Well, after deciding to put up my PAF Pro and FRED last night in the trading post because neither were really doing it for me in the mongrel (alder dual HB tele body, single 500K vol pot, gibson 3-way toggle, strat hardtail bridge and neck), I decided to do a couple things.
First was to mess with the pickup height of the PAF Pro in the neck. I got it to sounding much better by raising the pickup up a couple turns and raising the polepieces about half a turn. Fat, articulate, organic, yet has some cut. Responds well to picking dynamics. I knew there was a reason I liked this in the strat I sold last year. Problem is, the FRED sounded anemic by comparison, and this is with the FRED as close to the strings as I could get away with.
So the second thing I did was ask myself "what would Blueman335 do?" Easy! Magnet swap. So I grabbed the first magnet I had in the parts drawer; a ceramic magnet I pulled out of a Duncan Custom when I decided to turn it into a Custom 8.
A couple things about this particular FRED. It seems to be an older one, as the baseplate screws are slotted rather than philips head. Also, it has paper tape on it rather than the cloth tape Dimarzio usually uses. This leads me to believe that at some point it's had a magnet swap.
I loosened the baseplate screws and with almost no effort at all, the magnet slid right out, which is the 2nd thing that leads me to think it had been magnet swapped at some point. No markings on the magnet, so I can only assume it's the stock A5.
Popped the ceramic in it, strung 'er back up and decided to see what happened. Gained some oomph and sounded a little more pissed off than before-- which are two things I wanted to gain from the swap. It's slightly harsher now, which is to be expected-- the typical "ceramic-ness". Seems to have gained some qualities of both a Super Distortion (that swell after hitting a big barre chord) and the Evolution (tight, more compressed), but still cleans up really well since the FRED's not wound that hot too begin with.
I like the change-- an improvement for me in this particular guitar over the stock (?) magnet.
Since I'm at home sick today and have the time, I'm thinking of putting the ceramic magnet back in the Custom and putting the A8 in the FRED instead. I liked what the A8 did for the ceramic Custom, so it should provide the same improvements to the "FRED C".
First was to mess with the pickup height of the PAF Pro in the neck. I got it to sounding much better by raising the pickup up a couple turns and raising the polepieces about half a turn. Fat, articulate, organic, yet has some cut. Responds well to picking dynamics. I knew there was a reason I liked this in the strat I sold last year. Problem is, the FRED sounded anemic by comparison, and this is with the FRED as close to the strings as I could get away with.
So the second thing I did was ask myself "what would Blueman335 do?" Easy! Magnet swap. So I grabbed the first magnet I had in the parts drawer; a ceramic magnet I pulled out of a Duncan Custom when I decided to turn it into a Custom 8.
A couple things about this particular FRED. It seems to be an older one, as the baseplate screws are slotted rather than philips head. Also, it has paper tape on it rather than the cloth tape Dimarzio usually uses. This leads me to believe that at some point it's had a magnet swap.
I loosened the baseplate screws and with almost no effort at all, the magnet slid right out, which is the 2nd thing that leads me to think it had been magnet swapped at some point. No markings on the magnet, so I can only assume it's the stock A5.
Popped the ceramic in it, strung 'er back up and decided to see what happened. Gained some oomph and sounded a little more pissed off than before-- which are two things I wanted to gain from the swap. It's slightly harsher now, which is to be expected-- the typical "ceramic-ness". Seems to have gained some qualities of both a Super Distortion (that swell after hitting a big barre chord) and the Evolution (tight, more compressed), but still cleans up really well since the FRED's not wound that hot too begin with.
I like the change-- an improvement for me in this particular guitar over the stock (?) magnet.
Since I'm at home sick today and have the time, I'm thinking of putting the ceramic magnet back in the Custom and putting the A8 in the FRED instead. I liked what the A8 did for the ceramic Custom, so it should provide the same improvements to the "FRED C".
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