91

The Pickup Place / Re: Looking to try something between a 36th PAF and Tone Zone

« on: May 06, 2015, 12:09:24 AM »

Try an Air Zone (which is an air version of the Tone Zone) or an Norton, though I think between the two, AZ is probably closer to what you're looking for.

The Air Zone is too close to a Tone Zone for my tastes.

In that case, it's Norton. 

92

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

« on: May 04, 2015, 06:31:54 AM »

I run my chopper with 500kohm, but it's on the middle or neck, I really wouldn't put a chopper with 500kohm load on the bridge, way too bright. Make the 2 vol/1 tone mod to your strat, and use 250kohm for the chopper bridge, and 500kohm for the cruisers, best of both worlds.

93

The Pickup Place / Re: Looking to try something between a 36th PAF and Tone Zone

« on: May 04, 2015, 06:30:04 AM »

Try an Air Zone (which is an air version of the Tone Zone) or an Norton, though I think between the two, AZ is probably closer to what you're looking for.

94

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Tone Zone

« on: April 30, 2015, 05:09:09 AM »

Sure, the TZ can sound fabulous in the neck. I have a Paul Gilbert clinic from Vancouver 1998 where he plays his blue PGM90HAM which has the TZ in both neck and bridge and its just glorious. Some of the best tones Ive heard from him. Michael Romeo has been using a TZ in the neck for years, all the way back to Twilight In Olympus I believe. Sounds killer.

I agree, both the ToneZone and the JB sounds killer in the neck position.

I didn't know Romeo was using TZs in neck, and imho Gilbert's best tone came from the era he used TZs and rack systems. Just my opinion of course.

95

Gear Closet / Re: Mesa Boogie Flux Drive

« on: April 30, 2015, 05:00:17 AM »

I did not try it as a boost, just as overdrive before a clean amp. The midrange hump was there but a bit less compared to a Tube Screamer that was also on the board.

Cheers Stephan

The "more of everything" part made me think it'd probably be great as a boost. More bottom and top end but less midrange bump is probably why it sounds "bigger" as many people online seem to think. I'm eager to try it too.

96

Gear Closet / Re: Mesa Boogie Flux Drive

« on: April 26, 2015, 05:39:48 AM »

I never tried it, how's the middle compared to the tubescreamer honk? As a boost, is it as transparent, or does it color more?

97

The Pickup Place / Re: What is "normal" turnaround time for pickup installation?

« on: April 26, 2015, 05:33:24 AM »

I'm of the opinion that leveled frets aren't playable until they've had a careful recrown and polish afterwards. That alone would take me at least a couple of hours.

Didn't require substantial work, I sanded them - then rerounded them. Was done in about two hours, or rather few mins less, I was gentle. Was very playable afterwards.

It was Washburn WI64, a used beat-up cheapo, but otherwise pretty decent guitar (I believe Indonesian, nato made etc).

Edit: For the thread starter, learn how to do your own guitar work. Plenty of videos online. I guess your local town techs are ridiculously slow...

98

The Pickup Place / Re: What is "normal" turnaround time for pickup installation?

« on: April 24, 2015, 05:46:58 AM »

Full guitar setup I did for a buddy of mine, which included new bridge installation, new tuners, fret leveling, new electronics and of course new set of DiMarzio pickups set us back only couple of hours, of which the fret leveling took the majority of the time.

I'd like to observe that and critique the results.

I wish you were there, it'd have been more fun, or you could have jumped right in while I'm drinking some beer. Regardless, the guitar was awesome afterwards, very playable and sounded really sweet, and it was a cheap washburn too. For fret leveling I just used sanding beam, since it didn't require that much, well, leveling. I'd like to think I did a pretty good job, specifically because I am self-taught and only had prior experience from dozen something guitars I did for myself and some other friends.

Plek machine would have sorted out in mere minutes.

Kicker here is (back to topic), someone qualified for repairs, someone that does it everyday for the living, would be able to do it in even shorter times, and probably better too.

99

The Pickup Place / Re: What is "normal" turnaround time for pickup installation?

« on: April 22, 2015, 04:39:48 PM »

If you need to replace the strings, then yeah 30 mins for pickups and restringing/retuning sounds just about right (give 10 mins plus for floyd rose bridges, I'm real clumsy with them).

If it's just clean pickup installation with the already prepped guitar... 5-10 mins.

2 weeks plus is just ridiculous. Full guitar setup I did for a buddy of mine, which included new bridge installation, new tuners, fret leveling, new electronics and of course new set of DiMarzio pickups set us back only couple of hours, of which the fret leveling took the majority of the time.

You can assemble a superstrat from parts and install all the hardware and electronics and set it up in one afternoon.

Your nose is being pulled.

100

The Pickup Place / Re: neck match for Super D

« on: March 26, 2015, 09:32:58 PM »

36th ann neck is a really good choice for the creamy stuff on the neck, but PAF Pro would work in that bolt-on axe as well, it's an PAF with a tad more steam and tighter voicing. SuperD+PAF Pro is a typical combo people do and I have it in two guitars, they complement each other really good, but 36th ann would work as well for more paf-correct tones, however if you also plan to shred on the neck pickup besides bluesy creamier stuff, then PAF Pro is better choice. Both have a lovely clean tone as well - the 36th's better at it though.

101

The Pickup Place / Re: Cali guitar pups

« on: March 09, 2015, 06:59:24 PM »

The difference in Made in USA and Assembled in USA is a bit weird. FTC regulations state that in order for something to be Made In USA labelled, all or virtually all of the parts must be made in the USA. Virtually all meaning the negligible parts may be of foreign content.

Assembled in USA actually has no qualification. You can basically say it's Assembled in the US if there was some parts from the US(screws, magnet, lead wire). Heck, if you use all foreign parts and there was "significant" assembly, you can still claim Assembled in the US.

Thanks for clarification. I have since talked to Evan Skopp of Duncans (I believe, through emails), and it was said CaliGuitar pups are imports, more then likely made in korea, just as I initially thought.


Still not sure how can they get away by naming their pickups "Megadrive" when that's an obvious steal of the name belonging to Larry, but I guess it's their business.

Cheers.

102

The Pickup Place / Re: Cali guitar pups

« on: March 06, 2015, 08:39:02 PM »

I'm a bit skeptical. Designed and assembled in California sounds like some guy in designed the pickup, got the parts sent in from China and put the magnet in with the prewound bobbins. Technically speaking if I flew down to California from Canada for Namm, designed a pickup using parts from one of the Chinese vendors had the pickup and the magnet shipped to my buddy's place in San Diego so that his stay at home wife can put the magnet in and ship it from their house. I technically have a pickup that was designed and assembled in California.

If it was actually completely made in California, it would say something like Made in California or Crafted in California. It wouldn't make sense for me personally to order them in as $35 USD is about $45 CAD and before shipping and everything. By the time it gets here it'll be closer to $80 or even higher if they decided to ship it via UPS/FedEx and I get dinged with the $40 brokerage fee.

If you're in the US, it's really a decision of either getting one of these or a used DiMarzio/Duncan. I honestly don't see the value in these pickups right now.

This makes sense, yeah. I made the topic to ask since the company has obviously alluded their pickups are manufactured in USA, well assembled. Anyway, I've read some internet views and people that bought the pickups seem to have the opinion that they're American made as well.

I also believe they aren't made in USA and are probably Artec (based upon some Artec standard offerings are very similar in both looks and specs, even despite Artec does custom winds), but few of the online reviews I've found stated they aren't. So that definitely made me curious.

Another thing is, how can they legally state they're assembled in USA if they aren't? Let's say these are actually Artec pickups (which means they aren't bad pickups, just not as good as DiMarzios), which of course means it wasn't produced in USA, Artec doesn't sell pickup parts, they sell pre-made pickups, which are obviously made in the asia. They cannot thus be assembled in USA, and they sure as hell ain't made in USA either. Isn't it illegal to state the wrong country of product origin?

As far as materials coming from china to USA and then being "assembled" there, well if you'd buy a plastic bobbin from China, plain enamel 42gauge wire from some chinese company, some indonesian alnico5 magnet, some chinese polepieceis, some cheap lead wire.. and winded it into a pickup here in the states...wouldn't that mean you have an Made in USA pickup? There's that gray area between "made in" and "assembled in". Peavey uses some chinese parts for their amps, yet they do Made in USA on their amps no problem, Marshall's been packing most of their PCB boards by importing chinese parts, they even use relabeled Shuguang tubes, yet they still do Made in UK. As far as I know, DiMarzio's supplier of the plastic bobbins is asian company as well. My point is, when you're in that gray area, when is "made in" the right thing to use and when is "assembled in"?

Or a better question yet, can these people be sued for stating they're creating an USA product that it isn't?

Sadly no one seems to be roaming around here that had firsthand experience, this is all just guessing on our part for now.

Sounds like something made in China to me.

As far as I know, over 90% of pickups in the world are created by three companies - Artec (Artec Sound), G&B and SAMSHIN (Tesla). Afaik, all three companies are Korean, but Artec and G&B have Indonesian factories as well. Chinese pickups make up about 1% of pickups in the world. I have yet to find an 35$ chinese pickup (I usually find them original OEM sale sold online for few bucks per pickup). Even most of Chinese-made guitars from big manufacturers use one of the three Korean companies to produce the pickups for their models. I don't think they're Chinese.


Anyone tried them that can chime in?

103

Gear Closet / Re: Picking Picks (picks, not pickups)

« on: March 02, 2015, 04:37:51 PM »

I bought and had at one time over hundred different picks. Over the years, I've came back to one of the things I had used before. It's just the Dunlop nylon standard, 0.88 nothing fancy, but damn does it make everything sounding better and easier to play for me. With anything else I'm considerably sloppier so I think I definitely found my favorite.

I would recommend anyone, to buy loads of different ones and try, you never know what you'll end up in the end.

104

The Pickup Place / Cali guitar pups

« on: March 02, 2015, 04:18:27 PM »

Hi,

Maybe there has been topics about these before - I wanted to ask if someone here tried these pickups.

They retail about 34$ a piece, which just falls within the range of GFS/GuitarHeads and other Artec made pups. However, I'm mentioning because on the description of their humbuckers (I checked several first ones), it clearly says:

"Designed and Assembled in California"

Example: http://www.caliguitar.com/pickup/h11.htm

An American-made pickup for 34$? I'm skeptic.

More over, there are Mega Drive and Super Drive models...copies of DiMarzio MegaDrive and Super Distortion? One of the Meltbuckers specs are really close to DSonic as well (not mentioning the visuals). Isn't the name megadrive copyrighted to Larry anyway?

Anyone tried here any of those?


Thanks.

105

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Air Norton

« on: February 24, 2015, 09:17:47 PM »

Did lots of modification to it over the years. Was much harder to feel confident compared to my tonezone but.best to my ears was (and still using it that way) is half-airing, magnet touches the screw coils while slugs are aired but still has metal spacer.

It gets very touch sensitive, more open sounding. Its the brightest I could get while still keeping it solid for shredding (so notes like 12. fret low E string doesn't sound bridge like).

I agree with everything said. Fwiw, both AN and TZ sound a little brighter/clankier flipped around to my ears. I fiddled with TZ personally (it sounds incredible with small ceramic magnet and full hex poles), not so much with AN, since I just didn't want to ruin it (but I did however tried it with A8 in the bridge so thick and agressive but still pleasant sounding), AN is pretty great to begin with imo, though I'd love it to be just a tad brighter for the neck (as I'd love the same for Air Zone in neck too) without getting louder (not needed imo).

While most of my lesters have SuperDs since it is my favorite, I think that there's really something to the Norton/Air Norton combination in a les paul, sounds like it was intended to sound like that from the factory (with lack of better words to describe it).