781

The Pickup Place / Re: Medium-output buckers that split well?

« on: February 27, 2017, 04:06:10 AM »

My favorite humbucker for the neck position when I also want split tones out of it is the Bluesbucker. I have also found that the Bare Knuckle Abraxas neck does excellent split tones.

For the bridge position I have had good results with various medium output pickups. DiMarzio AT-1, Duncan C-5, Bare Knuckle Abraxas bridge, Crawler bridge all come to mind.

Cheers Stephan

782

The Pickup Place / Re: Humbuckers for a mahogany ibby

« on: February 27, 2017, 04:01:47 AM »

AT-1 is a great pickup, especially for brighter sounding guitars.

Of the pickups you mentioned for the neck position I played the Air Norton, which is quite dark, and various PAF types (even though not the 36th Anniversary) which were too dark for my taste as well. Currently I use a Bluesbucker together with the AT-1 which works quite well and splits well.

Cheers Stephan

783

The Pickup Place / Re: PAF 59 Set

« on: February 09, 2017, 04:28:00 AM »

That's what I remembered as well. But the 36th looks like a typical DiMarzio so maybe they wanted to add something to the line that looks vintage original.

Cheers Stephan

784

The Pickup Place / Re: Humbuckers for telecaster

« on: February 07, 2017, 11:07:09 AM »

I love dual humbucker teles - good choice!

The Super Distortion could work but I found that in some guitars it accentuates a sizzle in the higher frequencies so if your guitar is bright already it may be too much.

My favorite DiMarzio bridge humbucker to fatten up brighter guitars is the AT-1. Totally takes away any ice pick and has lots of warm fat midrange. Of the other ones you mentioned I played the Fred (but that was many years ago and in a totally different guitar) which I found similar to the PAF Pro both in output and tone - maybe a touch more mids. Another alternative could be the Breed bridge if you want something darker.

Cheers Stephan

785

The Trading Post / Re: Twang King Set Sale

« on: February 03, 2017, 03:58:22 AM »

Not interested in the pickups but I support the conversion idea - did it myself on one Teles.

Cheers Stephan

786

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

« on: January 31, 2017, 04:30:24 AM »

I found the diagram for the HM strat here: http://s649.photobucket.com/user/heavymetalstrat/media/HMWiringDiagram.jpg.html

Is that the one you meant?

The wiring you suggested looks like it should work but without actually having the chance to measure I cannot give a guarantee.

You should wire the red/green to one of the top or bottom terminals of the T-80 switch (does not matter which one). From the center terminal below (or above) it, run an isolated wire to a suitable ground connection (can be the back of the volume or tone pot).

After that, test and if anything is not working right, try to describe as detailed as possible what works and what does not. Example:

- bridge pickup: OK
- bridge + middle pickup: very thin sounding and much lower volume
- middle: OK
- middle + neck: only the middle sounds
- neck: dead

Good luck
Stephan

787

The Pickup Place / Re: Question re: wiring up HSS strat with Virt. PAF, 2 Cruisers (HSS)

« on: January 30, 2017, 04:15:56 AM »

You can start with a standard stratocaster diagram and

1) substitute the single coils with humbuckers in standard wiring for series mode, and
2) move the middle tone control to the bridge pickup.

If you google no. 2) you get loads of hits.

Cheers Stephan

788

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

« on: January 26, 2017, 04:54:48 AM »

Forgot to mention:

You can also check if the coil tap works by measuring the DC resistance across the pickup's wires directly.

Between Black and White you should get the full humbucker reading.

Between Black and Red/Greeen you should get about half of the humbucker reading; same for the measurement between White and Red/Green.

If you get anything else, the fault is with the pickup (but this is rather unlikely).

Cheers Stephan

789

The Pickup Place / Re: DiMarzio Bluesbucker Pickup DP163 - Rotary wiring

« on: January 26, 2017, 04:49:02 AM »

The Bluesbucker is excellent for splitting. Its strength is that the split tone is almost as powerful as the humbucking tone BUT this is only when the screw coil is active in split mode. I have not tried the slug coil active but I would expect that to be lower output than a regular split humbucker. Since many PRS rotary wiring schemes combine both coils in different settings I would not recommend the Bluesbucker for such applications.

Cheers Stephan

790

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

« on: January 24, 2017, 09:57:12 AM »

No there was no picture attached. And indeed sometimes the pictures are not complete - occasionally they are missing the ground connections.

What you wrote confirms my initial thought that the switch is not working properly. It seems that there is a ground wire from the switch but the real question is - does it actually go to ground?

Do you have a multimeter? If not I highly recommend to get one. They are not expensive and are indispensible for working on guitar electronics because they allow you to tackle a problem systematically. Plug a guitar cord into the output jack of the guitar. Measure from the switch tab where the ground wire is connected to the sleeve of the guitar plug. You should get zero ohms. If you get anything else, there is your problem - the ground wire does not go to ground! Solder it to a ground connection and it should work.
If you get zero ohms when measuring this way, do the following next: set the pickup selector to bridge and measure between the tip of the guitar cord and the sleeve. Then flip the switch. You should get a different reading now - if not, the switch is not wired correctly or broken.

Good luck,
Stephan

791

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for guitar with just master volume and toggle switch

« on: January 24, 2017, 09:39:47 AM »

Depending on how deep the electronics cavity rout is you may be able to use a concentric pot which would give you a volume and a tone control. Alternatively you could use a push-pull pot which would allow you to split the pickups (both of them or only one of them if you wire only one of the pickups to do that) or to put the coils of one of the pickups in parallel. This does not always work however - I have a guitar with a Cabronita body where I can only use a long shaft pot as volume pot, and even that just barely fits.

The DiMarzio humbucker combinations I liked most so far are AT-1 for bridge and Bluesbucker for neck and the Steve Morse set. In fact the Steve Morse set is in a guitar with only a volume control and a 3-way toggle switch (which I may or may not replace with a freeway switch in the future to get more sound options). Both combinations are well balanced. I also had the ToneZone/Air Norton combo for a while in a guitar which was also not bad but a bit too powerful for what I wanted. The AirZone gets a lot of love here but I never played one.

The combination of a medium to hot humbucker in the bridge plus a lower output humbucker in the neck would work well with a single 500k volume pot without a tone control. If you want to simulate a non-existing tone control you can use a 0.022uf cap in series with a 470k resistor from the volume control input to ground. The difference will be subtle but it may be enough.

I would be vary of a PAF type set as the bridge pickup may come across as very bright without a tone control in the guitar. If you use a 500k volume pot I would definitely add a resistor (anywhere from 470k to 1meg) from the hot tab on the switch where the bridge pickup is connected to to ground.

Cheers Stephan 

792

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

793

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

794

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

795

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