A Question Of Brightness:
- Thread starter Inspector #20
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your on a roll.....
OP
Quite possibly!
eclecticsynergy
Ambassador of Electric Synergy
10K with a ceramic mag is a great combination for a bright, punchy bridge pickup. Muscular enough but without the congested tone and compressed feel of the heavily overwound humbuckers. I have an old Duncan SH-7 Seymourizer which is right in that ballpark. This model was eventually renamed the Distortion Neck but it was originally intended to be a bridge humbucker and it rocks.
OP
It worked fabulously, and behaved in the manner in which you described. This was very, very tough to find, considering the forward position of the bridge humbucker - which was intentionally designed to have a centerline halfway between a conventional bridge pickup and the middle pickup in a black beauty Les Paul...
As shown here, you can see the more towards-the-nut positioning of the bridge pickup:
The pickup was tested just before installation and measured 9.45kΩ
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eclecticsynergy
Ambassador of Electric Synergy
Wow, that really is a good distance from the bridge; ideal position indeed for a bright pickup..
Lead pickup placement is one design factor where even a few millimeters can make a significant difference.
My main gig axe back in the early 80s was a Floydcaster that John Suhr built for me before he had his own company, when he was still working on 48th St. My bridge pickup was an old Gibson T-top and I found that mounted close to the bridge in a bolt-on 25½" scale guitar it was a bit too brash, especially since the Floyd robs a bit of fatness from the lows.
So I moved the pickup a little further out from the bridge, maybe a quarter inch. The change was not quite night & day, but it was pretty profound nonetheless. Sound was fuller and a hair louder, still nice and bright yet not harsh at all. What I tend to think of as classic T-top tone, just in a Strat.
My pic of the guitar isn't great but if you look at the bridge pickup you can see that it was moved. (Somewhat crudely, I confess - I carved out the pickguard with a kitchen knife.
Lead pickup placement is one design factor where even a few millimeters can make a significant difference.
My main gig axe back in the early 80s was a Floydcaster that John Suhr built for me before he had his own company, when he was still working on 48th St. My bridge pickup was an old Gibson T-top and I found that mounted close to the bridge in a bolt-on 25½" scale guitar it was a bit too brash, especially since the Floyd robs a bit of fatness from the lows.
So I moved the pickup a little further out from the bridge, maybe a quarter inch. The change was not quite night & day, but it was pretty profound nonetheless. Sound was fuller and a hair louder, still nice and bright yet not harsh at all. What I tend to think of as classic T-top tone, just in a Strat.
My pic of the guitar isn't great but if you look at the bridge pickup you can see that it was moved. (Somewhat crudely, I confess - I carved out the pickguard with a kitchen knife.
OP
I do rather enjoy putting pickups together from bits and pieces, but your suggestion is a good one too!!!
OP
Very good description and very nice vintage photo!!!
eclecticsynergy
Ambassador of Electric Synergy
OP
Absolutely. I used to spend enormous $$$ on vintage gear....pickups included. But I've become much more basic and realized I can get a great tone for less $$$ spent.
I have one genuine Gibson Les Paul with a 498T. My #2 Les Paul is a hand built copy of a 1974 Tuxedo Custom. I used the Epiphone equivalent of the 498T in it - the HB8N - and no one in the band can tell a difference when I switch between these guitars.
Everyone who plays the black "fake" think it's the real Gibson based on feel and tone...
I have a line on a 1959 Les Paul Replica that would potentially give me another Les Paul to rotate through during our set...and look very cool on stage too...
Everything I have has to be leveled and crowned before I feel comfortable playing them.
DHart
Well-Known Member
Tinkering with guitar electronics is a very enjoyable respite from playing music, for me. Sort of zen-like!
OP
Evolution....cha cha cha changes...
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Amp Mad Scientist
Ambassador of Heresy
You need to locate the PU pole at the harmonic point of the string.
This point will have the lowest cancellation of frequencies....
It was Les Paul who first realized this, and designed guitar pickup locations accordingly.
(he made a guitar with a sliding pickup, and found the ideal pole locations)
It doesn't matter which pickup you use or install, it will still sound dead until you put the poles in the correct spot.
The wiring, capacitor, pots etc will not fix any of this.
(you might get slight changes but nothing very significant)
Pickup locations is where a strat fails soooo badly.
Stats have frequency cancellations and dead spots, too much it drives me bonkers.
Once a guitar is built out of a certain wood, with PUs in locations, you are stuck with the sound of it forever.
Different PUs never fix these problems...
but pickup salesmen want you to think that buying a PU will cause a magical change...which is never really the case in reality.
The sound of an electric guitar does not come from the electronics or pickups....
once you realize this you will be miles ahead.
Amp Mad Scientist
Ambassador of Heresy
Read this it helps explain:
www.frudua.com
pickup placement - Frudua Craftpedia
The placement of pickups along the guitar scale is one of the most influential factors of the sound of the bass and the electric guitar.
www.frudua.com
OP
Read this it helps explain:
pickup placement - Frudua Craftpedia
The placement of pickups along the guitar scale is one of the most influential factors of the sound of the bass and the electric guitar.
Thanks!
I've made some huge advances with caps in series!
OP
The secret sauce was a Gibson 490T with a 0.047uf cap in series....