I Gotta Be Honest - I Have Failed:

I bought and sold over $15,000 in high end guitars in the past 6 months and none of them sounded any better than my Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Gold Top with Sheptone pickups.

Everyone knows I'm no player like Robert is, but I do know sound and I help Robert critique his work all the time. Everyone has a sound they like and strive for. I seem to buy guitars
for the beauty in the wood and I can't afford that kind of wall art...
 
Ok,

Here's a quick test of the two guitars:

Appearing first is the Hellraiser EMG81TW (factory adjusted to 4/64"from the strings.)

Appearing next is the YelloStrat with DiMarzio Neanderthal with the settings given to me by Dimarzio listed below:

After speaking with DiMarzio, and telling them my tone was very "one dimensional," and listening to soundclips, they made the following suggestions:

1. Adjust slug bobbin height to 9/64" from underside of high 'e' fretted at 22nd fret

2. Adjust slug bobbin to 9/64" from underside of low 'E' fretted at 22nd fret

3. Adjust low 'E' pole piece to 8/64" from underside of low 'E' fretted at 22nd fret

4. Adjust 'A' pole piece to 7/64" from underside of 'A' string fretted at 22nd fret

5. Adjust 'D' pole piece to 6/64" from underside of high 'e' fretted at 22nd fret

6. Adjust 'g' pole piece to 1/64" BELOW bobbin surface fretted at 22nd fret

7. Adjust 'b' pole piece to 8/32" from underside of 'b' fretted at 22nd fret

8. Adjust high 'e' pole piece to 7/32" from underside of high 'e' fretted at 22nd fret

This is how the pole pieces look when adjusted as suggested above:

DiMarzio Pole Piece Stagger.png


Both guitars were played through my Blackstar ID-Core 100 direct-out onto Audacity. Both were recorded back to back (immediately) with zero noise reduction or post-recording mixing or EQ-ing.

Here are the actual settings used, which are my usual hard-rock recording presets:

Blackstar Settings.png

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Drobert-h-herndon%252Fhellraiser-emg81tw-vs-yellostrat-dimarzio-neanderthal-02-15-2021%3Btrack_id%3D986490379

@syscokid
 
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Sounds great to me man I could rock either one.
But then again I am the biggest hack on my block .
Sorry Robert but the small lack of clarity in the Yelo Strat is not that bad.
In my old ears !!! Nice work buddy.
Cheers
Mitch
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
Sounds great to me man I could rock either one.
But then again I am the biggest hack on my block .
Sorry Robert but the small lack of clarity in the Yelo Strat is not that bad.
In my old ears !!! Nice work buddy.
Cheers
Mitch
Click to expand...

That's after DiMarzio instructed me to adjust the poles. Notice the waveforms are almost identical???
 
That's pretty much how most of my pole pieces are adjusted. It was 'splained to me that the larger the core string the stronger the signal it produces requiring the slope of the E, A and D strings and then you have to really lower the G because it is louder than any of the others. Adjust B and E to suit.
 
I didnt want to know which was which so I played clips first and heard it soon as the second clip came on I said this is strat....

I myst say with honest opinion I liked first one more than the second. Second one sounded like flat sounds....

first one was more alive hard to explain but i prefer that over strat.

thats my take on this.
:)
 
Robert Herndon said:
For a while now, I have gone headlong down the rabbit hole with YelloStrat.

$325.00 Warmoth Neck (not yet arrived), $140.00 custom DiMarzio humbucker, $75.00 custom pickguard, $85.00 for Gotoh tuning keys, $60.00 for Artec hum canceling single coils, $60.00 in genuine Fender screws, tremolo springs and $125.00 for brass saddles and brass sustain block, both hand crafted in Budapest.
Click to expand...

Over the years, like you (but not as much! :) ), I've spent bucket loads on changing/upgrading guitars. But, I've firmly come to the conclusion that the best way is to try out many guitars, get the one that suits you perfectly and change nothing!

Having said that, if you get enjoyment from modding (say, adding a third pickup to all the guitars and kitchen appliances in your household... :p) then that's a good reason - enjoyment.

&, you do get some crap stuff on an otherwise good guitar that just needs changing - say, a lightning bridge on an SG Special - it needs help because Gibson never bothered to get it right during the last 55 years or so... &, of course putting locking tuners on for quick restringing makes sense too.

So, yeah, errm, I mean no, errm, I'm not sure. Up to you. :io:
 
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