Ace Flibble
New member
The problem: picked up an ultra-light basswood HH Tele because it feels and looks great (and my spine needs an occasional break from my Gibsons and PRS), but the tone from the stock SD '59 and JB wasn't where I want it to be. I've tried a few replacements already and have the neck pickup sorted (now a A2P but with an A3, so a... A3P?), but nothing is turning out remotely right in the bridge. I'm used to 50mm-spaced 24.75" set neck mahogany guitars, so 25.5" maple bolted on to basswood with 54mm spacing is a much clearer sound, with each string standing out individually, than I'm used to or want; the guitar's far too comfortable to give up on, though.
Control pots are 300k with a 0.033 tone cap already and I don't want to change them given the neck pickup sounds right with the controls as they are, and I doubt dropping to 250k would make enough difference to the bridge anyway.
My other guitars sound fine so it's not a matter of adjusting the rest of my set-up. It's just this one bridge pickup that's not fitting in.
The sound I'm trying to arrive at is a fairly standard pop-rock rhythm. Not hard rock, not classic rock, just the Top 40 middle ground. I categorically do not play lead at all. I don't want any 'cut', I don't want anything that causes the guitar to "stand out in the mix" (which appears to be how every single humbucker in the world is described...) and I don't want 'articulation'. I want chords that smoothly blend each string together into one thump, and just a slight emphasis on low-end, with decent—but not overpowering—bass and lower-mids. Upper-mids are my enemy, but so is a totally hollow mid-scooped sound. Output needs to be right in the middle of the common range, more than 'vintage' but nowhere near metal territory; playing through a JCM900 reissue, a little more power than vintage is needed to get the amp to its distortion sweet spot but 'modern' output can quickly be a problem for the clean channel. To illustrate the 'backline' tone I go for, my amp EQ is 0 presence, 5 treble, 7 mids, and bass on 6 or 7 depending on the room size/volume. (Well, you know, back when live music was still A Thing.) Cab is a 2x12 with Celestion Neo Creambacks.
Pickups that work for this great in other guitars include an SD Pearly Gates Plus, all three of the Custom line (backed very far from the strings), DiMarzio PAF Pro, and a Gibson BurstBucker #3; they're all in very different guitars, though, all inherently smoother, thicker and warmer than this one.
TL;DR: Low-mids and smoothness are the priorities, with dead-middle output.
So far I've tried:
JB - came already installed in the guitar by the previous owner, I assume it was a stock JB. Way too much power even lowered down, far too cutting with nowhere near enough lower-end, pretty much the exact opposite of what I'm after.
Invader - knew it'd be too strong, but I had it laying around spare so gave it a shot. Close in tonal balance but even lowered as far from the strings as it could go, the output was too much, especially the 6th string.
Custom 5 - another I just had spare, so worth a try. Still too hot (pickups can't be lowered as far in this guitar compared to my Gibsons) and also too scooped and hollow-sounding, though the deepest bass and highest treble were about right.
Pearly Gates - Pretty close but, predictably, a bit too cutting and not quite enough overall power. I can't think of a magnet swap that could up the power without adding even more cut, though.
Going on my experience with other pickups in the past, I'm thinking of switching the Custom 5 to an A3 (Custom 3?) and backing it as far from the strings as possible, or hacking together the Custom and '59 coils with an A2 or A3. (To date I've always preferred A3s to A2s in any pickup, but I recognise in this guitar I might need to deviate from my normal ideas.)
However, it's always nicer to be able to just install something stock rather than breaking pickups apart, so I thought I'd throw it open to the board and see if anyone comes up with anything I might have overlooked.
I'm trying to stick to SDs because I can get them much cheaper and quicker than DiMarzios, Gibsons, or any boutique pickup, but I'm open to other brands if it'll get me what I want with less fuss.
Control pots are 300k with a 0.033 tone cap already and I don't want to change them given the neck pickup sounds right with the controls as they are, and I doubt dropping to 250k would make enough difference to the bridge anyway.
My other guitars sound fine so it's not a matter of adjusting the rest of my set-up. It's just this one bridge pickup that's not fitting in.
The sound I'm trying to arrive at is a fairly standard pop-rock rhythm. Not hard rock, not classic rock, just the Top 40 middle ground. I categorically do not play lead at all. I don't want any 'cut', I don't want anything that causes the guitar to "stand out in the mix" (which appears to be how every single humbucker in the world is described...) and I don't want 'articulation'. I want chords that smoothly blend each string together into one thump, and just a slight emphasis on low-end, with decent—but not overpowering—bass and lower-mids. Upper-mids are my enemy, but so is a totally hollow mid-scooped sound. Output needs to be right in the middle of the common range, more than 'vintage' but nowhere near metal territory; playing through a JCM900 reissue, a little more power than vintage is needed to get the amp to its distortion sweet spot but 'modern' output can quickly be a problem for the clean channel. To illustrate the 'backline' tone I go for, my amp EQ is 0 presence, 5 treble, 7 mids, and bass on 6 or 7 depending on the room size/volume. (Well, you know, back when live music was still A Thing.) Cab is a 2x12 with Celestion Neo Creambacks.
Pickups that work for this great in other guitars include an SD Pearly Gates Plus, all three of the Custom line (backed very far from the strings), DiMarzio PAF Pro, and a Gibson BurstBucker #3; they're all in very different guitars, though, all inherently smoother, thicker and warmer than this one.
TL;DR: Low-mids and smoothness are the priorities, with dead-middle output.
So far I've tried:
JB - came already installed in the guitar by the previous owner, I assume it was a stock JB. Way too much power even lowered down, far too cutting with nowhere near enough lower-end, pretty much the exact opposite of what I'm after.
Invader - knew it'd be too strong, but I had it laying around spare so gave it a shot. Close in tonal balance but even lowered as far from the strings as it could go, the output was too much, especially the 6th string.
Custom 5 - another I just had spare, so worth a try. Still too hot (pickups can't be lowered as far in this guitar compared to my Gibsons) and also too scooped and hollow-sounding, though the deepest bass and highest treble were about right.
Pearly Gates - Pretty close but, predictably, a bit too cutting and not quite enough overall power. I can't think of a magnet swap that could up the power without adding even more cut, though.
Going on my experience with other pickups in the past, I'm thinking of switching the Custom 5 to an A3 (Custom 3?) and backing it as far from the strings as possible, or hacking together the Custom and '59 coils with an A2 or A3. (To date I've always preferred A3s to A2s in any pickup, but I recognise in this guitar I might need to deviate from my normal ideas.)
However, it's always nicer to be able to just install something stock rather than breaking pickups apart, so I thought I'd throw it open to the board and see if anyone comes up with anything I might have overlooked.
I'm trying to stick to SDs because I can get them much cheaper and quicker than DiMarzios, Gibsons, or any boutique pickup, but I'm open to other brands if it'll get me what I want with less fuss.