Humbucker dilemma

W

WDeeGee

New member
Hi folks!

Having a bit of a HB dilemma here. I have a guitar here with decent stock pickups. I love the way they're voiced, but they're not perfect, highs are a bit sharp, not overly fizzy, but that harsh brightness run-of-the-mill pups have when distorted.

As much as I love Duncans, I don't want my every axe to have the Duncan sound. So, my question is this;

Would it suffice to replace the pole screws to tame that harshness a bit? Saw this here, also, not sure if this is the right alloy?

Thx
 
You might be better off changing the pot values in your volume and tone controls to a lower value. Ie go from 500k to 250k.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
 
What's not working when you roll back the tone knob?

If it's too dark, or not quite right in the mids you might try changing the cap values to something smaller. Go from .047uF or .033 to a .022 or a .015. Maybe even .010. The lower values will roll off the highest highs without dipping into the mids and making things sound overly dark.
 
Anything you change has the potential to alter the sound. Will it be enough and in the right direction? Who knows, that is a deep dive often times. If you know your guitars natural attributes and can find a pickup that will give you your desired outcome (regardless of who makes it) I would go that route.

What is the guitar and its woods and what sound are you after? I can provide options for you if you can get me that info.
 
SD has a pretty wide range of EQ in their humbuckers, not to mention the many magnet swap variations. That being said, don't be afraid of your guitar's tone knob or your amp's tone controls.
 
For fizz/bright/harshness, I would roll the tone off. Or try wiring a vary small value cap in parallel, if you don't have a tone control. You'll have to experiment with what value. Other possible methods are: use a higher capacitance cable, or an Ernie Ball Volume pedal (famous for top end suck, but in your case might be the answer).

IME changing pole alloy won't do much to the extreme fizzy high end of a pickup. Pole pieces did more to the mids and bottom end in my experiments so far. (Maybe others have had a different experience.)

I have to ask: what is 'the Duncan sound'?
WDeeGee said:
... the Duncan sound.
Click to expand...
 
Do you know which magnets are inside those stock humbuckers? Might be ceramic or A5.
In that case a mag swap could sweeten them up nicely.

New pots as suggested above really would be a simpler & easier option though.
Or just putting a 470K resistor across the leads of your bridge volume pot.
Poor man's pot swap - it makes a pickup "see" a 250K pot instead of a 500K.

Lower value tone caps are a great option too - if you're one who makes frequent use of the tone control.
 
Hi folks, the pup has A5 mags. So maybe UA5 is the way to go?

Using the tone knob works fine of course, it's just that at times I like using a very bright, sparkly tone, which you can't achieve unless the tone is all the way up.
And so it highlights the pup's imperfections. Duncans do this very well, and the sparkly highs don't hurt the ears, but these stock pups have a kind of harshness to them that I want to get rid of, though I otherwise really love their voicing.

I read the alloy of the screws and pole pieces makes for mellower hights, not necessarily less highs, that's why I asked.

Anyway, does anyone know what alloy SD uses?
 
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