Full Shred Pole Piece & Magnet Swap
- Thread starter 10Terp
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Wow, thank you for all of the replies and information! It's a lot to go through. My magnets and pole pieces have arrived, so I'm going to play around with them for a little bit. I do have a feeling I won't be happy with it no matter what I do, but we'll see!
I listened to the SD metal pickup comparison video over and over and I really like the sound of the Alterative 8! I will report back with my final decision.
I listened to the SD metal pickup comparison video over and over and I really like the sound of the Alterative 8! I will report back with my final decision.
Juanhanglo
Active member
I can attest to this. Lol.
The attack being what it is, I can go down to 1 or 2 (before the mid hump thing happens) and still get clarity.
Teleplayer
Active member
Do you like Dimarzio pickups like AT-1 or Tone Zone? How about Suhr SSH+, if you have played one? I’m wondering where the 100% success marker will be.
Teleplayer
Active member
I expect this guitar has the APH-1 with hex screw poles in the neck. Full shred with A2 magnet seems like a match, at least on paper.
Hi all. Reporting back in. I swapped out the bridge side row of hex heads for filisters, which cut the highs a little bit. I then swapped in an A2 magnet and replace the remaining row of hex heads with filisters. The bridge pickup is WAY warmer now. It sounds like my PRS 59/09s in my C24. It would sound great for classic rock, but not quite what I'm looking for out of it. This combo also seems to have really cut the bass out of positions 3 and 4 of the Charvel (Bridge side coil of HB/Neck single coil; Inner HB coil and middle single coil) - these positions honestly sound pretty terrible now.
I'm going to try the A8 magnet and ceramic magnet as well. Going to try to get some sound clips posted for posterity.
Otherwise I think I might order a Distortion of Alternative 8.
I'm going to try the A8 magnet and ceramic magnet as well. Going to try to get some sound clips posted for posterity.
Otherwise I think I might order a Distortion of Alternative 8.
freefrog
Well-known member
If you're now satisfied with the bridge PU in itself, it might be interesting to reverse its magnet while swapping its ground / lead wires : it would connect bridge single coil to midddle SC and Inner HB coil with neck SC, which might improve the sound in these specific wiring configurations (I know that I'd avoid to have the inner coil of a bridge HB connected with a middle pickup, personally: these coils are to close to each other to give a convincing Strat like comb filtering IME/IMO. YMMV).
Not surprised by the result of your mag + poles swapping otherwise. But if you have an A8 and an itch to hear what it sounds like in this specific case, there's no reason not to try it too. ;-) Let us know the results of your experiments.
Teleplayer
Active member
Might have been better to leave the 1/2” hex screws in the coil towards the neck. Too much eddy current loss and overall weaker magnetic field from the filisters and A2 magnet won’t be good for coil split tones.
Juanhanglo
Active member
Did you try the all filisters with a5?
My all filister set splits very well and sounds really cool split to inner coils. Sorta halfway between a strats 2 and 4 positions. Less bloated than 2 and less lucky than 4.
I'd try a5 with all filisters before the a8 and ceramic.
There is also rca5, uoa5, long mags, short mags, fully charged, partially charged, etc.
The rule of thumb that I learned was slugs add a scooped eq and adj poles are more mid oriented. In the most simplified terms.
It makes sense why the full shred has no bass and less highs with the double filisters compared to a custom 5 where it is Slug/pole.
I think bathe short poles increase the attack and decrease the eddy currents, which adds in the high end but with that fast attack on top.
I wonder what short filisters would do?
What a great pickup.
Hi all. Thanks for all the replies!
So I recorded a few riffs of the Full Shred w/ A2 and A8 magnets and 1x hex (neck side) and 1x fillister (bridge side). Please excuse the poor playing; I'm coming back to guitar after a decade-long hiatus, but it should give you an idea.
Signal chain: DK24 -> FocusRite Scarlet Solo -> Reaper w/ NeuralDSP Archetype Petrucci on "Chugg Petrucci" preset. Hope you don't mind getting pulled under. From 0:00 to 1:00 is the A2 and 1:00 to the end is the A8.
drive.google.com
All this being said...I liked the A8, but I wound up buying a Custom and I like it wayyyy better.
So I recorded a few riffs of the Full Shred w/ A2 and A8 magnets and 1x hex (neck side) and 1x fillister (bridge side). Please excuse the poor playing; I'm coming back to guitar after a decade-long hiatus, but it should give you an idea.
Signal chain: DK24 -> FocusRite Scarlet Solo -> Reaper w/ NeuralDSP Archetype Petrucci on "Chugg Petrucci" preset. Hope you don't mind getting pulled under. From 0:00 to 1:00 is the A2 and 1:00 to the end is the A8.
Alnico Comparisons.wav
drive.google.com
All this being said...I liked the A8, but I wound up buying a Custom and I like it wayyyy better.
Teleplayer
Active member
Thanks for the demo. From listening to your sample, it sounded like it was mostly successful. I liked the A2 version personally.
freefrog
Well-known member
Yeah, thx for the demo. Playing is not "poor" to me. Which version do your prefer?
Being an anal old fart, I've recorded the tracks through Audacity and displayed the frequency response of each option, just to check visually what was going on.
The first half of the clip has globally a slightly bassier response with louder fundamental notes / weaker harmonics while there are deeper narrow dips in the mids in the second parts. It's compatible with what one can expect from A2 and A8 respectively.
...BUT... considered as a whole, the initial part of the clip is louder and the second half shows a peak in the low mids (@ 250hz)... Less expected from the alloys supposedly involved.
Questions of height settings (of the pickup, of the poles)? Magnetic "idiosyncrasy" of the bars used?
Anyway, it confirms that empirical results don't necessarily reflect theory. That's why I like to forget about alloys when I swap mags.
I'd still be curious to measure inductance and magnetic flux with the magnets in question here...
Being an anal old fart, I've recorded the tracks through Audacity and displayed the frequency response of each option, just to check visually what was going on.
The first half of the clip has globally a slightly bassier response with louder fundamental notes / weaker harmonics while there are deeper narrow dips in the mids in the second parts. It's compatible with what one can expect from A2 and A8 respectively.
...BUT... considered as a whole, the initial part of the clip is louder and the second half shows a peak in the low mids (@ 250hz)... Less expected from the alloys supposedly involved.
Questions of height settings (of the pickup, of the poles)? Magnetic "idiosyncrasy" of the bars used?
Anyway, it confirms that empirical results don't necessarily reflect theory. That's why I like to forget about alloys when I swap mags.
I'd still be curious to measure inductance and magnetic flux with the magnets in question here...
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
I liked A2 better too. I almost feel like A8 sounded a bit more Custom-y and A2 sounded a bit more JB-y, loosely speaking. Not surprising that you ended up with a Custom if you liked A8 better.
