SAguitar
New member
Last Saturday night I had a few free hours, so I dug out my old Carvin DC400. This is a great, solid Koa guitar that is beautiful and only finished in Tung Oil, so it feels luxurious. I have owned it for years but have never been satisfied with its electric tones. With its through-neck design and ebony fingerboard, it has excellent sustain and rings strong and true all over the two octave neck. To my best recollection, I have tried at least 5 different sets of pickups in it and never really bonded well with any of them. I have tried two different sets of Carvin pickups, and 2 sets Gibson humbuckers ('57 Classics & Burstbucker Pros). I even put in a set of Jim Wagner's WCR pickups (a Godwood & a Darkburst). Then I tried a set of GFS Retrotron Hot Nashville pups in there, just to try something completely different. That combination almost sold me and they lasted in there for about a year, but the longing for something else was still there.
So last Saturday I got out the soldering station and my box of extra pickups. After rummaging around for awhile, I settled on a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates SH-PG1n for the neck, and a SH-4 JB model in the bridge. At first it seemed like a fairly pedestrian choice, but the combination of the two has come out very nice. I have had a few evenings this week to wring it out, and I may have finally found the right combination for this chunk of wood. The Pearly Gates produces some great cleans and when pushed it can do your Clapton woman tones with not problem. The JB at the bridge, being fairly overwound does the cutting edge stuff, and when asked to it produces screaming yowls that make zombies tremble. When blended and used together, they produce a wonderful range of tones. Just changing the volumes of either pickup yields some nice variations in color.
I also wired coil splits for both pickups (since the switches were already there), and those opened up another realm of tones for this plank. Just cutting a coil from either one lightens the impact and should let the guitar sit nicely in the band mix. Using them both as a single coil produces a very Strat-like personality which was a very pleasant surprise.
At any rate, so far I am pleased with this installation, but the real test will be when I play this guitar with the band and that won't be until Thursday evening.
Stay tuned, Stan
So last Saturday I got out the soldering station and my box of extra pickups. After rummaging around for awhile, I settled on a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates SH-PG1n for the neck, and a SH-4 JB model in the bridge. At first it seemed like a fairly pedestrian choice, but the combination of the two has come out very nice. I have had a few evenings this week to wring it out, and I may have finally found the right combination for this chunk of wood. The Pearly Gates produces some great cleans and when pushed it can do your Clapton woman tones with not problem. The JB at the bridge, being fairly overwound does the cutting edge stuff, and when asked to it produces screaming yowls that make zombies tremble. When blended and used together, they produce a wonderful range of tones. Just changing the volumes of either pickup yields some nice variations in color.
I also wired coil splits for both pickups (since the switches were already there), and those opened up another realm of tones for this plank. Just cutting a coil from either one lightens the impact and should let the guitar sit nicely in the band mix. Using them both as a single coil produces a very Strat-like personality which was a very pleasant surprise.
At any rate, so far I am pleased with this installation, but the real test will be when I play this guitar with the band and that won't be until Thursday evening.
Stay tuned, Stan
