SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

S

streamline

New member
Hi guys,

Here's my problem: I like the crispness of the Full Shred (bridge), but to me it doesn't have any mid-range and it's not thundering enough, whereas the Duncan Distortion (bridge) is far too smooth and buttery sounding (and I like pick-ups with a sharper EQ, DMZ Evolution is one of my favourites, but only for lead work).

Do you think that I'd be able to achieve this sort of clear, cutting, powerful and mid-range rich tone by swapping out the A5 in the FS for the Ceramic magnet of the DD and putting in the row of screws (ones that go closest to bridge and need flat-headed screwdrivers) in place of th hex screws nearest to the bridge, to hopefully loosen up the low-end, and open the pick-up up a little?

Hopefully, ending up with a FS with higher output, more mid-range & smoothness and a slightly looser bottom end?

Or is the A8 magnet my only option really?

I guess I'm trying to figure out how to build a pickup with the lead qualities of DMZ Evolution / X2N whilst also having a good 'cool' rhythm and clarity of SD's....

Thoughts?


Cheers,
Roman
 
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Re: SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

My only thoughts, are that you will basically have a Duncan Custom (assuming that the Full Shred and Custom coils are the same), but with hex poles in the one coil, rather than slugs. This won't give the same warmth and girth of a slug coil, so it could end up sounding very punchy and bright.
 
Re: SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

Do you think that having one coil with slugs, futher away from the bridge, would make that much of difference? What if I changed positioning of the hex's (What if I put the slugs in the coil closer to the neck and keep hexes near the bridge??) or even not putting in any slugs at all?

Maybe if guys could help me understand what effect each new change would have individually, then I could try to work out whether this modification could work?

1) The magnet swap (ceramic for a5). Am I right in thinking that this would boost the output, slightly compress the sound and increased low/mid frequencies? Would this have an effect on the treble - if so, what could I do to control it?

2) Slug screws in place of hex screws (which coil?). Would these "loosen" the tone by getting rid of some of the high end? What screw positioning would be optimal?


I may be getting a Custom soon too, but I want to see if I can make something good out of the two pickups I have access to (DD and FS) - although, I also have a JB which I could hypothetically take apart - but as that's basically a DD with a5, i don't think it could be of great help.... Unless the coils are wound v differently and I could combine coils?

As far as I'm concerned if I can make myself a "perfect" bridge pick-up, using up 3 SD's would be worth it (anyway that's how much 'boutique' pickups sell for!)

Cheers!
Roman
 
Re: SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

Custom is not going to give you the clarity you want. It has more mids but is a bit more blurry than the FS.

Consider the DiMarzio Breed Bridge. Duncan's only hot A5 buckers are FS and JB. The Breed is hot A5 but a lot warmer. Pounds of mids, enough bass.

Dunno about the mods/hybrids. Try manipulating the tone control with the FS, really opens it up. Or put in lower value pots...the FS has tons of mids but you have to get rid of some of the treble first...
 
Re: SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

Put an EQ in the effects loop and thank me later. I have one for boosting low mids with my Full Shred...and it does the trick. The only other thing I would suggest is taking and A5 and a ceramic magnet and cutting them right down the middle lengthwise...and using 1/2 of each in your shred...there's a write-up on HC in the review section of a bro that did that to a Screamin Demon...
 
Re: SH-10 with Ceramic Magnet and DD screws?

streamline said:
Do you think that having one coil with slugs, futher away from the bridge, would make that much of difference? What if I changed positioning of the hex's (What if I put the slugs in the coil closer to the neck and keep hexes near the bridge??) or even not putting in any slugs at all?

Maybe if guys could help me understand what effect each new change would have individually, then I could try to work out whether this modification could work?

1) The magnet swap (ceramic for a5). Am I right in thinking that this would boost the output, slightly compress the sound and increased low/mid frequencies? Would this have an effect on the treble - if so, what could I do to control it?

2) Slug screws in place of hex screws (which coil?). Would these "loosen" the tone by getting rid of some of the high end? What screw positioning would be optimal?


I may be getting a Custom soon too, but I want to see if I can make something good out of the two pickups I have access to (DD and FS) - although, I also have a JB which I could hypothetically take apart - but as that's basically a DD with a5, i don't think it could be of great help.... Unless the coils are wound v differently and I could combine coils?

As far as I'm concerned if I can make myself a "perfect" bridge pick-up, using up 3 SD's would be worth it (anyway that's how much 'boutique' pickups sell for!)

Cheers!
Roman
Click to expand...


Ok--an expirience I had last night--I ordered a gross of the inverted allen screws (like the FS has and like the Screamin Demon has). I wanted to put them in my Custom 5 to make a FS. The screw side of the C5 swapped with these screws well (they are an alloy material 5-40 x 1/2 size), however, the slug coil has a competely different bobbin and base plate hole size. I took the slug bobbin off, pushed out the slugs with a screwdriver and then lightly screwed the bobbin back on with the 2 phillips screws on the base plate (just enough to hold it on. Then I tried screwing the allen screws into the base plate from the top to find out that the holes on the bottom of the base plate were bigger than the holes in the screw side. I figured I could just push the allen heads into the bobbin hole since they were almost the right size to be pressed in, but I pushed a little and I feared cracking the bobbin so I stopped and put the slugs back in. I also took the A2 magnet from my Gibson 490t and put it in there for a custom custom with 1 row of allen screws. Not really that impressed... Just a darker version of the custom custom it seemed. Even weaker than before-- I might try to put the A5 back in it and see what I get that way-- I will warn you to check out BachtoRocks's post on the hybrids though. He talks about using a hair-dryer to get the way flowing in there and re-pot it. The pickup squeeled a bit after removing the bobbin-
 
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