751

The Pickup Place / Re: Partscaster Mason Style

« on: April 21, 2017, 04:23:36 AM »

Hi Cory,

The body is swamp ash from Warmoth, color alpine white. The neck is a one piece roasted maple neck from Kollitz (bought from George Forester Guitars). The bridge is a Callaham with the compensated saddles.

Cheers Stephan

752

The Pickup Place / Re: Partscaster Mason Style

« on: April 20, 2017, 04:08:44 AM »

Picture:

753

The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring schematics and stuff

« on: April 19, 2017, 05:53:07 AM »

Hi,

Unfortunately the google drive links you posted are not working for me but I understand that you want the following combinations:

#1 bridge
#2 bridge split (neckside coil) + middle
#3 middle
#4 neck split (neckside coil) + middle
#5 neck

You don't need a super switch for that. This wiring can be done with a regular 5 way switch (you may have to change the wiring on the neck pickup slightly from the normal wiring to get the neckside coil active in split mode but that is doable) or with an Eyb Megaswitch type E.

Before going into the details we should first clarify whether these are the combinations you want.

Cheers Stephan

754

The Pickup Place / Re: Does anyone use a bridge pickup in the neck position?

« on: April 19, 2017, 05:41:06 AM »

I personally would not do it since most humbuckers designed for the neck position are too dark for me already but I have seen this quite often, and it can be done with great results depending on how you use the guitar. I remember having read about a guy using a Di Marzio PAF in the bridge and a Super Distortion in the neck which is counterintuitive but he used the bridge for the crunchy rhythm tones liking the tight tone the PAF gave him there, and the neck pickup in humbucking mode (coils in series) for single note leads. He had also a switch on the guitar to split the SD in the neck, and he used that or the middle position (bridge plus split neck) for his clean tones.

Cheers Stephan

755

The Pickup Place / Re: Need a Dimarzio neck humbucker with bite under gain

« on: April 19, 2017, 05:33:17 AM »

Will adding the resistor from the bridge pickup to ground change the taper of the tone pot for the bridge pickup?

In theory, yes, since at lower settings the value between the signal and ground is low. At those settings the added resistor is relatively large and has less impact on the total resistance to ground. At higher settings the resistor has more impact. The formula to calculate the total resistance to ground is

Rt = (R1 x R2)/(R1+R2), where

R1 = resistance between volume pot output and ground, and
R2 = the added resistor.

Remember when taking the measurement of R1 to disconnect the pickup - its DC resistance is also in parallel to Rt, so leaving it connected fouls up the measurements.

In practice I have not noticed any substantial change in the pot travel/action (the taper itself stays the same).

Cheers Stephan

756

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper in Bridge + Area 61's in Neck & Middle. Help!

« on: March 31, 2017, 10:10:30 AM »

This should be a straight forward wiring but if everything sounds fine except the bridge + middle combination, try to swap the green and red wires on the bridge pickup.

Good luck,
Stephan

757

The Pickup Place / Re: Need specifics about Fender S-1 single coil "simulation"

« on: March 30, 2017, 03:57:41 AM »

Many thanks for posting this - so I was not that far off.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wired in bridge super distortion in HSS guitar, now bridge + middle is very thin

« on: March 30, 2017, 03:56:52 AM »

Seems like it is out of phase with the single coil in the middle. Just swap the green and red wires on the Super Distortion and you should be fine.

Good luck,
Stephan

759

The Pickup Place / Re: Ultimate HSS setup?

« on: March 29, 2017, 04:38:56 AM »

And by the way - there is no such thing as "the ultimate HSS set up" but I guess you already knew  .

You will always have to strike some compromise between the two extremes - do you want the humbucker to balance with the singles when split (then it will likely overpower the singles in series mode) or do you want it to balance with the singles in humbucking mode (then it will most likely sound thin in split mode compared to the singles). The set up I described in my previous post roughly covers the vintage camp and extends into hard rock territory easily.

Cheers Stephan

760

The Pickup Place / Re: Ultimate HSS setup?

« on: March 29, 2017, 04:35:41 AM »

Hi,

the AT-1/Cruiser/Cruiser combination may work for AT but for me it certainly would not. I would be fine with the AT-1 but with the Cruisers I think it is too strong.

I have one strat that has a VHPAF in the bridge, a Virtual Vintage 54 Pro in the middle and an Area 67 in the neck, all with 250k volume and tone pots. I really like it - good balance over all five positions.

HB2 in the neck would also be a good option but I would go for a 500k volume pot in that case. You will have to check whether that is OK with the bridge humbucker and add a resistor to ground if it it too bright.

I have not yet tried the VV 54 Pro in the neck position of anything, so I cannot really comment on 67 middle/VV 54 Pro neck.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: Experience/opinions wanted - Strat

« on: March 28, 2017, 03:31:10 AM »

Hi,

I am also not a fan of true vintage strat pickups.

Is anyone running a Virtual Solo in the neck position? Thoughts? I have an extra one and want to not waste it.

I only used it in the bridge. I could imagine that it works well with a humbucker in the bridge.

One choice - h/s/s Strat running a Suhr Thornbucker in the neck, thinking the VS might match up nicely. A "vintage" Strat neck pickup can be too strident for what I play.

You mean the Thornbucker is in the bridge? As I said that could work well. Virtual Solo in the bridge may be overpowered by a neck humbucker.

Another choice - VS in the middle of my s/s/s Strat (Heavy Blues 2 in the bridge). I still want some quack but am okay with it not being purely vintage-sounding.

Personally I would not use a darker middle pickup than the bridge pickup so I would put the VS in the bridge and the HB2 in the middle given these two choices.

I bought a Virtual Vintage 54 Pro. Choices are either neck or middle position of a s/s/s Strat. I'm thinking the 54 might enhance quack a bit in the middle to make up for the non-vintage bridge pickups.

VV 54 Pro in the middle is an excellent choice. I have one guitar where I have it with an Area 67 in the neck and a Virtual Hot PAF in the bridge and the VV 54 Pro in the middle provides for excellent quack in the #2 and #4 positions.

I have an Area 67 in the middle of my h/s/s Strat and like it. What changes can I expect if I replace it with the 54?

Is the Area 67 a good choice in the neck? Or would you use the 54 there?

The 54 is a bit darker and a tiny bit higher output than the 67. I prefer it or the 58 over the 67 for the middle position.

The Area 67 is my preferred choice for the neck, and I definitely prefer it over the 58 there. I have not yet used the 54 in the neck position.

Cheers Stephan

762

The Pickup Place / Re: Need specifics about Fender S-1 single coil "simulation"

« on: March 27, 2017, 04:18:00 AM »

I am not sure how they do this exactly but I have seen a few variants to this theme:

- standard coil splitting is to ground the series connection of the humbucker coils
- Bill Lawrence preferred to insert a 0.022uf cap between the series connection of the coils and ground. What this does is that the coil is not shunted off completely - only the highs get shunted above the knee frequency of the cap, everything else stays unaffected. Positive side effect is that the hum cancelling ability is maintained. I have used caps as high as 0.047uf with good results. The bigger the cap the closer you get to the true split - however, the signal drop out increases as well. With a 0.022uf the signal drop out is not noticeable.
- PRS used resistors in place of the cap in their DGT guitars (1.1k for the neck pickup, 2.2k for the bridge pickup). What this does is more difficult to describe. It is not so much a tone thing even though I think it takes away a bit of the harshness of the single coil tone but more of a feel thing in a way that the guitar appears to play easier. Humcancelling ability is lost, however, and so is signal strength.

So the Charvel method may be a combination of the Lawrence and PRS methods. So if your goal is to avoid signal drop out, start with the Lawrence method unless we hear from somebody that has one of these guitars on the bench and can check what's in there.

Cheers Stephan

763

The Pickup Place / Re: How does the Chopper fair when split?

« on: March 23, 2017, 05:37:37 AM »

I don't know - I have never set it up to split.

With regular sized humbuckers one would expect the parallel mode to be brighter than split mode. In practice this is not always the case, and that is due to the phase cancellations in parallel mode which occur since both coils pick up the signal. Since the Chopper is single coil size, the phase cancellations occur at different frequencies so the sonic impression between split and parallel may be different than with regular sized humbuckers.

Cheers Stephan

764

The Pickup Place / Re: Need a Dimarzio neck humbucker with bite under gain

« on: March 22, 2017, 04:58:23 AM »

Switch to 500k pots and get a Breed Neck. Stays crunchy even in milk. You will thank me.

That sounds interesting. I still have a Breed neck lying around and doing nothing at the moment.

Cheers Stephan

765

The Pickup Place / Re: How does the Chopper fair when split?

« on: March 22, 2017, 04:54:57 AM »

I have it set up for series and parallel modes. Parallel mode is brighter and lower output - a very useable tone.

Cheers Stephan