Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sustain?

[evan47]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

You could always try using a graphic equaliser between the guitar and amp.
I recently bought the MXR 10 band eq to give my prs zach myers a more jb-ish voice as I found the stock pups a little bright.
It did it for me and has the advantage of being infinitely adjustable and I can use it with more than one guitar.
I bought the graphic on the understanding that I could return it put the cost towards pups if I was not happy with the result.
Maybe your dealer could do the same for you?

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

That is a really sensible suggestion, so of course I probably won't do it.
I actually ran an eq pedal for years and they are totally underrated. But for reasons I cannot articulate or fully understand I just really like plugging straight into my amp. I guess once I found guitars that sounded good to me that way thanks to higher-output pickups it seemed "right" to me to go straight in.

I really have considered trying the new MXRs but just...haven't. Honestly don't know why?

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

I've had many similar experiences with amps... My Peavy classic 4*10 just doesn't like pedals at all, but is hard to beat for clean and crunch in one amp.

My splawn street rod does well with single coil pups and pedals in the fx loop, but not so good with most humbuckers and pedals.

And my old musicman hd130 loves everyone.. never found a guitar or pedal that doesn't love 130 watts of headroom

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Just bought a nickel-covered SH-5. Will report back once I get it and have a chance to install it. (I have young kids - it may be a while!)

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

It's in there!
Very nice pickup: not too much of anything, reasonable output, good sustain. But...a little underwhelmed. Just not as hard as I expected. More "chang," less "kung"
Balances well with the K500c in the neck, but the V-2 I had before was louder.
I am going to keep it, though, because it responds really well to boost and because it sounds similar to my other two guitars but just different enough to be, you know, different. Most importantly, that odd frequency that was hurting my ears is gone. I'm going to declare victory.

 

[Despair]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

If you want a louder, thicker Custom, swapping in a thick ceramic magnet might be the way to go. Have to fiddle with spacers a bit, though.

Or you could just roll with the different sound.

Typo on the neck pickup, that an L-500C with chrome shield? How do you like that as a neck pickup, given you seemed unenthusiastic about the L-500XL?

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Not a typo, it's a K-500C. Same basic pickup as the L-500 series but they only have three wires: ground, hot, and "vintage," which is a coil tap I believe. Never tried it - just taped it off. I spoke to Becky about it and she says they date back to when Bill lived in Pennsylvania? I had the bridge pickup (a K-500ms) and it had curved blades. I did not ask her why he made the "K" version in the first place.

I like them as neck pickups - I kept the L-500C in my other guitar as well. Nice and clear, good sustain, and the lack of bass works really well in the neck position with my rig. No squeal ever, zero hum, and they sound like a humbucking Strat pickup to my ears. I might like the even 500R better but I have never tried one.

I absolutely love the looks, too! It broke my heart when the 500xl failed to meet my expectations because I would put them in everything just for the looks.

Thanks for the magnet tip. I might give that a try someday. Wonder what a double-thick A8 would do? Somebody is gluing & remagnetizing A8s to make "double thick" ones. Although the A8 pickup I started with didnt give me what I wanted at all, so perhaps I best let that lie...

 

[EDX]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

given you have a randall 100es why you don't simply slap either a Pearly Gates or a Whole Lotta, even a Blues Saraceno, you should have gain enough

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

It's not just about having enough gain, it's about getting the very specific feel and sound that I like. Probably the feel more so than the sound. The Custom gets me there, but barely. I don't play really high-gain stuff. it's more about the thick, percussive attack this amp gives me. Hard to describe but I sure know it when I feel it!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Put your pole pieces low and your pickup as high as you can. That will fatten the Custom. You have to adjust your amp settings too, with a new pickup. You will be running with higher gain settings than you are used to, in order to get what you want.

 

[EDX]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

question, is this by any means even close to what you want?

i mean huge bottom, percussive and crunchy yet not shrill?

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Hard to say - that is a lot more gain than I use. I am somewhere between AC/DC and Hell Bent For Leather-era Judas Priest in terms of gain levels.
My yardstick is the Dimarzio Super Distortion, because I have had three of them in 5 different guitars over a period of years & years so I am really familiar with them. My ideal would be similar but more bottom and a bit more clear or scooped in the mids. I actually tried a A5 magnet in a SD once, but it was horrible!

So what is that in the V, a Dimebucker? I tried the Wilde L-500XL and liked it at first but realized they do not have the big thick bottom I rely on. I kept raising them until they almost touched the strings trying to get more low end. That's when I swapped them out of my other two guitars.

Of course 99.9% of audience members would never notice the difference but I am a tinkerer by nature and I rarely play out these days.

 

[EDX]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

my V has a dimebucker, on that clip i had gain for days, the gain knob on my peavey envoy was almost dimed, while my signal is going through a noise gate, on the loop of the noise gate it first hits a tc electronics spark that has gain dimed, level at a quarter, bass cut a bit, treble boosted and the switch was on fat, then it goes into a boss ge-7 that has the sliders on a crooked frown boosting everything, 100hz has a really slight boost just to get that Ooomph on palm mutes

all in all the dimebukcer by itself has a huge bottom and thump but the eq does a really great job at focusing everything and the spark rockets the gain at 15 while doing some light shaping

 

[Mincer]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Another option is swapping the magnet for an A5, which gives you a Custom 5. It scoops out the mids, so the percussive-ness is more apparent.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

Another option is swapping the magnet for an A5, which gives you a Custom 5. It scoops out the mids, so the percussive-ness is more apparent.

I considered that originally, but I am happy enough as it is. It is a good sounding pickup. It really does sound PAF-ish, more so than I expected.

 

[EDX]

Re: Loud, big fat bottom, percussive, not shrill humbucker for crunchy gain with sust

then the easiest you could do is slap an eq in front of your amp to focus the sound of the custom