Entwistle Pickups?

Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I've just got a pair of Entwistle HVX pickups, neck and bridge. I've only tried the bridge pickup so far and seems to be reminiscent of the Screamin' Demon pickup. The differences are the HVX has more presence, slightly less mid range and is more forgiving. This might be partly due to the guitar, an Ibanez GSA60 having an Agathis body, though it does still seem to have some of the half cocked wah sound of the Screamin' Demon. I'm installing the neck pickup into and RG370DX and will report back later.
 
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Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I bought a pair of HDN (High Defintion Neodymium) pickups last year. They sounded pretty good in my Dinky. Very tight & focussed (maybe a bit too much so) but with a "roundness" to individual notes & amazing note separation. The bass was'nt too deep but it was pretty punchy & the highs and mids were warm/round ...yet extremely focussed. They sounded pretty good clean (though slightly thin...but not shrill or tinny) & have practically no noise or fizz even with extreme gain..

Having said that the lack of deep bass with high gain got to me eventually and I swapped the bridge in the Dinky for a Lace Alumitone Deathbucker, which sounds awesome in there.

Kind of digressing here a bit but...

I ended up opening the HDN bridge pup up to use the neodymium magnet for an old Invader I had in the bridge of my Basswood RG (I kept the 2 smaller ceramic magnets at the sides in there) ...& that really made a huge (and very positive) difference to the Invader. Tightned the lows & rounded out/thickened the highs...giving them much more "presence" & a far sweeter sound, without really altering the overall EQ of the pickup. It sustains for hours, sounds as chunky as ever but is way tighter/more defined & really sings and screams for leads as well now...can't believe how awesome it sounds :)
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I looked at the Neodymium magnet pickups but decided they might be a bit to hot for me. They do look very interesting though, pretty much all of the Entwistle pickups seem to have the option of coming with Neodymium magnets now, and by all accounts there are more to come.

I fitted the HVX neck pup into my RG370DX and it's a vast improvment over the INF pups. It sounds much clearer and more like a hot PAF. I was going to put a PAF Joe in the guitar but I think i'll stick with the HVX and test drive it for a month or two. I have to say i'm really impressed by the pickups, especially for the price, I only paid £25 for the pair on Ebay as no one else bid on them! They don't look cheaply made and sound every bit as good as the name brands I have in my other guitars!:bigthumb:
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

Just to add, I just used the split coil position from the neck to middle postion, veery nice indeed. :)
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I'm necroing this thread cause I'm really curious.

The design philosophy is quite interesting. Probably one of the most interesting design features is the double row of screws on most their pickups, which is pretty uncommon in pickups ( I bet the Darkstar has a little more that a bit of Dirty Fingers DNA in it).

They seem to sound pretty good. Not to mention they're dirt cheap. Any new users of these pickups?
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I got a Darkstar used but I haven't installed it on anything yet. Dominus and Jerry have used them.
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

Yup, I tried most of them, liked all of them, then went active for a bit. Right now I've got a huge pile of Duncans and Dimarzios, but I'd definitely go back to Entwistles if these don't do it for me.


pickups.jpg



(Actually have a few more than when this pic was taken)
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I have at least some experience with Entwistle PU's.

First, I wanted to improve the sound of Ibanez RG270. The stock Powersound PU's were muddy. I replaced humbuckers with set of X2 leaving middle single coil stock. The sound had more treble but still wasn't what I was looking for. Then I wanted to experiment with neodymium magnets. I installed pair of HDN humbuckers together with XS62N single coil. What I observed is that the clean sound was very interesting - deep and soft, but not muddy, with enough top end to make it articulate. DarkStar-ND have even more top end. But finally I decided to replace neodymium-based pickups with Nemesis AFG humbuckers and XS62. These humbuckers have a mix of AlNiCo 5 and ceramic magnets, while XS62 is ceramic-based. As I have something like Triple Shots (using rotary 4-pos. switches), I found that the poles coils of Nemesis AFG are considerably weaker than the blade ones. This pickup set gives warm but powerful sound in humbucker mode and sharp when humbucker or its part is engaged with middle single coil. I tested Nemesis AFG set and "regular" Nemesis set in Epiphone Explorer but I didn't like it as much as in Ibanez.

I also installed a set of HV58 in Epiphone Les Paul. These pickups are unpotted and they sound very nice clean and crunched, but, as the Entwistle web page says, with hi gain amp model they squeal. I think it can be reduced with proper EQ setting. To my ear, these PU's are nice for e.g. blues.

I have HV-M neck mini humbucker in Epiphone Nighthawk. It has a warm, fat tone, similar to the stock one, but with more top end. I think it can be a good companion to SH-4 that I installed in this Nighthawk today.
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I installed a HDN in one of my tester guitars this week and I have to say I'm very impressed with it. After listening to the samples on youtube I came to the conclusion before I installed it that it would be a bit brighter than I wanted and the bass was a bit too loose for my taste which is common with long polepieces. So I swapped the nickle-steel baseplate with a brass baseplate and the long poles with shortened poles. The bass tightened up and the brass baseplate focused the response of the pickup on the midrange, rather than the upper midrange and treble. These pickups have great clarity and superb sustain.
 
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Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I will be installing a set of X2's and a Nemesis in a 3hb tele I am trying to finish. They will all be set up in triple shots with a 5 way switch.
I will comment once it is done.
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I installed a XS62N in the neck of my Tele from a set of 3 I bought from Jerry last week and I am thoroughly impressed with this pickup! These things are as thick, smooth and sweet as a butterscotch milkshake. The neodymium magnets and the construction style give it P90 qualities while still retaining a little strat cluck. The only downside I can see with this pickup is like the Dimarzio SDS-1 they are noisy. I put a RFI shield around the coils and that helped a little.
 
Re: Entwistle Pickups?

I've got a Nemesis set in a guitar right now. I plan on selling the guitar but keeping the pickups. :D

Also have a few more in a bin that will get used sometime soon.
 
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