Bridge to add a bit of twang to my Les Paul?

[Top-L]

Fishman Fluence Classic.

Have you tried the Fluence Modern? I hear it is quite trebly and articulate set with an alternate voice that is "single coilish".

Idk the Fluence ecosystem, but EMG makes a bunch of add-on circuits that can transform the pickup. They have one that will make humbucker sound more single coilish to varying degrees. If you already have active electronics, you might try one of those.

If they were passives I'd tell you to play with the pot values. I know that tweaking active pickups is not the same as passives.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Have you tried the Fluence Modern? I hear it is quite trebly and articulate set with an alternate voice that is "single coilish".

Idk the Fluence ecosystem, but EMG makes a bunch of add-on circuits that can transform the pickup. They have one that will make humbucker sound more single coilish to varying degrees. If you already have active electronics, you might try one of those.

Yep. I have a set around. I also have a set of the KSE's which are even brighter than the Moderns.

The Classics in Voice 1 are way brighter. They're supposed to be PAF's with added output. They're REALLY bright, and I love that.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

From my experience, titanium is great to fatten up the tone, aluminium brightens it all up, brass is like a built-in booster, and steel adds more highs. Sometimes just swapping hardware brings you closer to the tone you have in your mind than changing pickups.

So I'm thinking titanium or steel, then?

 

[JMP/HBE]

.

 

[Top-L]

Yep. I have a set around. I also have a set of the KSE's which are even brighter than the Moderns.

The Classics in Voice 1 are way brighter. They're supposed to be PAF's with added output. They're REALLY bright, and I love that.

Active pickups use low output magnets and get close to the strings without affecting the vibration, its possible for them to be quite bright and airy.

Someone else said it, but smaller strings would have an effect. IME with 9/10/11 sets, the 9s have the most air and harmonic content. Larger strings sound more fundamental.

Since you are playing actives, you don't really need do drive the pickup. You could try 8s and put the pickup closer toe the strings. :headbang:

 

[JMP/HBE]

Your guitar is always going to sound like a LP cuz its a LP.
Amp choice like Silverface Twin or Deluxe would offer some twang clean.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Well, I don't want my LP to stop sounding like a LP! LOL I just want to know what different bridge materials do to the sound.

I don't really play clean. But the twang from my Esquire still comes through heavy distortion even if it has a pickup way hotter, darker, and more overwound than my LP's.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Well, I don't want my LP to stop sounding like a LP! LOL I just want to know what different bridge materials do to the sound.

I don't really play clean. But the twang from my Esquire still comes through heavy distortion even if it has a pickup way hotter, darker, and more overwound than my LP's.

Don't ever put Graphtech saddles on a LP, worst thing i ever did.
Conversely GT saddles on a Strat sound really good.
I don't know why.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, not going to. If I get a Graphtech bridge, I'm getting the all-metal one.

I kinda want to try steel or titanium.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Active pickups use low output magnets and get close to the strings without affecting the vibration, its possible for them to be quite bright and airy.

Someone else said it, but smaller strings would have an effect. IME with 9/10/11 sets, the 9s have the most air and harmonic content. Larger strings sound more fundamental.

Since you are playing actives, you don't really need do drive the pickup. You could try 8s and put the pickup closer toe the strings. :headbang:

Not Fishmans. They're not EMG's. They use full-charge magnets. I asked Ken Susi that same thing on one of his live Fishman livestreams.

 

[Top-L]

Is it possible to achieve what a triple shot does, with a 3-way switch?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Is it possible to achieve what a triple shot does, with a 3-way switch?

With Fishmans? Not exactly, but I do think you can wire them to a 5-way superswitch and a combination of push/pulls or minitoggles.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Alright, thought I'd report back. I got the Graphtech Resomax bridge with the Resomax saddles. Not the tailpiece, though. I kept the stock API aluminum tailpiece with the TonePros locking brass studs.

So far, I really dig it! I do notice it made my guitar slightly louder, which is always better, LOL.

But what made me get this bridge is reading the copy, the Resomax alloy is supposed to be as light as aluminum, but as hard as steel, and I figured that's kinda best of both worlds from what I wanted. I also read the Resomax saddles have a spike at 2K, which is exactly what I wanted (more high-mid twang), and to seal the deal, they're made almost locally. It's just a couple of cities south from where I live.

I do notice the guitar being slightly louder, but I don't know if it's brighter. I did just change the strings as well as changing the bridge, so that might explain them being brighter. But I'm 100% sure the guitar is slightly louder acoustically. I mean, just based on that, I think the update was worth it. I like loud guitars because they squeeze the most out of low output pickups like Fluence Classics.

So it was a win for me!

 

[Mincer]

Is it slightly louder acoustically or through the amp?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Is it slightly louder acoustically or through the amp?

Acoustically. I haven't spend much time through my HX Stomp after the upgrade. Pretty sure it's not going to be louder, because even on my clean tone, I run a compressor. Just different in other ways, I guess.

 

[Mincer]

Acoustically. I haven't spend much time through my HX Stomp after the upgrade. Pretty sure it's not going to be louder, because even on my clean tone, I run a compressor. Just different in other ways, I guess.

Oh cool. I wonder how noticeable it will be through the amp. When I switched out the saddles on my Music Man to String Savers, the tone was slightly darker through the amp, which I really liked.

 

[Top-L]

Anything that makes a guitar more resonant acoustically, makes it warmer plugged in. Imo.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Well, through the HX, I did find it was slightly more focused. Slightly more high-mid bite and slightly less low-mid mud. It's not a day and night difference, but it was the 1% that I wanted it to be.

But it's also hard to tell because the last time I played the guitar (and recorded a clip), the strings were older than this. They weren't old old, but these are 100% fresh, so if they're brighter and just overall better-sounding, it makes sense. But I did notice it was louder. My wife even commented on why I was playing guitar so loud, and I told her it's the new bridge, the I was playing the same as always.

But even if I'm 100% sure the guitar is slightly louder, I can tell like with 85% certainty that it brightened up just a tad because I've only been playing this guitar for some time now and slightly neglecting the others, so I'm used to hearing what it sounds like with new or old strings.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Anything that makes a guitar more resonant acoustically, makes it warmer plugged in. Imo.

Brass tends to make everything warmer (and louder), but not Steel or Aluminum, IME. The Resomax stuff is neither, but it's supposedly kinda like Aluminum openness meets Steel durability. When being side by side, the stock bridge and this new Resomax weren't miles apart in weight (or at least what it felt like), but when I tried the "ping" test, the Graptech bridge did make a different higher pinched ping than the stock API bridge (aluminum with steel posts and Zinc saddles, AFAIK), so even if it was subtle, there was bound to be a change. Somehow. Somewhat.

It's more noticeable acoustically than anything else. And I agree that more resonant and louder guitars aren't always best, especially considering you don't usually see Epi Casinos or many full or semihollow bodies used for Metal, but I did like the fact that this bridge very slightly supercharched an an already lively sounding guitar. And like I said in my first post, I wasn't expecting this bridge to suddenly transform my LP into a Tele, but it was a subtle step in the right direction, as fars I can tell.

Still not sure if I'm going to be keeping the Fishies in there. I mean, they're about as good as PAF-type gets for me, but I'm starting to miss the ferocity and agression of a high-output overwound over-the-top Ceramic sometimes. Luckily, I've still got the BW and 500T kicking around.

 

[Phantasmagoria]