Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

[eclecticsynergy]

Anybody here ever tried it?

The T&B humbuckers in my '87 PRS are some of my all-time favorites. It took me years to discover why the split tones were so great, and once I found out they have A5 slugs suddenly it made perfect sense.

I saw a post on a PRS forum from someone who replaced the slugs in a set of import SE pickups. He said it made a lot of difference, but I'm not sure the SE pickups are worth the trouble. (Then again, maybe it would be a good idea to experiment with a set I wouldn't miss if things went wrong.) Still, I'm thinking it might be worth trying with a set of better humbuckers.

I'd love to learn about the experiences of anyone who's done this.

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

I have been meaning to try this with my wide range bass pickups, get them closer to the original sound without having a custom shop pickup made.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

This is sort of what a Stag Mag is, except there are no screws, either.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

Yah, thanks. Actually I've been thinking about the StagMag for this guitar, was happy to learn for the sake of cosmetics that it'll fit under a 12-hole HB cover. The thing is, a StagMag's fairly powerful- for me that makes it more or less a bridge pickup I think. I'd like to have a companion neck for it that splits to true singlecoil also. Hence the rods idea.

I have a set of Fuglybuckers that might suit this axe, too, but it would involve pulling them from another guitar. And radically change the look- this one is really pretty and I'd like to keep it fairly conventional looking.

Also have considered the Anderson H1 neck which has a vertical magnet configuration that splits extremely well for a single-mag pickup. I have an H2 and it's pretty marvelous, though there's always a bit of a trade-off: you lose a bit of syrup for the sake of that extra definition.

Even my beloved and astonishingly articulate T&Bs, while they definitely have humbucker feel & character, are very modern sounding. They don't have any of the elastic smoke-and-velvet thing that good vintage style humbuckers give, that certain unity of voice. What they do have is sparkle & chime in spades, an amazingly responsive pick attack that just leaps out when you dig in, superb tightness & chunk, and remarkable string separation- absolutely no smear across chords. I'd love to get another set but they're fairly hard to come by these days, and expensive.

I'll stop there- I could go on about those pickups for hours and actually wrote a rather long post on what I love about 'em years ago on another forum.
http://www.prstalk.com/threads/prs-pickups.165/#post-2723

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

Hmm... now you've got be wondering if I can't slide a bar magnet into a Stag Mag...

 

[Mincer]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

Well, I am not a fan of the series Stag Mag, but wired in parallel, it makes a really nice neck pickup, too.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Replacing humbucker slugs with alnico rods

Well, I am not a fan of the series Stag Mag, but wired in parallel, it makes a really nice neck pickup, too.

Thanks, Dave. I should consider that.