Duncan Distortion Neck with 1 Meg pot(s) - Try it!

[Rex_Rocker]

As you know, I have been struggling to find the right hot neck pickup to match with the hot bridge pickups that I'm using. I dropped a Duncan Distortion Neck SH-6N (SH-7) on my Gibson Les Paul to match with a 500T in the bridge.

I always knew I liked the pickup overall, but I wasn't 100% happy with it. It has a really nice fat liquid sound under high-gain for leads high up the neck, but clean, it was kinda dull and lifeless. I also felt the balance was slightly off (EQ-wise) with the 500T since the 500T is so grindy and cutting. I like fat neck pickups way better than tinny wiry ones, but flipping the switch almost felt like swapping guitars altogether.

So I ordered a 1 Meg volume pot for it. I don't use/like tone knobs, so I didn't bother. Before, I had the 500T running on a single 250K volume knob and the DDN on a 500K pot. I installed it today, and I feel like it really brought the DDN to life! The cleans became chimier and overall more lively. Now I feel it took on almost like a passive EMG 60 vibe where it doesn't sound like a vintage-spec pickup, but it sounds like a nice jangly pickup perfect for those chorus-y Metallica-ish kinda cleans that I like. I was concerned the distorted tones would take a hit for the worse, but not really. They did became a bit brighter and the pick attack became a tiny bit more upfront (which I don't normally dig on neck pickups), but it actually sounds better in context with the 500T. Flipping the switch mid solo works extremely well now.

Keep in mind I'm using it with the 500T, not the Duncan Distortion Bridge, which is what most people will use it with. The 500T IME is more attacky and more upper-middy aggressive than the Distortion Bridge, but I'm sure it will work with a Distortion Bridge as well because I have my 500T with a 250K to tone it down a little. With 500K pot(s), the Distortion Bridge would work very well.

So... my recommendation is for everyone to try the Distortion Neck if you thought it sounds too sterile and/or lifeless for clean tones.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

This is the guitar.

 

[skelt101]

What taper did you go with, Rex Rocker ?

 

[skelt101]

How does it react to volume changes? It seems like some 1 meg pots behave like On/Off switches…

 

[Rex_Rocker]

What taper did you go with, Rex Rocker ?

Audio taper.

TBH, I never turn the volume knobs halfway, LOL. It's either on or off for me.

But I'll check today and let you know how it works.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

How does it react to volume changes? It seems like some 1 meg pots behave like On/Off switches…

Just tried it. Seems to work fine? My bridge volume (250K) is also audio taper. Don't notice much of a difference in how they respond.

I will admit, though, I don't do volume knob rolling mid song like ever. I don't think I ever will. It doesn't work particularly well with my noise gate. I do like setting up the volume on the neck pickup to be clean-ish on a distorted channel to be able to flick between full-on aggression on the bridge to a clean-ish tone on the neck. That is fun. But that's as far as playing with my volumes ever will get, so I'm not as demanding as people who actually play with the volumes are.

 

[Chistopher]

If rolling the volume back doesn't work well with your noise gate, there is something wrong with your rig. Even if you are using it for a staccato effect rather than blocking noise, the sensitivity shouldn't have to be low enough to where it messes with your sound when you are playing.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

If rolling the volume back doesn't work well with your noise gate, there is something wrong with your rig. Even if you are using it for a staccato effect rather than blocking noise, the sensitivity shouldn't have to be low enough to where it messes with your sound when you are playing.

It doesn't mess with my sound while I'm playing. I didn't say that. But rolling volume down during playing is not part of my playing. I can roll my volume down to 5 or 6 (out of 10) if I really want to, and it still works fine. But a gate has to be set to a threshold, and I like my gates pretty tight.

Either way, my rig's noise levels (without a gate) are fine. They're not any higher than they've been in the past. I'm just not interested in setting up my gates to where rolling down the volume to 1 or 2 still works. I don't see why I should when I can clean up my rig by other means like switching channels/presets (better) or adding a volume/pad after the gate (if I want to get that rolled off volume vibe to my sound).