interesting
C5 vs Full Shred?
- Thread starter Reee
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interesting
Ace Flibble
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I have the Full Shred set in a Les Paul with a Custom 5 & Jazz set in another LP; the Full Shred bridge is the Custom 5 but with the allen poles and the FS neck is the Jazz with allen poles. Both LPs are Les Paul Studio models from the same year so the two guitars make it very easy to compare the effect of allen poles vs traditional screw&slug poles. FWIW I've also got the Custom and Custom Custom in a few guitars, too, so overall I'm pretty well-versed in this family of pickups. (Currently contemplating making a Custom 3 to see how that sounds...)
At least in an LP, the difference in tone and output between the Custom 5 and Full Shred is minimal. Personally, I can pick up either of these LPs blindfolded and play the same thing with both and not tell them apart. Really the only reason I have the two different sets of pickups is because the Full Shred's poles look nicer for one colour guitar and the Custom 5 & Jazz's traditional screws looked better for the other colour. I can only hear the difference between them when I play both closely after each other in a purposeful A-B test.
To nitpick and get specific, they both have very hollow tones and both the low-mids and high-mids are very weak compared to other pickups of this kind of output and not noticeably different from each other. In the bass the Custom 5 is ever-so-slightly stronger and the Full Shred is ever-so-slightly tighter, but you can only really hear that difference playing clean; it totally goes away once you have even light crunch. The treble has a bit more of a difference, with any notes on the plain strings jumping out a little more with the Full Shred no matter whether you have a totally clean or massively distorted tone, but even that difference you can only really hear if you go from one guitar to the other in a direct A-B test; if you heard the Full Shred by itself you couldn't tell it wasn't the Custom 5 and vice-versa.
Neither is hotter than the other. If your amp and speakers are reacting more to bass then the Custom 5 will sound louder and if your rig is set up more to push treble then the Full Shred will seem a bit louder, but again it's a tiny difference. The overall output of both is like a JB with a volume control rolled down to 8. The good thing about the Custom line is that their output seems to drop off quicker when putting them further from the strings, but their tone balance doesn't seem to change much, so you can play with the pickups' height to get the output you want easier than with a JB.
In other types of guitar maybe you might hear more of a difference between them, but at least in a pair of otherwise-identical LPs, they're 99% the same.
I'll try to record a quick A-B direct-in demo of both guitars in a moment, and another with a JB, so you can hear the difference (or lack of) for yourself.
Edit:
Okay, recorded a short clip. I forgot the one guitar I still have with a JB has much heavier strings on it than these two and is set up for a totally different tuning, so that would have been a useless comparison and I've left it out. But the important Full Shred vs Custom 5 is here:
https://soundcloud.com/aceflibble/sd-full-shred-vs-custom-5/s-tDJHfdyZWN6
To reiterate, this is a Full Shred bridge and Custom 5, both in Les Paul Studios of the same age, both guitars freshly tuned to Eb Standard with .0105-0.050 strings. Recorded direct in; no amp, effects or processing of any kind, just raw output from the guitar.
Three slow strums of a Gb open chord, Full Shred first, Custom 5 second, then some faster strumming in the same order. I think on the faster strumming I may have smacked the Custom 5's strings a little harder and the signal slightly clips – that's not the pickup, that's just me being tired and uncontrolled. Stuck to a basic open chord because it's the easiest thing to hear the difference on. Just take my word for it that if I'd played single notes you'd hear even less of a difference.
As you can hear, they might as well be the same pickup. Recording a simple chord direct in does show the slight bit of extra 'thump' the Custom 5 has, but play any real riff through a real amp and you can see how that small difference will not be noticeable. I'm really not sure why SD even bother to make both models of pickup, other than the different aesthetic.
At least in an LP, the difference in tone and output between the Custom 5 and Full Shred is minimal. Personally, I can pick up either of these LPs blindfolded and play the same thing with both and not tell them apart. Really the only reason I have the two different sets of pickups is because the Full Shred's poles look nicer for one colour guitar and the Custom 5 & Jazz's traditional screws looked better for the other colour. I can only hear the difference between them when I play both closely after each other in a purposeful A-B test.
To nitpick and get specific, they both have very hollow tones and both the low-mids and high-mids are very weak compared to other pickups of this kind of output and not noticeably different from each other. In the bass the Custom 5 is ever-so-slightly stronger and the Full Shred is ever-so-slightly tighter, but you can only really hear that difference playing clean; it totally goes away once you have even light crunch. The treble has a bit more of a difference, with any notes on the plain strings jumping out a little more with the Full Shred no matter whether you have a totally clean or massively distorted tone, but even that difference you can only really hear if you go from one guitar to the other in a direct A-B test; if you heard the Full Shred by itself you couldn't tell it wasn't the Custom 5 and vice-versa.
Neither is hotter than the other. If your amp and speakers are reacting more to bass then the Custom 5 will sound louder and if your rig is set up more to push treble then the Full Shred will seem a bit louder, but again it's a tiny difference. The overall output of both is like a JB with a volume control rolled down to 8. The good thing about the Custom line is that their output seems to drop off quicker when putting them further from the strings, but their tone balance doesn't seem to change much, so you can play with the pickups' height to get the output you want easier than with a JB.
In other types of guitar maybe you might hear more of a difference between them, but at least in a pair of otherwise-identical LPs, they're 99% the same.
I'll try to record a quick A-B direct-in demo of both guitars in a moment, and another with a JB, so you can hear the difference (or lack of) for yourself.
Edit:
Okay, recorded a short clip. I forgot the one guitar I still have with a JB has much heavier strings on it than these two and is set up for a totally different tuning, so that would have been a useless comparison and I've left it out. But the important Full Shred vs Custom 5 is here:
https://soundcloud.com/aceflibble/sd-full-shred-vs-custom-5/s-tDJHfdyZWN6
To reiterate, this is a Full Shred bridge and Custom 5, both in Les Paul Studios of the same age, both guitars freshly tuned to Eb Standard with .0105-0.050 strings. Recorded direct in; no amp, effects or processing of any kind, just raw output from the guitar.
Three slow strums of a Gb open chord, Full Shred first, Custom 5 second, then some faster strumming in the same order. I think on the faster strumming I may have smacked the Custom 5's strings a little harder and the signal slightly clips – that's not the pickup, that's just me being tired and uncontrolled. Stuck to a basic open chord because it's the easiest thing to hear the difference on. Just take my word for it that if I'd played single notes you'd hear even less of a difference.
As you can hear, they might as well be the same pickup. Recording a simple chord direct in does show the slight bit of extra 'thump' the Custom 5 has, but play any real riff through a real amp and you can see how that small difference will not be noticeable. I'm really not sure why SD even bother to make both models of pickup, other than the different aesthetic.
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