Re: Listen to these 4 bridge pickups and tell me what you think
I made some notes since this post and realized that there is a major flaw in this comparison. It was set up as a very fairly as the amp settings were unchanged, no post-eq added, and all of the guitar used were alder American standard stratocasters. However, the output of the pickups made a big difference. Here are some things that I noted:
* Here are the pickups ordered from lowest to highest output: 2, 1, 4, 3 - So pickup 3 and 4 are the hottest of the bunch and drive the amp the hardest.
* Pickup 2 is the most dynamic and sensitive to pick attack. I had to pick harder to get it to sound as gainy as the rest of the pickups.
* Pickup 1 may be installed backwards, but I don't know for sure.
* I used a Goldfinger 90 on the 70's setting which is very honky to begin with. In this mode, it's essentially a vintage Marshall Plexi. I also have the gain EQ set to the fattest setting. The three band EQ (1 to 12) was set to T:5, M:7, B:6, P:6; so there is a slight mid hump added and the treble is tamed. It compliments some of the pickups better than others. For instance, pickup 3 has a high mid concentration so the amp settings fill in the lower mids and make it sound fuller. Pickup 2 has a ton of low mids so the amp settings make it sound even fatter and honkier. Pickups 1 and 4 are the most bassy, but the bass is set kind of neutral so the bass is somewhat tamed.
* I went through the process again, but changed a few variables. First, I adjusted the gain slightly for each pickup. Then set the amp EQ flat. I also changed the gain structure to a more neutral setting. The results, to my ears, were much more accurate representations of each pickup.
* Initially, I setup the amp and mic using the guitar with pickup 3 so I think the settings complimented that pickup but weren't optimal for the other pickups. I think this was the basic flaw in my test. Pickup 1 is the most balanced of them all so I probably should have used that one to set up the recording.
The variable changes are minimal, nothing drastic. I'm using very minor tweaks in gain to bring out the qualities of each pickup, give them a similar amount of volume, and make them seem equal in terms of gain in order to compensate for differences in output. I set the amp EQ to more neutral settings so that the natural EQ of each pickup can stand out more and not let the amp compensate or add to it very much.
I will post back some revised audio soon.
