1036

The Pickup Place / Re: Bluesbucker/Area Hot T questions

« on: June 30, 2015, 04:14:44 AM »

Unfortunately no experience with the Area Hot T but with its predecessor, the Virtual Hot T and with the Bluesbucker.

Virtual Hot T is a hotter tele bridge pickup that still sounds very much like a tele pickup - a bit more into Broadcaster/Nocaster territory.

I had the Bluesbucker for a while in the neck position of a tele (ash body, one piece maple neck, Callaham bridge, very bright guitar acoustically), together with a Chopper T in the bridge position. They matched well output wise but the Chopper T appears to be a bit hotter than the Virtual Hot T (did not try them in the same guitar though). I ended up replacing it with a Cruiser and then a DiMarzio DP240 mini humbucker, which I like best of the three. Of course you need a different pickguard to mount a mini humbucker properly.

I would go Bluesbucker for the neck if you want/need the split option. The Bluesbucker does that very well but I found I did not really need it. I did not like either the full humbucking or the split sound as much as I like the DP240.

BTW I play southern rock, country rock and blues and a bit 80s hardrock mainly, and I would be very comfortable doing this with the Chopper T/DP240 equipped tele. I have installed a push-pull which lets me use the Chopper T in series or parallel for a brighter more traditional tone. However, if "traditional" is something you cannot do without you are better served with the Area Hot T than the Chopper T.

Cheers Stephan   

1037

The Pickup Place / Re: Replace pickups on custom Strat

« on: June 29, 2015, 01:07:01 PM »

The Chopper is indeed a beefy pickup but still has a lot of bite to it - similar to the bite a PAF style pickup in the bridge would have. I cannot give you any comparison to the JB jr. or the BC-1 because I never played either.

I find youtube demos or clips to be of limited value because most of the time
- the player will play differently than I do
- the guitar the pickup is used in may be vastly different from mine
- the amp, speaker cabinet and other equipment may be substantially different from what I have, too, and
- the recording and replay equipment may pose further limitations on the sonic end result.

If I go by clips then I try to get as much background information on the points I outlined to put the audio information of the clip into context.

The Injector bridge does not come to my mind first when considering the middle position - that's where I would rather put the Injector neck (I have one in a strat together with a Heavy Blues 2 in the neck and a JB-like humbucker in the bridge). It's bright but not too bright, works well with a higher output pickup in the bridge and with a 500k volume pot. 

Given the fact that you seem to be afraid of too bright pickups you may like something warmer and more output than the Chopper.

Cheers Stephan

1038

The Pickup Place / Re: tone zone s + areas what pots?

« on: June 24, 2015, 03:37:21 AM »

Since I am not sure whether I violate a copyright if I post the schematic I describe it here verbally.

It uses the normal 5-way 2-level selector. One level selects the pickups as usual. From the wiper/hot output of this level run a 470k resistor to the taps on the second level you wish to lower the pot value (e.g. to the tap activated in #1 neck and #3 middle). Final step: run a wire from the wiper/output of the second level to ground.

This puts the 470k resistor to ground whenever the selector is in a position where the neck or middle pickups are engaged, so you get a virtual 240k volume pot. If only the bridge pickup is engaged the 470k resistor is not connected to ground, so you still have your 500k volume pot.

Cheers Stephan

1039

The Pickup Place / Re: tone zone s + areas what pots?

« on: June 23, 2015, 03:33:36 AM »

Where did you plan to put the Area 61 - middle or neck? If you put it in the neck, it should work OK with the 500k pot (at least it does in my Telecaster set up with two strat single coils and a tele bridge pickup), and the Tone Zone S will be happy, too. The #2 and #4 positions will be fine with the 500k volume pot as well - only the middle pickup alone may be bright.

If you plan to put the 58 in the neck, then the ideal load for the single coils would be 250k which may be too low for the ToneZone S. In that case I would still go with a 500k pot and use a 470k or 560k resistor which would go to ground when the Areas are used. I have to check where I have the schematic for this.

Cheers Stephan

1040

The Pickup Place / Re: AT-1 and EJ in HSH strat

« on: June 23, 2015, 03:28:46 AM »

Since the AT-1 has more output the EJ custom bridge will probably match quite well. Just try it!

Cheers Stephan

1041

The Pickup Place / Re: Got me some VHPAFS and VPAFS need advice

« on: June 23, 2015, 03:27:41 AM »

I made the experience that it also depends on what you have as tone control. If you use a standard value tone capacitor (say .022uf), 500k for the pots is fine. Personally I find that value too dark. If you go much lower (say .0047uf or .0022uf), a 250k volume pot will work just as well.

If you are not sure what to use, go with 500k. You can always add a resistor in parallel to the pot to lower its value if the overall tone is too bright.

Cheers Stephan

1042

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper - Cruiser - Cruiser in a Strat

« on: June 22, 2015, 04:09:45 AM »

Just did a rewiring of the guitar with the existing pickups and found that I used a .022uf tone cap on the 250k master tone control and that in addition to the .0022uf cap with another 250k tone control on the bridge pickup made it too tame. For now I put a .0047uf on the neck pickup and left the .0022uf on the bridge pickup. That made the bridge pickup considerably brighter. Now I would agree that a 500k volume pot is not necessary for the Chopper.

I will play it now for a while as is and see whether any further tweaks or pickup swaps are necessary.

Many thanks for all your input.

Cheers Stephan

1043

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Humbucker trick for removing mud/boom

« on: June 22, 2015, 04:03:15 AM »

I then replaced the screw for the 4th string since the 4th string is usually the one with the weakest output, and I liked that even better.

I tried the trick above with a normal slug/screw humbucker, and I found that I liked it with the D string screw still in as well since I couldn't adjust the slugs (obviously).  I had to tilt it as noted above and adjust the screws to balance outputs.  I don't think it worked quite as well as with double screw coils, but surprisingly well anyway. 

Meanwhile I tried it with two other humbuckers in the neck and found that not every humbucker reacts in the same way - with two it worked really well and with the third I did not notice much of a difference - maybe because that one had a cover - I don't know.

I tried the screamin demon in the neck and even with double hex coils replacing the normal screws on the one coil, I found it far too dark for my tastes.  If you like the Liquifier or Air Norton type sound it might work for you though.

I think Amplifuzz and Speeddemon used the Demon in the neck. I never have - I have a Trembucker model and use it in the bridge position of one strat with 250k volume and tone pots. It works fine there but seems a little outclassed by the Area 67 in the neck - but I will open a separate thread to discuss that.

Cheers Stephan

1044

The Pickup Place / Re: DiMarzio Black Angel Review

« on: June 19, 2015, 04:19:20 AM »

Thanks for the review - great as always!

What kind of strings did you use - regular nickel wound or stainless steel?

Cheers Stephan

1045

The Pickup Place / Re: Right combination for my Fender Strat

« on: June 09, 2015, 10:21:37 AM »

I have experience with the Injector neck (in the neck position) and the Area 67 (in the middle and neck positions).

What the Injector neck does well is to provide a strat tone in the neck position that works well with a 500k volume control and keeps up in power with a stronger bridge pickup. What it does not do is give you a humbucker like tone - it is still single coil all the way.

No experience with the Injector bridge but with the (spec wise) slightly hotter Virtual Solo. That pickup is also single coil all the way and does not give you a humbucker tone. So my guess is if the Virtual Solo does not do that the Injector bridge won't do it either. You may get close enough though (have you read buddroyce's excellent review in the Everything you wanted to know - section?). I think the Chopper does the humbucking tones better than the Virtual Solo - at the expense of losing some aspects of the strat single coil tone.

Cheers Stephan

1046

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper T query

« on: June 01, 2015, 04:07:14 AM »

That's what I thought of the second pic - it did not seem to be set high enough - well, at least mine is a bit closer to the strings. And rock indeed it does.

Cheers Stephan

1047

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Bucker anti woof question

« on: June 01, 2015, 04:04:58 AM »

I have done that as well. On the individual pickup it works well. However, when used together with the bridge pickup you will get an out-of-phase effect on the low strings (i.e. below the frequency corner of the cap). I strongly prefer RayBarbee's solution to remove the polepieces in one coil because it achieves the same result without the out-of-phase side effect.

Cheers Stephan

1048

The Pickup Place / Re: Lack of sustain on E & B, any advice?

« on: May 28, 2015, 03:58:26 AM »

But whether a guitar has that limitation or not can only be finally determined after all inhibiting factors have been eliminated.

Or let me rephrase : after having spent their hard-earned money on "pros".

That was not was I meant to say. Setting pickups in a manner to remove stratitis is something that any player can learn to do without having to spend anything except to purchase a screwdriver (if the household does not already have one). Same for setting the action a tad higher if it was too low. That does not cost anything.

If after these simple adjustments you find that the guitar's action is now way too high then the neck relief and/or frets could be the culprit. If the guitar at that point sustains well it's up to the individual to decide whether or not to take it further. If the guitar at that point does not sustain well it is still a good point to decide that the guitar is probably not worth to go further.

Cheers Stephan

1049

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Humbucker trick for removing mud/boom

« on: May 26, 2015, 09:39:02 AM »

And BTW it is a humbucker with slugs in the bridge side coil I tried it.

1050

The Pickup Place / Re: Lack of sustain on E & B, any advice?

« on: May 26, 2015, 09:34:41 AM »

There can be many reasons for why a guitar does or does not sustain. To assure that there is nothing impeding sustain it should be checked that

a) the pickups are not so close to the strings that their magnetic field interferes with the string movement and
b) the string movement is not inhibited by the frets.

Eliminating a) is rather easy. Back the pickups way off, then bring them closer to the strings until you notice an out-of-tuneness when playing chords in the upper registers. Then back the pickups a bit down until the out-of-tuneness goes away.

b) can be due to many reasons, including an improper neck relief, improper fret work, not enough fall away or hump/rise in the fretboard or an improperly low action. 

Of course a guitar with all these problems eliminated can still not sustain well - that would then be the limitation set by the woods and construction of the guitar. But whether a guitar has that limitation or not can only be finally determined after all inhibiting factors have been eliminated.

On the other hand there may be well sustaining guitars inspite of having the above described problems. Well - how much better could they sustain with those problems removed?

Cheers Stephan