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Pickup configuration you never see.

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  • Pickup configuration you never see.

    Came across a dude using an invader neck solo without the invader bridge. I don't think I've ever seen someone do that before. It doesn't sound bad, but it's hard to know what he's plugging his guitar through. He's using an LTD Eclipse but Im not sure what wood the guitar is made from. And I'm not sure what is in the bridge position, but I've only ever seen invaders with invaders. Or an invader bridge with another neck. Not the other way around.

    But since he doesn't say in the video, what bridge pickup would work with the invader neck (besides bridge invader)?


  • #2
    Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

    The Invader neck is really really really different from the bridge version. Scooped and bassy and clear, very high output but very uncompressed in my experience.

    I didn't even think it was a good match for the Invader bridge, to be honest.
    I can see that Invader neck working with a lot of high output bridge humbuckers easily.
    Epiphone LP Standard PlusTop Pro
    Ibanez SZ320 / A8 DD103 bridge.
    Ibanez RG270 / Screamin' Demon bridge.

    Egnater Tweaker 15 Head / Laney Cub 8 / 2x12 - Celestion V30+K100
    Line 6 M13 and plenty of stompboxes I rarely use!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

      Originally posted by Seezer View Post
      He's using an LTD Eclipse but Im not sure what wood the guitar is made from
      It's an EC-1000. Mahogany body and neck and ebony board.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

        Originally posted by Rex_Rocker View Post
        It's an EC-1000. Mahogany body and neck and ebony board.
        As far as I know invaders are supposed to be the worst in mahogany. I don't like the clean sound in that vid, but I love the lead sound hes got

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

          Originally posted by Seezer View Post
          As far as I know invaders are supposed to be the worst in mahogany. I don't like the clean sound in that vid, but I love the lead sound hes got
          What kind of mahogany? Swietenia? Kaya? Sapele? Sipo?

          I mean, man, there are so many variables in just that term 'mahogany'. You can sell a guitar listed as such because the industry accepts all four species as mahogany but I swear to the guitar overlords: Swietenia is by far the best and everything you stick in it, sounds like heaven and hell (in the good sense of hell). Sipo is what most 'cheap' guitars use as mahogany and that, yeah, that material gives mahogany its bad rep of the last 20 years: heavy, mushy tone, lots of emphasis on the lower mids and lows... yuck. Swietenia on the other hand, not so much.

          I found a few blocks of kaya and sapele a few years back and AB'd that to swietenia and the differences are stark. Swietenia is a lot lighter, brighter and more open in tone. Kaya is like a fatter brother of ash, tonally, and sapele is like a swietenia back plus maple top, all in one.


          Just to dispel the idea that mahogany is just one term: it's a blanket term.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

            He has a JB in the bridge. Clearly says so in the video.
            Guitars:Gibson LP Trad ('57 Classics); Ibanez SEW761FM (TB-16/STK-S7 m&n); Charvel DK24 (TB10/SSL-6/A2Pn), DK22 (HRb/SSL-6 m&n), SoCal Style1 (Distortion set) & SoCal Style2 24 2PT (Fluence OCC); ESP LTD MH-1000HS (TB-14/Lil59n); Effects: Line 6 Helix Floor, Digitech Drop & FreqOut, ME EP-1L6,Shure GLXD16, Headrush MX5;

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            • #7
              Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

              Originally posted by Seezer View Post
              As far as I know invaders are supposed to be the worst in mahogany.


              #tonewooddebate

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                I think ALL of his tones sound like crap. Clean tone sound like wet blanket, distortion sounds like, well, crap in a concrete tunnel. Just my opinion.
                Originally Posted by IanBallard
                Rule of thumb... the more pot you have, the better your tone.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                  Originally posted by orpheo View Post
                  What kind of mahogany? Swietenia? Kaya? Sapele? Sipo?

                  I mean, man, there are so many variables in just that term 'mahogany'. You can sell a guitar listed as such because the industry accepts all four species as mahogany but I swear to the guitar overlords: Swietenia is by far the best and everything you stick in it, sounds like heaven and hell (in the good sense of hell). Sipo is what most 'cheap' guitars use as mahogany and that, yeah, that material gives mahogany its bad rep of the last 20 years: heavy, mushy tone, lots of emphasis on the lower mids and lows... yuck. Swietenia on the other hand, not so much.

                  I found a few blocks of kaya and sapele a few years back and AB'd that to swietenia and the differences are stark. Swietenia is a lot lighter, brighter and more open in tone. Kaya is like a fatter brother of ash, tonally, and sapele is like a swietenia back plus maple top, all in one.


                  Just to dispel the idea that mahogany is just one term: it's a blanket term.
                  Really makes you wonder about this whole tonewood debate, most people don't even know what wood they're arguing about.
                  You will never understand How it feels to live your life With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist And they burn so bright
                  Whilst you can only wonder why

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                    Originally posted by Chistopher View Post
                    Really makes you wonder about this whole tonewood debate, most people don't even know what wood they're arguing about.
                    good question. density (average dried weight), janka hardness, modulus of rupture and elastic modulus are very important measurements to determine how a wood will behave sonically. For example, swamp ash and alder are in the same corner, but are fairly different from for example swietenia mahogany. For some woods there is just one variety (or the varieties are very close to one another, like USA ash vs EU ash vs Olive ash which isn't technically an ash species but a denomination for figured/colored ash). Mahogany has just become a blanket term because the original mahogany, what is now called Cuban mahogany, is gone and woods in the same family (swietenia/honduras mahogany) has usurped that material, or woods that LOOK like it, got the name.

                    But you cannot say that wood does not matter. I have done too much testing with it, within the same species and cross-species, to say it doesn't matter. Yes, Kaya, swietenia, sipo and sapele are mahoganies but they really do different things in your tone, if you keep all the other variables the same. I won't go into what the sonic differences are, but a luthier should know the differences and should know how to work with them. For example, I am a huge fan of swietenia and sapele: kaya and sipo less, because of how the other two are workable and sound like. But if you want consistency, ash and maple are your best friends, by far. Hard ash and soft ash (swamp ash) are extremely consistent because there is only ONE ash species that we call ASH. Black korina, same thing. Very consistent. That way, as a luthier/builder, you can fairly accurately predict what the tone will be like for a given project.

                    Also, what's highly underestimated is the thickness of a blank. An SG of 38mm thick mahogany will sound completely different than an SG of 45mm. The thicker the body, the fatter the tone. It's that simple.

                    Personally, I try to veer away from mahoganies as much as possible because of the immense impact their harvest has on the environment. Black korina is much more affordable, for the same weight. And with a red dye, when making for example a '59 style burst LP, the color will match anyway. Maple is always a safe bet (regardless if it's soft sugar maple or hard maple: you just have to know what you're using but you can smell it as soon as you sand or plane it) as well as ash (same deal as with maple: the smell will tell you INSTANTLY what it is).

                    The largest problem with the tonewood debate is mahogany because everybody has an idea of mahogany, manufacturers use mahogany on so, so many guitars but because it is a blanket term, it's not clear what it truly, truly is so people are confused to the actual 'tone' it yields (without knowing they are confused, might I add) so a lot of people tend to dismiss tonewoods as a 'thing', but that's imho unwarrented. Heck, I have build over 250 guitars now and build approximately 50 test guitars where I can swap out necks and bodies just to test wood-to-wood ratios and the effect of thickness of blanks. How many can say that? Not so many, I'd say.

                    For example. If you want to have a fairly modern LP but with a medium weight, I'd say, pick a neck with a color and feel you like, because frankly, necks matter but not THAT much (yeah I know, I go against the grain in this respect but see my statement above: I've built way too many to not have even a decent grasp of what woods do; thickness of the neck blank matters MORE than the materials!) and get a swamp ash body back with a maple top. I'll finish it in a look that suits your wishes. Heck, I can make it look like a '59 sunburst with the classic red dye back if you want.

                    Wood species matter but only because they have a certain strength and moduli and if you can find a wood that has similar specs, yup, you can swap it out. Thickness matters more in that respect than species. That's why brazilian rosewood can easily be substituted for katalox or wenge, gaboon ebony for ceylon ebony, swamp ash for alder or swietenia, etc etc.


                    But then again... this is just my opinion

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                    • #11
                      Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                      Everything matters. The question is to what degree it matters.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                        Originally posted by orpheo View Post
                        What kind of mahogany? Swietenia? Kaya? Sapele? Sipo?

                        I mean, man, there are so many variables in just that term 'mahogany'. You can sell a guitar listed as such because the industry accepts all four species as mahogany but I swear to the guitar overlords: Swietenia is by far the best and everything you stick in it, sounds like heaven and hell (in the good sense of hell). Sipo is what most 'cheap' guitars use as mahogany and that, yeah, that material gives mahogany its bad rep of the last 20 years: heavy, mushy tone, lots of emphasis on the lower mids and lows... yuck. Swietenia on the other hand, not so much.

                        I found a few blocks of kaya and sapele a few years back and AB'd that to swietenia and the differences are stark. Swietenia is a lot lighter, brighter and more open in tone. Kaya is like a fatter brother of ash, tonally, and sapele is like a swietenia back plus maple top, all in one.


                        Just to dispel the idea that mahogany is just one term: it's a blanket term.
                        And right there is your explanation for the brightest and darkest Les Pauls...

                        Keep in mind even two pieces of the same flavor of Mahogany can vary quite a bit.
                        Originally posted by Bad City
                        He's got the crowd on his side and the blue jean lights in his eyes...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                          Originally posted by orpheo View Post
                          What kind of mahogany? Swietenia? Kaya? Sapele? Sipo?
                          That's actually an interesting point. I don't know if they use the same kind of mahogany on everything coming out of that factory, but I do know Chapmans use Sapele. I have a PRS SE which is not very heavy considering it's a full-thickness body, but I've also got an EC-401 which is abnormally light, even for being a thin body, but it somehow sounds chunkier and fuller than the PRS SE. I wonder what kind of mahogany they use in either.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                            Originally posted by Rex_Rocker View Post
                            That's actually an interesting point. I don't know if they use the same kind of mahogany on everything coming out of that factory, but I do know Chapmans use Sapele. I have a PRS SE which is not very heavy considering it's a full-thickness body, but I've also got an EC-401 which is abnormally light, even for being a thin body, but it somehow sounds chunkier and fuller than the PRS SE. I wonder what kind of mahogany they use in either.
                            Let's not forget wood isn't the only part of the equation.
                            You will never understand How it feels to live your life With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist And they burn so bright
                            Whilst you can only wonder why

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Pickup configuration you never see.

                              Originally posted by GuitarDoc View Post
                              I think ALL of his tones sound like crap. Clean tone sound like wet blanket, distortion sounds like, well, crap in a concrete tunnel. Just my opinion.
                              The cringe is strong.

                              Comment

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