Ok, this thread really doesn't count as you will see when I get to my proceedures- It's a bit of a hedge that I've used for years to get a ballpark on a pup and I'll share it with eveyone because of the recent Barden thread-
I'm building a p90 mahognay body right now and my prefered pup of choice is the Joe Barden S delux for reasons outlined in other threads- But I can't afford one and expect I will use a cool rails as I have for this role before- Definately not a Joe B sound, but it's a good pup in it's own right-
But there's been so much talk that I orded a 6k little killer this week and it's already here- I will have to mod it to fit and won't have the new guitar ready for a month or so, but here's prelimnary info based on the stupid pet trick that seem to work for me.. ie I aligator the leads and hold it opposite (above the strings) of the pup I am comparing it to-
Yes, this is absolulte cheating, it takes none of the rest of the cirucit into consideration, there's no interaction with wood or hardware, and it is impossible to hold the pup still, so you get extreme tremelo if you keep it up for long- But I've used this trick for 30 years and it's always confirmed the following-
-The pup works
-The overall sound of the pup comes out
-If you are looking at 4 pups and want the brightest, loudest, or darkest, this trick works pretty good.
So with those disclaimers in place, here's the prelimiary input:
1. Design- 4 conductor, SC dual rail- Very well built for $24- Much like old 'caseless' cool rail design- Well taped and easy to access the leads, on in each corner with central 'gromet' on the 'v' section. Looks mush like the Barden S Delux that I'm comparing-
2. Mmetter- Exactly 6 ohm, each coil exactly 3ohms
3. Sound- Considering the above caveats, I was suprised-
Plently of volumn- Seems a bit stronger than the JBardens, but much less than a cool rail as expected- Very quiet, low noise.
Single coil tone- Again considering the caveats, it seemed clean and clear, very similar to bardens, but I only tried them clean.
Hum tone- Here's the surprise- The only thing I've never loved about Jbardens is the full hum sound unless I'm going for hard rock- They get pretty dark and lose the top end, so most of the time my bardens are spin a splited somewhere a bit less than full humbucker-
Again, maybe it was my shaking hand, but the full humbucker little killer sound was obviously less 'dull' than the barden- This is very, very interesting and will be a good place to explore when I get the guitar finsihed, but could very well be the lack of pots and the rest of the circuit.
So I'll give you a real review in a month or so- But I've proved it works, and surpisied to see that it's at least in the ballpark at $24- Maybe I'll end up taking this pup apart to figure out why I like bardens so much cause I'm not taking any bardens apart
Cheers
I'm building a p90 mahognay body right now and my prefered pup of choice is the Joe Barden S delux for reasons outlined in other threads- But I can't afford one and expect I will use a cool rails as I have for this role before- Definately not a Joe B sound, but it's a good pup in it's own right-
But there's been so much talk that I orded a 6k little killer this week and it's already here- I will have to mod it to fit and won't have the new guitar ready for a month or so, but here's prelimnary info based on the stupid pet trick that seem to work for me.. ie I aligator the leads and hold it opposite (above the strings) of the pup I am comparing it to-
Yes, this is absolulte cheating, it takes none of the rest of the cirucit into consideration, there's no interaction with wood or hardware, and it is impossible to hold the pup still, so you get extreme tremelo if you keep it up for long- But I've used this trick for 30 years and it's always confirmed the following-
-The pup works
-The overall sound of the pup comes out
-If you are looking at 4 pups and want the brightest, loudest, or darkest, this trick works pretty good.
So with those disclaimers in place, here's the prelimiary input:
1. Design- 4 conductor, SC dual rail- Very well built for $24- Much like old 'caseless' cool rail design- Well taped and easy to access the leads, on in each corner with central 'gromet' on the 'v' section. Looks mush like the Barden S Delux that I'm comparing-
2. Mmetter- Exactly 6 ohm, each coil exactly 3ohms
3. Sound- Considering the above caveats, I was suprised-
Plently of volumn- Seems a bit stronger than the JBardens, but much less than a cool rail as expected- Very quiet, low noise.
Single coil tone- Again considering the caveats, it seemed clean and clear, very similar to bardens, but I only tried them clean.
Hum tone- Here's the surprise- The only thing I've never loved about Jbardens is the full hum sound unless I'm going for hard rock- They get pretty dark and lose the top end, so most of the time my bardens are spin a splited somewhere a bit less than full humbucker-
Again, maybe it was my shaking hand, but the full humbucker little killer sound was obviously less 'dull' than the barden- This is very, very interesting and will be a good place to explore when I get the guitar finsihed, but could very well be the lack of pots and the rest of the circuit.
So I'll give you a real review in a month or so- But I've proved it works, and surpisied to see that it's at least in the ballpark at $24- Maybe I'll end up taking this pup apart to figure out why I like bardens so much cause I'm not taking any bardens apart
Cheers
