796

The Pickup Place / Re: Need help with Dimarzio HSS configuration on a 1989 Fender HM Strat

« on: January 23, 2017, 04:12:11 AM »

The pickup wiring should be ok - obviously one wanted a different coil to be active than normal - otherwise red would have gone to the hot, green to ground and black+white to the switch.

But that is not the reason why it is not working at all. I would check whether there is a wire going from the switch to ground - if this is missing the switch will do nothing.

Good luck
Stephan

797

The Pickup Place / Re: Humbuckers noisy but SC quiet?

« on: January 19, 2017, 04:19:12 AM »

Hi,

Unfortunately I don't have a solution to this problem, only some explanations.

1) The Area series pickups are quieter than full size humbuckers. They are almost dead silent under any circumstance. That - besides that they sound great, too (which of course is my subjective view) - is what makes them great.

2) With humbuckers, the noise cancellation between the two coils depends on how symmetrical the coils are wound. I think the Tone Zone has asymmetrical coils so it is probably a bit noisier than a regular humbucker. Also, the more power a pickup has, the more inherent noise there can be. All of the humbuckers have a lot more output than even the Injectors.

3) Some environments are conducive to noise - such as being close to a power station, an electric fence, the railway or other.  Not much that you can do in these circumstances but imagine how noisy a "real" single coil would be in that environment. I had major trouble with real single coils in two live environments where the lighting system induced a major hum. Since then I switched to noisecancelling pickups. I have heard of one case where hum was induced by a neon sign close to the stage. When the club owner turned it off the hum disappeared.

What could help - even if I do not have any practical experience insofar - is a power conditioner. I remember that in the 80s almost every major guitar player had a rack system, and almost always had a Fuhrman Power Conditioner in that rack - I guess it was for a reason.

Cheers Stephan

798

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup recommendations please?

« on: January 17, 2017, 12:39:51 PM »

Maybe I can add something as I am also familiar with some of the Bare Knuckles.

If the 498 is too fizzy you may want something with more midrange but not too much more output. AT-1 comes to mind. I would stay away from the Super Distortion as this pickup can have a fizzy tone in some guitars. The Breed bridge would be a better choice for a tone with lots of low end but it may end up too dark in the LPC.

The Bare Knuckle Holydiver would be a good choice for the bridge position - coincidently it is their take on the JB as well as the AT-1 is DiMarzio's take on that pickup. I have both (as well as a JB) but have not used them in the same guitar(s). The neck pickup is also nice - quite bright but not thin.

The Black Dog bridge is lower output, about the same as a hotter PAF type pickup. It has a strong midrange for a lower output pickup but I found it to be quite picky about the guitar it is in. It would not be my first choice for this application.

So for the bridge I would go AT-1 or Holydiver. From the neck pickups you mentioned I only played the Bare Knuckle Holydiver and the Steve Morse neck - both good but slightly different. The Morse neck is fatter and smoother whereas the Holydiver would be brighter and clearer. Another fine option for the neck pickup is the Duncan Full Shred neck if you want fat but clear and not muddy tones.

Cheers Stephan

799

The Pickup Place / Re: DiMarzio PAF Pro vs Seymour Duncan Full Shred

« on: January 17, 2017, 07:24:33 AM »

Finally I got around to putting the FSn into a guitar - it's a partscaster tele with a maple neck and rosewood board - and I am so glad I did. I also removed the 3 hex poles just as Ray described and that tightened the low end even further. The clarity this thing has now is almost unreal, yet it sounds like a humbucker on the high strings - no thin tones at all.

Many thanks Ray for the tip, it is very much appreciated.

Cheers Stephan

800

The Pickup Place / Re: AT-1 bridge and ....?

« on: January 17, 2017, 03:50:15 AM »

jazz's selection is good.

I can only speak for the Bluesbucker in that context as it is the only of the pickups listed that I have ever paired with the AT-1 but that is a combination I like very much. Very good overall output and tonal balance.

Cheers Stephan

801

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup recommendations for guitar with alder body, walnut top and maple neck

« on: January 16, 2017, 03:57:37 AM »

Breed bridge with cruiser neck, or one of the Area single coils maybe.

What do you have in it now, and what do you not like about it?

The loudness of these two pickups will be very different. I have a guitar with a Cruiser bridge in the neck and a Chopper T in the bridge. The Cruiser almost kisses the strings whereas I backed off the Chopper T quite a bit and the Cruiser still cannot keep up. I would go for something slightly hotter in the bridge neck, e.g. Chopper or Satch Track.

Cheers Stephan

802

The Pickup Place / Re: Recommend me a single coil sized humbucker for my strat please?

« on: January 12, 2017, 10:03:58 AM »

I would consider the Chopper. I have one strat with the Chopper in the bridge, Area 58 in the middle and Area 67 in the neck. The Chopper agrees with these two in that it does not overpower them or makes you feel that you are playing a different guitar when going from any other combination to bridge only.

I would also wire the guitar so that the bridge pickup gets a tone control.

Cheers Stephan

803

The Pickup Place / Re: Epi LPjr Gravity Storm.... caps and treble bleed help required

« on: January 11, 2017, 08:37:34 AM »

Hi everyone, OK...first post here goes
I have a Epiphone les Paul Jr, and I've just purchased a DiMarzio Gravity Storm bridge pickup... I've heard that old Gibson Les Paul Jr's had a 500k volume pot and a 250k tone pot, so I'll be looking in putting a Seymour Duncan YJM 500K volume pot and a 250k tone pot, so....

I would first check the value of the existing pots before changing them. They may already be the values you want.

What's the best cap to put on the tone 0.22 or 0.47 etc?

The standard cap value for humbuckers and P90s is 0.022uf (or 22nf respectively 22000pf, sometimes labelled as "223" where the 3 stands for the zeros). Single coils use 0.047uf as standard value, vintage strats 0.1uf. You probably missed one zero in the values you quoted as these would make the tone very very dark with the pot turned down completely.

For me personally, all these values are too large, and I usually use values between 0.0015 and 0.0047uf, depending on guitar and pickups. Caps are quite cheap, get a few different values, experiment and use what you like best.

Also I would like to have a smooth even decrease in volume from 10-0 but still keep all the bass and treble  characteristics of the guitar tone at lower volumes, and NOT just lose the volume last min or just loose bass or just loose treble...any help would be much appreciated thanks

Unless you use active pickups where this is a non-issue, this is the most difficult thing to achieve as it depends not only on the pickup and guitar electronics but also on the amp and the cable (yes - the cable has a capacitance which is in parallel to pickups and volume/tone controls). First step is to try the pickup with the existing volume pot and see whether you lose too many highs. If yes, you can add a treble bleed circuit (a small capacitor or a small capacitor in parallel with a resistor - I have also seen a cap and resistor in series for this purpose). The cap alone as treble bleed circuit bypasses the highs so they are always on full, which can make the lows to "disappear" at lower settings. To counteract this you can use a resistor in parallel. Keep in mind that the treble bleed circuit alters the taper of the volume control in the way that there is more signal at lower volume settings than without the treble bleed. In the end, you have to experiment to find what you like. Again, caps and resistors are cheap so get a few of them and experiment.

Good luck with your experiments
Stephan

804

The Pickup Place / Re: Area series VS both old and new Virtual Vintage single coils.

« on: January 10, 2017, 04:11:54 AM »

I use 67 neck, 58 middle and Virtual Solo (the current one) in one of my strats, and the Virtual Solo is what you are describing. I am a tele player usually.

And yes, definitely use a tone pot on the bridge pickup. When the strat was introduced in the 50s Leo wanted to make the bridge pickup extra bright to cut through for solos so the bridge pickup did not get a tone pot whereas the other two pickups did. I find this inappropriate for my uses - I could live without tone pots for the other two pickups but not for the bridge pickup where it is needed the most. In addition, the stock strat wiring puts both tone controls in the circuit when middle and neck pickups are selected - I don't like that either. The simplest cure for both problems is to move the middle tone control to the bridge pickup.

Cheers Stephan

805

The Pickup Place / Re: Why am I getting this error?

« on: January 09, 2017, 05:17:30 AM »

I received the same message in the exact same situation.

806

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for bright guitar

« on: December 23, 2016, 02:55:16 AM »

I'd be vary of the Tone Zone if the problem is weird overtones due to its sizzle in the high frequencies.

An alternative to the AT-1 I mentioned earlier would be the Breed bridge - similar in the lower and mid ranges to the Tone Zone but smoother in the highs. However, I cannot give a direct comparison between those two as I did not try them in the same guitar.

Cheers Stephan

807

The Pickup Place / Re: F spacing?

« on: December 21, 2016, 08:56:52 AM »

Here are the dimensions of a trembucker: http://www.seymourduncan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TB-6-String-Uncovered-Short-Magnet-Short-Leg-Bottom-Plate.gif

And here the dimensions of a regular SD bucker: http://www.seymourduncan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/HB-6-String-Uncovered-Short-Magnet-Long-Leg-Bottom-Plate.gif

Source: SD's website.

Cheers Stephan

808

The Pickup Place / Re: F spacing?

« on: December 21, 2016, 04:17:19 AM »

Mostly the difference is not audible but if you are going to change pickups anyway why not go for an F-spaced one? There are manufacturers that charge the same prices for each (DiMarzio, Bare Knuckle to name a few), and the dimensions are the same - unlike the SD Trembuckers which are a bit larger and may require modification of the pickguard and or the guitar body.

However, if the pickup you want to use in that guitar happens to be a SD a regular spaced model may work without any problems. The low E string is rarely a problem anyway due to its mass. Furthermore, any potential difference from misalignment gets reduced the more overdrive is added.

Cheers Stephan

809

The Pickup Place / Re: Need a pickup recommendation for progressive rock

« on: December 20, 2016, 11:39:10 AM »

Another option for the bridge would be AT-1. Not sure about the neck pickup though. I use a Bluesbucker with the AT-1, and that would be a good choice if you want to split the neck pickup and not lose too much output compared to humbucking mode.

Cheers Stephan

810

The Pickup Place / Re: DiMarzio for my Ibanez RG550

« on: December 20, 2016, 11:34:25 AM »

Hi and welcome.

I am afraid I am not much of help here but Gravity Storm/Liquifire and Evolutions are probably the opposite ends of the tonal spectrum. I am not too much into high output pickups. The only two I currently have from the DiMarzio range are the Steve Morse bridge and the Super Distortion. Both have enough highs but are quite fat in the midrange.

Never played the Steve's Special but I own the DLX Plus Bridge which is supposed to be the same pickup in P90 form factor. I wrote a review in the "Everything ..." section. I would not say it is scooped but it is a very warm tone. It is also not that high output - at least it does not feel like it. I liked it but after a while I thought the guitar it was in needed something more aggressive - and I put in a JB which suited the guitar much better. Keep in mind that this was the only guitar I ever liked the JB in. 

Hopefully the guys here with more experience with the high output models will chime in.

Cheers Stephan