Re: how to dialing new pickups?!?!
I have semi-hollow body (SA2000) that is stock. One reason it is stock is that you just can't get to anything. I love the guitar ... luckily ... the way it is. You may not be able to do the things I done to my solid bodies ... because you can't get to the parts easily. This is also probably more than you want to do ... but it's information.
For instance: I've been working on a nice mahogany solid body Washburn. I want a PAF style tone for slide ... I'm shooting for Derek Trucks in the project ... got to have a high standard to shoot for ... right?
First I put on a set of 490R/498T Gibson SG Standards that I already had laying around. I did the following ... got pretty good on the 498T ... but could not get the mud out of the 490R at the same time. But still not what I wanted so this weekend ... I received set of Alnico II Pro's and began the same process. They sent me two neck pickups ... so I started on the neck. I need to send the other back ... I think. However, The 498T might actually work in the bridge with the AP2 in the neck. But anyway ... this is what I do:
First and biggest is pot values (usually I know the neighborhood that I'm wanting to be in ... good quality 500k pots work for me ... I measure the pots ... put the highest in neck volume ... lowest in bridge volume ... next highest in neck tone ... next lowest in bridge tone. (Assuming they are all ... this time mine were 560k 540k 540k 520k). This causes the most change if they are not in the right neighborhood, I don't think you can ever get there ... no matter what you do.
Next: I place the pickup height where I normally run them in other guitars ... I'm not sure how high but the bridge is closer than the neck. But it gives me a start from where I usually play.
Next: This gets me to the right street in the neighborhood. I take the tone caps out of the guitar and attach alligator clips to the pot and replace each pot value. I use the orange drop (better than others to my ear) caps on each pickups (less bassy ... .015uf, .022uf,.033uf, .047uf ... more bassy). I attach each to the bridge pickup until I find what I want ... I leave it attached. Then I do the same on the neck. Then I see if I'm satisfied with what they do together. Solder in the caps I chose.
Next: Check each pickup ... does sound get too bassy when you roll of the volume ... mine usually do. I try a .01uf or .680pf cap with a 220k resisitor "treble bleed" on the volume pot ... again with alligator clips ... bridge then neck. The caps alone can be too thin ... the resistors sort of add back bass to taste. You can vary these resistors ... (100k to 300k range). It usually sounds better too me to add them. Remember ... this only affects how the guitar sounds when you roll off the volume. At full volumes, there is no effect. So now I'm on the right street ... at full volume or rolled off.
Next: Now I'm pretty close. Before I tweak the poles, I try to get the highest and lowest strings to do what I want with the height adjustment. Pickup height makes a big differerence on overtones. I usually want the high strings to be thick ... usually closer than the low stings. I usually want the low strings a bit further away so that they don't get muddy. Generally, I do the neck first ... then the bridge ... I seem to get them balanced with each other better that way.
Next: Individual pole piece height ... high strings balanced first to the high E ... low balanced to low E. Usually the 1st string remains close to flat ... 2nd-3rd-4th come up a bit and 5th-6th stay flat. Usually that's the way it works out for me.
I've found this is a tremendous pain ... but I like the tone when I'm done ... or at least I'm getting the best tone (to my taste) that I can get out of that pickup. I can move on knowing I did all I could with that pickup.
