Ray5 pickup and preamp replacement

[tauzero]

I bought the Ray5 a little while ago with the intention of replacing the preamp and possibly the pickup. My initial installation of a preamp made on an OSH Park PCB didn't work, which subsequently I suspect was due to a flat battery (doh!). I bought a Classic Preamp kit from Musikding and installed that instead. I put a connector on the PCB and the battery clip so I could remove the entire scratchplate if necessary without any unsoldering.

 

 

 

When I got the Squier Vintage Modified Modified, it had a Warman MM pickup in the bridge position. As the pole pieces weren't best spaced for it, I replaced it with an Aguilar MM pickup which was a far better fit, leaving me with a Warman pickup with both coils nicely accessible. So I connected the coils in parallel and replaced the original pickup with that. Again, that was fitted with a connector with the bridge wire going to the ground side.

 

The pots have 1/4" shafts which aren't as easy to get knobs for as 6mm shafts. Bloody primitive measuring systems. However, I did find a set of brass flat top knobs on Ebay which look rather nice on it.

 

 

I'm pleased with the sound. Will be doing some more playing around.

[Norris]

I fitted a Retrovibe Stinger '77 preamp in mine and it sounds great with the original pickup. So much better than the indistinct mush of the original preamp. I really must get around to shimming the pots with a couple of washers - the knobs sit too proud at the moment

[tauzero]

16 hours ago, Norris said:

I fitted a Retrovibe Stinger '77 preamp in mine and it sounds great with the original pickup. So much better than the indistinct mush of the original preamp. I really must get around to shimming the pots with a couple of washers - the knobs sit too proud at the moment

 

The Stinger, the OSH Park circuit, and the Classic Preamp are all the same circuit. I didn't try it with the original pickup but with the Warman MM5 it sounds fine.