Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

[Nagisa]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

I have that exact same guitar and have tried cs69, true velvet, satch track,fast track 1 on it. Did the resistor trick for the real single coils. It didn’t sound like a real strat imo. Fast track is pretty good for me, but will try a cruiser soon I think.

I personally hated the hyperion pickups. Gravity Storm in the bridge is killer in this guitar though.
I love the guitar itself but pickup matching has been a nightmare.

 

[freefrog]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

I have that exact same guitar and have tried cs69, true velvet, satch track,fast track 1 on it. Did the resistor trick for the real single coils. It didn’t sound like a real strat imo.

The resistor trick is not meant to change a guitar in another one: it's a way to avoid a discrepancy in the EQing of different pickups, with the related and annoying need to constantly fiddle with the tone pot.

For the record, it has been said that Bill Lawrence tended to use 500k controls only and to systematically adapt the resistive load with parallel components. So, it's not necessarily a useless trick.

When it comes to obtain a real Strat tone, the only safe way that I know is to play a real Strat. Even the Strat emulation provided by my Line 6 Variax or by my Roland/Boss GK3 modeler aren't quite there, albeit these systems are supposed to emulate faithfully a Strat with passive pickups (and the Variax even models the acoustic resonance of such a guitar).

It must be possible to fine tune a convincing emulation with passive components. I've somehow succeeded to do that once in... a hollow body with 3 HB sized pickups (!). But it required "para varitone" custom made filters, specifically designed for this sound in this specific axe...

Pickups and/or resistors alone don't do miracles, sadly.

FWIW (my worthless experience and opinion).

 

[contiContiCONTI]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

I have that exact same guitar and have tried cs69, true velvet, satch track,fast track 1 on it. Did the resistor trick for the real single coils. It didn’t sound like a real strat imo. Fast track is pretty good for me, but will try a cruiser soon I think.

I personally hated the hyperion pickups. Gravity Storm in the bridge is killer in this guitar though.
I love the guitar itself but pickup matching has been a nightmare.

How did the cs69 and true velvets sound with/without the resistor? I understand that they didnt sound stratty, but why is that? Fatter? too ice-picky?

 

[contiContiCONTI]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

So I ended up going for the SD Alnico II pro for the neck and a Dimarzio Transition for the Bridge (I'm a big Lukather fan). When they arrive, I'll post an update and maybe some sound samples

 

[contiContiCONTI]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

So the Dimarzio Transition has way too high output and the Alnio II pro didn't sound much different from the stock hyperion neck. The resistor trick didn't seem to change much for me but some other AZ owners keep insisting to me that its worth it.. So I will be returning these pickups and trying Suhr Thornbucker + 2 MLs with resistor trick so that the MLs see a 250K pot and the humbucker sees 500K.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

That will be interesting pickup swap. I'm wondering if the ML will sound different enough to make you like them. I have no experience of the Hyperion pickups, but I'd be expect the ML to have more mids.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

So I ended up going for the SD Alnico II pro for the neck and a Dimarzio Transition for the Bridge (I'm a big Lukather fan). When they arrive, I'll post an update and maybe some sound samples

I think you will like the Alnico II Pro. It works well with 500k pots.

 

[contiContiCONTI]

Re: Single Coil for 500K tone and volume pots.

I tried it out man. It did sound good, but was the same sort of sound I was getting out of the hyperion actually (and surprisingly). Tried with 500K pots and 250K pots.

I also changed my mind on the ML/Thornbucker combo, and desided to go with Fat 50s and a lower output humbucker (which I'll save for a seperate thread). Will be turning the 500k pots to 250k using resistors. Generally trying to calm the beast down.