75lespaul
New member
Me and my dear friend of over 30 years (and the other guitarist in my bands) got together this Sunday a few hours before rehearsal because he never got into pickup swapping or anything like that before, and his brand new MIM HSS strat needed some help. He's got a white one that plays like butter, but it sounded like there was a wet blanket thrown over the amp when he played that guitar. His Les Pauls (Gibsons) sounded fine, as did his Schecter V, Charvel model 5, PRSs etc.
The first thing I did was to put a Dimarzio Super Distortion in it because we both love the old school metal sound, and of course we all know who used Super Ds in strats. Wow. Completely different guitar. No more wet blanket when on the bridge pickup, loud, present, just fantastic. He wanted to buy the pickup from me, but it already had a destiny of sorts. He was ready to go online and buy one, and I said to wait because I wanted to do a magnet swap of my own. I stuck an unpolished A2 into my Custom 5 that I have in my purple sunburst Turser serpent, and it sounded really good. I had tried an A8 (too ice picky in this guitar) and an unoriented A5, which sounded great as well. I like the A5 better so I took out the A2 and put a different UOA5 in the pickup and BAM! Even better than the other UOA5. A bit smoother on the top end and that's what did it for me.
I wanted to try the Custom and all the different mags in his strat, but he was convinced that he wanted a Super D. Just for kicks I said let's try another magnet in the stock Fender pickup. I used the C5s original A5 magnet and OMG, the pickup was insane! No more wet blanket, every part of the spectrum improved. It was punchy, full of life, and sounded just as good as the Super D; not the same mind you, but just as good. I wanted to rip it out and put in a UOA5 and a few others, but he was thrilled with the sound of the new magnet. Now he wants to get all new pickups and all new magnets for all his guitars--and he has a LOT of guitars, lol. We're going to be having a serious amount of fun in the future.
And guys, we both have all of you to thank for it, so from the bottom of my heart--thank you.
The first thing I did was to put a Dimarzio Super Distortion in it because we both love the old school metal sound, and of course we all know who used Super Ds in strats. Wow. Completely different guitar. No more wet blanket when on the bridge pickup, loud, present, just fantastic. He wanted to buy the pickup from me, but it already had a destiny of sorts. He was ready to go online and buy one, and I said to wait because I wanted to do a magnet swap of my own. I stuck an unpolished A2 into my Custom 5 that I have in my purple sunburst Turser serpent, and it sounded really good. I had tried an A8 (too ice picky in this guitar) and an unoriented A5, which sounded great as well. I like the A5 better so I took out the A2 and put a different UOA5 in the pickup and BAM! Even better than the other UOA5. A bit smoother on the top end and that's what did it for me.
I wanted to try the Custom and all the different mags in his strat, but he was convinced that he wanted a Super D. Just for kicks I said let's try another magnet in the stock Fender pickup. I used the C5s original A5 magnet and OMG, the pickup was insane! No more wet blanket, every part of the spectrum improved. It was punchy, full of life, and sounded just as good as the Super D; not the same mind you, but just as good. I wanted to rip it out and put in a UOA5 and a few others, but he was thrilled with the sound of the new magnet. Now he wants to get all new pickups and all new magnets for all his guitars--and he has a LOT of guitars, lol. We're going to be having a serious amount of fun in the future.
And guys, we both have all of you to thank for it, so from the bottom of my heart--thank you.
