STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

[Hank-]

Hi folks,

I have a Godin Session that I want to change the single coils to something different. It's a HSS strat copy, Canadian basswood body & maple neck&board. The bucker has a coil split/tap feature. Right now it sounds blah or flat, really hard for me to describe the sound correctly.

I have ordered one Area 67 that I'll be getting by next Friday, but haven't decided which position to place it in. The local store around here has a STK-S4 neck model in stock & at a good price. I was thinking of maybe putting the area in the middle & the STK in the neck. The humbucker is stock godin GHB1, dont have the cash at the moment to change it out. I was thinking of putting a AT1 or JB in there, but not sure how either of those would sound since they each seem to have a mid boost in lower & upper registers respectively. That's the impression I've got of those two after reading a ton of threads online. The bucker isn't the priority at the moment but the SCs are, so I'm looking for more opinions on those.

Where i live there is no return/trial policy & no used market either so it kinda stinks to get stuff.

If that STK isn't gonna work then I was thinking of maybe the Area 61 to put in the neck. Will have to order that one since it isn't available locally. I can order stuff from US & I live in India but int'l shipping is a pain to deal with.

Any other suggestions would be helpful too, but try to keep it at about $65 max.

[darthphineas]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

I have a few STK-S4 necks. if you are looking for a classic single coil sound out of a noiseless pickup, this would be a good one. similar tone to the SSL-1 and the SSL-2. it has a little more output, so it can stand up well to the type of bridge pups you are talking about.

[Hank-]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

Yeah I want to go noiseless with the singles, the power isn't really clean in most places I play. I checked the pot values earlier & they are both 500k pots.

There doesn't seem to be many audio clips available for STK-S4 online or any in the audio samples on the main duncan website. I wonder why it isn't added yet.

I'll try putting the area '67 in the neck first when it arrives at my place since I don't really use the middle much. Another thing is that the stock Godin in that spot is kinda lacking in highs. It sounds alot like the Sh-1 '59 neck pickup in my PRS except for the added hum. It's kinda strange since I was expecting the maple neck&board would brighten things up but the middle pickup sounds alot brighter to me.

I was wondering if putting a low output pickup there would cause any drastic volume drops with the bridge bucker. I can raise the '67 higher to get more output from it since these use A2 magnets. I'm really excited to trying it out in this guitar.

A question about choosing the bridge bucker. My amp is laney LC50, it's kinda modern sounding but not quite in the modern metal way, though it has enough gain for my tastes.
Would going with a low-medium output humbucker be a better choice since I am not really looking to push the amp with a high output bucker like a SuperD that's in my PRS SE 24 at the moment.

[darthphineas]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

The output of the pickup will depend on what you have in mind for it. For example, if I was going to use it for clean tones only, I could work the output of the amps clean channel. If I only wanted to work both pickups on the same amp channel/setting, it would depend on if I wanted a smooth transition between the pickups. If so, I'd want something with at least a moderate output. If not, then it wouldn't be an issue. So it really all depends on what you want to accomplish and what tools you are using to get there.

[Hank-]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

Thanks man.

I recently got the area '67 delivered & finished installing it in the neck & everything. Here's my impression of it:

I have the '67 in the neck position along with the Godin GS1 middle & GBH1 bridge bucker. It's very open & clear/glassy sounding. I have it at about 3mm away from the strings. Bringing it closer to the strings than that didn't affect the sustain, but I like it away from the strings. That way it sounds right to me. The EQ is also shaped as described on the DM site. Bright sounding, but the high end isn't piercing to the ears. The stock pup in the neck was too bassy & not clear sounding, also lacking highs compared to the middle & bridge. So this fixed that problem. The neck+middle position sounds really good now. I guess the basswood body is helping things from being piercing. I also have 500k pots in there, so I can get more highs out of the middle & neck p'ups that a normal 250k pot would.

At moderate gain levels, like a crunch sound with the bridge humbucker, when I go over to the neck I get a really good clean sound. The output is very low on the '67 so it doesn't quite push the input of the amp much, so I'm getting this really nice clean sounds from it that aren't drastically varying in volume when compared to the bridge bucker. There is some volume difference that I'm perceiving, maybe it's due to the lack of mids as well but nothing I'm too worried about at the moment.

The middle stock single coil doesn't sound lacking to me anymore since it's pairing really well with the neck but does contains the hum. The 2 & 4 positions sound really good, since I still have a real single coil RW/RP in the middle position. I sat around today adjusting the heights of the middle & bridge bucker to get all 5 positions to sound & work for me without major output or volume drops, I've been quite successful so far.

I'm kinda satisfied at the moment but I've not tried putting the '67 in the middle. I don't think I would want it there anymore though, it might be a bit too bright sounding for my tastes in that spot, but it wouldn't hurt to try. I'll eventually try it out there as well, but for now its working fine in the neck.

Still need to get one for the middle position. I've pretty much settled on getting a STK-S4m for that position. I can get it for cheaper locally than Dimarzio offerings. So next change happening in this guitar would be that one

[TheLivingDead]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

Right on. I've got a '67 in the middle a basswood maple/maple guitar as well. I love love LOVE it.

[Hank-]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

So I decided to give a SH-14 a try in the bridge earlier this week. A friend of mine had one sitting in his drawer unused since he moved on to using an Invader p'up.
I also moved the Area 67 from the neck position to the middle position and put the old stock Godin GS1 neck back in. The polepieces of a A'67 line up better with the outer E/e strings now. The stock humbucker in there had this very honky sound with medium to high output, also bright sounding unless I rolled the tone knob back. It mixes sonically fine along with the stock singles but with the area 67 it just has too much midrange.

So how is the C5 doing in there?
It's complimenting the A'67 in the middle position really well. I raised the A'67 at about B-2.4mm/T-2mm this time from the strings & the C5 is farther away from the strings at about 4mm or 3.5mm. I lowered the polepieces of the C5 slightly, which helped to get the highs more rounded. The coil split sound is also good, smooth sounding. Since the C5 doesn't have a mid spike the bridge position is now alot more pleasing to switch to from the neck & middle, no more excessive honk in the bridge spot.

I'm keeping this one. Now only the neck needs to go, after that goodbye hum completely. Sadly the STK-S4n that I could have had for cheap is only available in black, so I'll have to wait around on that one. I know what to expect now tone wise in this guitar though, so that's good to be aware of, now I can choose the neck pickup carefully.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: STK-S4 neck pickup & Area 67 middle, what to expect?

'67s are **** if you want classic, glassy strat tone with a little more output and the ability to work well under gain.