I'm getting desperate ... A5 in a Distortion?

[gnugear]

Okay, here's my situation.

I'm doing a video for my work and it calls for some surf music. I've got all bridge humbuckers in my guitars so I need a single coil sound.

Well, I got a JB from the 80s and I thought it would be perfect for splitting. That and I've been wanting to get another JB for some time.

Well, the JB aint working. I can only get a reading of 8.0k which leads me to believe one of the coils aint working.

Sooooo ... I've got a Distortion and an A5 magnet!

First off, how does the Distortion sound when split? Is the ceramic magnet going to be too harsh?

Secondly, how does the Distortion sound with a A5 ... is it essentially a JB?

 

[HolyDirt]

Re: I'm getting desperate ... A5 in a Distortion?

Okay, here's my situation.

I'm doing a video for my work and it calls for some surf music. I've got all bridge humbuckers in my guitars so I need a single coil sound.

Well, I got a JB from the 80s and I thought it would be perfect for splitting. That and I've been wanting to get another JB for some time.

Well, the JB aint working. I can only get a reading of 8.0k which leads me to believe one of the coils aint working.

Sooooo ... I've got a Distortion and an A5 magnet!

First off, how does the Distortion sound when split? Is the ceramic magnet going to be too harsh?

Secondly, how does the Distortion sound with a A5 ... is it essentially a JB?

if you need a single coil tone and the JB has one dead coil, wouldnt that work perfectly?

 

[gnugear]

Re: I'm getting desperate ... A5 in a Distortion?

I've been trying all day to wire the thing and it produces an out of phase sound rather than a single coil sound. I'm not sure what's going on but after tearing my hair out for a couple of hours I finally yanked my 4 conductor Screamin Demon to test along side the JB. The Deamon reads just fine, but the JB is producing some really strange numbers.

I wish it was that easy!

 

[mrid]

Re: I'm getting desperate ... A5 in a Distortion?

Wire the Distortion as a single coil. No need to swap the mag, it sounds fine split.

 

[gnugear]

Re: I'm getting desperate ... A5 in a Distortion?

Doh!

I just swapped the magnet

Sounds pretty good and it reminds me of a JB ... although I wish I had a real JB to compare it too. The Distortion seemed a lot ballsier with the ceramic magnet. The output was right at 16k, but when I put the A5 in it and installed the 250k pot, my reading dropped to 15.4k (7.4k split). It definitely sounds like I've got a single coil in there now.

While I was at it I also put a A2 back into my EVH. I used to have an A5 in there and I think it was a little beefier but not as sweet. It was also darker sounding.