Animal
Well-known member
Since I can't find ANY in depth reviews about this particular pickup I'd thought I would do the honours for y'all after installing one just a few hours ago.
My guitar is a MIJ Jackson PS-4L that features an alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 24 frets, licenced floyd rose tremelo and a HSH pickup configuration.
In the middle position a SVR-1 Vintage Rails has found it's residence for over 2 years now seeing two pickup changes either side of the fence in it's time. Initially it's neighbours were an SH-6 bridge and PAF pro neck. Recently a PA-TB2 Distortion Trembucker and SH-2n Jazz moved in.
While the SVR-1 is a warm pickup, it could never for the life of itself keep anywhere near up with the output of all the humbuckers I've put next to it. It also didn't exactly have that funky single-coil vibe, a void I've been looking to fill in my guitar tone for awhile now.
Enter the PA-STK1n. Saw one on Ebay last week and decided to snap it up as they are so hard to come across and looked like it would be a great companion to the Parallel Axis Distortion in the bridge.
Not sure if I was using correct wiring for the Parallel Stack as it has 5 wires instead of the 3 the SVR-1n has, I figured out a way to copy the old middle position wiring pickup config. Although diagrams on the SD homepage schematic section (which really need diagrams for HSH guitars) suggest that the green and ground wire should be attached to the volume pot, I copied the previous config that my tech used to originally to install the SVR-1 over two years ago, where he attached the white wire (for the PA-STK1n's case, the green and ground wire) to the tone pot in the same solder patch as the resistor.
Plugging my guitar into my Laney AOR amp, the high-gain channel was already activated. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly hot this pickup is. Felt like a real humbucker in the middle position but still retaining some that jangely vibe. Under so much gain and saturation you can still hear it's pseudo single coil personality. You can almost use this a heavy rhythm pickup or for playing screaming solos. It certainly has balls to spare and shows no sign of laggin' behind in output volume compared to the humbucker positions on this axe.
Tight bass, twangy mids and highs topped off with a generous dose of compressed dynamics. It ain't hard to get this pickup giving your sound A LOT of slap & tickle.
Switching over to the normal amp channel where all the mid gain stuff happens, the PA-STK1n in the notch positions helps better prepare you for some classic rocking or texas heat situations.
Plugging into the low sensitivity input on the Laney where all the cleans are found, the Parallel Stack shows it's true qwirky colours in all of it's glory. If Billy Madison played through this pickup he would say "why that's QUACKTASTIC!". All those clear as bell and funky tones are here in spades. Bold and upfront, it makes no qualms about being in your face if you just dig into your technique slightly. With my Vintage Rails I had to REALLY dig to get the same vibe.
Due to it's ceramic magnet I guess it would be preceived as quite a "sterile" sound to some who are used to playing low output alnico true single coil pickups. I certainly didn't have trouble getting warm tones out of it but I could understand how some may be turned off by it's non-sutble dynamics.
Quite amazing how I could switch through all 5 positions and pretty much perceive no significant volume change at all. Heck it's giving the SH-2n Jazz a damn good run for it's money and it doesn't even sound intimidated at all by it's mean cousin the PA-TB2 which alone has monstrous output.
I recommend the PA-STKn to anyone with a floyd equipped guitar with a HSH or HS pickup configuration. It will really make you want to utilise your middle and notch positions for those pokey strat tones you don't normally achieve on such guitars without having to adjust your master volume. My guitar now is much more versatile.
I only need a PA-TB1n for the neck position to give my guitar the full Parallel Axis make over. In the future I also hope to try out the PA-TB1 Original Parallel Axis and PA-TB3 Blues Saraceno.
On that note, I must also point a slightly odd phenomenon after installing the PA-STK1. For some reason, the PA-TB2 and SH-2n that were already in my guitar are now sounding BETTER than before. More open, sweeter tone and longer sustaining. I kind of suspect might it have something to do with the different wiring the Parallel Axis Stack uses over the Vintage Rails that was in there before.
My guitar is a MIJ Jackson PS-4L that features an alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 24 frets, licenced floyd rose tremelo and a HSH pickup configuration.
In the middle position a SVR-1 Vintage Rails has found it's residence for over 2 years now seeing two pickup changes either side of the fence in it's time. Initially it's neighbours were an SH-6 bridge and PAF pro neck. Recently a PA-TB2 Distortion Trembucker and SH-2n Jazz moved in.
While the SVR-1 is a warm pickup, it could never for the life of itself keep anywhere near up with the output of all the humbuckers I've put next to it. It also didn't exactly have that funky single-coil vibe, a void I've been looking to fill in my guitar tone for awhile now.
Enter the PA-STK1n. Saw one on Ebay last week and decided to snap it up as they are so hard to come across and looked like it would be a great companion to the Parallel Axis Distortion in the bridge.
Not sure if I was using correct wiring for the Parallel Stack as it has 5 wires instead of the 3 the SVR-1n has, I figured out a way to copy the old middle position wiring pickup config. Although diagrams on the SD homepage schematic section (which really need diagrams for HSH guitars) suggest that the green and ground wire should be attached to the volume pot, I copied the previous config that my tech used to originally to install the SVR-1 over two years ago, where he attached the white wire (for the PA-STK1n's case, the green and ground wire) to the tone pot in the same solder patch as the resistor.
Plugging my guitar into my Laney AOR amp, the high-gain channel was already activated. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly hot this pickup is. Felt like a real humbucker in the middle position but still retaining some that jangely vibe. Under so much gain and saturation you can still hear it's pseudo single coil personality. You can almost use this a heavy rhythm pickup or for playing screaming solos. It certainly has balls to spare and shows no sign of laggin' behind in output volume compared to the humbucker positions on this axe.
Tight bass, twangy mids and highs topped off with a generous dose of compressed dynamics. It ain't hard to get this pickup giving your sound A LOT of slap & tickle.
Switching over to the normal amp channel where all the mid gain stuff happens, the PA-STK1n in the notch positions helps better prepare you for some classic rocking or texas heat situations.
Plugging into the low sensitivity input on the Laney where all the cleans are found, the Parallel Stack shows it's true qwirky colours in all of it's glory. If Billy Madison played through this pickup he would say "why that's QUACKTASTIC!". All those clear as bell and funky tones are here in spades. Bold and upfront, it makes no qualms about being in your face if you just dig into your technique slightly. With my Vintage Rails I had to REALLY dig to get the same vibe.
Due to it's ceramic magnet I guess it would be preceived as quite a "sterile" sound to some who are used to playing low output alnico true single coil pickups. I certainly didn't have trouble getting warm tones out of it but I could understand how some may be turned off by it's non-sutble dynamics.
Quite amazing how I could switch through all 5 positions and pretty much perceive no significant volume change at all. Heck it's giving the SH-2n Jazz a damn good run for it's money and it doesn't even sound intimidated at all by it's mean cousin the PA-TB2 which alone has monstrous output.
I recommend the PA-STKn to anyone with a floyd equipped guitar with a HSH or HS pickup configuration. It will really make you want to utilise your middle and notch positions for those pokey strat tones you don't normally achieve on such guitars without having to adjust your master volume. My guitar now is much more versatile.
I only need a PA-TB1n for the neck position to give my guitar the full Parallel Axis make over. In the future I also hope to try out the PA-TB1 Original Parallel Axis and PA-TB3 Blues Saraceno.
On that note, I must also point a slightly odd phenomenon after installing the PA-STK1. For some reason, the PA-TB2 and SH-2n that were already in my guitar are now sounding BETTER than before. More open, sweeter tone and longer sustaining. I kind of suspect might it have something to do with the different wiring the Parallel Axis Stack uses over the Vintage Rails that was in there before.
