the Hy-Bro neck is in!

[Fusion1]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Let's hope next year's forum pickup will be much less complicated during the entire process and hopefully the person dersignated as "the one" to start the process does it methodical and smooth. No picking pole piece color / type before voicing being discussed like this time. That was slightly retarded, sorry.

[GilmourD]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Let's hope next year's forum pickup will be much less complicated during the entire process and hopefully the person dersignated as "the one" to start the process does it methodical and smooth. No picking pole piece color / type before voicing being discussed like this time. That was slightly retarded, sorry.

Well, once Pepe got involved it moved pretty quickly towards the prototyping phase.

Let's not be too hard on Pepe, guys. He's one person doing his best with what he has to work with. Give him time.

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Well, once Pepe got involved it moved pretty quickly towards the prototyping phase.

Let's not be too hard on Pepe, guys. He's one person doing his best with what he has to work with. Give him time.

That's very true.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Well, once Pepe got involved it moved pretty quickly towards the prototyping phase.

Wait I must have a very different memory the event. It was all but done when pepe got involved and pepe wanted to re-vote things that were already settled but when it kicked up a furor he didnt even let his own poll finish and a decision was made. It was pretty much demanded by others to stop voting and just go with the description we had.

But all that is water under the bridge. But it seems that again we are in a holding pattern.

[ItsaBass]

the Hy-Bro neck is in!

^ exactly. It was done, as in voted on, discussed to death, and ready to be ordered. All he had to do was take the results and continue the process to finalize the Custom Shop order. Instead, he made an executive decision to scrap almost everything, and start doing votes over.

It is what it is...but please call it what is: a mess caused by awful management, plain and simple. Don't insult our intelligence by attempting to rewrite recent history, stating that any stage of this process has gone "quickly" due to the work of either of the ringleaders.

Duncan should have stepped in half a year ago, or at any number of points since, to get this thing handled. I wish they would just do it now by immediately pulling all authority from any forum member, and taking orders.

[KeeperOS]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

While keeping my opinion on the process to myself, Duncan lets us run the show 'cause it's supposed to be us designing it and do so however we see fit. No two processes were the same and in each instance, the result was a kick@ss pickup that even helped Duncan with a new model (CS or shop floor).

I can understand being frustrated with a process gone wrong but one should never complain for having too much freedom.

[Fusion1]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Pepe, any updates? Not for nothing I was sort of expecting a review even a verbal one the same day you received the pickup. Like someone else said it doesn't have to be perfect and you don't need to do a crash course learning how to operate a DAW to review this pickup. At this point I'd be OK with a cell phone video uploaded on YouTube.

For the next forum pickup in 2016, can we make it a rule that whoever volunteers to be the go to guy to review the pickup that they have everything they need to do this at least within a certain amount of time like say 3 days of receiving the pickup? I'm sure there are plenty of people on this forum that could have produced a review or audio or video (or all 3 by now) that may have stepped up to volunteer to do this if they had known it would take weeks after the pickup was in someone's hands.

[jtougas]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

I think 3 days is a bit tight. Life happens, sometimes...

[LtKojak]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Life happens, sometimes...

Yeah, tell me about it...

[Fusion1]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Then maybe someone that doesn't have a life can do it lol. I know I always have 10 minutes to spare for something like this.

[GilmourD]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

I think 3 days is a bit tight. Life happens, sometimes...

Yeah, tell me about it...

Seriously... I got my B&W Franky body back in June and I still haven't painted it.

[TRex]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Well, finally I could get some studio time... on the 1st of October!

Man, it feels like this p'up it's been cursed from the get go. Everything that involved it got wrong, delayed, dismissed, backfired, etc. at one point or another.

I'm a man that's got nothing but his word. So I'm going to keep it! Darn it!!!

So, how did it go if I may ask? Or did it?

I'm not rushing you at all, just anxious to decide weather I should get this or a normal SD neck pup.

I'm so pumped I have read this thread like three times through.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[LtKojak]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

It's 7:30, I'm preparing for the next studio session.

If life doesn't get in the way AGAIN, I'll get everything finished by Sunday evening.

Stay tuned, we're very close to the finish line!

[LtKojak]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!



That's where I did the deed.

[LtKojak]

Re: the Hy-Bro neck is in!

Ok, people; it's been an extremely unlucky, complicated, contorted and bumpy ride for me since I got the Hy-Bro prototype. But as even bad times pass, seems that's been the end of the "Hy-Bro" curse, so I finally have a whole weekend of peace and quiet to put together my thoughts and talk about my experience with the prototype.

At the beginning I didn't bond with the p'up at all. It felt as an even fatter version of a '59n with none of its virtues. I thought it was dull and uninspiring. But at the time I was using a software modeler listening to bedroom levels with a not-so-well functioning computer. It took me some time to find the "sweet spot", and it was not until I went to the studio and could play it with a certain level of volume with a "real" amp that it suddenly came to life.

At that moment I was able to match the output with the '59/Custom Hybrid on the bridge, and from that moment on, I felt I was getting somewhere.

This p'up is a MJ creation, and her "touch" was shining thoughout the whole process, kind of a "deja-vu" experience that I had with my '59n J in 2007. Once I set the polepieces to the right stagger, I was able to hear all six strings in perfect balance, with beautiful note separation, making chordwork a pleasure to work with.

Having said that, although the chords sound excellent, the area where this p'up REALLY shines is in the single-note department. As you'll hear later on, soloing with this is an experience you'll need to have for yourself. All notes cleanly jump with an unusual commanding assertivity, and it tracks to death every nuance of your playing, all the good and the bad, providing sustain for days, and the "right" articulation at every note, making expression à la Larry Carlton an easy task.

The guitar used for this project is a 1986 Vantage DL-405, a LP Custom copy made with a mahogany neck and a body with an inch-thick maple cap. Classic Gibson specs, 24,75" scale, with the particularity that the p'ups are placed in the spots corresponding with late '50s specs, just like in the Historic series. The neck shape is a thick '59 profile, being the construction top-notch with pretty good tone-wood put to good use.

I've played several styles of music, although as I suck hard at the heavier styles, you'll be hearing what I thought it was the best played and tone-wise the most representative of the product shown: a funky backing track made by a Swedish player called Mats Nermark, who generously granted me the permission of use it for this project, a slow blues backing track and an excerpt of a Larry Carlton song. I've tried to play in a concise way and to the point, musically speaking, so I kept everything under a minute and a half, which is plenty to realize the footprint tone of the prototype.

Together with the final mix, I thought of putting at the disposal of the Forum the isolated tracks of the guitars present on every song. The "Rhythm" files were recorded in the "middle" position, meaning both the neck and the bridge together in parallel. This way you can better hear it and decide if it's something for you or not. And the opportunity to mock me to death about how bad I suck at playing!

If some of you would like to hear something specific about the p'up, and don't mind to hear a track made with a software modeler, time permetting, I might be able to fix something up for the occasion, now that Studio One is finally running smoothly as it should in that computer.

I'm open to hear from you with any questions you may have about the p'up, so just say the word and I'll try to comply to the best of my abilities.

Have fun!

HERE ARE THE AUDIO FILES

https://soundcloud.com/theodore-kojak/tracks

Yours very truly,