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So I recently purchased a set of the SD SSL-1's for a Strat of mine and one thing stood out for me; the bridge position was pretty thin and brash. The Neck and middle sounded great, but the bridge position was definitely quieter, brighter, and very thin sounding. This is as expected in most vintage wound pickup sets. I, of course, didn't like it, so a solution had to be created. I didn't want to buy an overwound set and I didn't want to buy a more expensive model that could perhaps give me a similar result. I knew this pickup could be made to sound right because when I rolled the volume back an ever so slight amount it took the edge off and rounded out the pickups sound. So I just needed to take a little edge off, so the easy answer was to wire the bridge to one of the tone pots; something I will also do, but I opted to get a cheap alternative that also was supposed to beef the pickup up a little bit and increase its output a little.
In my search to see what you can do to a pickup to do this, I came across backing plates as one such alternative. I had heard of them before and never really thought much of them. I opted to buy a version off of eBay made by Callaham and I was a little skeptical from the pictures and having read other reviews going both ways about backing plates in general. For around $15 shipped, there wasn't much to lose. When it arrived I had the initial feeling that there was no way the thing would work. It is a plate that is sized perfectly to fit on the bottom of the pickup and was only about 1/16th of an inch thick. In other words, it is not a very substantial piece and I felt it wouldn't make much of a difference.
I installed it this afternoon and much to my surprise, it does exactly what it says it will do. It fit perfectly on my pickup and installation is about as easy as it can be. Place it on the bottom of the pickup and connect the ground wire to the ground lug of the pickup. I opted not to glue the thing on just in case it didn't work. I melted the wax a little as a way to affix it to the pickup. I played the guitar briefly before installation to get an idea of a before and after. Well, I must say I was immediately happy with the results! It does exactly what I wanted it to do. It took just a slight amount of the highs off and added a little bit of girth, bottom and low mids to the sound. Almost too much if you ask me. The pickup went from starkly different from the other two positions to matching very well in terms of sound and output. I am still going to try wiring it to a tone pot as rolling the volume back a little bit still helps improve the sound and further rounds out the sound of the bridge pickup.
If you are not happy with your bridge pickups sound and you feel a slight reduction in the highs and a little bit more snap, low mids, girth, and bottom is what you need, you should definitely consider trying a backing plate before spending money on another pickup. This very simple modification is reversible, cheap, and effective. It will not transform your pickup into a whole new one, but it will take you from too bright and thin to just about right. I am happy with the outcome and it I am glad I was able to keep a matching set of pickups in the guitar. Sorry, I don't have any audio clips, but I honestly didn't want to spend the time to document it as I truly felt it would be useless. I don't feel audio clips will really get the point across though, I can say with certainty that the outcome is real, subtle and worth the investment.
In my search to see what you can do to a pickup to do this, I came across backing plates as one such alternative. I had heard of them before and never really thought much of them. I opted to buy a version off of eBay made by Callaham and I was a little skeptical from the pictures and having read other reviews going both ways about backing plates in general. For around $15 shipped, there wasn't much to lose. When it arrived I had the initial feeling that there was no way the thing would work. It is a plate that is sized perfectly to fit on the bottom of the pickup and was only about 1/16th of an inch thick. In other words, it is not a very substantial piece and I felt it wouldn't make much of a difference.
I installed it this afternoon and much to my surprise, it does exactly what it says it will do. It fit perfectly on my pickup and installation is about as easy as it can be. Place it on the bottom of the pickup and connect the ground wire to the ground lug of the pickup. I opted not to glue the thing on just in case it didn't work. I melted the wax a little as a way to affix it to the pickup. I played the guitar briefly before installation to get an idea of a before and after. Well, I must say I was immediately happy with the results! It does exactly what I wanted it to do. It took just a slight amount of the highs off and added a little bit of girth, bottom and low mids to the sound. Almost too much if you ask me. The pickup went from starkly different from the other two positions to matching very well in terms of sound and output. I am still going to try wiring it to a tone pot as rolling the volume back a little bit still helps improve the sound and further rounds out the sound of the bridge pickup.
If you are not happy with your bridge pickups sound and you feel a slight reduction in the highs and a little bit more snap, low mids, girth, and bottom is what you need, you should definitely consider trying a backing plate before spending money on another pickup. This very simple modification is reversible, cheap, and effective. It will not transform your pickup into a whole new one, but it will take you from too bright and thin to just about right. I am happy with the outcome and it I am glad I was able to keep a matching set of pickups in the guitar. Sorry, I don't have any audio clips, but I honestly didn't want to spend the time to document it as I truly felt it would be useless. I don't feel audio clips will really get the point across though, I can say with certainty that the outcome is real, subtle and worth the investment.
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