46

The Pickup Place / Re: Fake Dimarzio Humbuckers on Amazon?

« on: May 25, 2016, 06:39:25 AM »

Dimarzio representatives might take a while to reply, but when they do they are right on the point. Fantastic support : to the point and very technical. That's why it takes so long to respond. EMG responds with no valuable info, and SD not at all.

47

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper sounding very thin/weak

« on: May 24, 2016, 12:01:11 AM »

Take a look at my measurements here : http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7127/ngd-chopper-strats-neck-position

Chopper with vol to 10 should be about 9 Kohm in series. In parallel I guess near 2.25 Kohm.

48

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper far too boomy in neck

« on: May 23, 2016, 01:40:57 PM »

With my solid state amp crate 40xl (which sucks) the tone sucks. With my effects box boss me-25 connected to my computer (ubuntu studio 16.04) -> ardour 4 it simply rocks.

49

The Pickup Place / Re: Chopper sounding very thin/weak

« on: May 23, 2016, 10:42:43 AM »

First, back the pickup off at least a nickel's width away from the strings. Is it a 3-position switch? If so, does it sound weak in the middle position? If so, it is probably out of phase. If it also sounds thin in the neck position, something is wired wrong. Even wired in parallel, the Chopper shouldn't sound really thin and nasal. Is it grounded correctly? What value volume and tone pots are you using?

Agree 100%

50

The Pickup Place / Chopper far too boomy in neck

« on: May 23, 2016, 10:39:35 AM »

Hi I was just testing my strat yesterday away from compressors, effects, pedals, etc.. tried a minimal setup, and couldn't find a balance between : bridge series/neck series and bridge parallel/neck parallel volumes. Also I had to eliminate the boomy tone of chopper in the neck both in series and parallel switching.
The guitar has FT2/FT1/Chopper with the following mods :
- push/pull pots for series/parallel (vol pot switches bridge pup, upper tone pot switches neck pup)
- added bridge to all positions toggle
- added tone control to the bridge pup

When I set parallel sound to match the chopper in series would become too boomy. When I tried to correct that by raising string action (buzz had to go) and lowering neck pup height, then in parallel the bridge pup would dominate the neck pup. I had to adjust the chopper almost flush to get rid of the boomy tone. I tried everything, I started to think smth is wrong with either the guitar or the particular chooper. This pup sounds loud in general. But cannot seem to find a good compromise between all possible uses there.
I might try raising the string action a little bit more, but that's bizarre, rest of guitars dont have this problem... hmmm maybe because the neck pup is right over the 2nd harmonic node where string's vibration magnitude is pretty high?

51

The Pickup Place / Re: uv70p for Djent or a different guitar and with which pups?

« on: April 29, 2016, 06:43:43 AM »

Ended up its the rig and not the guitar exclusively.

I think I nailed it: I used the Boss/Roland metal amp, with gain at 20%, and also added a compressor, all settings at 50%, vol at 55%, which acts like a booster most of the time for distorted tones, and a T-screamer also at 50% with vol at 55%. MUCH BETTER THAN THE R-ctifier!! To such an extend that I hardly play with the R-ctifier or the 5150 setting any more! It is like R-ctifier or the 5150 just cannot amplify that low. Due is the change of the 0.059 to 0.062 (if I ever get the chance to get one lol), and it will be just perfect!
Also I found that in drop A many phrases across the 7-string's board are more convenient than in drop-B.

What I take out of this, at least based on the results by testing out things on the Boss me-25, which I find a reliable emulation multi-effect, and I guess in real life it wouldn't be much different:
1) traditional amps cannot amplify that low (Drop B and below)
2) modern metal amps are the thing
3) low A may sound too bassy in a bad way, especially with my 25.5" 7-string RG-like w. Blazes which are too bassy.
4) builtin-gain of the amp might work wonders for 6-strings in std tuning or drop B but not for drop-A (in combination of the pups). Sound was hollow without volume, if I tried to get rid of the extra bass of 3)
5) compressor helps solve some of 3)
6) Aggressive distortion pedals may sound too muddy
7) Light gain pedals like Tube Screamer seemed to work, at least on this occasion

52

The Pickup Place / Re: uv70p for Djent or a different guitar and with which pups?

« on: April 24, 2016, 12:20:26 AM »

Thanx!

53

The Pickup Place / uv70p for Djent or a different guitar and with which pups?

« on: April 23, 2016, 03:40:36 PM »

Hello ppl,
So I got this Ibanez uv70p, green-dot (25.5" scale, Blazes 7-string), which I love, plays great, low action, great tone, sustain, but lately I started wanting to drop tuning. So I changed the low 0.054 (tuned to B) with a 0.059 (what the shop had closest to 0.062 which I had calculated by tension), and dropped to A. Guitar had a little less over all tension, but no biggie, no changes in setup, no severe buzz. But didn't like the tone on low A. Not the definition and heaviness I'd expect. With standard B-tuning it sounds better. Not great but good.
So, I wonder : is the guitar? or the pups? Should upgrading to D-activator set or Blackouts solve the problem (while retaining the green dot looks) or should I just sell this guitar and get some guitar with bigger scale and more low-tune friendly pups?

54

The Pickup Place / Re: EVO 1 vs EVO 2

« on: April 11, 2016, 05:38:00 AM »

EMG81 is very neutral can be used in almost anything. What is that you do not like about it?

55

The Pickup Place / Re: New Pickup Day

« on: April 10, 2016, 07:32:17 AM »

Thanks.

Not worried about it being hot. Being heavy is a different story. As in, too thick or too beefy for my preferences.

in parallel it is treble sounding. In series not so much. More on the mids.

56

The Pickup Place / Re: New Pickup Day

« on: April 10, 2016, 04:03:22 AM »

I've been interested in the FT2 for a while, but the comments about it being really heavy have kept me away. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

in parallel FT2 is not hot at all. Combines well with any common SC in the middle. I got Chopper/FT1/FT2 in my strat with the following switches :
- push/pull series/parallel for bridge
- push/pull series/parallel for neck
- addition "add bridge" 2-way toggle
- mod for bridge tone control (without affecting the rest of positions)

works pretty good, but all those components tend to go out of order sooner than your classic simple strat. If I did a new strat again, it would be all white, maple fretboard, 22 frets, bevelled heal, SC/SC/SC, maybe with the bridge tone mod and the "add bridge" mod, for those tele tones.

57

The Pickup Place / Re: Best 7 String Neck Clean/ Solo all rounder!

« on: January 15, 2016, 09:00:19 AM »

My Ibby Universe has the original Blaze in there. It's a basswood guitar.

I'd kind of like to hope that you could tell me the PAF-7 would sound better. lol!


Have you tried to DiMarzio "pickup finder" tool on the official site?  Do you have any special wiring (parallel or split) on the PAF-7 that might help it clean up even more?

same here. I like the dirty tones of my universe but not so much the cleans. D-activators seem like a nice upgrade.

58

The Pickup Place / Re: Fast Track 2 Rocks!

« on: January 14, 2016, 01:58:00 PM »

Sorry, I forgot to come back and clarify that the Fast Track 2 is sounding much, much better to me now, partly because my ears have become accustomed to it, but also because of 2 other things:

1. This pickup needs my particular amp to be turned up a bit louder to help the low end come through.

2. This pickup is far more sensitive to my pick attack than anything I have used before. Now that I know how to "play" the FT2, it's pretty incredible.

Also, currently I have mine set up like this:

Chopper- neck
Fast Track 1- middle
Fast Track 2- bridge

Volume pot- YJM 500k low friction

Tone 1- CTS 250k (controlling neck/middle)

Tone 2- CTS 250k (bridge only)

DPDT 2-way on-on mini toggle (coil split neck/bridge)

DPDT 2-way on-on mini toggle (neck-on/"7 sound Strat" switch)

Glad for you man, nice setup! I have also Chopper/FT1/FT2 config!

hmm, is coil splitting better than parallel? Is it substantially weaker?

59

The Pickup Place / Re: Fast Track 2 Rocks!

« on: January 14, 2016, 09:05:57 AM »

Both chopper and ft2 sound good on parallel. Single-coil-y but still loud (not so loud as in series). Now to the guy above that thinks FT2 is brittle, how about connecting the bridge to the mid tone pot? I have this mod and I like it + the tone pot while in parallel works really great. I have :
- in series/parallel switching (push/pull) for chopper/ft2
- add bridge in all positions mod (mini toggle)
- bridge tone mod, while retaining the rest of functions of 5-way + pots

60

The Pickup Place / Re: Blaze 7 neck : annoying imbalance while bending

« on: November 20, 2015, 05:41:45 AM »

to all of them : artificial, natural, etc..