Possible ear fatigue from Black Winters

Securb said:
When I plugged in the BW Strat I did not change the EQ on anything. It sounded great without adjusting anything. The same settings that sound great with every other guitar now sound flat. I have practice tomorrow night I am going to start off with the Les Paul Custom Lite and the Fralin Strat. If they sound fine and I think they will, it will let me know I might have to EQ the BW. I am putting my mini-seven band in the gig bag today.
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Good idea. I know you love the BW's voicing, so you may be able to leave the EQ flat and simply dial down the level fader to bring the BW in line with the vintage output pickups.

I think the same thing is going on with my Distortion set. A lot of what I love isn't their EQ so much as the way their hotness drives an amp harder at the usual settings.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
Good idea. I know you love the BW's voicing
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Not just that but everything to do with the guitar is now perfect (for me) it is a freaking beast. Babicz, locking tuners, LSR nut, stutter switch, it is dialed in just right for me. I would go kicking and screaming before changing anything on it.

jY7agfP.jpg
 
So...I just got home from practice. I didn't spin a single knob or EQ anything. I started with my Sunburst Strat with the Fralins. We did our standard openers and the guitar was singing. After the break I switched to the Les Paul Lite with the WLHs we did our Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith montage and once again everything sounded fantastic. Everyone in the band agreed the tone was monster tonight and were scratching their heads because of the last practice everything sounded flat.

We are off for a couple of weeks. Next practice I am going to start off with the Black Winter to see if the other guitars sound flat afterward again or if it was a fluke, off night, or gremlins.
 
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Super strong midrange a great kind of ear fatigue to have IMO. Nazgul is like that too but isn't quite as balanced, so it's a bit pickier about the application (guitar, boost, amp, style ect.).
Super3 has those full BW type mids, but it's highs are much less opened. It still has that easy to play feel though just like the BW.
 
This is interesting. I'm a big fan of the Distortion. On any given night though, I Play a Custom (a lot) and a JB, and then maybe PG's, Jackson style Distortion, A2P's, perhaps a Demon. I guess I change often enough I don't notice...

Optionally, Once I go Distortion I don't go back!
 
Most stock Strat bridge pickups are hard for me to take for extended periods. Especially if I am the one playing it.
 
This is a scary thread for me. I love my Custom and my Distortion, but have really been wanting to try a BW since I keep reading it is a better Distortion. When I do try a BW, I hope I will not want to abandon all my other pickups.
 
JamesPaul said:
This is a scary thread for me. I love my Custom and my Distortion, but have really been wanting to try a BW since I keep reading it is a better Distortion. When I do try a BW, I hope I will not want to abandon all my other pickups.
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Don't be scared it is an amazing pickup. I just might have to put my EQ on the board to bring the mids inline with everything else. I am not sure yet. That being said it sounds amazing, the touch and feel is awesome. I am not sure yet what the answer is.
 
I know this too well, drives me nuts

-when I switch from P90s to buckers or a more scooped/regular voiced single I get a similar experience.

Pumped mids have a way to dominating your brains expectation or tone -similar to the way a British rock amp does. It makes you feel like your missing something -even though it may just be your brain needing a break to evaluate later.

It almost takes days or weeks for me to appreciate the advantages and subtleties of other pickups and amps/speakers if I'm using P90s and British amps in my experience.

Also, there is never a free lunch in my experience -when my other guitar player uses his SG and JMP, we get a wonderfully smooth bite and ultra present attack and but lose out on the fullness of his Mesa, and also any delicate cleans and sparkle when he goes lower gain channel.

There's just no way to get it all unless you want to cart around a ton of gear usually IME
 
JamesPaul said:
This is a scary thread for me. I love my Custom and my Distortion, but have really been wanting to try a BW since I keep reading it is a better Distortion. When I do try a BW, I hope I will not want to abandon all my other pickups.
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You won't want to abandon other pickups. You'll want to buy more amps.
 
You've been making some comparisons between your guitar with BW and your other guitars. You and your bandmates all agree that your BW guitar sounds amazing and your other guitars sound "flat" by comparison. Why in the world would you even consider EQing your BW down to your other guitars?!!

It's like: "hey, I just bought this Corvette and it's so much faster and better handling than my other cars. I think I'm going to put softer suspension and lower lift cams on it so it will be more like my other cars".

Obviously, "better" is subjective, but it sounds like everyone thinks the BW is better. Congratulate yourself on a great find and play your BW guitar more. EQ up your other guitars or appreciate them for what they do well. (Different guitars that sound differently and do certain/different things good are a great thing)! For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would want all of their guitars to sound the same.
 
GuitarDoc said:
You've been making some comparisons between your guitar with BW and your other guitars. You and your bandmates all agree that your BW guitar sounds amazing and your other guitars sound "flat" by comparison. Why in the world would you even consider EQing your BW down to your other guitars?!!

It's like: "hey, I just bought this Corvette and it's so much faster and better handling than my other cars. I think I'm going to put softer suspension and lower lift cams on it so it will be more like my other cars".

Obviously, "better" is subjective, but it sounds like everyone thinks the BW is better. Congratulate yourself on a great find and play your BW guitar more. EQ up your other guitars or appreciate them for what they do well. (Different guitars that sound differently and do certain/different things good are a great thing)! For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would want all of their guitars to sound the same.
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I get what you are saying and I don't want my guitars to sound the same. I have a lot of diversity in my axes. I have been playing around with the BW with my Carvin this morning. Bringing down the mids with the graphic EQ still delivers an amazing sound. It is not diminishing the tone at all. If doing this sonically pulls it in line with the other guitars I am happy with the results. My fear is if the other guitars sound flat in comparison to myself and the band, will they also sound flat to the audience. Like I said last night everything sounded awesome if a bit of EQ on the BW is the fix I am more than happy with the fix.

Once again I want to give the guitar order one more run playing the BW first to see if the results are the same again. It could have been a fluke, off night, gremlins, or all in our heads.
 
I would start with your other guitars THEN the one with BW and see if it sounds much better than the others. Then after a while switch back to the first guitar you played and see if it now sounds flat compared to the BW.
 
Grain of salt, Youtube and all, but hear how close these two are in terms of EQ-curve. The "feel"/responsiveness of the strings with the pick is obviously going to be different between active/pre-boosted and passive/not-boosted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-g9kROtPE


edit;
I prefer the BW between these two, just thought it was funny how many of the models by many brands that I love that are essentially really EQ'd like the 81, which IMO is essentially EQ'd like the X2N.
 
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Securb said:
I put a Black Winter in my Strat it sounds glorious. Maybe too glorious. I used the guitar with what I will call my mellower band, classic/hard rock. The pickup was great for 80% of our stuff. When I switched to my Strat with the Fralin High Output the guitar sounded flat and off. It also felt like my finger sensitivity was gone. I know the guitar sounds amazing so I thought maybe I was just not jiving with it that night. Tonight I opened the set with my other hard rock/metal band with the Black Winter Strat. Once again it sounded fantastic. When I switched to my Les Paul with the WLHs once again the guitar felt and sounded flat.

I thought it was just me but talking to my bass player after practice he noticed it also. I think the pumped mids in the Black Winter are making everything I play after it sound flat. I have not changed the EQ on my amp since putting in the BWs so it is not as if the amp;/pedals are EQed for the BW.

Next practice I am going to open the set with the Fralin Strat and then switch to the WLH Les Paul to get a feel for the sound of the guitars. I will then give the BW Strat a go. If it is the mids in the BW that are causing ear fatigue my solution would be to put Black Winters in everything (not happening) or to start using my EQ pedal with my other guitars to give the mids a boost.

Am I losing my mind, is this in my head? Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I play all kinds of different guitars during a set and this is the first time I have experienced anything like this.

TLDR - My Black Winters are making all of my other guitars sound like ass.
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I understand what you mean.

I'll use 2 sets of pickups for examples.

Full shred set.. super defined due to the high end. High gain sounds great but a bit flat compared to........

My dimarzio breeds. These things are very middy, and somewhat light on the high end. The strange thing is that they are even more clear than the full shreds under high gain.
I think this is why I favor dimarzios over Duncans (besides the full shreds).

Come to think of it, the majority of pickups I like have this characteristic.
 
GuitarDoc said:
I would start with your other guitars THEN the one with BW and see if it sounds much better than the others. Then after a while switch back to the first guitar you played and see if it now sounds flat compared to the BW.
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Good suggestion
 
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