Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

K

kevinabb

New member
If there are existing thread about this, please point me there; I can't find any. In short, here's my question:

If BB1+A5 = (basically) BB Pro 1
and BB2+A5 = (basically) BB Pro 2 ....

What does BB3+A5 sound like? I have a LP R7, extremely resonant. Jazz Neck in the neck position is fat, dark, warm ... heavenly for my tastes. after much experimentation, then best bridge I've found is a BB3 with a whopping 9.35K DC.

I love how fat and warm it is, nothing else I tried (JB, CC, BB2, 57+, PGB, and others) were as good. All were either too brittle or thin or nasal (yeah, the JB) or lacking upper harmonics (CC). The BB3 has mucho beef, and enough top end to get by. BUT ... I want a little bit of extra sizzle to make artificial/pinch harmonics easier.

So what do you suppose would happen if I try an A5 with that massive 9.35K wire? The girth of this pup makes me think the coils are not extremely mismatched. Anyone tried this type of thing?
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

It should clean up the mids, add sparkle to the highs, and tighten up the lows a bit.
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

Benjy_26 said:
It should clean up the mids, add sparkle to the highs, and tighten up the lows a bit.
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Basically, it would make it suck. God made the Burstbucker with an A2 for a reason. A very special reason.
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

Jessie Sammler said:
God made the Burstbucker with an A2 for a reason. A very special reason.
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But he made the Burstbucker Pro 1 & 2 with an A5 for a reason. :cool2: Suppose he rested on the day when he would have made the Busrstbucker Pro 3? Wouldn't he want man to help himself by making that pup? :naughty:
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

Well I couldn't go to bed without knowing, now could I ? So at 2:50am I can report that Jessie was correct in one major assertion: God did make the Burstbucker with an A2 for a reason. Which is, of course, why it ended up in my guitar in the first place!

But the A5 didn't make the BB3 suck. It made it sound like a slightly darker BB Pro 2. Which isn't surprising, since it creates basically an overwound BB Pro 2. It nicely added the bite I was looking for, but at the expense of the A2's smooth upper-mids. I went back to the A2 because I'd rather have the smoothness. So, Jessie ... we ended up with the same conclusion. :beerchug:

While I was at it I tried an A3 in the BB3. That was actually the more interesting experiment. It removed a bit of the BB3's bass, significantly ightened up the mids, and put a lot of bite in the highs.

I think the very high wind (9.35K) coupled with the lower-power A3 is a pretty nice deal. In fact, the result was exactly what I always thought a Pearly gates would be. I've tried the PGB, PGN and even PGP/PG+ in numerous guitars. Every time, I found it (just my opinion here) to be woefully devoid of anything other than treble. I always thought it would/should be like a Seth with slightly reduced lows and mids, and more-pronounced upper harmonics. That's exactly what the BB3/A3 gave me, but with the output level of a BB2 or BB3.

So the stock BB3 stays in my goldtop, but I'm already searching for another BB3 to mod with that A3 mag. It's a real keeper. If you want something with strong smooth lows/mids and biting upper-mids & treble, it's well worth considering.
 
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Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

Look for "let's talk about burst buckers" for some general info/discussion.
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

kevinabb said:
While I was at it I tried an A3 in the BB3. That was actually the more interesting experiment. It removed a bit of the BB3's bass, significantly ightened up the mids, and put a lot of bite in the highs.

I think the very high wind (9.35K) coupled with the lower-power A3 is a pretty nice deal. In fact, the result was exactly what I always thought a Pearly gates would be. I've tried the PGB, PGN and even PGP/PG+ in numerous guitars. Every time, I found it (just my opinion here) to be woefully devoid of anything other than treble. I always thought it would/should be like a Seth with slightly reduced lows and mids, and more-pronounced upper harmonics. That's exactly what the BB3/A3 gave me, but with the output level of a BB2 or BB3.

So the stock BB3 stays in my goldtop, but I'm already searching for another BB3 to mod with that A3 mag. It's a real keeper. If you want something with strong smooth lows/mids and biting upper-mids & treble, it's well worth considering.
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I'm a little confused...

You say that the BB3 with the A3 gave it more bite in the highs and more upper hamonics. Isn't this what you were after in the first place? And yet you decided to keep the stock BB3 with the A2 in your guitar after all??

Why?
 
Re: Burstbucker 3 BB3 with A5 Magnet?

GuitarDoc said:
I'm a little confused...

You say that the BB3 with the A3 gave it more bite in the highs and more upper hamonics. Isn't this what you were after in the first place? And yet you decided to keep the stock BB3 with the A2 in your guitar after all??

Why?
Click to expand...

What made that particular BB3 so appealing to me was the intense fatness. The A3 cut the lows & tightened up the mids, which reduced the fatness. Not a lot, but enough. Otherwise I would have kept it.

I did get more high harmonics by simply increasing the treble on my amp. The Jazz neck & BB3 bridge are both fat & dark, so some extra treble at the amp works well enough.

As mentioned earlier, I do plan to build a BB3/A3 and keep it in the pickup box. It's a nice combination, just not quite as fat as I want for this particular Les Paul. It does what I always thought a Pearly Gates was meant to do. Probably my misinterpretation of Seymour's intentions, but anyway the BB3/A3 does it for me. I also plan to try a BB1 and BB2 with an A3. I'll probably like them as well.
 
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