1

The Pickup Place / Re: neck humbucker (or BB) to complement PAF type bridge HB

« on: November 19, 2023, 10:25:28 PM »

OP: thanks for the clarifications.  If I am understanding correctly the concern is the middle position quack sound of both pickups together. I thought of something but googled the Axis Super Sport first.  The current controls features are a master volume, a master tone, and five way super switch. So that kind of shot down my line of investigation.

My idea was based on that I noticed on Les Pauls with a volume and tone for each pickup that you can enhance the middle position quack sound by tweaking the volume and tone control of each pickup, essentially making the bridge pickup brighter and louder than the neck pickup.  With master volume and master tone I have found it more difficult to get that to happen, although it's more ergonomic while playing live.

Maybe your other guitar gets this naturally or accidently? The ESP Les Paul in the video has a master volume but tone controls for each pickup, and I noticed that the demonstrator adjusted the tone controls when changing from both pickups together to one or the other indvidually.

But it might just be that it's two different guitars and therefore different pieces of wood from different trees.

Does yours have a super switch? I get the idea that it doesn't and your using a three way switch. But of course by splitting you can get more of those types of quack tones more easily.  I built an HH guitar once with a five way super switch. The positions were if I recall correctly:
Bridge Hber, coils in series.
Outside coils of both pickups in parallel. Rather Tele middle position like.
Both full pickups in parallel. Not that much quack with master volume and master tone.
Inside coils of both pickups in parallel. Sorta Strat notch position like.
Neck pickup, coils in series.

Maybe install a concentric tone pot so each pickup can have it's own tone control, if limited to two knobs, and see what happens?



 

2

The Pickup Place / Re: neck humbucker (or BB) to complement PAF type bridge HB

« on: November 15, 2023, 12:12:12 PM »

Spend some time experiementing with the height of the 36thN in the neck position.  Also experiement with the height of the screws.  Lowrering the pickup itself and then raising the screws can help getting that bell like tone in the neck position. The 36th N can get bell tones.

I don't know if your guitar is 24 frets or 22 frets, but the position of the screw coil in relation to the scale length matters as far as getting a bell like chime out of the neck position pickup, in my experience.  Ideally, you want one of the coils under where the 24th fret harmonic would be. If its a 24 fret guitar, maybe try putting the pickup in backwards to move the screw coil closer to the bridge after the screws are adjusted higher than the slugs.

With the Duncan Designed, or even the 36thN, you could try an A3 magnet. A3 bar magnets under humbuckers give more chime. I actually learned that from somebody here.  A3 is low output but that's not really a concern in the neck position. Just adjust height to balance the bridge position, and then tweak the screw adjustement.

Did you try a BB? The BB in the neck with a Tone Zone in the bridge really worked for me on a bright superstrat. I think the screw coil is the  active coil on it. Be aware that the BB plays like it has more output than listed, at least in my experience. In parallel, it can sound almost Fender SC like.

I also built a mahogany guitar for somebody a few years ago and used the 36th N in the bridge with an Air Classic N in the neck. I was surpized how chimey the neck postion sounded. That set was perfect for that guitar

3

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

« on: November 12, 2023, 01:26:17 PM »

If you have one of these in the neck location of a guitar, do yourself a favor and try playing SRV's version of Little Wing. 

4

The Pickup Place / Revisiting the Super D

« on: November 09, 2023, 11:16:59 PM »

So I have this early 2000 PRS SE that I have never been sure what to do with. The neck is little cramped feeling around the first frets.  When I got it as just a beat up project guitar it had epiphone pickups which sounded like mud bombs.  It sounded pretty good with a set boutique PAF clones, but I decided to maybe try and sell it, so I bought some inexpesive a2 pickups to load in it. Not great sounding.

But I had a late 70's Super D and a 36th neck in the parts drawer and thought I would see how that set sounded in the guitar before sending it down the road.  I wasn't in love the Super D in this mahogany guitar by its self. Maybe a little too thick and grindy?

But I decided to see how it sat in rock mix. Oh boy, it rocks. It just sits in a rock mix so nicely. The harder you flog it, the harder it rocks.

The 36N sounded very good too. It is rapidly becoming my favorite neck humbucker.

I'm probably going to keep the guitar now and keep the Super D in it. It gives me a great option for a hard rock/metal application.

5

The Pickup Place / Virtual Solo for the win

« on: October 24, 2023, 10:11:48 PM »

I finally tracked down a VS about a month ago. 

I was afraid it would not sound stratty based on the B/LM/UM/T charts, but to my delight it sounds very stratty. The good kind of stratty, too. I dare say it sounds more stratty than some overwound true singles I tried.  It's an excellent bridge position solution if you need a traditional strat bridge pickup only with more power-and without too harsh treble.

I'm very pleased. I have HSS strats and Charvels, so I wanted to keep my SSS strat with a set of boutique true singles traditional sounding. The bridge single of the set sounds great but just did not have enough power. The VS was the solution. And the VS sounds great in its own right.

Also the notch position with the middle pickup has great "quack." It's also nice to not have the buzz on the more used bridge position when running through a hot amp. The middle pickup is RWRP, so I just moved the hum canceling from the bridge and middle together to the bridge position alone.

6

The Pickup Place / Is the Virtual Solo discontinued?

« on: July 19, 2023, 03:50:35 PM »

Seems to be out of stock everywhere. One place say's it is no longer available.

7

The Pickup Place / Re: Low output humbuckers for distorted tones

« on: July 07, 2023, 12:01:31 PM »

Maybe a little late to the party, but the Air Classic would be the one in my opinion based on the original post. It's a little scooped, and loves high gain amps. It cleans up decently with healthy gain and retains PAF type picking dynamics. Never flubby in my experience. It's listed at about 225 mv output but it plays like it has more, especially once you get the height dialed in.

The 36th bridge has a bell like chime, which I love, but you say you don't want that. It's also denser in the mids.

I haven't tried the Fortitude yet, but as a tweeked 36th for hard rock it might be something to consider.

8

Gear Closet / Re: Marshall DSL15H project

« on: March 20, 2017, 10:05:20 AM »

Yes, you should replace C34 not just snip it. C34 just snipped can be a source if back ground hum and noise as well as hiss.

9

Gear Closet / Re: Marshall DSL15H project

« on: November 09, 2016, 10:18:35 AM »

I have already modded the red channel to taste as per instructions from other fora.
I do however agree that the clean channel is a little 'dull' sounding, and I want to know what number on the schematic is the slope resistor (R??).
Kind regards, Christian.

Stock, the green channel can be a good pedal platform -for front of the amp pedals.  The green channel gives a better range of tones with the 56k slope resistor in my opinion.  At least you don't need to run the green channel gain on 10 all the time. Stock, the green ch seems very scooped to my ears.

This amp is best used as a single channel amp. Pick the red channel and dial it in, or pick the green channel and dial it in, but it's not a great channel switcher mid song or mid set. The big DSLs are that way too in my experience.

10

Gear Closet / Re: Marshall DSL15H project

« on: November 09, 2016, 09:54:51 AM »

Well I forgot to engage the deep switch with the smaller cabinet.  It doesn't need the deep switch with the larger cabinets, but its a good thing its there if you need to play through a smaller cab. I played it last night through the same 1x12 cab, and with the deep switch engaged. It sounded great!

The red channel modded is great to play through.  It really responds to volume knob riding well. Even with the gain cranked up to 7.5 you can clean up fairly well just turning down the guitars volume knob. But with the volume knob,  turned up, it can still do heavy. Just a great range in the sweep of the gain knob compared to stock. And that is even with a PAF clone. Even with the gain at 7.5 it doesn't get farty or mushy.  Most EL84 powered amps in this class can't say that. At lesser gain settings below 5 you can go from semi-clean to heavy blues with the sweep of the guitar's volume knob.

Here's a youtube of some of the Johnny Eggz mods that I used:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewx4U5Hiv5I

11

Gear Closet / Re: Marshall DSL15H project

« on: November 01, 2016, 09:58:41 PM »

lastly; have you revisited any of the modifications and/or made new ones since this topic closed?

Kind regards, Christian.

EDIT: After studying the schematics again, I'm assuming R97 is the slope resistor?

Sorry I missed this.  I have a love hate relationship with the amp.  A few weeks ago I played it for a few minutes and turned it off as I thought about selling it.  Then a few days ago I grabbed it because it was handy and light weight for a jam. It sounded great! Just killer! Then at the same place yesterday, but through a small 1x12 cab, it was kind of disappointing again. Before, when it sounded so killer, it was through a THD design 2x12 with Vintage 30s.

What I think is very important with this amp is the speaker cab.  It loves Vintage 30s and needs at least a 2x12 cabinet.

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for Les Paul

« on: April 07, 2016, 11:15:50 AM »

The 498T is ~13k with an alnico 5 magnet The Super D is 13.7k with a powerful ceramic magnet. I doubt it will be significantly darker with its ceramic mag, but it will probably be bigger and bolder everywhere. For traditional rock it is a proven classic.

The 490r is an alnico 2, 7k, PAF type neck pickup.  What is it you don't like about it?  Spongy bass? Lack of bell like highs? The 36th neck will have plenty of bell like highs and a more solid bass with out being boomy.   

13

Gear Closet / Re: Amp Alternatives

« on: April 06, 2016, 08:00:39 PM »

Ah, the Fender stuff operates on 120v. I suppose the Falklands are 220-240v. I don't know if they make 220 volt models or not?

14

Gear Closet / Re: Amp Alternatives

« on: April 06, 2016, 07:13:16 PM »

Well there's the Fender Mustang digital amp series and they are very good for the price.

http://www.fender.com/amplifier-series/mustang/ 

There's also the Super Champ which has a 15 watt tube output stage and digital preamp. It comes as a Head or a combo:

http://www.fender.com/guitar-amplifiers/contemporary/super-champ-x2-hd/product-2223100000.html

Then there's low watt all tube options such as boutique Marshall 18 watt clones and Tweed and Brown Face Deluxe head clones..ect...

As well as current production 15 watt amps such the Orange Tiny Terror, the Marshall DSL 15H, EVH lunch Box 5150, Peavy 6505 mini, Peavy Classic mini....

From what I read the Marshall code head is only going to be 23" wide, so its a relatively small box head. Even though it's 100 watts those are solid state watts, and digital amps don't need to be loud to sound decent.

It would be a shame to not have a gig or jam worthy option down there.  I was talking to an old bandmate drummer friend of mine and he finds himself playing in bands way up in the north Alaska while away on the job for weeks at a time.

15

Gear Closet / Re: Marshall DSL15H project

« on: January 13, 2016, 12:37:40 AM »

I need to post an update, since I solved the noise problem.

I changed the cathode cap on V1 with one of the same value and type.  It is an electrolytic cap.  This got rid of the nasty hiss and back ground noise. It really lowered the noise floor of the red channel. It was a bad cap causing the noise apparently. The green channel is dead quiet now as well.

But this also brought back some fizz on the red channel it seems.  I tried rolling some tubes through V1 to see if that helped.  First, I tried an old Groove Tubes from the 80s. That got rid of the fizz and drastically improved the tone. However, it also brought back a little noise.  I ended up using a Tung Sol re-issue in V1.  No fizz and hardly any noise. That gave it a much fatter and richer tone,  especially on the Green Channel. The Green Channel is no longer sterile.  It's dynamic with the guitar volume and pick attack and has some swirl now.

The Red Channel seemed brighter than the Green Channel now as well. I lowered the red channel bright cap to 150pf. This seemed to do the trick and its not a really problem sharing the Eq controls.

Overall, the amp sounds really good now. It sounds like a much more expensive amp. Not quite the overdrive higher gain tone of a Silver Jubilee, but quite acceptable, and this amp is no longer headed for ebay.

The Green Channel gets huge clean tones going now. It presents a big sound stage at playing with a drummer volume levels. I'll have to see how well it takes an overdrive pedal next.

To recap the mods:
)Adjusted the bias from 93% to 70%
) Changed the slope resistor in the internal Green channel fixed tone stack.
) Changed the Red Channel from the Lead 2 to Lead 1 specs of that of the big DSLs.
)Rolled some tubes with a Tung Sol RI in V1 when done.
)Lowered the Red Channel bright cap from 470pf to 180pf and then to 150pf.

Replaced a bad electrolytic cap.

The Red channel sounds best through Vintage 30s or Green Backs. The Green Channel sounds really good through G12T75s for cleans, especially in a big room with some natural reverb, but the 75s don't sound good with the Red channel for my style of playing, in my opinion. They just don't sing.

The deep switch is not needed unless your at absolute bedroom volume levels. At gig or rehearsal volumes the bottom end is plenty strong.