Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Nice looking 335, Pepe. I learned long ago that you're one of the few guys here I can count on for accurate information and great advice. Who loves ya, baby?
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Nice looking 335, Pepe. I learned long ago that you're one of the few guys here I can count on for accurate information and great advice. Who loves ya, baby?

Thank you for the kind words, Rick.

Your own self have been an inspiration for many 'round here as well, including yours truly.

If it wasn't for you, we hadn't get to know the UOA5 mag... a wholelotta people owe good tone to you, MYSELF included.

Happy Easter!
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Hey, hey, hello!

I’ve started this thread half year ago looking for your suggestions about magnet swaps in Seth Lover set. I would like to thank You for output and for every suggestion it was great starting point. However I like to try everything on my own so… I bought few magnets from LtKojak and started an addiction… Seriously guys… It’s addictive.
I would like to share my experience with others, because I wasn’t able to find good thread about it on forum and I thought that would be nice for others to have big post about it in one place.

Gear used: Gibson SG Standard into Peavey Classic 30 (Tested without covers)

Here we go…

A2n/A2b

Stock set. Very good cleans on neck position, good for chords and melodies. On overdrive channel pretty dark riffs but great almost liquid solo sound. Middle position was very sweet, maybe a little funky if You try to EQ your amp in good way. On overdrive You may hear a little “Jimmy Page inspiration”. Think about a little darker heartbreaker. Bridge on cleans is very bright and it may be ear piercing I won’t describe the cleans on bridge pu’p, because I basically don’t like bridge pup’s on clean. When OD if it wasn’t so anemic, it would be great pickup. Nice for old school rock riffs, but not tight enough for AC/DC stuff. Generally very woody sound. It would be great with a slightly hotter bridge.

A3n/A3b

Neck pickup, great, great, great cleans. Bell like highs, full mids but not too muddy, very little bass so You can’t hear any boominess. Great for chords and every other clean stuff. On OD channel it’s similar to A2, but with more present highs and less bass which makes them clearer. There is also slightly less output than A2. Middle position is bright, but not so piercing. Very low output, more funky than A2. On OD it doesn’t show any character. It’s nice and round but something is missing. Bridge pickup was very bright on cleans but with compressor it would give nice almost tele like sound. Nice overdrive, tighter than A2, but generally weaker. I bet that it would shine in a hotter wind (maybe Brobucker?). IMO it’s great set for jazz, and it’s unforgiving for bad technique.

A4n/A4b

Neck cleans was very sweet (if You can describe sound in a sweetness level). When I first plugged it into amp my it begged for Open Dsus4 tunning and White Summer. I don’t know what it was but for me that was perfect tone for this. Very balanced sound. Middle position round as always, but like neck pretty bland and non inspiring. OD was nice, very transparent. Bridge pup on drive channel will give You what You hear in your head when You think about some vintage PAFs. Transparent, well defined tone. Just look at frettedamerciana SG’s videos.

UOA5n/UOA5b

Jimmy Page was here. He wants his tone back. I will just repeat the thing You can find in the half of the topics on this forum. Something like a great cross between A2 and A5. Take some mids from the A2 description and add a little highs, lows and tightness.

A5n/A5b

To be honest, I didn’t try the set like that but I’ve put the A5 from my Custom 5 to neck and bridge positions. It lasted for my only for a few minutes. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t EQ’d amp good, but… Neck was boomy as hell and I couldn’t find the reason to make it stay for a longer time. The bridge was scooped, ears piercing and… boomy. Again, not for me. BUT! I’m telling it again. Do not take it very serious. A5s was put in pups for few minutes and it’s not the base for constructive review.

A8

I didn’t test it, but according to other forum members it should scream, rock and everything. When I find some spare A8s I will give it a shot and write a reply as soon as I’ll be able to do it. It should match nicely with A4 in neck on paper, but like I said it’s just predictions.

A3n/UOA5b

I’m currently using this set and I would recommend it to everyone who like smoothness and classic PAF which basically rock and roll. Very balanced EQ and output. Love the leads from neck slot and riffs from bridge.


That’s all. I hope it will help other people in the “where is my tone?” search. And be nice base for other mag swaps. You can post it anywhere, anytime as long as You write the author :)

PS Special thanks for LtKojak for magnets, great transactions and good advices!

PS 2 Sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.


Keep on rockin’
majewsky
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

The seths with an a8 would be VERY interesting. Should fill it out nicely and give a heavy boost while preserving the touch sensitive attack, at least in theory. I'd say give it a shot. Not sure about noise though.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Hey, hey, hello!

I’ve started this thread half year ago looking for your suggestions about magnet swaps in Seth Lover set. I would like to thank You for output and for every suggestion it was great starting point. However I like to try everything on my own so… I bought few magnets from LtKojak and started an addiction… Seriously guys… It’s addictive.
I would like to share my experience with others, because I wasn’t able to find good thread about it on forum and I thought that would be nice for others to have big post about it in one place.

Gear used: Gibson SG Standard into Peavey Classic 30 (Tested without covers)

Here we go…

A2n/A2b

Stock set. Very good cleans on neck position, good for chords and melodies. On overdrive channel pretty dark riffs but great almost liquid solo sound. Middle position was very sweet, maybe a little funky if You try to EQ your amp in good way. On overdrive You may hear a little “Jimmy Page inspiration”. Think about a little darker heartbreaker. Bridge on cleans is very bright and it may be ear piercing I won’t describe the cleans on bridge pu’p, because I basically don’t like bridge pup’s on clean. When OD if it wasn’t so anemic, it would be great pickup. Nice for old school rock riffs, but not tight enough for AC/DC stuff. Generally very woody sound. It would be great with a slightly hotter bridge.

A3n/A3b

Neck pickup, great, great, great cleans. Bell like highs, full mids but not too muddy, very little bass so You can’t hear any boominess. Great for chords and every other clean stuff. On OD channel it’s similar to A2, but with more present highs and less bass which makes them clearer. There is also slightly less output than A2. Middle position is bright, but not so piercing. Very low output, more funky than A2. On OD it doesn’t show any character. It’s nice and round but something is missing. Bridge pickup was very bright on cleans but with compressor it would give nice almost tele like sound. Nice overdrive, tighter than A2, but generally weaker. I bet that it would shine in a hotter wind (maybe Brobucker?). IMO it’s great set for jazz, and it’s unforgiving for bad technique.

A4n/A4b

Neck cleans was very sweet (if You can describe sound in a sweetness level). When I first plugged it into amp my it begged for Open Dsus4 tunning and White Summer. I don’t know what it was but for me that was perfect tone for this. Very balanced sound. Middle position round as always, but like neck pretty bland and non inspiring. OD was nice, very transparent. Bridge pup on drive channel will give You what You hear in your head when You think about some vintage PAFs. Transparent, well defined tone. Just look at frettedamerciana SG’s videos.

UOA5n/UOA5b

Jimmy Page was here. He wants his tone back. I will just repeat the thing You can find in the half of the topics on this forum. Something like a great cross between A2 and A5. Take some mids from the A2 description and add a little highs, lows and tightness.

A5n/A5b

To be honest, I didn’t try the set like that but I’ve put the A5 from my Custom 5 to neck and bridge positions. It lasted for my only for a few minutes. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t EQ’d amp good, but… Neck was boomy as hell and I couldn’t find the reason to make it stay for a longer time. The bridge was scooped, ears piercing and… boomy. Again, not for me. BUT! I’m telling it again. Do not take it very serious. A5s was put in pups for few minutes and it’s not the base for constructive review.

A8

I didn’t test it, but according to other forum members it should scream, rock and everything. When I find some spare A8s I will give it a shot and write a reply as soon as I’ll be able to do it. It should match nicely with A4 in neck on paper, but like I said it’s just predictions.

A3n/UOA5b

I’m currently using this set and I would recommend it to everyone who like smoothness and classic PAF which basically rock and roll. Very balanced EQ and output. Love the leads from neck slot and riffs from bridge.


That’s all. I hope it will help other people in the “where is my tone?” search. And be nice base for other mag swaps. You can post it anywhere, anytime as long as You write the author :)

PS Special thanks for LtKojak for magnets, great transactions and good advices!

PS 2 Sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.


Keep on rockin’
majewsky

Thanks for the detailed report! Awesome info!!!
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

The seths with an a8 would be VERY interesting. Should fill it out nicely and give a heavy boost while preserving the touch sensitive attack, at least in theory. I'd say give it a shot. Not sure about noise though.

I tried an A8 in a Seth Lover bridge a while back. I remember it as bold, fairly even across the EQ spectrum, a LOT louder than with the standard A2 magnet, but lacking any of the sweetness and sensitivity of the A2 Seth. This was a pure rock pickup. I deemed it the Seth Lover on methamphetamines.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

I tried an A8 in a Seth Lover bridge a while back. I remember it as bold, fairly even across the EQ spectrum, a LOT louder than with the standard A2 magnet, but lacking any of the sweetness and sensitivity of the A2 Seth. This was a pure rock pickup. I deemed it the Seth Lover on methamphetamines.

aww well cool. thanks for letting me know!
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Thanks for the kudos, majewsky.

I'm glad the second shipment of magnets didn't get lost after all.

The A3/UOA5 mag combo REALLY is something, isn't it?

Have fun with your new mags and thank you for the report. It really is useful for the ones that are interested in mag swapping.

Yours very truly,
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

A little extra note on the Seth mag swap.Got some rough & polished A3's from FX and put them in both neck & bridge. Polished worked better than rough in neck[better treble]. Polished I like in the bridge to ,but will try rough later. U do get a little less push but you get more clarity,and less bass boom in neck. Mite get a PGn again and try the 3 in it. If U like cleans I think you'd like the A3's.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

How would the "feel" of the A4 be described as compared to the A2? I did some swaps on some Burstbuckers. Compared to the A2, the UOA5s I tried were too stiff to my liking and not quite as sweet as the A2. Maybe after trying the Seths a while back I'm just an A2 convert? I DO think I would like to try the A3 in the neck, though.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

I don't know about the seths but the a4 I've used in neck pups sounds really sweet clean. Nice clean neutral sound. But not near as much character as a2. That's why I'm curious about the uoa5 for the neck slot. Which by the way, you guys using uoa5 in the neck are you using rough or smooth mags?
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

I went through this very same thing a few months ago. Tried A2/3/4/5 in Seths (no UOA5 or A8, just wanted that vintage PAF mags). My favorite was A3 N and stock A2 bridge. I ended up going back to the 59 in the bridge because it's just a more aggressive pickup overall. But the A3 Seth Lover N is still there, and it's a beautiful sound. I even turned it around and flipped the magnet to get some Peter Green-y goodness (flipping the pickup around definitely makes a difference).
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

In simplest terms, my experience was-
A2 set - neck is too dark for me, not 59 boomy but too boomy. Bridge is amazing except the low end could be tighter for my tastes.
A3 set - the neck is perfect for me, brighter and more natural sounding than the A2. Bridge was a bit weaker than A2 in terms of output but I valued the ever so slightly firmer low end and brightness.
A4 set - the neck was bordering on a Stratty tone, very natural and beautiful. The bridge was more bland to my ears, in contrast to majewsky's experience. Didn't really stand out to me. Of course everybody is looking for different things, tone wise.
A5 set - the neck was full on scooped, clean, and Stratty, only now it was TOO MUCH. Didn't sound like what we think of a humbucker at all. The bridge was like a lower output 59 with some more mids. Still preferred the 59 for the A5 mag.

Would love to do this process for the 59n (did all of the above for the 59B) and PG sets sometime but it's VERY time consuming and a bit obsessive.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

A2 set - neck is too dark for me, not 59 boomy but too boomy.

Very easy fix, which I've done to most of my neck HB's: spin-a-split. You convert the neck tone pot into a second volume control, but for one coil only. That way you can dial it down and get unbalanced coils (which are a blend of HB and single coil) all the way down to full coil-cut. Unbalanced coils counteract some of the HB effect, and add treble and thin out mds. There's diagrams online.
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

So, I might have to order some more A3 mags.

I'm putting one in the neck h/b of my telecaster but I'm thinking from this I might could try it for some other neck h/b's
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Hey, hey, hello!

I’ve started this thread half year ago looking for your suggestions about magnet swaps in Seth Lover set. I would like to thank You for output and for every suggestion it was great starting point. However I like to try everything on my own so… I bought few magnets from LtKojak and started an addiction… Seriously guys… It’s addictive.
I would like to share my experience with others, because I wasn’t able to find good thread about it on forum and I thought that would be nice for others to have big post about it in one place.

Gear used: Gibson SG Standard into Peavey Classic 30 (Tested without covers)

Here we go…

A2n/A2b

Stock set. Very good cleans on neck position, good for chords and melodies. On overdrive channel pretty dark riffs but great almost liquid solo sound. Middle position was very sweet, maybe a little funky if You try to EQ your amp in good way. On overdrive You may hear a little “Jimmy Page inspiration”. Think about a little darker heartbreaker. Bridge on cleans is very bright and it may be ear piercing I won’t describe the cleans on bridge pu’p, because I basically don’t like bridge pup’s on clean. When OD if it wasn’t so anemic, it would be great pickup. Nice for old school rock riffs, but not tight enough for AC/DC stuff. Generally very woody sound. It would be great with a slightly hotter bridge.

A3n/A3b

Neck pickup, great, great, great cleans. Bell like highs, full mids but not too muddy, very little bass so You can’t hear any boominess. Great for chords and every other clean stuff. On OD channel it’s similar to A2, but with more present highs and less bass which makes them clearer. There is also slightly less output than A2. Middle position is bright, but not so piercing. Very low output, more funky than A2. On OD it doesn’t show any character. It’s nice and round but something is missing. Bridge pickup was very bright on cleans but with compressor it would give nice almost tele like sound. Nice overdrive, tighter than A2, but generally weaker. I bet that it would shine in a hotter wind (maybe Brobucker?). IMO it’s great set for jazz, and it’s unforgiving for bad technique.

A4n/A4b

Neck cleans was very sweet (if You can describe sound in a sweetness level). When I first plugged it into amp my it begged for Open Dsus4 tunning and White Summer. I don’t know what it was but for me that was perfect tone for this. Very balanced sound. Middle position round as always, but like neck pretty bland and non inspiring. OD was nice, very transparent. Bridge pup on drive channel will give You what You hear in your head when You think about some vintage PAFs. Transparent, well defined tone. Just look at frettedamerciana SG’s videos.

UOA5n/UOA5b

Jimmy Page was here. He wants his tone back. I will just repeat the thing You can find in the half of the topics on this forum. Something like a great cross between A2 and A5. Take some mids from the A2 description and add a little highs, lows and tightness.

A5n/A5b

To be honest, I didn’t try the set like that but I’ve put the A5 from my Custom 5 to neck and bridge positions. It lasted for my only for a few minutes. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t EQ’d amp good, but… Neck was boomy as hell and I couldn’t find the reason to make it stay for a longer time. The bridge was scooped, ears piercing and… boomy. Again, not for me. BUT! I’m telling it again. Do not take it very serious. A5s was put in pups for few minutes and it’s not the base for constructive review.

A8

I didn’t test it, but according to other forum members it should scream, rock and everything. When I find some spare A8s I will give it a shot and write a reply as soon as I’ll be able to do it. It should match nicely with A4 in neck on paper, but like I said it’s just predictions.

A3n/UOA5b

I’m currently using this set and I would recommend it to everyone who like smoothness and classic PAF which basically rock and roll. Very balanced EQ and output. Love the leads from neck slot and riffs from bridge.


That’s all. I hope it will help other people in the “where is my tone?” search. And be nice base for other mag swaps. You can post it anywhere, anytime as long as You write the author :)

PS Special thanks for LtKojak for magnets, great transactions and good advices!

PS 2 Sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.


Keep on rockin’
majewsky

Very informative info here!.
Thank you, mate.

I abolutely love A4 in neck PAF-alike pickups.
I am pending on trying an A8 in Bridge slot (sorry, Pepe, I need some hot iron to unsolder pickup covers. I've just ordered one!).
 
Re: Seth Lover Magnet Swap

Nice looking 335, Pepe. I learned long ago that you're one of the few guys here I can count on for accurate information and great advice. Who loves ya, baby?

Mate, you both are like ying-yang. Together you make the WHOLE.
Thanks to both
 
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