man, i love the demon...

[Imp]

you remember the trick stratman and scott_f were talking about where you roll the tone knob all the way down, then bring it up to taste?

if you do it on a demon, it opens up so many tones! the 'harshness' (screaming highs?) go by about 9 on the tone knob, and you're left with a really nice blues tone.. it's poky, but doesn't have the treble 'snap' of a bridge PAF.. further down the tone knob, it starts to sound a fair bit like a neck pickup, particularly steve vai.. i used kim pee d'wee as a starting point, and i managed to get really close.. it gets that hot, compressed sound while still retaining all it's definition.. i'd love to try this with some different pickups!

so yeah, in summary, the screamin' demon works really well with the tone pot.. try the whole technique though! it costs nothing

tom

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I can't see using a pickup that has "harshness" mentioned in the equation,but glad it works for you....I found that pickup always is too spikey for me in the highs...

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Using tone pots are essential in my opinion. I don't understand using a pickup with no tone pot, or with the tone on ten all the time, and then saying the pickup, or guitar, is too bright. It's supossed to be bright in such a case!


I roll my tone knob down some most of the time, regardless of the pickups, or the guitar, to get a warmer tone. The range up through ten allows you to turn up more, to cut through dense mixxes, when required.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I love it in mahogany while using 12 fillister screws. It's nice & chewey with good bite and cut.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Using tone pots are essential in my opinion. I don't understand using a pickup with no tone pot, or with the tone on ten all the time, and then saying the pickup, or guitar, is too bright. It's supossed to be bright in such a case!


I roll my tone knob down some most of the time, regardless of the pickups, or the guitar, to get a warmer tone. The range up through ten allows you to turn up more, to cut through dense mixxes, when required.

Normally in a band it's mids and highs to cut....Especially mids...If I Like the overall eq of my pickups,I just adjust my effects and amp from there..

I don't use pickups if the term "harsh" comes into the equation...There's just too many pickups available to us now and I don't just settle! :banana:

 

[MDS]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I'm with john here...a guitar's tone knob is the lamest EQ every made. I much prefer to use the EQ on my amp (Mesa 5 band graphic is great) to shape my tone. I'll use the tone knob in a pinch, but I try to avoid it. There are so many pickup choices that if I have my tone knob below 10 all the time it is time to swap for something else...I'm glad it is working for you, though!

Mike

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Man, you guys are losing out on a whole bunch of cool textures by not messing with the tone knobs.

 

[fab.regnaut]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I notice recently the same thing ; roll off just a bit the vol pot and the Demon still have plenty ouput but the bite is gone and you have a very pleasant tone witch remind me of jeff Beck ( especially with the alnico 8 : more mids ) and i did the same with the Jazz neck witch behave like a Demon neck version .
Those two are definitly very tasty pickups :banana:

 

[tone_guru]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I love the Demon. Just enough punch and balls, but not too much. You can really push it, which I like. It's the perfect balance for me.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Man, you guys are losing out on a whole bunch of cool textures by not messing with the tone knobs.

I use my tone knobs all the time and I never said I didn't use them....What I said was,if I Like the eq of a pickup,I'll adjust my effects and my amp from there....I do use my tone knobs also..

I also make my own No Load Tone pots for my 500k humbucker guitars...

 

[Imp]

Re: man, i love the demon...

i don't really consider the demon a 'harsh' pickup at all.. i had it in the quote marks in the first post, and i think that bit of extra brightness is vital in bringing out those fantastic harmonics the pickup has.. it's been EQ'd to emphasis the harmonics on even normal notes, and that's what makes it perfect for 80's metal IMO.. it sounds a hell of a lot hotter than it is, it reminds me of a couple of paul gilbert's live tones!

if anything, i'm tempted to try a second row of hex screws before the fillisters! i was thinking about a fullshred for this guitar anyway..

tom

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I love mine too, I dig bite and open sounds, but I also use amps with a great deal of fatness, they sound terrible with too nice and smooth pickups, I want that balance between some fuzzy like sounds and warmth, that almost harp like sound in the attack
I love JB's, Demons' and PG's

 

[fab.regnaut]

Re: man, i love the demon...

if anything, i'm tempted to try a second row of hex screws before the fillisters! i was thinking about a fullshred for this guitar anyway..

tom[/QUOTE]

I tried to exchange the rows of allen and regular , so the allens where near the bridge but it was really too much treebles .

 

[MikeS]

Re: man, i love the demon...

i don't really consider the demon a 'harsh' pickup at all.. i had it in the quote marks in the first post, and i think that bit of extra brightness is vital in bringing out those fantastic harmonics the pickup has.. it's been EQ'd to emphasis the harmonics on even normal notes, and that's what makes it perfect for 80's metal IMO.. it sounds a hell of a lot hotter than it is, it reminds me of a couple of paul gilbert's live tones!

I agree 100%. I like the EQ of the demon. Drop it in a mid heavy or low heavy guitar (mahogany) the pickup gets fatter while retaining the clarity and harmonics.

I have yet to figure out why it isn't more popular in Les Paul style guitars.

I usually have the Demon dimed on the tone knob. If I've playing the Demon clean I'll roll back the volume a bit if I need to knock some edge off. The Demon pairs up well with the Jazz neck, and the Demon/Jazz combo in my LP isn't going anywhere (unless I swap the black demon for a zebra demon to match the Jazz).

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Love mine with aph-2 in the neck, wished I had a zebra demon

 

[Imp]

Re: man, i love the demon...

can you buy a zebra demon?!

tom

 

[MikeS]

Re: man, i love the demon...

can you buy a zebra demon?!

tom

Yup. I know MF carries them for sure. Demons are available in any Duncan standard color. Sometimes the trick can be in finding them. I wish my Demon was zebra, but it was a double black I had leftover from a failed Mockingbird experiment.

There’s always spray paint. :smack:

 

[firebirdVII]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I don't use the tone knob much, but I've gotta say that it can help get some nice slide tones. Not too much, just right.

 

[firebirdVII]

Re: man, i love the demon...

Also should note, that I don't have a screaming deamon, just that you never know what's going to happen when you mess with stuff.

 

[Artie]

Re: man, i love the demon...

I think I mentioned this someplace else, but one of the things I've noticed about tone controls - if I'm going to go "clean", or just a smidgen of dirty, like selecting the "Tweed" setting on my "J", then I keep the tone on 10-ish. But if I'm going to use some dirty distortion, I roll the tone back to zero. I let the distortion create the highs. Its a much cleaner dirt - if that makes any sense.