16

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Crunch Lab

« on: March 16, 2015, 04:22:12 PM »

Played my friends ibanez rg loaded with LF-Cl combo on a mesa mark 5 this weekend.

Although the guitar belong to a friend, I played it many times and feel comfortable with it like its mine. The PU combo to us, only shined with shred type distortion on guitar rig and was sort of "meh" on other amps.

First time I thought they were awesome when played with the mesa. Never thought I'd find them so versatile, though to be fair the mesa is ridiculously versatile too.

Pretty obvious these PU's were built for this amp, so beware if you don't own one and use these PU's you'll want one

17

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Air Norton

« on: February 28, 2015, 05:51:12 PM »

I'm not entirely sure about this but AN's nowadays has the screw poles connected with a metal part (while still aired)?

Mine didn't have this being from the 90's, when tested this that connection darkened the sound on cleans. But downside was without it distortion could get problematic on lots of gain which I guess is the reason they modified it.

18

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Air Norton

« on: February 24, 2015, 03:32:44 PM »

Did lots of modification to it over the years. Was much harder to feel confident compared to my tonezone but.best to my ears was (and still using it that way) is half-airing, magnet touches the screw coils while slugs are aired but still has metal spacer.

It gets very touch sensitive, more open sounding. Its the brightest I could get while still keeping it solid for shredding (so notes like 12. fret low E string doesn't sound bridge like).

19

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker

« on: February 21, 2015, 03:03:50 AM »

Ok, I've read in this thread how well they work for the neck with a hot bridge or in the bridge, but how does a Set sound? Do they make a "calibrated set" for Bridge and Neck? If not hows the balance between them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIS52q18RKU

20

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker

« on: January 05, 2015, 02:28:04 PM »

Played it first time today on a 20 year old Epi LP (neck only). Vintage humbucker-like sweet top end but overall brighter. I wouldn't say single coil like glassy but pretty close, maybe closer if tapped.

On distortion though it gets more humbucker like, reminds me of a paf pro actually but lighter. It can do extreme distortion but not the most ideal neck PU, the definition is not very fun sounding on shred.

I'd take the bluesbucker for the cleans and distortion for the paf pro on neck if it makes sense...

My friend paired it with a screaming demon, I felt the bluesbucker's low-end was a bit overpowering the demon (on cleans!) so we raised the demon a bit to make the middle switch position sound more mid dominated.

Worked really nice, endless LP sustain on distortion with bridge PU and open but ballsy cleans on neck. Now the guitar has a uniqe vibe to it

21

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?

« on: December 23, 2014, 04:59:07 PM »

I recently picked up a Suhr SSH+ bridge pickup after seeing a TZ/SSH+ comparison on YouTube, and it is a huge improvement over the TZ. No flub or overpower bass frequencies and still has all the power and harmonics you could want in a pickup. Great split sounds as well 

I found the video, very different is how I would describe.

The ssh+ seems to have chopped highs with less high-mid.s compared to the TZ. It was thick and tighter than the TZ, to me this means a little better/stable cleans and better for powerchords compared to TZ. I'd say its more flexible but less shreddy than tonezone. Must mention TZ's main problem is being too shreddy for most who can't put in words.

Side note; If anyone using TZ has an eq pedal, try to increase around 2-3 khz and decrease around 6 khz basically giving a mid. boost right before the distortion. I like it both with and without the eq.

22

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Tone Zone

« on: December 18, 2014, 07:19:14 AM »

Been playing one for almost 20 years, have a lot of modding experience too. Things I experienced which might help if needed;

-I set it up to sound like the middle position of a guitar. On distortion, very light picking should sound like a neck PU but when picked normal or hard it must turn into a bridge sound. If you nail this then only adjust very slightly for your guitar balance.

-To make it sound more aggressive (making it easier to make its "wah" like sound or scream) and a bit more scale run friendly, turn the magnet inside it upside down so the flat side of the magnet is facing the coils from inside. Reduces the low-end a lot.

-To make it super scale run friendly, increase the screw poles noticeable. The "wah" like effect will be gone though.

Update; today for the first time I played a duncan screamin demon, same pickup on 2 guitars (cheap ibanez gio and 20 year old epi LP). It sounded so close to a tonezone thats magnet is flipped as I described, which how I play mine for a while now. The pickup must be a bit away from the strings to achieve that sound even closer. Its really close sounding but the tonezone still has more "wah" like vibe compared to it, a must try if one is into modding PU's.