Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

[GingerLefty]

Hi there,
This is my first post here, and I am looking for advice. A while back I put together a partscaster strat, and had ordered a preloaded pick guard for it which had bog standard Wilkinson single coils in it. They were fine, but I already have a US made Fender with noiseless pickups in it, and it sounds great, so I wanted something different from the partscaster. I wanted it to be a real rock machine with balls.
So I started looking at stacked single coils and rails, and then eventually found a clip on YouTube of a guy playing a Squier with the Everything Axe set in it, i.e the JB Jr bridge, Duckbucker middle, and the Little '59 in the neck. My jaw dropped at the awesome tone he was getting, so I looked at lots more videos of the set, and there it was again and again. Lots of punch and balls and heat, but smooth also. I bought the set shortly after.
When I unscrewed the scratch plate and turned it over I was surprised to see that there were 500k pots in all 3 positions, considering it was loaded with single coils, but I was now putting in a set of humbuckers so I thought that they would be better, and I left them in it.
I have never been able to get a tone that I love out of these pickups. I have adjusted pickup heights, and pole piece heights and while the sound is by no means awful, I just don't find it that inspiring to play. I really like the guitar, but I really should love it. Could the values of the pots be the culprit? I have seen suggestions that 250k pots are better. Could anyone that knows these pickups help me out with some advice. Cheers.

I have included a clip of me playing the guitar, so that you can hear what I am talking about. The actual playing starts at 3.12 on the video: https://youtu.be/u2sC3mPUtEI

 

[jeremy]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

welcome to the forum!

what dont you like about it?

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

As mentioned, what is it you are after?

Trying to get someone else's tone is a tricky thing to do and demo clips tend to be more unhelpful...YouTube clips especially can be very deceiving (even the ones showing the settings on everything used.)

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

I think of the three pickups as three distinct tones... sort of like having three different settings on an overdrive pedal.

The JB jr. is about the rock and has the most power. I tune my amp settings to go with the JB jr with the JB jr. hitting the amp & getting some decent overdrive when played fairly hard.

Then the duckbucker becomes my sparkly clean tone where I can play country, swing, jazz or really any style that requires a clean tone and nice quack and sparkle.

I then play with the height of the Lil'59 until it is mostly cleanish but slightly dirty when I play hard. This is my smoky jazz or deep blues tone.

Personally, I don't often switch pickups mid phrase while playing... maybe to do a little fill but I generally stick with the pickup that I need for the tone of the riff or lick.

The everything axe set works for me like three distinct tones so I can concentrate on playing rather than dancing on pedals.

It all depends on the front end of the amp and how sensitive it is though. Some amps have a certain amount of compression to their front end and some are more dynamic... power tube overdrive//compression goes a great length to evening out the tone of pickups when switching. Not many of us are playing non master volume amps anymore, so that is less and less of an issue. One could also lift the duckbucker's output by lowering the JB jr and Lil '59 and using a boost pedal of some sort... if the amp you're playing through has a nice compressed quality to it's front end, it would sound really good.

It's a great way to get humbucker sounds out of a SSS configuration while still having quacky middle position(s) IMO.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

As mentioned, what is it you are after?

Trying to get someone else's tone is a tricky thing to do and demo clips tend to be more unhelpful...YouTube clips especially can be very deceiving (even the ones showing the settings on everything used.)

Right. How are the bass, mids, and treble on each pickup? Where does each one go wrong?

For my taste, the tone you are getting as recorded on the video is muffled/middy. But that may be the mic (camera mic?) or who knows what.

If I were you, I would start by changing the EQ of your amp to get a great, stellar clean single coil tone from the duckbucker in the middle position. Once you have that, then you can get an idea as to whether you like the lil 59, JB jr, and the notch positions well enough - or what is really wrong with them or the whole set up.

 

[GingerLefty]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

welcome to the forum!

what dont you like about it?

Thanks for the reply. I should have been more specific. I get great clean tones from it especially in position 2 and 4. Very stratty. What I don't love is that I feel the sound becomes quite weedy and thin when I add the dirt. The JB jr sounds spiky and brittle to me on the higher notes. And the neck just sounds wooly no matter what I do with the tone controls on my amp and guitar or pickup height. I'm at a loss with it. Like I said, my cleans are nice, but that's not why I put the SD set in.

 

[GingerLefty]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

I think of the three pickups as three distinct tones... sort of like having three different settings on an overdrive pedal.

The JB jr. is about the rock and has the most power. I tune my amp settings to go with the JB jr with the JB jr. hitting the amp & getting some decent overdrive when played fairly hard.

Then the duckbucker becomes my sparkly clean tone where I can play country, swing, jazz or really any style that requires a clean tone and nice quack and sparkle.

I then play with the height of the Lil'59 until it is mostly cleanish but slightly dirty when I play hard. This is my smoky jazz or deep blues tone.

Personally, I don't often switch pickups mid phrase while playing... maybe to do a little fill but I generally stick with the pickup that I need for the tone of the riff or lick.

The everything axe set works for me like three distinct tones so I can concentrate on playing rather than dancing on pedals.

It all depends on the front end of the amp and how sensitive it is though. Some amps have a certain amount of compression to their front end and some are more dynamic... power tube overdrive//compression goes a great length to evening out the tone of pickups when switching. Not many of us are playing non master volume amps anymore, so that is less and less of an issue. One could also lift the duckbucker's output by lowering the JB jr and Lil '59 and using a boost pedal of some sort... if the amp you're playing through has a nice compressed quality to it's front end, it would sound really good.

It's a great way to get humbucker sounds out of a SSS configuration while still having quacky middle position(s) IMO.

I will try your suggestions, thanks. BTW do you think me having 500k pots is any part of the issue. What pots are in your guitar?

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

Going with 250k pots will make everything darker and the neck more wooly than it is already.

 

[symptom]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

For me, the best way to do it (love your pickups) is playing the hell out of it. Just play, play, play. After that, if you still don't like tweak a little and play more. No deal? it's time for another set.

Sometimes it just take some time to get used to a new tone. When I switch from my Les Paul to a tele or a strat, at first, I always think there's something wrong. So, with time, I get used to it.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

Going with 250k pots will make everything darker and the neck more wooly than it is already.

I agree with this. Especially the lil59 neck. It might help with the JB jr. though. How are the tone control distributed on these? I would try putting the middle & bridge or just bridge on one tone control & the neck & middle or just neck on its own other tone control, that way you could roll down some spikeness from the bridge. Also there is a way to make a pickup with 500k pot see a 250k load using a resistor in series maybe but i'm not sure about how to go around that route.

Any link to the vid with the squire & this set in it that made you decide on these?

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

Thanks for the reply. I should have been more specific. I get great clean tones from it especially in position 2 and 4. Very stratty. What I don't love is that I feel the sound becomes quite weedy and thin when I add the dirt. The JB jr sounds spiky and brittle to me on the higher notes. And the neck just sounds wooly no matter what I do with the tone controls on my amp and guitar or pickup height. I'm at a loss with it. Like I said, my cleans are nice, but that's not why I put the SD set in.

The JB tends to sound brittle to a lot of people...especially with a Maple board like what is one your Strat.

My favorite pickups for a Strat would be the Fender Fat 50s (try Seymour Duncan California 50s as well) because they get the bell like chime with the cleans but take dirt extremely well...but being a Strat the bridge can sometime sounds thin and brittle.

Have you ever used an EQ pedal? Being able to shape it could possibly help you out here.

 

[GingerLefty]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

I agree with this. Especially the lil59 neck. It might help with the JB jr. though. How are the tone control distributed on these? I would try putting the middle & bridge or just bridge on one tone control & the neck & middle or just neck on its own other tone control, that way you could roll down some spikeness from the bridge. Also there is a way to make a pickup with 500k pot see a 250k load using a resistor in series maybe but i'm not sure about how to go around that route.

Any link to the vid with the squire & this set in it that made you decide on these?

https://youtu.be/q949Uznj-Ms
The link I was referring to.

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

The JB tends to sound brittle to a lot of people...especially with a Maple board like what is one your Strat.

We are talking about a JB jr.

I will try your suggestions, thanks. BTW do you think me having 500k pots is any part of the issue. What pots are in your guitar?

That's what I am using, yes 500K are pretty much what you have to use with an Everything Axe set.

And I thought your tone sounded just fine in the video...but the sound isn't the problem for you... it's the balance between the pickups.

You might need a small mod for the neck pickup and then dedicate a tone knob to the bridge pickup only.

 

[LLL]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

Holy left-handed tennis rackets, Batman!

ANOTHER LEFTY!

Tell ya what, GingerLefty - we'll get more lefties in here and then our plan
to Rule The Righty World With A Lefty Iron Fist will be complete! :bigthumb: (icon should be reversed)

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

We are talking about a JB jr.

Seymour Duncan says the JB Jr is "Our legendary JB Model but in a single coil size."

The JB Jr. is a JB model in single coil size–I've heard complaints of the JB Jr being thin and brittle just like I've heard the same said of the JB full sized version.

Part of dealing with a Strat is the bridge pickup, many people have issues with any pickup in the bridge position.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

if it was me id put a .047 cap in series as shown above on the lil 59 neck to lose some bottom end and switch the 2nd tone control to just the jb jr and replace that 500k pot with 250k. simple and easy to do and will move things in the right direction. it might not be the final solution but we will know if we are going the right way and give us an idea of how much further we need to go

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

Seymour Duncan says the JB Jr is "Our legendary JB Model but in a single coil size."

The JB Jr. is a JB model in single coil size–I've heard complaints of the JB Jr being thin and brittle just like I've heard the same said of the JB full sized version.

Part of dealing with a Strat is the bridge pickup, many people have issues with any pickup in the bridge position.

The Lil'59 and JB jr. come pretty close at getting the overall voicing of the pickups into a single coil sized pickup but the lows and highs will be slightly different.

You can get ceramic to match the warm midrange of alnico... happens all of the time with speakers, but the highs and lows will change a bit. Ceramic has tighter lows and the lows of alnico can get wooly and boomy... loosey goosey. The high end of the ceramic magnet seems more controllable and sometimes alnico has this high end shimmer, crushed glass... icepick (whatever you wanna call it) that's sort of hard to dial out in certain rigs. Ceramics don't usually have this... extra sparkley or chimey high end. Ceramics have good articulation, note separation and sort of more controllable harmonics compared to their wilder alnico counterparts IMHO.

So, to me the JB jr has a smoother high end and upper midrange than the JB... the JB's midrange has a more buttery feel than the JB jr although they seem equally warm sounding (JB jr has a bit tighter bass but is missing a bit of that singing violin or saxophone tone that the JB has... slight trade-offs and pay-offs by changing form factors despite the their remarkable similarity... I thought I would go into detail about them. The Lil '59 is warmer and tighter than the full sized '59... midrange is similar but the full sized '59 has a bit more highs and the bass has more sustain to it.

I'm digressing though and you're absolutely right about the OP needing the bridge pup to be warmer, that's why I suggested a bridge only tone knob.

 

[GingerLefty]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

So many great suggestions here. Definitely getting the soldering iron back out. Like the idea of a 250k tone pot for the bridge only, and the cap for the neck pickup. Hey, it won't hurt to try, and nothing is irreversible. Cheers. It's very gratifying to put a question out there and get so many cool replies.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

I would like to know how it turns it. It may help other people who have the similar issues.

 

[GingerLefty]

Re: Please help me love my Everything Axe set.

I would like to know how it turns it. It may help other people who have the similar issues.

I will surely, just as soon as I get it done and test it. Cheers