Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

yikes! thats not good. i would say that im only taking it maybe once a month if that but still i cant imagine things are going to miraculously just get better.

do you take something different now?

Yes, a lot less time on the ol' b-ball court. But then I was taking a lot more motrin (same stuff) than you, a lot more than I should have. I'd wolf down 4 or 5 200-mg tabs before heading out to the court, and then some more later if I felt too sore. It started going after the tendons and it felt like I had tendinitis all over my knees and hands too.

I thought maybe I really was playing the guitar too heavy but I was told that this was the result of me basically abusing motrin so I quit and a few months later the hands felt like new and have ever since.

Knees are not feeling like new but a lot better. Liquid Joint Repair seems to help a lot with joint pain in general.

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

Shielding with alum foil per blueman or some other way?

i checked out guitarnuts.com for general noise-reduction info re star-grounding and shielding the body routs and pickguard etc, but it didn't occur to me to actually put some shield (foil, probably) inside the pickup covers until blueman posted about it not too long ago - thanks blueman.

i also recall frank saying that p90s take relatively well to shielding (apparently not all single-coils do) and i think that he'd know, as SD have now moved between regular soapbars w/plastic covers, phat cats w/nickel covers and now the staple pickups w/out the nickel cover. shielding in general is still a relatively new thing to me so i can't speak too definitively about it...

And what wiring -- the wires themselves? if so, yes. it's a Korean Epi -- are the wires crap?

i more meant the components and connections to them, but possibly. i've seen guitars made in the US, Korea and China with shorts, bad joints etc; so not necessarily but it bears close inspection IMO. the consensus here seems to be that korean epi pots/caps/jacks/switches should be avoided like the plague, i haven't seen enough of them to form an opinion

 

[ubertwerp]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

Guys I've been experimenting with .010s and I am getting used to them ..

I like them better ,now that both they and I are "broken in" lol.

Advantages I have noticed from the .010s over the .009s
1)more bass
2)better tuning stability
3)better sustain
4)when playing the blues I really feel the pain-lol

advantages of the .009s
1)MUCH easier bending
2)legato -easier
3)less bass -ie -better "strat-like" brightness

I guess it depends on what you are looking for ..

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

may i just ask... when we fit heavier or lighter gauge strings we're all checking neck relief, action, intonation and pickup height before commenting on the perceived changes in the tone, right..?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

i do for sure

 

[blueman335]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

may i just ask... when we fit heavier or lighter gauge strings we're all checking neck relief, action, intonation and pickup height before commenting on the perceived changes in the tone, right..?

+1. String tension varies with the gauge, and that will change the neck bow slightly, sometimes throwing off intonation. The heavier the gauge, the more tension & inwards neck bow, which makes the action slightly higher, which in turn moves the strings slightly further from the PU's. This may not be enough for some players to care, but if you want your guitar to sound, and play, as good as possible, this should be checked. It's a good idea to check intonation periodically anyways, even if you keep the same string size. Temp & humidity change with the seasons, especially if you're running a/c or heat, and those make the wood in the neck expand or contract slightly.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

I have medium-sized hands with thin, medium-length fingers. I use 11-50 gauge strings (tuned to Eb standard) and bend like crazy all over the neck when I play. I do find that I get a thicker tone and more sustain with them. I use the same gauges and tuning on both my Fender and Gibson guitars, and I don't really have any grief with any of it. I know that if I were to switch to 10s or (god forbid) 9s, I'd be fretting stuff sharp all over the place and my bends would be flying off the edge of the fretboard.

I use very thick picks also - 1.14 mm - and though it doesn't look like it to watch me play, I am a very heavy-handed player. My picking technique starts in the wrist, but I add to it with finger motion and can really womp on the strings without my hand even appearing to move very much.

There's a lot to be said for using less gain, thicker strings, thicker picks, and really letting your hands control the timbre of the notes. Running a set-up like this does take some practice to acclimate to, but the amount of control and expression you can get it well worth it.

This is something I've said before, but if you want a big sound - play the dam thing like a man with some authority!

 

[WoodyTone]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

sosomething makes an excellent point, about pick thickness. I prefer the Fender medium range (right now!), around 70mm I believe, and for me that matches up better with lighter strings.

Another way to get a big sound is to crank your amp through an attenuator!

 

[sosomething]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

I'd like to add that P-90s are especially responsive to pole piece adjustment. Typically one finds that the further out the pole pieces are screwed, the thicker the sound. You can increase the thickness of a soap bar P-90 without increasing your output too much by raising the pole pieces and lowering the pickup height - effectively lowering the coil away from the strings without changing the hight of the poles.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

The pick does matter. I use the purple Dunlop 2mm Stubbies, widens the tone considerably all by itself.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

The pick does matter. I use the purple Dunlop 2mm Stubbies, widens the tone considerably all by itself.

+1. It changes your tone. I use .88 Dunlops, that have sharp beveled edges, which give me extra bite & treble. Without that, some of my guitars may seem too dark-toned.

2mm? That's like using a poker chip.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

2mm? That's like using a poker chip.

Not quite, it's got a very nice taper on it, certainly more than a poker chip. The taper is such that because the pick is otherwise so thick, it sort of kicks the pick back into your hand slightly, so it does part of the work for you and you can go faster.

The fact that there is no give to this pick also allows you to go faster. Picks that have any give to them make picking like trying to hit a baseball with a flapping bat.

But even I have to draw the line at 2mm. They make a 3mm. I tried it but it's like picking with a pingpong ball.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

Get better Soapbars.

None of the measures you list are remotely effective enough to change the character of the bridge sound fundamentally.

 

[WoodyTone]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

Get better Soapbars. None of the measures you list are remotely effective enough to change the character of the bridge sound fundamentally.

measures...remotely effective...character...fundamentally :eyecrazy:

I smell a Scrabble champion...

Well, I tried Lollar P-90s in a different guitar and they sounded noticeably better, but they won't change it fundamentally enough either. So I will experiment.

 

[The Usual]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

WTF is this thread about again?

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Pots and string gauge Q -- blueman and others

It's about Ed's Tax Service and Grilled Cheese Sandwich Repair. One of my all-time favorite albums...