Black Winters!!! Help!!!

anthonyshawnr

anthonyshawnr

New member
Hey guys I've just recently bought a set of blackwinters and quickly found a diagram on her on how to wire em, and got them hooked up successfully in my S520EX and after having it this way for a couple weeks, I think it sounds wayyy too bassy or boomy I should say. I've even got it installed with 500k pots. I love every sample/ demo I hear of these pickups but for some odd reason they just have an incredibly high low end. Anyone have any suggestions on a fix? Btw it's a mahogany body, rosewood fingerboard and a ZR tremolo (floyd style).
Thanks in advance for help!
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Lower the pickups from the strings a bit. Play with the height to find the sweet spot.

Also, since you've changed your pickups, give it a day or two to get used to it, and be open to resetting your amp tones and hear the affect until you find the right balance with the new pickups again.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

First off thanks for the suggestion! They've been in there for about a week and a half now, and I read somewhere lowering the height made the tone muddier. I love the way the bridge sounds, it's perfectly dialed in but that neck is just being a pita lol do you have any experience with mixing pot values? Specifically a 1meg volume with a 500k tone pot
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

I can't say that I've ever had a problem with my BWs being boomy, and I've had them in a few guitars. My Explorer, Jackson bolt on King V, Les Paul, and my mahogany bodied Ibanez RG320MH. And what strikes me as odd, is that every S series Ibanez I've tried out had a really thin sound do it, so the fact that they're boomy in your S kinda surprised me.

I wouldn't worry about the BWs getting muddy the lower you set them. They have a very crisp and clear top end, more than many pickups out there, so it should be able to handle a lower than normal string height (at least, if my logic is correct). If that doesn't work, you could possibly try the old JB trick of using shorter screws in the screw coil.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

I'm in the middle of messing with the height now I'll let you know how it goes, if this doesn't work I think I might try to put in a 1meg ohm volume pot in it. I really love the way the bridge sounds it's seriously the best bridge pup I've ever heard!


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Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Do you know of any other neck pickup that would compliment a black winter bridge? (Stoner/Doom metal stuff)
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Besides adjusting the over height, you can try adjusting the screw heights.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

I did already adjust the pole pieces with a slight radius, and I lowered it last night to about an 1/8 above the mounting ring and It's sounding better. What height do yall have your black winters set to?
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

I'm really just trying to get everyone's input on how they have their Black Winters set up in their guitars.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Wow, it shouldn't be so boomy there. If everything is connected correctly, and you swapped out the pot too, and it is still boomy, it might not work for you. Is there any way you could upload a sound clip? You could certainly switch it out for a Sentient, but I'd like to know if any of the other ideas work first.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

I can upload a clip later tonight after work, but I'm running it through a roland cube gx 20 and sometimes a Vox vt20+ (which has wayy too much bass) but I pretty much play with the gain between 50-75% and almost flat eq maybe boost the mids and bass a lil bit.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Something's wrong there, the BWs are very bright pickups. Especially the neck is super-sweet and not nearly as muddy as most neck pickups.
 
Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Well than I guess I'll just have to stop by the shop and grab a 500k pot, and I'm gonna put a new switch in the guitar. I hate the stock ibanez 5 way!!! I have 1 meg pots on the way but I doubt I'll need em with the way everyone is saying their soo bright. And I'm pretty sure this means I'm gonna take it off reverb so if anyone wants to check it out go on there and give it a peek but if I'm gonna put another couple hours into it I'm gonna wanna keep it lol
 
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Re: Black Winters!!! Help!!!

Btw how would I be able to tell if a pot is fried? It doesn't make any scratchy/crackling noises and there isn't any hum?
 
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