has to be decent, preamp does not add anything that there isn't.

 

Pots - tone & vol & blend - are high end killers. That's why I suggest bypassing them in the first place. They degrade the pickup response. (John East has active blend, which doesn't cut highs. Many preamps are just tone stacks after those ordinary vol, tone, or blend pots.)