Re: Disappointed with Skinner Bursts- Maybe the amp? Guru thoughts?
Received back the Skinnerburst bridge from Arwin and SD CS. They wanted to install an A5 for me to try but I requested an A8 be installed first. So I have been playing the exact guitar with a SH-5 installed in the bridge while the Skinner was out for evaluation at SDCS. That was of course a powerful setup, and as I may have stated before still was a great combo with the Skinner A3 neck. In fact if the eval/repair/re-magnet didn't work out I was prepared to leave the SH-5 in permanently and use the Skinner bridge elsewhere as a neck pickup.
So as not to get ear blindness I played the guitar this morning with the SH-5/Skinner neck a bunch. I also played another 2 of my LP's to taste test, and agreed the SH-5 combo was indeed a beautiful sounding setup in this guitar, very punchy PAF tones and the ability to go "over the top" with the volume knob, into high gain metal territory (bridge).
Installed the Skinner8 bridge quickly afterwards and plugged in amp still set at all the same settings.
Now the bridge Skinner8 has a ton of volume which It barely had prior. The Vol knob can go all the way down to 2 before sound rolls off completely. Prior with A3 it was around Vol 4-5 and the guitar was mouse farts.
The tone knob now has extreme effect on tone, crisp immediate highs and meaty mids can be achieved anywhere from 10-4 by just rolling the tone knob, the low or bottom never changes really with tone sweep.
Overall change: It's now in the category of my SDCS Pearly Gates Custom Shop pickup (BFG Pearly) bridge. I can plug in guitars and A/B them side by side and they deliver the same kind of grind, the Pearly has a bit more "sizzle" (low mids presence) while the Skinner8 has a bit more "bite", (as in high mids Van Halen-ish bite). The overall tone can go from sweet PAF at Vol 5 to snarly PAF-ish metal tone (aka SH-5 Custom?) at Vol 10.
There is definitely no lack of volume or drive anymore. Have I defeated the entire concept of the JB Skinnerburst pickup set? Most likely in this bridge position...yes. The neck is the same and that is one sweet sounding pickup. The bridge now is HOT and that is really fine by me. I have other guitars with PAF-clone types, so I'm not missing anything.
What is interesting to me is that I do have other "PAF" replicas (none A3) in A2/A4/A5 varieties and none ever were as "weak" and non-dynamic this bridge was with the A3. All my other guitars with the PAF's deliver. Not this one IN MY OPINION.
Probably the A5 magnet swap or a UOA5 would have been the middle of the road upgrade for my needs, the A8 is very strong, but coming from the temporary SH-5 slave that was in the guitar its actually the right decision for me for this particular Les Paul.
of note: This video is an excellent representation of how the Skinner8 now performs, the tones are nearly identical to his bridge A8 swap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz408vEBuNI
Received back the Skinnerburst bridge from Arwin and SD CS. They wanted to install an A5 for me to try but I requested an A8 be installed first. So I have been playing the exact guitar with a SH-5 installed in the bridge while the Skinner was out for evaluation at SDCS. That was of course a powerful setup, and as I may have stated before still was a great combo with the Skinner A3 neck. In fact if the eval/repair/re-magnet didn't work out I was prepared to leave the SH-5 in permanently and use the Skinner bridge elsewhere as a neck pickup.
So as not to get ear blindness I played the guitar this morning with the SH-5/Skinner neck a bunch. I also played another 2 of my LP's to taste test, and agreed the SH-5 combo was indeed a beautiful sounding setup in this guitar, very punchy PAF tones and the ability to go "over the top" with the volume knob, into high gain metal territory (bridge).
Installed the Skinner8 bridge quickly afterwards and plugged in amp still set at all the same settings.
Now the bridge Skinner8 has a ton of volume which It barely had prior. The Vol knob can go all the way down to 2 before sound rolls off completely. Prior with A3 it was around Vol 4-5 and the guitar was mouse farts.
The tone knob now has extreme effect on tone, crisp immediate highs and meaty mids can be achieved anywhere from 10-4 by just rolling the tone knob, the low or bottom never changes really with tone sweep.
Overall change: It's now in the category of my SDCS Pearly Gates Custom Shop pickup (BFG Pearly) bridge. I can plug in guitars and A/B them side by side and they deliver the same kind of grind, the Pearly has a bit more "sizzle" (low mids presence) while the Skinner8 has a bit more "bite", (as in high mids Van Halen-ish bite). The overall tone can go from sweet PAF at Vol 5 to snarly PAF-ish metal tone (aka SH-5 Custom?) at Vol 10.
There is definitely no lack of volume or drive anymore. Have I defeated the entire concept of the JB Skinnerburst pickup set? Most likely in this bridge position...yes. The neck is the same and that is one sweet sounding pickup. The bridge now is HOT and that is really fine by me. I have other guitars with PAF-clone types, so I'm not missing anything.
What is interesting to me is that I do have other "PAF" replicas (none A3) in A2/A4/A5 varieties and none ever were as "weak" and non-dynamic this bridge was with the A3. All my other guitars with the PAF's deliver. Not this one IN MY OPINION.
Probably the A5 magnet swap or a UOA5 would have been the middle of the road upgrade for my needs, the A8 is very strong, but coming from the temporary SH-5 slave that was in the guitar its actually the right decision for me for this particular Les Paul.
of note: This video is an excellent representation of how the Skinner8 now performs, the tones are nearly identical to his bridge A8 swap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz408vEBuNI
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