16

The Pickup Place / El Maya EM 1300 with Superdistortions?

« on: November 08, 2016, 08:28:58 AM »

Well, I popped them out and had a look as I don't really like these pickups and I now  trying different magnets. They are a one trick pony, I loved them as a youth when I played with a lot of effects, but I prefer clean or low gain, which these don't do so well.
Experimenting with Alnico 2 and Alnico 5 -as these are shrill ice pick in your ear, even Alnico 2 still sounds pretty bright.
But I notice a lot of wire in between, I see a red and black wire soldered together between the coils and looks like a good length to just add a coil split wire.

I always wondered why these are brown, they are OEM superdistortions specially mounted in a brown bobbin to match the colour scheme of the EL Maya guitar - but unlike others they do have the 2 rows of fat adjustable Hex bolts (someone told me that on other 1970s Japanese guitars with OEM diMarzios just had non non-adjustable slugs, but I don't know, I have never seen them)

I might do some recording as I think they sound great with Alnico 2 and Alnico 5. I think I just created early 1970s Norton and Air Classic (ok the air uses winds to replicate A2, but A2 sounds great)

So Larry, please offer Alnico 2 - it sounds great!

Here's the El Maya - I reckon straight through maple neck, brass nut and saddles with string through back fixed bridge make for mega resonance, sustain and brightness that make those superdistortions sound a bit OTT for my tastes.





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17

The Pickup Place / Re: Mag swapping in 1st gen superdistortions - is it sacrilege?

« on: November 04, 2016, 08:36:30 PM »

A2 in neck and bridge is favourite. I was expecting dark and muddy based on other people's opinions and quiet surprised. It's bright, airy soft bass, rounded trebles and pronounced upper mids. Probably no good for metal but I don't play metal, more blues classic rock 70s style, so it sounds right for my playing.
A5 neck and A2 bridge sounded almost identical to my Flying V with the Gibson Kramer - 98T and 90R ( just the 4 is missing) so I went for A2 in neck and bridge.
Clean it's sounds great- very articulate with character, and under moderate gain, quite honky with nice harmonics. Much better to my ear.


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18

The Pickup Place / Re: Mag swapping in 1st gen superdistortions - is it sacrilege?

« on: November 04, 2016, 04:59:03 PM »

Update A2 in the neck and A5 in the bridge sounds fantastic- I have another A5 on the way, quite keen to try A2 and A5 both ways then A2 and A5 as a "matched set".

But so far I am very impressed, so much so I might not bother saving by for those pearly gates after all.
Is there a dimarzio set that uses the early 70s superdistortion wind with Alnico mags? If not there should be!


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19

The Pickup Place / Mag swapping in 1st gen superdistortions - is it sacrilege?

« on: November 04, 2016, 12:42:46 PM »

Hi all,
I have a 1970s El Maya which came fitted with most excellent hardware including dimarzio superdistortions from the factory. I have had this guitar for about 30 years.

I just don't like the superdistortions- when I was a youth and my ear less discerning because I played with a lot of effects and quiet a lot of gain I never noticed they sound god awful clean.

Clean and low gain is what I do these days, so I swapped out the neck monster ceramic for A5 and instant sweetness right there! still bright but not shrill, harsh and sterile sounding anymore. Softly scooped, less volume (not checked DCR but it's got to be lower, that ceramic is twice the thickness) nice soft but pronounced bass and lovely clarity. In fact very PAF like....

I may experiment a bit and try A2 or combo of A2 and A5. Is this sacrilege, as these are the early 1970s ones with the single hookup wire and the outer braided shielding is the ground?



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20

The Pickup Place / Re: El Maya EM 1300 with Superdistortions?

« on: September 20, 2016, 01:55:58 PM »

In that case, I will leave it alone. I once split 2 conductor humbuckers, one was fine , the other , well I think the heat of adding a fly lead to the jumper between the coils was enough to warm the wire to separate from the coil so it was turned into a single coil. Oops.

21

The Pickup Place / Re: El Maya EM 1300 with Superdistortions?

« on: September 16, 2016, 04:39:17 AM »

I guess I need to take a pickup out to see conclusively. In the control cavity the lead from the pickups is a single hot conductor wire in the centre of the lead and the braided shielding is the ground and soldered to the pot. There seem to be no other conductor wires but I can see jumper wires under the tape of the pickups.

22

The Pickup Place / El Maya EM 1300 with Superdistortions?

« on: September 14, 2016, 10:57:39 AM »

Hi
I have an El Maya EM1300, which I bought as a brand new 10 year oldish guitar in1988 (it was sat in a store for 10 years before I bought it! )

It has high gain pickups that sound great driven but don't clean up so well. Very harsh, but better since I lowered the the 12 hex poles in each pickup.

I was talking about this guitar with an old school luthier who informs me that even though the headstock says made in Kobe Japan, part of the production (wood work?) was carried out in Sweden! It's one seriously over engineered guitar. She also told me that those harsh pickups are vintage Di Marzio Superdistortions fitted in the factory.

I replaced the tone pots as they were crackly and noticed a weird wiring set up. They seem to have one conductor wire going to the input of the volume pot and the braid is grounded (soldered directly) to the back of the volume pot.

Is that normal? I can see different coloured wires under the tape on the pickup but nothing exposed. Is it possible to coil split  these? I am loath to peel back tape to find I can't - was hoping someone might know.

Many thanks


Vinnie