SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

[sunburn]

Hi, I recently replaced my Yamaha Pacifica 112 single coils with a pair of Quarter Pounds. I really like this "fat single coil sound" excepted they sound muffled, even with the tone pot at 10. The tone pot seems to work normally, but the sound is still too dark at 10.

I had the stock humbucker replaced a few years ago with a SH-5 which is very nice with clear highs. It's not muffled at all.

The tone pot is a 250k.

Did I just make a mistake and chose pickups which tone do not match, or would it be a good idea to add a 500k or 1M pot for the two Quarter Pounds, and to keep the stock 250k pot for the SH5 ? I'm afraid a 500k pot would make the SH5 too bright.

The guitar has an alder body and a maple neck.


Thank you very much !

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Always had good results w/a 500K pot & 1/4 Lbers.

& Welcome to teh Forum!
:wave:

 

[jeremy]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

ive always used 500k pots with qp's in the neck or middle. in the bridge 250k can be ok

 

[sunburn]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Thank you very much for your feedback. I'll go buy a 500k pot this week

 

[uOpt]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

The QP is double heavy. Thinner wire with more resistance and the fat magnets. It is pretty dark and compressed after both hit you.

That's why I don't like bass people to try the Precision bass QP as their first Seymour Duncan.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

I've found that the Quarter Pound sounds best with 500k vol and tone pots. Certainly that will add brightness to the SH5, but you could always use the tone control...it turns, and cuts out a lot of treble as it turns.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Or, if you don't want to have to turn the tone control down every time you switch to the bridge pup (SH5), you could put an A2 magnet in that SH5 (effectively making it a Custom Custom).

Or you could wire the neck and middle pups (the Quarter Pounds) to bypass the tone pot and only have the tone control on the SH5. That way you can pre-set the tone of the SH5 to wherever it sounds good in relation to the QP pups and adjust your amp accordingly for the ultimate tone you want.

 

[Mincer]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

If I use an HSS with Quarter Pounds, there is always 500k pots all around. I agree that the Custom Custom is a good match for them, too. Really great setup (and cheap to mod from what you already have).

 

[thanaton]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Hi, I recently replaced my Yamaha Pacifica 112 single coils with a pair of Quarter Pounds. I really like this "fat single coil sound" excepted they sound muffled, even with the tone pot at 10. The tone pot seems to work normally, but the sound is still too dark at 10.

I had the stock humbucker replaced a few years ago with a SH-5 which is very nice with clear highs. It's not muffled at all.

The tone pot is a 250k.

Did I just make a mistake and chose pickups which tone do not match, or would it be a good idea to add a 500k or 1M pot for the two Quarter Pounds, and to keep the stock 250k pot for the SH5 ? I'm afraid a 500k pot would make the SH5 too bright.

The guitar has an alder body and a maple neck.


Thank you very much !

The SSL-4's have a very low resonant peak. I don't suspect they were intended to be used as middle or neck pickups. Switching to 500k or 1 meg pots will increase the Q factor, but the resonant peak will remain the same, so rather than getting a clearer treble, you'll just end up with boosted upper mids.

IMO, Seymour Duncan doesn't really have any "fat" single coils that are optimal for the middle or neck. Their offerings are either low output, or very high output. Take a look at the Lollar Special S neck and middle.

 

[jeremy]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

i disagree. i think the ssl6 is a great neck pup with 500k pots

 

[Masta' C]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Agreed, the QP opens up more with a 500K pot

 

[thanaton]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Most of Seymour Duncan's hot singles date back to the 80's, when super-over-winding was apparently all the rage, and it doesn't appear that they'd offered much of a middle ground since then.

If you take a look a their spec chart, you'll notice that there are a lot of offerings with a peak in the 4kHz range, and a lot that are between 8kHz and 10kHz, but only two pickups that are between 5kHz and 7kHz:

It tends to be the case that guitarists like hot bridges and lower output neck and middle pickups, but even still, Seymour Duncan doesn't really have anything that cross shops with the Lollar Blackface, Texas Specials or BKP Irish Tours.

 

[uOpt]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

The problem with the QP specifically is that it is difficult to fit a cover and fit it in a Strat pickguard if you were to put awg42 vintage-class wire around the big magnets. The thinner wire doesn't only change the sound, it also eases production.

That is why the QP doesn't sound anything like those big-rod Schecter single coils that Blackmore was using for a while. Those have awg42, just bigger magnets than regular Strat pickups.

 

[thanaton]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

If the wind count is the same, the inductance, and hence the sound produced, will be nearly identical, regardless of whether it's 42 or 43 AWG. The SSL-4 is just a hot pickup by design.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

QP is indeed dark. I've rewound a few and made some of my own 1/4" magnet singles, the format can produce good highs. As others have said its the overall recipe that makes these dark sounding. If you're still within a 21-day exchange, you could trade them in for QP Tapped (and pay the difference) so you have a lower wind to tap into.

The only true "fix" for the high frequencies on that pickup would be to wire a high pass filter to the volume pot, and start playing around with the volume control until you find a place that leaks enough highs back in, while attenuating the rest. Then, if you want that sound permanently, you'd have to wire in an R/C network to mock up that load, and then run a standard volume/tone in conjunction with that. But it's possible, if you're a volume control user, that just wiring the HPF capacitor onto the volume control will give you the ability to play off of it, and then turn all the way up for the fatter lead sound.

 

[uOpt]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

If the wind count is the same, the inductance, and hence the sound produced, will be nearly identical, regardless of whether it's 42 or 43 AWG. The SSL-4 is just a hot pickup by design.

The number of winds won't be the same. And resistance and capacitance directly influence the sound, as much as the inductance.

 

[thanaton]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

The number of winds won't be the same. And resistance and capacitance directly influence the sound, as much as the inductance.

Not as much as the inductance. The capacitance differences get swamped out by the guitar cable. The difference in resistance has a small impact on the Q factor. The SSL-4 is hot wound, they could have made it more vintage sounding and still used 43AWG if they had wanted to, but that apparently wasn't a design goal.

 

[thanaton]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

But it's possible, if you're a volume control user, that just wiring the HPF capacitor onto the volume control will give you the ability to play off of it, and then turn all the way up for the fatter lead sound.

A treble bleed is a really good idea in this case, or even a G&L style HPF tone control, will definitely fix any mud issue in the neck and middle position.

 

[uOpt]

Re: SSL4 Quarter Pound pickups much too dark in my guitar

Not as much as the inductance. The capacitance differences get swamped out by the guitar cable. The difference in resistance has a small impact on the Q factor. The SSL-4 is hot wound, they could have made it more vintage sounding and still used 43AWG if they had wanted to, but that apparently wasn't a design goal.

wtf

another one of those...