Guess I'm gonna be a guinea pig here.
Got home from work, went to the guitar shop in town (Twin Town in Minneapolis, gotta love 'em), and picked myself up a Cort Katana. I know you're shaking your heads at me, but you have to play it to believe it. And at $350 with a bag, it didn't break the bank and makes a great 4th guitar (behind my '93 Gibson LP Studio, '98 Fender California Strat, and '97 Tacoma DR20).
Anyways, first things first, I ripped the thing apart. Filled the strap button holes with toothpicks and wood glue for drilling tomorrow for the smaller Schaller strap button screws, took off the tiny little 9's, and put some 11-54's on there (this will be my open-C guitar for now). In case you want to know, this is the nicest guitar that I've worked on from a quality standpoint. The fit and finish was a little off from the others, but the routing was brilliant, control cavity easy to work in, and nice little touches like a TonePros bridge stock and shielded control cavity show that the Koreans can build one hell of a guitar.
Wiring was a bitch (stupid DPDT's), but eventually I got it done. The guitar came stock with two humbuckers (about 16k and 21k!), master volume, master tone, 3-way selector, and push-pull coil tap. I was suprised to find they used decent 500k pots on here.
Anyways, I installed Alnico 8 magnets into the pickups, which are a JB/C5 hybrid in the bridge, and a Jazz neck. My previous guitar was a Les Paul with JB/Jazz combo, which I installed into a Gibson LP dual cutaway. Granted, the LP is a chambered guitar so it isn't quite an even match, and it's 24.75/22-fret whereas the Cort is 25.5/24, but they're both mahogany body/neck, maple top, and rosewood fretboard. Test amp was a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL50 going into an Avatar V30 4x12.
The A8's really fattened up these pickups. My LP studio was really dark with the JB/Jazz, and the LP DC is really bright with the JB/Jazz. This guitar is kind of in between, leaning towards the darker side, but with a tighter bass and more "balls." The hybrid pickup would probably be on the hi-fi side of frequency response, but it's got a real middy tone with a nice chunky bass. Perfect for modern rock, but I think the mismatched coils might be killing a bit too much of the highs. I can see myself swapping this pickup out for a Custom 8 down the road, but then again, it might just be the V30's.
The Jazz with A8 in the neck is a weird but good pickup. I really like stock Jazz pickups - at least in my dark LP studio with ebony fretboard, where I think it's perfect - so I am a bit biased. The A8 seemed to take the highs down a bit and boost the mids a touch. Instead of sounding slightly scooped, it now sounds slighlty boosted in the mids. It's a fun pickup, for sure, but I might just have to try the A5 in there as well, as I liked it stock on my other guitar.
So what's my consensus? A8's seem to tighten up the bass, increase the mids, and reduce the highs of A5 pickups while increasing output somewhat. I'd recommend the swap if you're looking for the characteristics of a certain pickup but in a really bright guitar to tone it down. I think it would kill the complexity too much in a standard or dark guitar.
I'll have to let other ears listen to them and get back to you, but it certainly was a fun experiment.
Got home from work, went to the guitar shop in town (Twin Town in Minneapolis, gotta love 'em), and picked myself up a Cort Katana. I know you're shaking your heads at me, but you have to play it to believe it. And at $350 with a bag, it didn't break the bank and makes a great 4th guitar (behind my '93 Gibson LP Studio, '98 Fender California Strat, and '97 Tacoma DR20).
Anyways, first things first, I ripped the thing apart. Filled the strap button holes with toothpicks and wood glue for drilling tomorrow for the smaller Schaller strap button screws, took off the tiny little 9's, and put some 11-54's on there (this will be my open-C guitar for now). In case you want to know, this is the nicest guitar that I've worked on from a quality standpoint. The fit and finish was a little off from the others, but the routing was brilliant, control cavity easy to work in, and nice little touches like a TonePros bridge stock and shielded control cavity show that the Koreans can build one hell of a guitar.
Wiring was a bitch (stupid DPDT's), but eventually I got it done. The guitar came stock with two humbuckers (about 16k and 21k!), master volume, master tone, 3-way selector, and push-pull coil tap. I was suprised to find they used decent 500k pots on here.
Anyways, I installed Alnico 8 magnets into the pickups, which are a JB/C5 hybrid in the bridge, and a Jazz neck. My previous guitar was a Les Paul with JB/Jazz combo, which I installed into a Gibson LP dual cutaway. Granted, the LP is a chambered guitar so it isn't quite an even match, and it's 24.75/22-fret whereas the Cort is 25.5/24, but they're both mahogany body/neck, maple top, and rosewood fretboard. Test amp was a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL50 going into an Avatar V30 4x12.
The A8's really fattened up these pickups. My LP studio was really dark with the JB/Jazz, and the LP DC is really bright with the JB/Jazz. This guitar is kind of in between, leaning towards the darker side, but with a tighter bass and more "balls." The hybrid pickup would probably be on the hi-fi side of frequency response, but it's got a real middy tone with a nice chunky bass. Perfect for modern rock, but I think the mismatched coils might be killing a bit too much of the highs. I can see myself swapping this pickup out for a Custom 8 down the road, but then again, it might just be the V30's.
The Jazz with A8 in the neck is a weird but good pickup. I really like stock Jazz pickups - at least in my dark LP studio with ebony fretboard, where I think it's perfect - so I am a bit biased. The A8 seemed to take the highs down a bit and boost the mids a touch. Instead of sounding slightly scooped, it now sounds slighlty boosted in the mids. It's a fun pickup, for sure, but I might just have to try the A5 in there as well, as I liked it stock on my other guitar.
So what's my consensus? A8's seem to tighten up the bass, increase the mids, and reduce the highs of A5 pickups while increasing output somewhat. I'd recommend the swap if you're looking for the characteristics of a certain pickup but in a really bright guitar to tone it down. I think it would kill the complexity too much in a standard or dark guitar.
I'll have to let other ears listen to them and get back to you, but it certainly was a fun experiment.
