1

The Pickup Place / Re: My Air Zone Review

« on: April 22, 2026, 05:18:30 AM »

It took me  a while to read your review. Many thanks for posting such a detailed review with specs and pics included, very much appreciated.

Cheers Stephan

2

Gear Closet / Re: Compression?

« on: April 08, 2026, 06:18:23 AM »

Unfortunately my Tone Press developed a noise problem which manifests itself in a weird noise artifact when the tone decays. It is definitely the compressor - switch it off and the noise disappears. Use another comp - the noise does not return.

I replaced it with a Wampler Ego Mini Compressor which I like even more than the Tone Press when it was still working.

Cheers Stephan

3

The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« on: April 08, 2026, 06:11:35 AM »

If you don't like the PAF Pro in the neck, the FRED may only offer a bit more midrange and a bit more harmonics (at least that was the impression of both pickups back to back in the same guitar but in the bridge position). I was thinking LiquiFire as this has more midrange, similar to an Air Norton but less low end. Saying that, I had both the LiquiFire and the Bluesbucker back to back in the same guitar and preferred the Bluesbucker, in particular for its splitting capability.

Cheers Stephan

4

The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« on: April 08, 2026, 06:06:28 AM »

FWIW I do not hear anything P90 in the Bluesbucker, even though it is often mentioned.

With the coils wired in series, it resembles a PAF in tone, although it is slightly tighter in the low end. With the screw coil active it sounds like a single coil which is close in volume to the series wiring, thus eliminating the usually weaker split tone of regular PAF type humbuckers.

If you want true tele tone I do not know of any normal sized humbucker which does that. The best option would be an adapter ring but you may also have to enlarge the route in the body to make the tele bridge pickup fit.

Cheers Stephan

5

The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« on: April 07, 2026, 03:47:36 AM »

Since you already have the PAF Pro it is worth a try even though it did not work in the other guitars you tried it in. That would give you at least another baseline for further experimentation.

Cheers Stephan

6

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: FRED

« on: March 30, 2026, 05:05:52 AM »

The Breed neck would be fatter than the FRED. Works well with a 250k load BTW. I have my main strat set up with one, with an Area 67 in the middle and an Area 61 in the neck.

The Breed bridge would be very dark with a 250k load.

Cheers Stephan

7

The Pickup Place / Re: Replacing Fender noiseless with Injectors while keeping S1 intact

« on: March 30, 2026, 05:04:11 AM »

Injectors and Areas have the same connection wires - red, black, white, green and bare.

Cheers Stephan

8

The Pickup Place / Re: Replacing Fender noiseless with Injectors while keeping S1 intact

« on: March 24, 2026, 11:05:51 AM »

Hi Jim,

The Fender Noiseless pickup are two wire pickups with one extra ground wire - basically the same as the Injectors (if you ignore the combined black and white wires). So the Injectors should work with the S1 switch.

I also found an article about the general S1 wiring options here: https://www.fender.com/articles/setup/how-the-s-1-switch-gives-you-more-tonal-options

It seems like all switching options only require pickups that have two signal wires and a separate ground wire, confirming my impression that the Injectors should work in this application.

Cheers Stephan

9

The mini bar (off topic & misc) / Re: The Trading Post - Clearing Action

« on: March 19, 2026, 06:26:45 AM »

WTB posts from before 2021 are also removed. Next removal run will remove anything before 2026.

If you feel that I deleted relevant posts please feel free to repost as we all can then be sure it is still relevant. Thanks.

10

The Pickup Place / Re: Super Distortion or the Super 3

« on: March 12, 2026, 11:56:36 AM »

Indeed - the 36th anniversary bridge is in the hot PAF category whereas the other DiMarzios mentioned are high output. JB,  Norton and Breed are between those in output. In this group, JB and Breed are midhyped whereas Norton leans more towards a hot PAF.

Cheers Stephan

11

The Pickup Place / Re: Super Distortion or the Super 3

« on: March 09, 2026, 01:29:28 PM »

To be more specific on the differences between a JB and a Super D:

- Super D has more output and punch
- JB is a mid-hyped pickup, Super D has mids but more in the lower range. In some guitars it can take on a rather dark midrange color
- JB has smoother highs, Super D can sound fizzy or brittle in the high end if the guitar accentuates that. If this occurs, this can sometimes be countered by bringing down the load on the pickup from 500k to approx. 380k (i.e. adding a resistance of 1.5 meg to 1.6 meg to ground).

Cheers Stephan

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Super Distortion or the Super 3

« on: March 09, 2026, 05:08:34 AM »

I have never played a Super 3 but I played both the JB and the Super Distortion and can confidently say that those two pickups are very very different.

13

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: FRED

« on: March 03, 2026, 03:50:36 AM »

I noted that the FRED is very guitar sensitive and load sensitive. The upside is that it is very tweakable as a result. In a recent project (an alder bodied guitar with maple/rosewood neck and a floyd rose trem) it was close with 500k and spot on with a 2m2 ohms resistor to ground to make the total load approx. 410k. The middle position benefitted as well (neck pu is a Duncan Full Shred neck).

Cheers Stephan

14

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: FRED

« on: February 16, 2026, 05:58:56 AM »

Glad my post helped. Indeed, HSS is one application where the FRED shines because it works well with a 250k load.

Cheers Stephan

15

The mini bar (off topic & misc) / The Trading Post - Clearing Action

« on: January 27, 2026, 05:59:46 AM »

I removed some old threads in this section (older than 2020) as I assume they were no longer relevant. If I inadvertently removed something which you as OP deem still relevant please feel free to repost.

Cheers Stephan