Gorgeous 60s Galanti, bad pups?

[Ben79]

Hi all,

Just took delivery of a Galanti Grand Prix....



But it's got some issues with the sound. The bridge pup is very weedy and thin and the neck is loud with no treble content whatsoever. Off the bat, any ideas if this sounds like duff pickups or a wiring issue? I'm thinking it's the pups but strange that they would have what seems to be opposite faults.

I've built fuzzes but never worked on guitar guts before.

[Chankgeez]

I'm not an expert, but my vote is the pickups are the cause of it all. I've got a old Guyatone with similar problems. Not sure there's much that can be done short of getting them rewound. I think if you open it up, you'll be able to see if there're any wiring issues.

[skullservant]

Yeah it sounds like the pickups, unfortunately. That trem is sweet. Really the whole guitar is sweet. I wish guitar companies still did weird stuff like on that guitar

[Ben79]

Thanks guys. You've echoed my thoughts. Guitar plays nice and that vibrato/bridge unit is a work of art - really well made, and works a treat.
I'll check the wiring but the guitar has obviously not seen much action so I can't imagine there's been any butchering in there.
I'll have to get it sorted whatever, it's way too sexy to not be being played.

[Ben79]

Well I opened her up and I found a little circuit board with a highpass filter for the bridge pup and a lowpass for the neck - 1600pf cap and 100k resistor for each. Weird, that's nothing above 1khz on the neck and nothing below on the bridge (I think). I'll bypass it and expect to hear a vast improvement.

[skullservant]

Wow, thats nuts!

[Moose]

That's weird but awesome at the same time

Hope bypassing it goes alright though and that it sounds decent

[Ben79]

Horrible to work on! Short cables, weird bolts with spacers into a metal plate that houses the pickups....was really fiddly and took about 2 hours but I managed to bypass the filters with a piece of vero. Why do pickups have such feeble little wires coming off them?

Anyway it sounds much better. Why would they install such a thing? 2 choices - total mud or total tin.

Bought this guitar to replace a 1975 Mustang that I have for sale and strangely it plays and sounds pretty similar except for the scale length and having more of a barky tone. I don't know if I'm gonna be picking it up over my beaten up Hagstrom II though which has more bite and balls....could be a flipper.