Tell me about the pegasus.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

How does it differ from a Becker, which has similar specs? Also, I play what most of you would call dirty clean to low gain, so how it does for high gain or detuned metal isn't on my radar, though that's all I see in reviews and clips nowadays.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

On paper, that's what the PB is as well. Is the difference between then just a few turns of pe 43?

[Mincer]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

The Pegasus differs from the PB and Custom 5 in that it actually sounds good clean, and at all gain ranges. It remains tight, even with classic distortion sounds.

[orpheo]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

Someone recently posted that the Pegasus is an underwound Custom 5.

I don't know whom you are referring to, but I said something along the lines of 'a pegasus is LIKE an underwound custom 5'. Meaning: same magnetic structure, same wire gauge. but I have no idea about the wind pattern or wire insulation. If a Custom5 has 43 formvar and the pegasus has 43 plain enamel, even if they were to have the same amount of winds and DCR, the tone would be immensely different.

There are in my view, a few custom-series derivatives:

Pegasus - Alnico V - 12.5K
Nazgul - Ceramic - 13.6K
Screaming Demon - Alnico V - 10.1K
SH6N - Double thick ceramic - 13K
Perpetual Burn - Alnico V - 12.1K

they all have 43 awg wire, all the same baseplate (and with the exception of the SD) same polepieces. But the exact wire/wind specs, I do not know. All of these sound quite different from one another but I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, the Perpetual Burn is like the Pegasus, but has a totally different insulation (say, heavy formvar on the Perpetual Burn and Plain enamel on the Pegasus).

Tonally, I do hear similarities between both, even between the nazgul and Pegasus. I wouldn't be surprised if the Nazgul could be seen as an overwound Pegasus at this point, haha!

But other than that, tonally? there are plenty clips to choose from online : D

[RevDoom73]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I've never sat down and compared the PB to the Pegasus back to back, but from my basic general experience I think the Pegasus is a little bit warmer and cleans up really nicely. Was surprised how versatile it was and not just good for Metal.

[orpheo]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I've never sat down and compared the PB to the Pegasus back to back, but from my basic general experience I think the Pegasus is a little bit warmer and cleans up really nicely. Was surprised how versatile it was and not just good for Metal.

Same. Hence my idea about the insulation (plain enamel = warmer than formvar = warmer than heavy formvar; no idea about poly though).

[pskorz]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

It's interesting how the marketing works. The pegasus/sentient combo is definitely geared towards the modern music. A good friend of mine has an Ibanez with that combo, and it sounds good across many styles, even classic rock. I agree that it does sound good both clean and dirty.

[Mincer]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

It is similar to the Black Winter in the marketing- towards metal players. But both the Pegasus and Black Winter do a lot more than modern metal.

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I wish the seven string Pegasus was more like the six string. Lol it’s strange because the seven came out first. But yeah I find the Pegasus 7 to be kind of muted compared to the six. I’ve had to modify it to bring out more treble and power.

[Mincer]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I wish the seven string Pegasus was more like the six string. Lol it’s strange because the seven came out first. But yeah I find the Pegasus 7 to be kind of muted compared to the six. I’ve had to modify it to bring out more treble and power.

I didn't realize they were different. What did you have to do to it?

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

Can anyone confirm the wire types used in PB and Pegasus?

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I swapped out the screws for shorter hex screws. I added a ceramic flank magnet which was a pain in the ass but it’s more aggressive now. I still need to mess with the height after all this though. The peg7 has less treble than the peg6 to my ears and I wish it had a bit more snap to it.

[orpheo]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

Can anyone confirm the wire types used in PB and Pegasus?

43awg. that's an easy one. It's too much DCR for 42 and not nearly enough to warrant all the copper on the bobbins to be 44. Ergo, 43.

The insulation on each, that's much more interesting, but I already posted my hypotheses on that subject earlier in this topic

[orpheo]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

I swapped out the screws for shorter hex screws. I added a ceramic flank magnet which was a pain in the ass but it’s more aggressive now. I still need to mess with the height after all this though. The peg7 has less treble than the peg6 to my ears and I wish it had a bit more snap to it.

damn son... that's an intense rebuild. Why just 1 side magnet and not 2? (I'd almost say that this would be close to the magnetic structure of a BKP Juggernaut :P )

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Tell me about the pegasus.

damn son... that's an intense rebuild. Why just 1 side magnet and not 2? (I'd almost say that this would be close to the magnetic structure of a BKP Juggernaut :P )

Actually it was the juggernaut that first made me think of doing it. I didn’t want to go full ceramic and miss out on the a5 vibe too much. The juggernaut is a double thick A5 with two ceramic flanks I believe.

I got a ceramic magnet from mojotone that seemed to fit the width and height of a plastic spacer. I scored it to length, taped the end and snapped it at the line. But when I tried to install it, I found that it was a touch too wide. I had two of these magnets but I snapped one in half trying to wedge it in the first time. I had it on the slug side where the spacer was but realized that I could mess up the magnet if I tried to file or grind it down. So I had to unsolder the ground and move the conductor cable from the screw coil side to the slug coil side. This way I could grind down the metal screw keeper on its outer side to make space for the width of the flank magnet. It took forever to make it evenly flat. That’s why I couldn’t install two.

Mojotone makes the black magic humbucker which apparently has only one ceramic flank as far as I know. They mention:

The Mojotone "Black Magic" humbucker guitar pickup was designed to work well with drop tunings, single note solo playing, and articulate chord progressions with tone being most important. It retains unbelievable clarity and note separation with lots of harmonic overtones. The double black screw side and our special blend of magnets (ceramic and alnico 5) gives this Black Magic humbucker the beautiful tone of alnico without getting mushy on the lows and highs. The ceramic magnet tightens the lows and highs while increasing harmonics and overall clarity of the pickup.

Darth Phineas reviewed the neck and bridge black magic humbuckers and said:

It has an Alnico 5 magnet going down the middle, just like you’d expect. Then there is a ceramic magnet in place of the keeper bar.

The designers at Mojotone mate up an Alnico 5 magnet down the middle with a ceramic magnet on the outside with 43 AWG wire.

So I figured if they have a pickup like that, then this should work out. Kind of wish that mojotone sold the magnet that they use in the pickup so anybody could add one to their own. I guess then a $5 mod would just compete with their $100 humbucker. I’m pretty sure the 1/4 inch wide magnets they have are not the ones used in the black magic unless they have their own sized screw keepers or base plates to accommodate it.

I still have a lot of messing around to do with this pickup. The hex screws I have are between the A5 in the middle and the half sized ceramic and the other coil are the slugs on the other side of the A5. So Im trying to figure out how to balance this as the screw coil is stronger magnetically. The black magic and the juggernaut both have two rows of adjustable screws so I can see one adjusting black magic with the Alnico only screws higher and the Alnico/ceramic screws lower. The juggernaut is probably balanced just fine. But with this Pegasus, I might need to raise the pickup and lower the hex screws even more. Or go back to fillister screws that were an 1/8 inch longer (that 1/8 inch less on the hexes made a big difference in tightening up the low end. They are 5/8ths long and still stick out an 1/8 past the baseplate when fully screwed down.) to bring back a bit of the body the ceramic seems to take out. I just want more treble and output while retaining the clarity and decent clean tone. It’s such a balancing act though and I don’t see anybody doing this particular single flank single screw coil thing to get tips from. So it’s a bit off putting to mess with currently.