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Messages - darkbluemurder

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31
Gear Closet / Re: Compression?
« on: October 10, 2023, 04:42:52 AM »
I used to hate compressors until I found the Barber Tone Press. The difference is in the blend control which retains the attack of the direct signal but blends in the sustained signal. Love it for clean tones. I don't use compression on overdriven tones normally.

Cheers Stephan

32
Just set up a HSS guitar with two Injector necks in the neck and middle spots, with 500k audio pots throughout. Bridge pickup is a Bare Knuckle True Grit. The Injector necks sound very full but still stratty. Even the N+M combo has a lot of quack, and individually they scream Blues Rock.

33
The Pickup Place / Re: Goodbye HFH
« on: September 21, 2023, 02:46:14 AM »
I second everything that was said about the HFH. I have no idea how the bass rating of 1.5 came about. To my ears it is more like 4-5 ...

I have used the Duncan Full Shred neck in several guitars (and still have one in two different guitars). Its biggest assets are the tight bass response (especially with 3 screws on the bass strings removed) and the single coily bite in the highs. However, If the guitar has piercing highs, the Full Shred neck will accentuate that. I also had it in one guitar where I found it did not sing enough, and I replaced it with a Breed neck. I also don't like its split and parallel modes much as they are kind of thin. Again, this may depend on the guitar it is in and the rest of the rig.

Cheers Stephan

34
At least to my ears the Bluesbucker does not sound like a P90. To me it sounds like a PAF type pickup on the lower end of the output scale. I have two guitars with it, in one guitar with a Transition bridge in the bridge and in the other with a Duncan Custom 5, and it balances well with both tone (in particular in the bass range) and output wise. PAF types in the bridge typically have less bass than either of my bridge pickups so I doubt that you will get the bass balance you are looking for with the BB. A mini humbucker would balance better but the fit into this guitar might be difficult.

The Humbucker from Hell does not have the low bass level as the new rating (1.5) suggests - at least not to my ears.

No experience with any of the EJ models but those could also work.

Cheers Stephan

35
Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker
« on: September 11, 2023, 02:45:42 AM »
It’s interesting that the screw coil was the one chosen to be the active coil, whereas humbuckers are typically split so that only the slug coil is active.

That is correct, and I can only guess that this was chosen as this coil (in a 22 fret guitar) is closer to the typical strat neck position than the screw coil. In my 24 fret guitar I rotated the pickup so that the screw coil is on the inside since I wanted the inside coils active in split mode.

Cheers Stephan

36
Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker
« on: September 08, 2023, 03:13:35 AM »
To summarize my experiences with this pickup in the neck position, these are the situations where I think it excels:

1) HSH - here it offers both convincing humbucker and single coil tones in the neck and great combinations with the middle single and also with the split bridge humbucker.

2) 24 fret guitars where you want the inside coils to split. In that case install the Bluesbucker with the screw coil facing the bridge.

3) Any guitar where you want good humbucker and single coil tones from the neck. If you combine this with a bridge humbucker that splits to the bridge side coil you get a nice in between tele-like tone with both humbuckers split.

Some caveats:

1) Since the Bluesbucker has one active coil and one significantly weaker coil, it should not be phase switched - use the bridge pickup instead.

2) For the same reason it would not be my first choice for PRSi with rotary switches or any 24 fret guitar that is set up for inside coils and outside coils split - depending how you orient the pickups, one of the positions will be significantly weaker than the other.

Cheers Stephan

37
The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique
« on: August 10, 2023, 07:58:14 AM »
Updated Transition bridge - I bought one new and it had all three patents on the label. However, I did not take it apart to verify airbucker and virtual vintage.

EDIT: edited the update again as the label reads: "This pickup features one or more of the following patents ...". That means that the label in itself does not tell which patents are used.

Cheers Stephan

38
The Pickup Place / Re: The Area Hot T and EJ Custom Neck
« on: July 11, 2023, 03:59:28 AM »
Interesting thing on the string gauge - I play 10s but find the 46 to loose and use a 49 or 50 there. The scale does not matter to me for that purpose.

Cheers Stephan

39
The Pickup Place / Re: The Area Hot T and EJ Custom Neck
« on: July 10, 2023, 04:31:40 AM »
Thanks a lot for the comparison to the HFH - the too strong low end is what is bothering me with the HFH.

40
I think as guitarists we tend to gravitate toward the tones which were recorded from yesteryear. If it weren’t for Peter Green I would never appreciate the sound of out of phase humbuckers. I read that it happened by accident.

This is true but there is conflicting information as to what exactly happened.

Story no. 1: The magnet was put in the "wrong way" from the factory.
Story no. 2: The neck pickup was broken and rewound with Formvar wire but in the "wrong direction". In a futile attempt to put it in phase with the bridge pickup, the pickup was flipped so that the screw coil faced the bridge.

Based on an interview with Jol Dantzig, story no. 1 appears to be more likely as he allegedly tested the magnetic orientation with a compass which confirmed the reversed magnetic polarity. He also said that the solder joints were untouched and the cover did not seem to have ever been removed from the neck pickup. And that was at a time when Gary Moore owned the guitar, i.e. if story no. 2 were true, the reversed magnet and reversed winding direction should have put the pickup in phase with the bridge pickup. 

The 3-pickup Les Paul Customs were originally wired with the middle pickup out of phase combined with the bridge pickup in the middle position. This wasn’t my bag so I put mine in phase and lowered it. The middle pickup is the stock T-Top with a Duncan Custom in the bridge. It makes for a nice clean tone without much quack as it’s mostly loading down the Duncan. This was a bit of a departure as the original bridge pickup was also a T-Top. As an aside I’ll also mention that with the stock wiring you don’t have the ability to blend controls as the middle position uses the same volume and tone as the bridge position and the neck position gets the other pair of controls. This never bothered me so I didn’t change it.

Indeed that stock wiring was unique as unlike the two pickup models there was no setting where all controls were engaged. I never played such a beast but I like what you did - more power in the bridge, better overall balance and a nice clean tone in the middle toggle position.

Cheers Stephan

41
The Pickup Place / Re: The Area Hot T and EJ Custom Neck
« on: July 07, 2023, 04:18:54 AM »
Many thanks for the write up.

So you are saying that the EJ neck is brighter than the minibucker neck?

The Area Hot T is indeed very bright with a 500k volume pot. With a 250k pot it sounds like a fatter tele - more in broadcaster territory than tele territory.

Cheers Stephan

42
Further experimentation shows that it is best for the PG tone to not have any treble bypass circuits on the volume control.

43
The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique
« on: June 19, 2023, 04:17:42 AM »
Updated for the Virtual P90 (source was an old catalogue) and Gravity Storm set (source was an older sales ad from a webstite store).

44
Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker
« on: June 15, 2023, 04:22:22 AM »
The Bluesbucker's biggest asset IMHO is its split tone which I really really like, even though it is - by nature - not humcancelling. It really adds versatility to any guitar with a full size humbucker route in the neck spot as the single coil tone is not weak but really useable. 

45
The Pickup Place / Re: HFH vs EJ Neck vs EJ Bridge
« on: June 06, 2023, 06:36:46 AM »
I have never played any of the EJ models but I have a HFH. While this is a bright humbucker it still has a lot of bass. It is definitely hotter than the Vintage Minibucker. I have not tested them in the same guitar but I think the HFH is bassier as well.

In applications where I want a low output humbucker that splits well, the Bluesbucker excels. However, the low strings are not really bright or tight in humbucker mode.

The brightest full size humbucker I found suitable for the neck position is not a DiMarzio - it is the Seymour Duncan Full Shred neck (SH-10N). That would have the bright low strings, especially if you remove the 3 screws of the neck side coil under the bass strings (I got that trick from RayBarbeeMusic, who is also a member here). However, that pickup does not really have sweet highs. It has a lot of bite to it. In some guitars I found it harsh while in others it simply kills.

If you have a full size humbucker route in a tele, another cool option is the Fralin Twangmaster. Expensive, unfortunately. That pickup twangs like a single coil on the low strings because it is a split coil pickup (like a Precision bass pickup) and has good solid output. It would definitely not be weak against the Area Hot T.

Cheers Stephan

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