Carrlos Rivera
New member
Hi everybody.
I introduce myself here, since i cannot find a dedicated subforum.
My name's Cristian, and i live in Italy. Please forgive me for any grammar or syntax mistakes i'll make in my posts! XD
I was born and raised in a cd shop, and music has always been a part of my life. Some years ago, for family reasons, we sold it, and now i'm working in the publishing industry.
My biggest regret has always been never learning to play any musical instrument. Now, i'm not a kid anymore, but 2 years ago something inside me burnt suddenly, and i decided to trash all my regrets and finally learn to play guitar. In some senses, this decision "saved my life", 'cause it gave me back motivations and passion that i didn't feel since a long time.
Guitar world was love at first sight. Guitars, PUs, amps... everything is so exciting, and i'm sure i will never feel bored in my life! XD
One year ago i bought a Fender Pawn Shop '51, a kind of hybrid guitar, with tele neck, strat body and pickguard and electronics from a Precision '51 bass.
I really loved it since the beginning, it was very versatile, fun to play, with a PU configuration that i really love. It's an H-S, with splittable humbucker. Stock PU should be a Texas Special in the neck and a Fender Enforcer humbucker in the bridge. Texas Special is very famous; Enforcer is the heaviest and highest gain humbucker Fender makes - it could be compared to SD Invader. No tone pot, only volume pot and a three-way rotary selector. This sounded very useful to me when i was a beginner (i know, i'm still a beginner... ^^"), because in my first guitar (Ibanez RG) it was very easy to accidentally swith the selector while strumming.
Then, about 6 months ago, i changed my first (digital) amp with a true-valve... and i discovered a new world of wonderful sounds!
Shifting to true-valve amp also means discovering again your guitar. Now you can really meet her, understand her true nature, know her pros and cons. I found the neck PU was too powerless and too noisy, compared to the bridge. Meanwhile, my luthier was always repeating me that the neck PU was "junk" and that it "wasn't a Texas Special". So, i decided to replace it. In fact, when i removed it i found absolutely no writing nor codes on it, so it's impossible to say if it's original or not. Anyway, after a long research, i finally found a single coil that seemed to be exactly what i was looking for: a DiMarzio DP 409, "Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2". I know it's made by competitors. Sorry. By the way, it sounded great in the neck position: great output, great character, absolutely noiseless, creamy but warm and fat at the same time. I like it very much. And the middle position with my humbucker is really fantastic, a very good pairing.
One month ago my teacher bought a new guitar, a Stratocaster American Standard of '98. It seems to be a limited version, with three noiseless single coils. He plugged it into his amp and let me hear it. Clean sound, neck, middle, everything sounded very good. Then, he shifted to the crunch channel, set the gain up, and let me hear the bridge. AWSOME!!! It was a single coil, but s it was very different from the classic strat sound, and sounded warmer, bigger, and in some way heavier than my humbucker! I tried my guitar in the same amp with the same gain, and it was a complete defeat. At my home, with my equalization and using an OD in the crunch channel, i found a good dirty sound for my humbucker; but comparing it with that Strat, i realized it's too acid, open and "dry" for me. So, i decided to change the humbucker, too.
First thing i'll do will be replacing the three-way rotative selector with a tone pot, adding a toogle switch. This should help a little bit.
Than, i should find a new HB. Since my original Enforcer is high-gain, and neck's PU has hi output, too, i would prefer to avoid vintage output PU, i fear i would unbalance my gear. At the same time, i don't want an output monster, it would be nonsense to replace mine if a take a too similar one. And i would prefer AlNiCo to ceramic.
I'm very attracted by the 59/Custom Hybrid, i think it could be perfect. But friends reccomended me Seth Lover (a bit expensive... ^^") and AlNiCo II Pro, too. I really don't want a "leaspaulish" guitar (i'll buy a real Les Paul one day! ^^), but friends say that Seth and A2P sound totally different in alder bodies. The best thing would be try playing some alder guitars with these PUs in the bridge in some guitar shops, but, unfortunately, it's not easy at all finding guitars with these specs.
Any idea/suggestion? Is 59/Custom the right choice? Or should i follow my friends' suggestions?
Sorry, i forgot to say that i like playing blues, hard rock, classic rock, heavy rock and metal.
Thanx to everyone and... ciao!
I introduce myself here, since i cannot find a dedicated subforum.
My name's Cristian, and i live in Italy. Please forgive me for any grammar or syntax mistakes i'll make in my posts! XD
I was born and raised in a cd shop, and music has always been a part of my life. Some years ago, for family reasons, we sold it, and now i'm working in the publishing industry.
My biggest regret has always been never learning to play any musical instrument. Now, i'm not a kid anymore, but 2 years ago something inside me burnt suddenly, and i decided to trash all my regrets and finally learn to play guitar. In some senses, this decision "saved my life", 'cause it gave me back motivations and passion that i didn't feel since a long time.
Guitar world was love at first sight. Guitars, PUs, amps... everything is so exciting, and i'm sure i will never feel bored in my life! XD
One year ago i bought a Fender Pawn Shop '51, a kind of hybrid guitar, with tele neck, strat body and pickguard and electronics from a Precision '51 bass.
I really loved it since the beginning, it was very versatile, fun to play, with a PU configuration that i really love. It's an H-S, with splittable humbucker. Stock PU should be a Texas Special in the neck and a Fender Enforcer humbucker in the bridge. Texas Special is very famous; Enforcer is the heaviest and highest gain humbucker Fender makes - it could be compared to SD Invader. No tone pot, only volume pot and a three-way rotary selector. This sounded very useful to me when i was a beginner (i know, i'm still a beginner... ^^"), because in my first guitar (Ibanez RG) it was very easy to accidentally swith the selector while strumming.
Then, about 6 months ago, i changed my first (digital) amp with a true-valve... and i discovered a new world of wonderful sounds!
Shifting to true-valve amp also means discovering again your guitar. Now you can really meet her, understand her true nature, know her pros and cons. I found the neck PU was too powerless and too noisy, compared to the bridge. Meanwhile, my luthier was always repeating me that the neck PU was "junk" and that it "wasn't a Texas Special". So, i decided to replace it. In fact, when i removed it i found absolutely no writing nor codes on it, so it's impossible to say if it's original or not. Anyway, after a long research, i finally found a single coil that seemed to be exactly what i was looking for: a DiMarzio DP 409, "Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2". I know it's made by competitors. Sorry. By the way, it sounded great in the neck position: great output, great character, absolutely noiseless, creamy but warm and fat at the same time. I like it very much. And the middle position with my humbucker is really fantastic, a very good pairing.
One month ago my teacher bought a new guitar, a Stratocaster American Standard of '98. It seems to be a limited version, with three noiseless single coils. He plugged it into his amp and let me hear it. Clean sound, neck, middle, everything sounded very good. Then, he shifted to the crunch channel, set the gain up, and let me hear the bridge. AWSOME!!! It was a single coil, but s it was very different from the classic strat sound, and sounded warmer, bigger, and in some way heavier than my humbucker! I tried my guitar in the same amp with the same gain, and it was a complete defeat. At my home, with my equalization and using an OD in the crunch channel, i found a good dirty sound for my humbucker; but comparing it with that Strat, i realized it's too acid, open and "dry" for me. So, i decided to change the humbucker, too.
First thing i'll do will be replacing the three-way rotative selector with a tone pot, adding a toogle switch. This should help a little bit.
Than, i should find a new HB. Since my original Enforcer is high-gain, and neck's PU has hi output, too, i would prefer to avoid vintage output PU, i fear i would unbalance my gear. At the same time, i don't want an output monster, it would be nonsense to replace mine if a take a too similar one. And i would prefer AlNiCo to ceramic.
I'm very attracted by the 59/Custom Hybrid, i think it could be perfect. But friends reccomended me Seth Lover (a bit expensive... ^^") and AlNiCo II Pro, too. I really don't want a "leaspaulish" guitar (i'll buy a real Les Paul one day! ^^), but friends say that Seth and A2P sound totally different in alder bodies. The best thing would be try playing some alder guitars with these PUs in the bridge in some guitar shops, but, unfortunately, it's not easy at all finding guitars with these specs.
Any idea/suggestion? Is 59/Custom the right choice? Or should i follow my friends' suggestions?
Sorry, i forgot to say that i like playing blues, hard rock, classic rock, heavy rock and metal.
Thanx to everyone and... ciao!
