16

The Pickup Place / Re: Mellowing out Air Norton neck in Charvel So-Cal?

« on: November 18, 2023, 10:47:20 AM »

FWIW, the Air Norton wasn’t necessarily intended to be a neck pickup. Rather, it became popular to use in the neck position after a certain someone paired it with a Steve’s Special.

17

The Pickup Place / Re: Air Norton Bridge Position

« on: November 16, 2023, 10:04:26 AM »

With the HSS I would have to flip the magnet to use the bridge coil in split mode and be humcancelling with the middle, and I am not looking forward to doing that.

If the singles use alnico rods then instead you can use a neodymium magnet to reverse their polarity.

While he used two cylindrical magnets I successfully used a pair of neo bar magnets on both alnico slugs to reverse their polarity as well as recharge bar magnets. I’m certain a single neo bar magnet will work as well. Just be sure to check the orientation of the magnet field emanating from the magnets.

https://youtu.be/Ig-t5wx3iyw?si=-fBG6Ydo-QqxMExw

18

The Pickup Place / Re: Bridge HB to tame bright Basswood guitar?

« on: November 13, 2023, 10:49:58 AM »

I looked at the two usual places I buy pickups and surprisingly there were plenty on hand.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Bridge HB to tame bright Basswood guitar?

« on: November 12, 2023, 08:54:38 PM »

Thanks (I’m being sarcastic because I have more pickups than guitars to put them in). Now I want a Breed Bridge. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

20

The Pickup Place / Re: Mellowing out Air Norton neck in Charvel So-Cal?

« on: November 06, 2023, 10:31:06 AM »

The next time I put it in a guitar I’ll make sure to try that. Thanks!

21

The Pickup Place / Re: Mellowing out Air Norton neck in Charvel So-Cal?

« on: November 04, 2023, 12:08:24 PM »

If you want a beefy PAF in the neck position you might go with a Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker or a PAF style pickup made for the bridge position like a Duncan 59B or a 30th bridge. If you dare, try the bridge version of the Whole Lotta Humbucker.

I’ve only used the Breed Neck in the bridge with a PAF Pro in the neck. I don’t find it to be overly bright. I’ve also used an Air Norton in the bridge and found it to be very bright, although the guitar itself is quite bright, but that pickup doesn’t seem to have much oomph in the low end.

22

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: DiMarzio Injectors (Paul Gilbert Signature Singles)

« on: October 17, 2023, 12:58:16 AM »

Even when split the pickup is nowhere near as noisy as a true single coil with similar output.

23

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: DiMarzio Injectors (Paul Gilbert Signature Singles)

« on: October 11, 2023, 10:13:58 AM »

It can even hang with a 61 in the neck, though tonally the 67 might be a better choice.

Do try the Injector without the dummy coil by itself.

24

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: DiMarzio Injectors (Paul Gilbert Signature Singles)

« on: October 10, 2023, 11:05:32 AM »

Yep! The Injector neck is great in any of the three positions. Shorting the dummy coil brings out some extra sparkle. I was surprised. It makes a fair bit of difference in position 4, though you need to make one RW/RP to get hum cancellation. Reversing polarity is easily doable with a pair of neo magnets.

25

The Pickup Place / Re: neck humbucker (or BB) to complement PAF type bridge HB

« on: September 22, 2023, 05:24:25 PM »

I don’t find the output specifications to be any less reliable than the others. They all need to be taken together as a whole. While it is largely reflected by the numbers, the magnet makes a difference. I don’t know if DiMarzio makes any humbuckers with a A2 magnet, but it helps in getting a more pronounced flutey vowel sound in the neck position. It provides considerably less output than an A5, though beyond that it isn’t going to tame the bottom end in terms of EQ.

P90s and other single coils have the advantage of the tonal purity which balanced humbuckers lack due to phase cancellations. I imagine the BB also has an advantage over a regular humbucker as well. The HFH has more purity but it’s also scooped, and as such it doesn’t provide much benefit. At this point I’m wondering if it would benefit from a mag-swap, but that might not be as easily achieved, let alone successful since many DiMarzio designs aren’t traditional.

While it doesn’t sound like a single coil or a P90, the EJ Custom sounds more focused than a humbucker; not quite as much as a minibucker, but it’s more dynamic and detailed. It’s meant to sound like a Filtertron, but I have no personal experience with them. I do know that it has a narrower aperture than a humbucker which is consistent with what I experience with the sound of the EJ. The neck version really excels at giving me a bright flutey character in the neck position in my Tele. I can’t imagine the bridge version wouldn’t work well in the neck position with a PAF style pickup in the bridge. But because I haven’t tried it, this is left for speculation, unfortunately.

I’m impressed with what I’ve heard of the 36th. I don’t care for what I’ve heard of the PAF Master, but I don’t care for the tone of an A4. This leaves the PAF 59 as the remaining DiMarzio which is weaker than the 36th. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one so I can’t be of any help there.

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The Pickup Place / Re: neck humbucker (or BB) to complement PAF type bridge HB

« on: September 20, 2023, 06:00:21 PM »

I prefer lower output bridge pickups and match them with neck pickups that balance in output and tone. Other than the EJ Customs which aren’t medium output I’m not aware of a DiMarzio Custom model pickup.

I recently pulled a Humbucker from Hell in my main 2-humbucker guitar and replaced it with a Duncan SH-1N loaded with an A3 magnet. I also run it with a pot that controls a passive bass shelf, which, along with a treble bleed on my volume control allows the middle and neck positions to clean up really well with a crunchy amp. I would have gone with a Full Shred but decided I wanted a bit more beef on tap for bigger clean tones. I realize that you want a baseplate with triangular tabs, so this was mainly meant to say that the HFH is not all that lean of a pickup. A stock Duncan 59 certainly has more bass than an HFH, but not with an A3. I also like that the SH-1 has more bite in the upper mids, allowing it to drive the amp a bit harder.

Anyway, I digress. I recently installed an EJ Custom Neck in the neck position of my Tele with and Area Hot T in the bridge. It works really well. I think it would be a bit weak with a bridge humbucker, but I think the EJ Custom Bridge might fit the bill.

When checking specs it can be useful to sort by output as well as treble when choosing a pickup that won’t generate too much bass.

27

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker

« on: September 10, 2023, 11:58:19 AM »

So it’s similar to a typical ceramic single coil.

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.

FWIW, no magnet is required for hum cancellation. Also, traditional humbucker slugs are made of steel which can only hold an extremely weak charge and are easily demagnetized, as opposed to Alnico rods used in single coils.

28

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Bluesbucker

« on: September 08, 2023, 10:50:39 AM »

’ve always been intrigued by this pickup. Is there anything special that allows it to perform better in split mode than a more traditional humbucker? Do you know the DCR and wire gauge of the active coil?

29

The Pickup Place / Re: Goodbye HFH

« on: August 07, 2023, 11:57:24 AM »

I posted about my Tele with an Area Hot T in the bridge a month or so ago. It ended up with an EJ Custom Neck and I’m very happy with it.

The HFH never went in the Tele but I swapped between the Tele and the guitar that had the HFH to get an idea about how it would pair and I didn’t care for it. The guitar with the HFH is brighter so had I put the HFH in the Tele I probably would have liked it even less; the reason being that it will sound deeper and more full in the Tele, further detracting from the Area Hot T. I imagine the HFH would work better with a Chopper, but even then I’d want to try an EJ Custom Bridge in the neck position.

As was suggested to me earlier, the Full Shred Neck has the makings for a great pickup in an SH Tele. I once had one in the guitar that had the HFH. The FS was tighter and more aggressive. It’s an excellent mate for the Screamin’ Demon and I would still be using it except that it doesn’t provide the clean tone that I want from this guitar.

30

The Pickup Place / Goodbye HFH

« on: August 04, 2023, 05:36:24 PM »

I gave the HFH another chance for several months this time around. It was nice at first but I grew tired of the bass response and lack of mids.

I replaced it with an A3-loaded Seymour Duncan 59N. I’m using a stacked pot as a PTB control in order to further manage the bass.

The bridge pickup is my usual Screamin’ Demon which is no match for a stock 59N. The Demon is leaner and weaker than a Duncan 59B, despite Duncan classifying it as a mid-gain pickup. Itself, the 59B in the bridge isn’t all that well balanced with a 59N to begin with. For those not familiar, the wire in the Demon is 43AWG and very under-wound. For reference the DCR is of the Screamin’ Demon is 10k while the Duncan Custom is 14k. In my opinion a Custom 5 pairs perfectly with a stock Duncan 59N.

With the with the bass set to minimum the 59 is able to balance tonally with the Demon. Turn it up and you get all that PAF goodness. The Demon has its own tone control and the output is controlled by a master volume.