Got my Invaders

[Natman]

Custom Production Floor Sh-8 set came in today. Unfortunately, the guitar's not done being built yet so I can't try them out. (It's gonna be hard ash w. spalted maple top, Wilkinson wraparound bridge) Got a couple of questions for anyone who isn't tired of my incessant Invader talk:

1) are there 3 ceramic magnets on the Neck Invader as well? Or am I seeing black plastic spacers?

2) Because I'm anticipating the muddy cleans, I intend to use the following wiring:

500k Volume w. the 0.001 mF cap to retain highs
No Tone pot -replace with a Lawrence Q-Filter

3) About the magnets: would I get some of the benefits of Alnico if I remove the middle ceramic mag, but leave the outer 2 smaller ones and Alnico in the middle? (never heard ceramic pups that I liked)

4) Is the coil split, sries, parallel useful on Invaders?

Thanks very much for putting up with me! Any input is really helpful!

 

[Natman]

Re: Got my Invaders

One more thing, just mentioning it because it seems odd: I have one of the wires (white) under the tape, which looks like it is right up against the coil. Any idea why? That doesn't seem normal... thx

 

[Artie]

Re: Got my Invaders

500k Volume w. the 0.001 mF cap to retain highs
No Tone pot -replace with a Lawrence Q-Filter

I don't think the Q-Filter replaces the tone control, but augments it. From what I've read, you'll still need the tone pot in order to make the filter work.

Again, just going from what I've read. I am curious as to how well it works though.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Got my Invaders

Check neck Invader for capacitor -- they come with one built in to shunt the highs to ground to keep it from sounding shrill. A good idea in theory but I thought it sounded better without the cap.

 

[Telesexual]

Re: Got my Invaders

Let us know how it sounds, Ive contiplated getting and invader for ever, not really my style just look bad ass. I believe simply bypassing the tone control should brighten things up.

 

[Natman]

Re: Got my Invaders

I think they look cool too, and they *could* be a little like Filtertrons with the 12 screw poles if I can clean them up some. Gonna take the cap out for sure, but I'm very concerned about the ceramic mags. I have to get great cleans out of these pickups! I will probably go all out and try everything mentioned above, it's just going to take time. I figure it can't hurt to ask here what to expect since lots of guys have tinkered with their Duncans. I have magnets coming too: A2, 3, 4, 5 and 8. So who has used the Q-filter?

 

[Danglin' Fury]

Re: Got my Invaders

I own an Invader bridge and when I first installed it, it sounded way muddy. I had a .047 micro farad cap on the tone pot so I replaced it with a ceramic disk 2200 pico farad cap and it sounded f***ing amazing! No mud at all and if you adjust the treble you will have plenty of highs.