Charvel Pickups

[Sam SG]

I have a Charvel DS 3ST Desolation Series guitar. Its a made in China budget model guitar but pretty decent. Has a decent oiled neck. Mahogany body and neck.
Anyway anyone know anything about the humbuckers they use? Are they alnico or ceramic?
The pups are a tad hot but not like Super D hot to my ears. I have not ohmed them.

 

[hamerfan]

A good pic from back and front of those humbuckers would tell us more.

 

[Sam SG]

I shoulda took a pic earlier of the back when I had it half apart.
When I restrung it I flipped the neck pup to take a peek it has brass colored base an RoHs sticker and a sticker that said neck underneither thats all.
But I did take front pics just now.
Ive emailed Charvel but havent heard anything yet. Thought maybe someone here may know

 

[jeremy]

isnt much to be learned from the front on these things. id guess they are ceramic, a meter will tell you more. you dont have to pull the pups, just plug a cable into the jack, make sure all controls are full up and put the meter on tip and sleeve of the other end of the cable. it wont be exact, but itll give you a good ball park reading

 

[Sam SG]

Ok so I ohmed um off a guitar cord
17.25 On the bridge!!!
And
12.8 on the neck.
So being as they arent muddy with that much windings probably ceramic.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I'm guessing they're some sort of Duncan Distortion clones based on the DCR if they're ceramic. Maybe not clones, because they have brass baseplates, right? But something inspired by.

 

[Sam SG]

They seem to sound ok frequency wise for what they are. Not woofy. But definetly balls to the wall. Thick loud and powerfull.
Not really what I need though.

 

[Mincer]

Wow, that's a powerful neck pickup!

 

[Sam SG]

Yea im starting to look at pups online. Thinking about trying gfs I can get a pair for about $75 and the descriptions sound appealing. Dont really want to put $110+ per pup into this axe.....allthough it isnt a bad guitar in anyway.
Surprisingly I didnt percieve these as being as hot dc wise as they are. I didnt think they were as loud as even my Super D pups...allthough thicker

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yea im starting to look at pups online. Thinking about trying gfs I can get a pair for about $75 and the descriptions sound appealing. Dont really want to put $110+ per pup into this axe.....allthough it isnt a bad guitar in anyway.
Surprisingly I didnt percieve these as being as hot dc wise as they are. I didnt think they were as loud as even my Super D pups...allthough thicker

If you're looking at cheap pickups, I have some Artec HBA115 neck pups off Amazon pickups are pretty decent for cheap. I don't know if you want those exactly, but I find Artec pickups pretty decent for the money, so maybe look into a few of their models. I believe Artec makes some of the GFS pickups too.

 

[Sam SG]

Artec? Ill have to check um out. They got differant types? I know paf style neck is the plain...
But part of me wants to keep the bridge hot.
Not sure what I want to do yet.
Im toying with the idea of gfs paf types. Then another part of me says try the 59 I have in the neck and canabalize my partscaster for the Super D its got....then i think maybe try the 12.8k stock neck pickup in the bridge.
Then I think put thatvl Super D in my othet SG and put its 490t in the charvel....
Meanwhile ive done nothing but ponder lol
One thing is certain 17.25k dont clean up well nor does 12.8k neck. Lol

Oh btw...Charvel got back to me they are ceramics.

 

[Sam SG]

So after hemming and hawwing I ripped into it today.
I decided to put my SD 59n in the neck and move the 12.8k stock neck to the bridge.
It took a bunch of fiddling as whoever had the 59 befor me had a couple screw poles sunk in the bobbin. But once i spend like and hour really tweaking heights and poles. That 59 sounds great in here. The 12.8k that I put in the bridge is OK....Big improvement over the wall of doom metal factory bridge pup.
But I think Im gonna look for a SD bridge mate for the 59n. I wanna keep this guitar more hot....id use a Super D( i like those) but I want to stay SD now that I got one in there.
Any suggestion for Duncan made Super D' esque pickup?

 

[Mincer]

So after hemming and hawwing I ripped into it today.
I decided to put my SD 59n in the neck and move the 12.8k stock neck to the bridge.
It took a bunch of fiddling as whoever had the 59 befor me had a couple poles sunk in the bobbin. But once i spend like and hour really tweaking heights and poles. That 59 sounds great in here. The 12.8k that I put in the bridge is OK....Big improvement over the wall of doom metal factory bridge pup.
But I think Im gonna look for a SD bridge mate for the 59n. I wanna keep this guitar more hot....id use a Super D( i like those) but I want to stay SD now that I got one in there

Depending on the guitar, either another 59, a Hybrid or a Custom goes well with a 59.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I would go for a Custom if you want a hot ceramic bridge pickup (that's not quite Duncan Distortion level either) but also a hint of PAF in there.

 

[Sam SG]

Custom? In the ballpark with a Super D?
Hybrid? As in the 59/Custom hybrid?
I might also note NOT a JB fan so hopefully nothing with that upper spike that one has.

 

[AdrianSD]

Don't think there's any production Duncan that's close enough to the Super Distortion.

 

[nienturi]

Don't think there's any production Duncan that's close enough to the Super Distortion.

Theretically Duncan Custom. They share very similar dcr readings on their bobbins and series dcr. But the construction makes the difference.

 

[Mincer]

Custom? In the ballpark with a Super D?
Hybrid? As in the 59/Custom hybrid?
I might also note NOT a JB fan so hopefully nothing with that upper spike that one has.

The Custom doesn't sound much like a Super D to me. It sounds like a louder, brasher 59.
The Hybrid is the 59/Custom Hybrid...one coil from a 59, one from a Custom. Balance and tone-wise, it is great with a 59 neck. And none of these sound like a JB.

 

[Sam SG]

Theretically Duncan Custom. They share very similar dcr readings on their bobbins and series dcr. But the construction makes the difference.

Oh...you mean the double allen screw bobbins?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Oh...you mean the double allen screw bobbins?

And smaller ceramic magnet. And nickel baseplate vs brass. And then the things to do with the wind like the wire insulation and winding pattern which I don't know the specifics of, but I'm sure it isn't quite the same. The spacing of the poles is also different on DiMarzios vs. Duncans. Number of turns may be close, but the DCR seems to suggest they're no the same.

I honestly think the only things in comon are the magnet material and the wire gauge. There's a rumor the Custom was originally made for EVH, and some people theorize it was meant to be a tweak on his Mighty Mite Super Distortion clone, but I think it's pretty clear Seymour didn't mean to straight up clone it if the rumors/theories are true.