hammer jammer
New member
Hey guys just wanted to drop in and share my new found glory, I got a little antsy the last 2 weeks when my power tubes started farting out after a long year of heavy use so between scraping up the cash for a Quad of Tung Sol KT66's and 6 Tung Sol 12AX7's and waiting for the tubes to arrive I went a little crazy and did a complete overhaul on my guitar, cut a new bone nut did a premium fret level and crown job and rewired everything old school 50's style.
My Antiquity humbuckers sounded pretty good but my neck always had a little to be desired especially on the bass strings and the bridge always seemed a little thin and a tad shy of what I really really wanted, which was that piercing haunting blues tone that you get when you push a quad of KT66's to the edge of break up, so after tearing my guitar apart for the umpteenth time hoping to put some icing on the cake, (we all know what thats about) I feel like I finally hit pay dirt.
First thing I found was the whole volume kit thing I had going was sucking tone on both my pickups, I know a whole bunch of guys will chime in and say that the volume kit does not affetc the tone when the pickups are wide open and I will say to you...(Cough, BullSh*t) my ears could clearly hear the difference once I clipped those suckers off even wide open, it was so obvious Im pretty certain even someone who dosnt play could note the difference in sound, so for me that whole volume kit thing will not be revisited on my guitars.
Second, I was reading about the whole 60's and 70's bit where guys were removing the covers from their humbuckers claiming it sounded better and that the covers squashed the tone a bit, well once again I know alot of guys will claim that it makes little difference, but once again I say not to me, once I removed the covers these humbuckers seemed to open up and become more airy sounding (no pun intended) they seemed to breath a little almost like they were being held back with the covers installed, and again I say it was an obvious difference to my ears, more so than the sound clips of such comparisons I have heard online, so I may find it hard to go back to covered humbuckers after this experience, however I will say unless you have a nice blonde LP the cream humbuckers dont look as nice as the covered in my opinion, but for me this was a tone quest and aesthetics aside I definantly prefer my set without.
Third, I did something I havnt done in the past, I used a .015uf Orange drop cap on the bridge humbucker, something I have only previously done with the neck humbucker, I started thinking you know it dosnt make any sense to have a tone control that only has a small window of use especially when I havn't been completly satisfied with my bridge pickups performance anyway, so why not try it out, and sure as sh*t the .015uf Orange drop on both my neck and bridge was the ticket to that sweet, sweet woman tone I was longing for.
I have used the whole oil in paper cap thing for a long time mainly because it was all the rage and its considered en vogue and almost blasphemy if they arn't part of your setup, but something told me I should go with the Orange drops, they are raved about in strats and I love the piercing tone of strat pickups when I hear those good ole Texas blues jams, so I went Orange drop .015uf on both and wham! its all there, that woman tone I was wanting but couldnt quite reach and for a heck of alot less money than a new set of premium humbuckers.
So for me Im sticking to good ole fashioned 50's wiring, .015uf Orange drop caps on both humbuckers with (NO! absolutely positively volume kit crap) and cover less humbuckers from this point forward.
The tone and sound of my bridge Antiquity is finally all I had ever hoped it to be and at half the cost of a Boutique brand and my neck humbucker is ringing nice and clear and defined across the bass strings and most importantly my humbuckers are bright and piercing when I need them to be, no more mud and a very useful set of tone controls. ahhh...for now I feel content. :1:
My Antiquity humbuckers sounded pretty good but my neck always had a little to be desired especially on the bass strings and the bridge always seemed a little thin and a tad shy of what I really really wanted, which was that piercing haunting blues tone that you get when you push a quad of KT66's to the edge of break up, so after tearing my guitar apart for the umpteenth time hoping to put some icing on the cake, (we all know what thats about) I feel like I finally hit pay dirt.
First thing I found was the whole volume kit thing I had going was sucking tone on both my pickups, I know a whole bunch of guys will chime in and say that the volume kit does not affetc the tone when the pickups are wide open and I will say to you...(Cough, BullSh*t) my ears could clearly hear the difference once I clipped those suckers off even wide open, it was so obvious Im pretty certain even someone who dosnt play could note the difference in sound, so for me that whole volume kit thing will not be revisited on my guitars.
Second, I was reading about the whole 60's and 70's bit where guys were removing the covers from their humbuckers claiming it sounded better and that the covers squashed the tone a bit, well once again I know alot of guys will claim that it makes little difference, but once again I say not to me, once I removed the covers these humbuckers seemed to open up and become more airy sounding (no pun intended) they seemed to breath a little almost like they were being held back with the covers installed, and again I say it was an obvious difference to my ears, more so than the sound clips of such comparisons I have heard online, so I may find it hard to go back to covered humbuckers after this experience, however I will say unless you have a nice blonde LP the cream humbuckers dont look as nice as the covered in my opinion, but for me this was a tone quest and aesthetics aside I definantly prefer my set without.
Third, I did something I havnt done in the past, I used a .015uf Orange drop cap on the bridge humbucker, something I have only previously done with the neck humbucker, I started thinking you know it dosnt make any sense to have a tone control that only has a small window of use especially when I havn't been completly satisfied with my bridge pickups performance anyway, so why not try it out, and sure as sh*t the .015uf Orange drop on both my neck and bridge was the ticket to that sweet, sweet woman tone I was longing for.
I have used the whole oil in paper cap thing for a long time mainly because it was all the rage and its considered en vogue and almost blasphemy if they arn't part of your setup, but something told me I should go with the Orange drops, they are raved about in strats and I love the piercing tone of strat pickups when I hear those good ole Texas blues jams, so I went Orange drop .015uf on both and wham! its all there, that woman tone I was wanting but couldnt quite reach and for a heck of alot less money than a new set of premium humbuckers.
So for me Im sticking to good ole fashioned 50's wiring, .015uf Orange drop caps on both humbuckers with (NO! absolutely positively volume kit crap) and cover less humbuckers from this point forward.
The tone and sound of my bridge Antiquity is finally all I had ever hoped it to be and at half the cost of a Boutique brand and my neck humbucker is ringing nice and clear and defined across the bass strings and most importantly my humbuckers are bright and piercing when I need them to be, no more mud and a very useful set of tone controls. ahhh...for now I feel content. :1:
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