Parallel axis neck?

[allstarrme]

I have a parallel axis neck with a parallel axis distortion bridge setup in a sterling ax40. It has a big brass block now, which did help some, but I find the neck pickup while decently loud has a strange tone to it.

It’s not that I dislike the sound of the neck but it’s quite different from the bridge tone. It’s useable but not ideal. I love the black winter neck sound and have a spare one with double screw poles I was saving for something.

Has anyone tried a magnet swap in a patb -1 neck? Should I tried something else like a patb-3 or crazy 8 in the neck? Should I just ask the custom shop have me make a PA distortion neck.


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[Chistopher]

Re: Parallel axis neck?

Try backing the neck off a bit from the strings and see what happens before you go and do anything else. You might just be too close to the strings.

If that doesn't work, an A4 might help, but I've never tried one in a PATB-1n, so that's just speciation. I would not try a PATB-3 or Crazy 8 as those are both extremely partial to the bridge position, neither would work well in the neck.

I'd say mess with the height, try different magnets, if those don't work then try the Black Winter (to see how it sounds in that guitar), and either keep it in or if you want to, you can ask the Custom Shop to wind you a custom pickup with Parallel Axis polepieces and a similar tone to your modded Black Winter. If there are any issues with the Black Winter tone in your AX40 you can let them know about that as well.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Parallel axis neck?

Since the PATB Distortion is ceramic, putting a ceramic mag in the neck might match it better. Neck PATB is fairly vintagey feeling; ceramic ought to brighten it a lot and probably tighten it up too, as well as giving it quite a bit more ooomph.

The the regular Duncan Distortion neck uses ceramic, though it's also wound a bit heavier than the PATB neck.