Blueshawk Pickups

[dd12939]

I want to change out the Gibson pickups from my Blueshawk. They neck is a little flubby, and the bridge is a little thin. I was wondering what would be recommended to replace them for a blues/rock tone. Scott speaks so highly of the Vintage(n) P90/Custom(n) P90 that I can't help but consider that. Other than that, I know very little about the P90 series. The other thing I'd considered is dropping a mini-humbucker in one of the slots. Maybe an Antiquity Mini-Hum in the neck and a Vintage P90 in the bridge? I don't really know. I just need some advice from people that have tooled around more with the P90s and Mini-Humbuckers.
Thanks!

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Can't help you out with the pup choice, but something to consider, the blueshawks use a dummy coil in there that is (in theory at least ) matched to those pups. Not sure what you intend to do wiring wise (the middle position is the two pups in series thru an RC HPF to knock do the low end some,in the middle position it drops out the dummy coil, which is activated when individual pups are seleted). It's food for though. BTW the Gibson schematic has an error on it concerning the VT circuit and push/pull control ... if that become disconnected or you change something and try to put it back as it was, the VT won't work. I have a corrected schematic, give me a shout if you need it. Also could you do me a favour, go in the back and measure the DC resistance of the Choke/Inductor, you'll have to disconnect the end to ground to get an accurate reading (it's in there somewhere) that goes to the VT circuit board, and get me any number off it that may be there (part numbers, manufacturer, etc.), If it's to much trouble though skip it ... Thanks. Gibby does say that those pups aren't supposed to be P-90's per se', that's why they call them Blues 90's, so how do you think they sound, how would you describe them? Thanks again.

[dd12939]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

I've looked at the wiring in there and it is a mess. I'm not sure I'd know where to start... (probably take one wire off, put the equivilent on, until all the wires were replaced) The VT circuit board... is that going to be the little blue thing that's stuck to the back of the 6-way, or is it the little metal box that's under the dummy coil?
The Blues-90's are many times better than the stockers that were in my SG, as far as general playability goes. The neck is thick, clean, and smooth, I would say, but still has a little bit (not too much though) of the single-coil sparkle. The bridge is a little thin, but has a reasonable amount of cutting power. Think vintage AC/DC kind of deal. The middle position is pretty bright... I might even go so far as to say 'jangly.' My favorite position for playing rock and harder blues styles is a 'secret' 4th position that's in between the middle and bridge positions. I don't know what it is, but it has the cut and aggression of the bridge pickup, with more thickness.
When you throw in the VT switch with all those combo's, I could go on all night about which ones are good, and which ones aren't, etc. Just offhand, the bridge pickup with the 6th position does a good job of getting Jimmy Page's tone at the beginning of "Since I've Been Loving You" - that kind of thin, crunchy tone. The neck pickup in the... 4th position does old clean, tone-rolled-off jazz nicely. The bridge pickup or the 'extra' position with the second VT position does more modern sounding rock pretty well.

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

I've looked at the wiring in there and it is a mess. I'm not sure I'd know where to start... (probably take one wire off, put the equivilent on, until all the wires were replaced) The VT circuit board... is that going to be the little blue thing that's stuck to the back of the 6-way, or is it the little metal box that's under the dummy coil?

That little metal box should be the choke/inductor ... that 's what I wanted you to measure the DCR on, also a picture of the actual size of it would be great, the blue board is the RC network that voices the mid notch of the VT circuit, it is the VT circuit board, it actually goes with the choke, but they can't stick the choke on the circuit board of course.

The Blues-90's are many times better than the stockers that were in my SG, as far as general playability goes. The neck is thick, clean, and smooth, I would say, but still has a little bit (not too much though) of the single-coil sparkle. The bridge is a little thin, but has a reasonable amount of cutting power. Think vintage AC/DC kind of deal. The middle position is pretty bright... I might even go so far as to say 'jangly.'

Cool, thanks, I was wondering how they were ....

My favorite position for playing rock and harder blues styles is a 'secret' 4th position that's in between the middle and bridge positions. I don't know what it is, but it has the cut and aggression of the bridge pickup, with more thickness.

Some of the switches do that, and some don't ... it's luck of the draw as to which ones they stuck in there ... what is does is it removes that RC HPF (bass cut) from the neck and bridge in series, although you may be describing the stock middle position, the secret position is between the neck and middle position as I remember (only had a chance to play one once, and of course study the scheamtics).

When you throw in the VT switch with all those combo's, I could go on all night about which ones are good, and which ones aren't, etc. Just offhand, the bridge pickup with the 6th position does a good job of getting Jimmy Page's tone at the beginning of "Since I've Been Loving You" - that kind of thin, crunchy tone. The neck pickup in the... 4th position does old clean, tone-rolled-off jazz nicely. The bridge pickup or the 'extra' position with the second VT position does more modern sounding rock pretty well.

Yeah there is a better way of doing the VT thing, but I don't expect you to go chopping up the PCB, but there are some other options. If you need the schematic gimme a shout, and if you get a chance try to get that Choke measured and whatever info you can off it. A hint on the dummy coil, if you hook up the SD 90 of choice and it hums when on by itself, reverse it's hot and ground that will put it in the correct phase with the dummy coil (so it hum-cancells). If you go with a minibucker in one position you need to not have the dummy engaged with that pup when it's one by itesl, but engaged with the 90 style pup when it is. Should be simple to do, if you run into problems let me know. Thanks again ... later.

[DanteG]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

You may also want to check the following site :

http://www.blueshawk.info/Default.htm

It's a user-driven site featuring variuos & sundry mods to the Blueshawk.

Please keep in mind that should you decide to use a humbucker in your 'hawk, you will want to bypass the dummy coil that's in play.

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

You may also want to check the following site :

http://www.blueshawk.info/Default.htm

It's a user-driven site featuring variuos & sundry mods to the Blueshawk.

Please keep in mind that should you decide to use a humbucker in your 'hawk, you will want to bypass the dummy coil that's in play.

I think that's the same site that I've seen before, good stuff ... There should ba a schematic on there as well;However I won't vouch for it's accuracy though. Yeah, I covered the dummy coil thing, but If he uses one P-90 style and one mini-hum he'll have to still uses the DC whenever the P-90 is active, but that's cross that bridge when ya come to it ...

[dd12939]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Any insight for pickups to go in my guitar?

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Any insight for pickups to go in my guitar?

Not really man, that's the thing to me a P-90 is a P-90, and I never really got on with minihums (ala ... Les Paul Deluxe). So someone else is going to have to help you out on that front though ... one thing to consider though ... any true soapbar is a big single coil (unless it's a P-90 style stack), so it needs the dummy coil to be hum cancelling ... yeah , I can hear you saying ..*well, I knew that already* ... true enough, but the inclusion of a dummy coil affects the tone of the pup it's hooked to. Fender got aroung this with their strat elite (good guitar, I doen't care what anyone says), in that it had an active preamp (mid boost also) that buffered the pups and dummy coil and mixed them together so as to not have their impedances affect each other ... cool thing this was. Bear in mind that the dummy coil is going to exert that same type of affect on a P-90 style replacement ... in all seriousness the SD custom shop might not be a bad idea in this case, and they are that much more, you could probably send them the DC and have them make a pup that would work *with it*.
Other than that, I would look into a pup that is going to be brighter and a bit more upper mids than what you might want, maybe a tad leaner on the bass as well, as that DC will pull some of that top/mids down a bit. You could find the DC's DC resistance and that work help a bit in determining what you might be looking for in the DCR of the replacement P-90.
Still that DC is worth having in there. Oh, I thought about something, if you get around to measuring the DCR of the inductor (the metal can like thing, green and black wire to it's outside and to ground) for me, if you pull the tone knob (VT bypass), and then put one probe to ground (black wire or metal body of the inductor), and the other probe to where the green wire hooks to the VT circuit board (the actual position of the rotary switch doesn't matter in this case) then you'll get an accurate resistance reading without any unsoldering of anything. Wish I could help you out on the pup thing a bit more though.I was kinda thinking a Seymourized bridge P-90 and a hot minimhum (hot minihums aren't that *hot*, so I thought that might balance well with the hotter but well balanced Seymourized P-90) .
Does SD make a stacked P-90? Off hand I don't know, I never looked ...If they do, and even better in a Seymourized version, that would probably be what you want, then you could just not use the DC. A minihum wouldn't be a bad choice for the neck though, they are there own things and I can't really describe them, they are thinner than a normal HB, they are thinner, but still warm sounding,and maybe a tad brighter ...really odd to me. They don't sound like a single coil, they don't sound like a soapbar, they don't sound like a humbucker ... I don't know, somebody else jump in here and describe it?
A minihum does work fairly well in the neck though, that's why I brought it up, of course another P-90 style would be good also.I hope somweher is this rambling that somethinh helps you out a bit more.

[Lightning]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Put an a5 in the neck and a ceramic in the bridge. Or move some coils from another pickup over to the slanted pickups base (ceramic might be to much)

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Put an a5 in the neck and a ceramic in the bridge. Or move some coils from another pickup over to the slanted pickups base (ceramic might be to much)

What the heck does a slanted pup have to do with a blueshawk? You must be talking about the nighthawks?

[dd12939]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

How does .752K ohms sound for the metal box?

[Lightning]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Damn loose cannon neuron sensor something I daw'no!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

How does .752K ohms sound for the metal box?

752 ohms correct, manual range that meter and check it one more time please, I just want to be sure, considering most chkes in the neighborhood of ~1.5H are around 160ohms and that thing is supposed to be 7.2H, then that might sound about right, please double check it for me when you get a chance though. Thanks!

[Kent S.]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

Damn loose cannon neuron sensor something I daw'no!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah ... I hate it when that happens ...

[dazombiewoof]

Re: Blueshawk Pickups

I love Blueshawks, even if they are a guitar and not a bass. PRS first time around on their basses did four single coils (one a dummy for hum cancelling) and a five position VT. I have always loved the tone of guitarists I've worked with who ran Duncan pickups. As the dummy is really a balanced coil with what is doing the string pickup, the suggestion of getting the custom shop to do something for you really appeals, albeit a potentially pricey approach. It may not be as pricey as thought though because they may have done this before once. If you are the first, just think how happy all the other Blueshawk players will be your wallet blazed the way for them!