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The Pickup Place / Re: My X2N Review
« on: August 20, 2026, 06:13:53 AM »
Thanks for the review on this long existing pickup. Surprisingly it seems to stay under the radar for many players.
Cheers Stephan
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?
« on: August 19, 2026, 10:40:50 AM »
Speaking of the HS-X series, DiMarzio was on the right way as regards the tone. However, they were so quiet, and not only in noise ...
Same for the Shock Wave pickups (long discontinued). I understand why they came with a preamp as they were just as quiet as the HS-X series.
Same for the Shock Wave pickups (long discontinued). I understand why they came with a preamp as they were just as quiet as the HS-X series.
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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?
« on: August 17, 2026, 09:54:34 AM »Maybe I just haven't found the right guitar for it yet, but the AT-1 bores me to tears.
I hear you as I have moved mine from guitar to guitar until I think I found a good home for it (for now....)
I installed Duncan Classic Strat Plus's in for somebody. I wasn't that impressed. A bit dissapointing. They seemed to lack responsiveness to picking dynamics. They were good if you switched off the noiseless. There's a reason the Dimarzio Area series have become the industrty standard for noiseless SCs, I guess.
When the Classic and Hot Stacks came out in the 80s I had one of each. While they had healthier outputs than the HS-x series of DiMarzio, to me they did not sound anything like true single coils. The OBL ("Original Bill Lawrence") L 250 series also missed that mark IMHO.
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?
« on: August 11, 2026, 04:12:00 AM »
I have to also add the old Bill Lawrence with the single blade. I guess they were the first attempt to create a single coil sized humcancelling pickup but unfortunately it was also a "good sound cancelling" pickup.
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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?
« on: August 06, 2026, 08:52:58 AM »
Two more I really didn't like:
1. PJ Marx (I think they are long out of business) Jeff Watson Signature: sound was ok but even though fully epoxied it squealed like a stuck pig - by far the most microphonic pickup I have ever encountered. Since it was potted in epoxy there was no chance of improving things with potting. Very weird - their humcancelling single coil sized humbuckers were really good.
2. Evans (probably also out of business) humcancelling single coil sized humbuckers: these pickups had the endorsement of the late and great Jeff Healey but the two I had had a dead zone on the D string. I still have them in a box, never to return to any guitar. They could be used as paperweights though.
Cheers Stephan
1. PJ Marx (I think they are long out of business) Jeff Watson Signature: sound was ok but even though fully epoxied it squealed like a stuck pig - by far the most microphonic pickup I have ever encountered. Since it was potted in epoxy there was no chance of improving things with potting. Very weird - their humcancelling single coil sized humbuckers were really good.
2. Evans (probably also out of business) humcancelling single coil sized humbuckers: these pickups had the endorsement of the late and great Jeff Healey but the two I had had a dead zone on the D string. I still have them in a box, never to return to any guitar. They could be used as paperweights though.
Cheers Stephan
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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The AT-1
« on: August 04, 2026, 05:31:07 AM »
I have moved my AT-1 from guitar to guitar, always finding something lacking in the end - mostly too much bloated midrange.
That is until I put it in a bolt-on Junior type guitar with a Paulownia body and maple/rosewood neck. It replaced a Mo' Joe which was fine but lacked the substance on the higher notes. I had thought long and hard about what to put in there and initially thought "not the AT-1" as I did not think it would be a good fit. But I did - and I am glad I did. The guitar loves the AT-1. It filled the missing frequencies nicely to make the high notes fat. The bottom end is not overly tight but not flubby either. And, finally, it does not sound nasal in this guitar. Like the JB, the AT-1 appears to be more sensitive than the average humbucker to the guitar it is in.
It is the only pickup in that guitar, which has a volume and a tone control (both 500k audio) and a 3-way toggle wired for series/parallel/single coil.
Cheers Stephan
That is until I put it in a bolt-on Junior type guitar with a Paulownia body and maple/rosewood neck. It replaced a Mo' Joe which was fine but lacked the substance on the higher notes. I had thought long and hard about what to put in there and initially thought "not the AT-1" as I did not think it would be a good fit. But I did - and I am glad I did. The guitar loves the AT-1. It filled the missing frequencies nicely to make the high notes fat. The bottom end is not overly tight but not flubby either. And, finally, it does not sound nasal in this guitar. Like the JB, the AT-1 appears to be more sensitive than the average humbucker to the guitar it is in.
It is the only pickup in that guitar, which has a volume and a tone control (both 500k audio) and a 3-way toggle wired for series/parallel/single coil.
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Position: Fast Track 1 vs. Injector bridge vs. Virtual Solo
« on: August 03, 2026, 05:36:15 AM »Now have the Inj. neck in middle position. Put both on some 5mm plastic spacers. Now they are veeeery similar in output to the stock bridge humbucker.
I used a four-layer switch (though I‘d only need two..) for the following combinations:
1 - neck
2 - middle
3 - neck + bridge
4 - middle + Bridge
5 - Bridge
There’s now splitting or other fancy stuff involved.
Cool simple set up.
I found that with some guitars, middle solo does sound similar to bridge + neck, especially since you have the brightest pickup in the middle position.
No idea how the bridge + middle sounds with neither pickup split. If you like it, great, leave as is. When I had set ups like this I always missed the sparkle on top. Since you have a 4-layer switch you could split both pickups in that position for a very distinct sound compared to the others which is still humcancelling - that's probably what I would do. EDIT: check the polarity of the coils and make sure that the right coil of the bridge pickup is active in the B+M position.
Cheers Stephan
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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Tone Zone
« on: June 29, 2026, 04:51:57 AM »
Thanks to nienturi's excellent review of the Air Zone (thanks for posting this on here), we have 8.3k for the screw coil and 9k for the slug coil, assuming the coils of Air Zone and Tone Zone are identical.
Cheers Stephan
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Rail Strat humbuckers: splitting or parallel?
« on: June 22, 2026, 04:44:26 AM »Ugh, Gregr... you're tempting me!
Alright, it's decided: the experiment is happening.
My favorite guitar has a BC-1 in the bridge position and a Cruiser Bridge in the neck position.
Using a Super Switch, I've already worked out the wiring to get these options:
1) Bridge in series
2) Bridge in parallel
3) Bridge partial split with a 2.2k resistor
4) Partial split bridge with a 1.2k resistor + (full) neck in parallel
5) Neck in series
In the next few days I will try!
I like that set up with the pickups you are using. As the Cruiser is bright and low output already it does not make much sense to me to split or parallel it on its own. On the other hand, with the powerful bridge pickup you are using the split and parallel sections should have sufficient output to work well.
Have fun.
Stephan
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Guitar Lounge / Simple but Effective Wiring for Guitars with one Humbucker
« on: June 11, 2026, 03:52:19 AM »
https://www.premierguitar.com/mod-garage-the-triple-threat-solo-humbucker-wiring
Recently I set up two guitars with just a bridge humbucker (one strat with a Breed Bridge, one Esquire with a Chopper T).
The wiring uses a standard 3-way toggle (as common in an tele type guitar with two pickups), one volume and one tone control, and allows the coils to be put in series (fat humbucker tone), parallel (leaner humbucker tone) and single coil. Very simple but very versatile given that there is only one pickup.
Cheers Stephan
Recently I set up two guitars with just a bridge humbucker (one strat with a Breed Bridge, one Esquire with a Chopper T).
The wiring uses a standard 3-way toggle (as common in an tele type guitar with two pickups), one volume and one tone control, and allows the coils to be put in series (fat humbucker tone), parallel (leaner humbucker tone) and single coil. Very simple but very versatile given that there is only one pickup.
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Creating a Fatter Humbucker-Like Voice from a 2-Pickup Noiseless Setup
« on: June 09, 2026, 11:45:41 AM »
(1) does work to some extent. With single coils in the bridge, a cap of 0.0015uf (= 1.5nf or 1500pf) is a good starting point. Go higher if it is not enough and go lower if it is too much.
I never tried (2) so I cannot provide any useful insights here.
Cheers Stephan
I never tried (2) so I cannot provide any useful insights here.
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup options for HS superstrat
« on: June 01, 2026, 05:07:32 AM »
I didn't mention the Satch Track because I don't have any experience with it.
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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: 36th neck in bridge?
« on: May 26, 2026, 04:12:38 AM »
Keep in mind that in the 50s when the role model for the 36th was invented (the Gibson PAF) there was no such thing as a "bridge" or "neck" pickup. It is all personal preference.
Cheers Stephan
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup options for HS superstrat
« on: May 21, 2026, 04:28:56 AM »
Back to topic: in order to have a suitable balance with the Tone Zone in the bridge, I would also lean to the Air Norton S as a compromise between clarity and high output. The Chopper could be an alternative, even though I only ever used it in the bridge position. Be sure to use pots of at least 500k.
Cheers Stephan
Cheers Stephan
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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup options for HS superstrat
« on: May 05, 2026, 11:54:30 AM »
It is also my experience that the Cruisers are rather low output. I could never use them in combination with anything similar to an AT-1 in output as Andy Timmons does. Apparently it works for him but for me the output differences between the bridge HB and the Cruisers would be too much. I would need a hefty amount of compression on the clean tones to make it work.
Cheers Stephan
Cheers Stephan