dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

[unisafe]

Dug around in my spare guitar parts box and pulled out my old Dimebucker. I had it installed in an old squire when I was a lot younger.
I installed it into my mates LTD ex 50 to give it a bit more kick... Doesn't seem that much more powerful than my 490Ts...
Maybe it has lost it's power / swapped polarity from being thrown into the spares box with another pickup?
Or maybe that the basswood in this guitar doesn't agree with the Dimebucker eq'?

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

It's possible, I suppose, but it's really hard to know because there are so many variables. The best thing to do, if you can do it, is put that same pickup back in the squier you had when you knew it sounded good, and do an A/B comparison. I'm going to assume that's not possible, so the next best thing would be to try both the Dimebucker and the 490T (one at a time) in another body, preferably alder or some other similarly dense hardwood, and do your A/B comparison there.

I'd be surprised if your problem is the wood. I suspect it's more likely magnetic degradation -- probably due to age. I don't think being in the same box with another pickup would have much of an effect, unless they were stuck together over all that time.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Usually the dimebucker works better in darker and more mid oriended woods like basswood. I'd say its something else other than that. Besides the wood wouldn't lessen the output of the pickup like that. Check all the electronics, and if that doesnt work then I say Bluetalon is right and its likely magnetic degradation.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Most likely a bad switch, pot or solder joint.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Zzounds specs for the LTD Ex 50 state the body wood is agathis, not basswood. Two very different woods - see description of each at http://gaskellguitars.com/downloads/77.html

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Maybe it is wired in parallel, or split. It wouldn't have got demagnetized by being around other pickups.

 

[unisafe]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

I checked the wiring according to the Duncan website and it's fine. I have re soldered all the connections. Maybe a polarity issue. When the neck and bridge are in use, I get a very honky midrange tone. When I roll off the tone with a high gain setting, it almost sounds like a cocked wah tone, pretty cool actually.

 

[mapleneck]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Sounds like its out of phase. I'd reverse the pickup wires and see what happens.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Maybe a polarity issue. When the neck and bridge are in use, I get a very honky midrange tone. When I roll off the tone with a high gain setting, it almost sounds like a cocked wah tone, pretty cool actually.

Yep, sounds like a polarity issue. You haven’t mentioned what pup is in the neck. If it is a Dimarzio, I have found after installs of three different pickups of theirs, that they are out of phase when combined with three other brands of pups (epiphone, ibanez's emg design, and a seymour duncan) and that in that case, you need to wire the Dimarzio green to hot and the red to ground. Alternately, you can swap the hot and ground wire on the Dimebucker, but if you wired that correctly per the diagram as you reported, I personally would rewire the Dimarzio as its the non-conformer of the two, and helps you keep track of whats goingg in that cavity if you swap out either pup in the future ( to avoid future out of phase wirings).

 

[Bfeeney]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Zzounds specs for the LTD Ex 50 state the body wood is agathis, not basswood. Two very different woods - see description of each at http://gaskellguitars.com/downloads/77.html

ESP says it's basswood. I'm going to have to believe the manufacturer over Zzsounds

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Goddamn it not this again. The same thing happened to me with the Nighthawk studio from gibson. Ok half the sites I looked on for this guy say agathis. The other half including esp themselves say basswood. Normally I would take the manufacturer's word for it but hear my story about the Nighthawk studio from Gibson. They FINALLY fixed it now, the wood is mahogany, but EVERYWHERE Dealers say that Nighthawk was Poplar. Every single place you could've bought it from, poplar. BUT Gibson themselves said it was MAHOGANY. This is odd as how this particular nighthawk is the ONLY ONE they have thats mahogany. All the others are poplar. So it would be safe to assume since every other nighthawk is poplar, and every other site in the WORLD say's it's poplar, that gibson just messed up on their site and called it mahogany by accident. So I emailed them to ask, and they basically just looked it up on the site and told me what I already knew and didnt get back to me after that. It REALLY made me question how reliable the manufacturer's info is because even if they are right about the wood on the main site where it COUNTs, they still messed up everywhere else on a global scale. It's possible agathis could be an older/newer model of the ex and some people haven't gotten the memo though. So I guess it's safe to say its basswood but still, just cause its esp doesn't mean they can't be wrong about their own instruments.

 

[XPAULPITT]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Goddamn it not this again. The same thing happened to me with the Nighthawk studio from gibson. Ok half the sites I looked on for this guy say agathis. The other half including esp themselves say basswood. Normally I would take the manufacturer's word for it but hear my story about the Nighthawk studio from Gibson. They FINALLY fixed it now, the wood is mahogany, but EVERYWHERE Dealers say that Nighthawk was Poplar. Every single place you could've bought it from, poplar. BUT Gibson themselves said it was MAHOGANY. This is odd as how this particular nighthawk is the ONLY ONE they have thats mahogany. All the others are poplar. So it would be safe to assume since every other nighthawk is poplar, and every other site in the WORLD say's it's poplar, that gibson just messed up on their site and called it mahogany by accident. So I emailed them to ask, and they basically just looked it up on the site and told me what I already knew and didnt get back to me after that. It REALLY made me question how reliable the manufacturer's info is because even if they are right about the wood on the main site where it COUNTs, they still messed up everywhere else on a global scale. It's possible agathis could be an older/newer model of the ex and some people haven't gotten the memo though. So I guess it's safe to say its basswood but still, just cause its esp doesn't mean they can't be wrong about their own instruments.

Unfortunately, when you email Gibson you are gonna get a reply from a customer service drone who has no idea what they are talking about. They just look on the site and tell you what they see just like you said. Pretty much the same thing at every manufacturer. They also gat their info mixed up all the time at the big retailers like Zzounds, SamAsh, Sweetwater etc...... The best way to know for yourself is to get into a pickup or control cavity and do some sanding. Mahogany will be very easy to recognize.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Unfortunately, when you email Gibson you are gonna get a reply from a customer service drone who has no idea what they are talking about. They just look on the site and tell you what they see just like you said. Pretty much the same thing at every manufacturer. They also gat their info mixed up all the time at the big retailers like Zzounds, SamAsh, Sweetwater etc...... The best way to know for yourself is to get into a pickup or control cavity and do some sanding. Mahogany will be very easy to recognize.

Unfortunately you can't go into a shop and remove the backplate and start sanding.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Fortunately, it doesn't matter what it's made of. You have it, so you know exactly how it sounds, regardless. Don't worry about the specs. Just worry about what it actually sounds like.

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Yeah I can imagine it not sounding the best in basswood. Specifically cheap basswood.

Now mahogany, that's another story!

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: dimebucker + basswood guitar sounds bad...

Fortunately, it doesn't matter what it's made of. You have it, so you know exactly how it sounds, regardless. Don't worry about the specs. Just worry about what it actually sounds like.

A LOT of people aren't fortunate enough to play an instrument before buying one you know. A lot of times they have to be ordered for the customer if they aren't in stock, which involves paying for the instrument to have it sent. Or just straight through online dealers like sam ash etc. So there is a large group of people who buy instruments without hearing what they sound like, and in that event the specs are important for determining the sound, the weight, the overall value of the instrument. There's NO excuse.