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Messages - HarlowTheFish

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1
The Pickup Place / Re: DiMarzio Chrome Covers
« on: November 30, 2020, 10:05:02 AM »
AFAIK they're not magnetically conductive, which helps keep the tonal changes to a minimum, but also doesn't do much for shielding.

2
The Pickup Place / Re: pickups for my esp E2 s2
« on: November 21, 2020, 02:38:30 AM »
I don't know if I need another guitar I have 53 at the moment..........I put the axis pickups in and actually raised them up but its missing some lows, its bright but smooth highs not fat enough, maybe I'll try the tone zone in the bridge I guess I'll let my ears adjust first.
The TZ will definitely be fatter, but I find it tends to be a bit of a sledgehammer solution if you want it to be versatile - literally the only guitars where it works for me for more sounds than "cranked rock guitar" are in the HSH Ibby Prestiges, where it actually splits really nicely with the True Velvet in the middle. Is it something you can compensate with amp or pedal tweaks? More often than not I'd rather have a bright input signal so it stays defined and clear and add bass later in the chain.

3
The Pickup Place / Re: pickups for my esp E2 s2
« on: November 20, 2020, 05:47:07 PM »
If you dig the Axis pickups, I don't see how you can go wrong, but I have a soft spot for the Gravity Storm set - the neck pickup is a lot brighter and clearer than the usual Vai setup. Double hex vs. slug and flathead will mean you have a bit more top end and brighter mids, but as long as the wind is close enough it'll be a tossup.

4
The Pickup Place / Re: Advice on a HSS set up
« on: November 19, 2020, 06:22:38 PM »
Wiring a 5-way switch when you have anything more complicated than 3 single-coils is a pain in the ass, but if you prioritize five sounds you're actually gonna get some use out of and plan it out well, you basically never have to touch it after.

I like thinking of it like 3 gears - I'm working on a noiseless SSS setup with no splits right now, but it's the same principle as HSH. Gear 1 is the punchiest, loudest, most aggressive sounds, neck solo and bridge solo. Gear 2 is something that's a bit lower output, but stays punchy and aggressive, leaning more to percussive than thick (middle+bridge and middle+neck for me). Gear 3 is the mellowest sound, not necessarily the lowest output but tonally a bit more reserved, which is position 3, neck + bridge. That way I can have all my amp channels to get 4 basic sounds (plus a boost), and use the switch to get different shades from those basic tones.

Something in that vein that I think might work well for you is this:
1 - Bridge, series
2 - Bridge outer coil + middle, parallel
3 - Bridge outer coil + neck outer coil, parallel
4 - Neck inner coil + middle, parallel
5 - Neck, series
Plus a separate toggle or push-pull to get the neck and bridge in parallel when in positions 1 and 5. You get your gear 1 with the neck and bridge in series, gear 2 with the b/n+m splits or with the bridge in parallel, and gear 3 with the neck in parallel and the n+b split. Pain in the ass to wire up and plan, like I mentioned, but you get basically every kind of sound you'd want with nothing being useless or superfluous and without any crazy impractical switching to deal with - the whole thing is pretty intuitive to use.

5
The Pickup Place / Re: Advice on a HSS set up
« on: November 19, 2020, 03:29:07 PM »
Yeah Jonno that sounds pretty good. I'd consider something like the old Tosin Abasi Ibanez wiring, which gets you a split neck and bridge in position 3 instead of just the middle pickup - it's still noiseless, and that's the traditional JP split clean sound. You might have to futz with it a bit to get it to split to the exact coils you want, but it'll sound pretty good and give you a lot of versatility.

6
The Pickup Place / Re: Advice on a HSS set up
« on: November 18, 2020, 03:38:46 PM »
Something else to consider is that if you're going for the CL/AN-S for tones in the vein of JP's, then you might be better off with a setup for bridge (series)/bridge (split) + middle/bridge (split) + neck (split)/middle + neck (split)/neck (series). I'm pretty sure you can wire it up like this with a super switch, it gets you that split middle position tone, and you can either use a resistor on the middle pickup to make it "see" 250k pots or leave it to get some extra brightness out of positions 2 & 4.

7
The Pickup Place / Re: my experience with two Dimarzios and maybe advice
« on: November 17, 2020, 07:22:57 AM »
You might try unpotting the Transition a bit with a heat gun, but that's a bit finicky and it might kill the pickup if you're not careful. Less potting generally helps with getting feedback easier.

8
The Pickup Place / Re: JP Neck Pickups
« on: November 01, 2020, 01:46:28 AM »
Help an old man out; JP?

I'm thinking Judas Priest....but that can't be right.
John Petrucci of Dream Theater, AKA Italian Prog Jesus

9
The Pickup Place / Re: Closest thing to EBMM Axis pickups?
« on: October 30, 2020, 09:06:52 PM »
not the answer I was hoping for, I was more wondering which one you thought was closest to the stock axis :D
I would go AT-1 because it's pretty easy to add a bit of low end without messing with the sound too much vs. adding top end, and an Air Norton (maybe with a half-air mod but not that necessary). If you really want the closest thing, just keep an eye on Ebay and Reverb, the stock Axis pickups pop up there once in a while.

10
Tosin Abasi plays 7 and 8 strings.  not sure if his 8th string tuning goes as low as your detuned 7th string.  but he is known for clarity in his tones.

he was using the Ionizer sets when he was with DiMarzio.  I'm selling my Ionizer 7 set.  if interested, you can reach me through my FB, Twitter, or IG, which are all checked daily.
Tosin does Drop E (down to E1) as his regular tuning, but goes down to C#1 with the 8th string for a couple of tunes IIRC.

11
Here's a couple of thoughts just to dialing in that might get you somewhere usable while you wait for pickups:

Try a couple of the different amp models - the Treadplate is alright, but when I had my Pod (and currently when I'm using my GT-100's models), I lean a bit more Euro for my high gain tones - either the 800 model (add some compression after your noise gate before your TS to fine-tune the response) for something a bit brighter and looser, or the F-Ball (sans the comp, it really doesn't need it). The Uber is pretty alright but I personally find it a bit too grainy in the top end for me. Try to dial it in without the TS so that a big strum gets you the amount of gain you want when palm muting and it's both a bit darker and looser (not flubby, just loose) in the low end than you'd ideally want - playing some Iron Maiden or pop-punk riffs should be pretty spot-on here. The idea is that the general profile of your tone mimics what you're doing with your right hand really well, and that the bass response feels kinda like your string does.

After this, kick in the TS and dial in the volume for it so you're getting the same amount of gain while palm-muting with it on as you do when strumming with it off. I like adding a little bit of pedal gain as well, but it's your call here as to what works well tonally for your preference. Keep the tone setting on it rolled all the way down while you're balancing the gain/volume between the amp and OD (and pushing the Master on the amp model can get you a bit more chew which is nice), but once that's dialed in, start rolling up the tone until the brightness you want is there. If you're having a hard time balancing the EQ, run two cabs - one that's really bright and a bit scooped, and one that's really dark but with a ton of mids - so you can pan between them and dial in the right balance. I personally like a Fender-type open-back cab for the bright/scooped one, and something Marshall (with Greenbacks, I don't know if that's an option on the Pod?) or ENGL for the dark/midrangey.

Just try this on a new patch to not mess up the stuff you already have. This is the process I do when I'm dialing in a heavy tone (though I don't really go below D1 for anything, and I lean a bit less heavy when tuned that low), and it usually gets me pretty good results even with less-than-stellar gear (like that GT-100).

12
Yeah I mean just running a TS-style overdrive (not something transparent, but that has that high-pass and upper-mids thing) will get you there with just about any pickup. If you're in Europe, I'd say check out the Bare Knuckle lineup - the flagship stuff is pricey but really exceptional (not my favorite vibe personally, but the quality is there for sure), and their Boot Camp line is decently affordable - around £170, however that converts to eurobucks - and sounds really good. Rabea Massad did the demos for them and has an overview on his channel, and they're pretty spectacular.

The issue with the kinda flat timbre you're getting is because with kinda bright but kinda nasally pickups (like the stock Sterling pickups in the JPs I've tried), and the massaging you need to do to get them working well for you, you lose a lot of character that the pickups can't necessarily spare. For something tuned that low, you need to have a very tactical approach to managing frequencies (my personal pick is a bright pickup without a lot of bass, thick strings, and a very balanced amp that can go either dark or bright and gives you the flexibility to dial in your tone just right). My $0.02, if you're getting usable sounds out of the stock pickups, dig around for samples and clips of a bunch of different things - including pickups you might not necessarily expect to be what you're after - get a good grasp of the qualities and characteristics that would work well for your specific sound, playing styles, and music, and even if you have to wait to pick something up, you'll  get a better end result.

Speaking of - what's your rig like, and what kind of riffs & tones are you looking to get? There's a lot of variety out there for very low-tuned stuff.

13
I'd say a Titan set or a D-Activator set for something that low. The LF is a bit too warm for that kind of tuning, especially because the JP-70 is a 25.5" scale. Something brighter will give you a lot more clarity, especially with a .74 on the low end - thicker strings are a bit warmer and will fill out the EQ overall, so it won't be shrill. The Titan will get you the tightness and clarity but a more grunty low-mid focused tone, whereas the D-Act will be a bit thinner and sharper with more of a high-mid and treble bite.

14
Guitar Lounge / Re: Reborn as the Switch Bluebird
« on: October 06, 2020, 07:10:30 AM »
These are cool, kinda like a pre-Aristides Aristides. I really dig the idea of the thing, but never really bonded with the Switch(es? Switchs? Switchii?) I've played, partly neck shape and partly the way they sit with the crazy horns -- a bit pokey-in-the-ribcagey for my taste, like a Parker. How's she sound?

15
The Pickup Place / Re: Chimey Humbuckers?
« on: September 27, 2020, 06:49:41 PM »
If you can find the pickups out of a Strandberg Classic 6 (HSS though), they were designed by Michael Frank Braun, the same guy who did the Guthrie pickups. A bit warmer and fatter, but the same kind of vibe and feel.

If you just want something similar sounding, the Kiesel Lithiums get closeish, but they're hotter and more aggressively bright than chimey. The Kiesel Berilliums are gonna be more similar as the the GG pickups as far as output and aggression, but they'll be a bit warmer. Other than that, get lucky finding a Guthrie set on Ebay? They're great pickups so nobody wants to sell, but you might get lucky.

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