Fly_with_v
New member
Just wanted to let you know about my magnet swapping experience. This was my first attempt. I have always known it would be easy, but just kind of felt the manufacture made the pickup this way for a reason so why mess with it. I am still not sure I will mess with my newer pickups, but since I have several Ibanez INF and QM's I figured why not. The guitar used for testing the mod is a 97 S540.
I never been a big fan of Dimarzio, I like a lot of music that was made using thier pickups but they never really worked well for me, I tend to be more in Seymour camp. I do have a Super D and PAF Pro I like, EVO's are ok, Norton seemed good but didn't really do what I wanted for a particular guitar. But as I started experimenting with a larger variety of Duncan's and Dimarzio's one common theme emerged, I don't usually like ceramic magnet pickups. I actually usually end up with Alnico II pickups, and occassionally Alnico 5's, but rarely cermics.
So I was going to buy some magnets to experiment with, specifically a couple A2's and A5's, but really didn't care to spend the few bucks with no good results. Then I realized I have a INF with an A5 so why not try that.
First I tried swapping the A5 for the ceramic in the QM2. I thought this would remove some ceramic grit and lower the output a bit. Well it did but the result was a thin bright sounding pickup. I was not impressed at all and immediately put the ceramic back in. Before the mod I kind of liked the QM2, not my favorite by any means but usable.
I felt like this was just a failure and it kind of turned me off to the whole mag swap idea. But I still was not completely satisfied with the QM2 in the S540. Ok I will just put the an IBZ/USA F2 in the S540, I really like the F2. Well that was OK but not really diggin it in this guitar, just OK.
Then I remembered LonePhantom's F2 mag swap. Then I thought "what about the half air mod?" I really like the F2 and really did not want to mod it, but hell you only live once and it was just gathering dust.
So I did both the A5 swap and the Half Air mod. WOW! It did exactly what I wanted on this pickup. Removed the ceramic grit, lowered the output even more while still remaining very close to the original tone. Love it, perfect for what I wanted.
I have been plaing these pickup for several weeks. I have always planned on replacing the pickups in this guitar with either a PATB, an EVH, or something along those lines. I have the money waiting to buy, but I just can't do it. The F2 now gives me a very,very good early EVH sound which is what I was really looking for. The PATB still calls at me, but I just dont see anything improving over this modded pickup. Thank you to everyone for the tutorials and encouragment.
I never been a big fan of Dimarzio, I like a lot of music that was made using thier pickups but they never really worked well for me, I tend to be more in Seymour camp. I do have a Super D and PAF Pro I like, EVO's are ok, Norton seemed good but didn't really do what I wanted for a particular guitar. But as I started experimenting with a larger variety of Duncan's and Dimarzio's one common theme emerged, I don't usually like ceramic magnet pickups. I actually usually end up with Alnico II pickups, and occassionally Alnico 5's, but rarely cermics.
So I was going to buy some magnets to experiment with, specifically a couple A2's and A5's, but really didn't care to spend the few bucks with no good results. Then I realized I have a INF with an A5 so why not try that.
First I tried swapping the A5 for the ceramic in the QM2. I thought this would remove some ceramic grit and lower the output a bit. Well it did but the result was a thin bright sounding pickup. I was not impressed at all and immediately put the ceramic back in. Before the mod I kind of liked the QM2, not my favorite by any means but usable.
I felt like this was just a failure and it kind of turned me off to the whole mag swap idea. But I still was not completely satisfied with the QM2 in the S540. Ok I will just put the an IBZ/USA F2 in the S540, I really like the F2. Well that was OK but not really diggin it in this guitar, just OK.
Then I remembered LonePhantom's F2 mag swap. Then I thought "what about the half air mod?" I really like the F2 and really did not want to mod it, but hell you only live once and it was just gathering dust.
So I did both the A5 swap and the Half Air mod. WOW! It did exactly what I wanted on this pickup. Removed the ceramic grit, lowered the output even more while still remaining very close to the original tone. Love it, perfect for what I wanted.
I have been plaing these pickup for several weeks. I have always planned on replacing the pickups in this guitar with either a PATB, an EVH, or something along those lines. I have the money waiting to buy, but I just can't do it. The F2 now gives me a very,very good early EVH sound which is what I was really looking for. The PATB still calls at me, but I just dont see anything improving over this modded pickup. Thank you to everyone for the tutorials and encouragment.