jhale667
New member
:friday:
Greetings all. As I posted some months ago in here, decided to swap out all my active humbucker-equipped Strats back to passives, and since I'd always had great luck with Duncan Distortion humbuckers in my teens, decided to try Duncans again. While I still want to try an Alt8 in something, I'd started off by putting a TB-11 in my 1-piece Koa bodied Warmoth Strat with an Ebony fingerboard:
Also has an STK-S1N in the neck. LOVE that. But at first I was torn on the Custom Custom, because it seemly lacked low end, particularly at "apartment" volume. Everything else was happening about it, pleasing highs, nice mid spike, wasn't feelin' the palm-mutes. Haven't been gigging of late, so wasn't getting a chance to try it out at "playing with drummer" volume or anything for a bit. Toyed with the idea of changing magnets, and was reading up on the difference in and the process of turning it into a C5 or a C8 here.
Then came home from errands a couple of Saturday mornings ago, and my building's gardener was doing some major tree pruning, with a wood-chipper and whatnot, quite noisy. I thought "Hey....." and cranked up the Mesa-Boogie to closer to "gig" volume. HOLY CRAP, what a difference. It actually has some nice cabinet "thunk" happening! So thinking the CC is a keeper in that guitar. Scored another CC on Ebay for cheap that's going in a Musikraft Swamp-Ash Strat body with a nearly NOS Charvel Maple neck.
BUT, I also needed one for my baby, my number 1, first guitar I ever assembled (carefully not saying "built" to not offend the word-police
) as a teen. My old favorite Charvel neck (exactly the same as the other one I'd basically kept as a spare all these years) on a Northern Ash body. Originally had a Duncan SH-6 on it back in the day that got replaced with an EMG 81 in the 90s when I joined a band that wanted the Metallica "Black" album Rhythm tone. Heck, already had the Boogie...lol. It ended up staying in there for awhile, wasn't even using this guitar much for a period.
But once I'd grown tired of EMGs, this one had to go as well, and this guitar has recently come back into service to become my primary Dropped-D guitar. I'd read in several threads here that the regular Custom sounded great for drop-tunings and didn't mush out.
Scored an older, non-logo'd TB-5 on Ebay the other day for CHEAP as well, and it arrived rather quickly since the seller was also in California. Installed it yesterday morning, goofed around with it all day today, and it too kicks a**! Maybe a wee bit of the ceramic snarl on the top end, but overall VERY nice; tight lows, especially on palm-mutes, and just enough mids.
So basically, I like them both! :cool2: Lead-wise, it seems to me at least (at first) that the TB-11 has the more pleasing voice of the two, but that's not to say the TB-5 is slouchy in that department, either.
Not seeing myself desperate to run out and try a C5 now, but still would like to check out a C8 and an Alt8 soon...but liking the A2 and Ceramic in their respective instruments and applications so far, don't see myself changing magnets in those two! :scratchch
Greetings all. As I posted some months ago in here, decided to swap out all my active humbucker-equipped Strats back to passives, and since I'd always had great luck with Duncan Distortion humbuckers in my teens, decided to try Duncans again. While I still want to try an Alt8 in something, I'd started off by putting a TB-11 in my 1-piece Koa bodied Warmoth Strat with an Ebony fingerboard:
Also has an STK-S1N in the neck. LOVE that. But at first I was torn on the Custom Custom, because it seemly lacked low end, particularly at "apartment" volume. Everything else was happening about it, pleasing highs, nice mid spike, wasn't feelin' the palm-mutes. Haven't been gigging of late, so wasn't getting a chance to try it out at "playing with drummer" volume or anything for a bit. Toyed with the idea of changing magnets, and was reading up on the difference in and the process of turning it into a C5 or a C8 here.
Then came home from errands a couple of Saturday mornings ago, and my building's gardener was doing some major tree pruning, with a wood-chipper and whatnot, quite noisy. I thought "Hey....." and cranked up the Mesa-Boogie to closer to "gig" volume. HOLY CRAP, what a difference. It actually has some nice cabinet "thunk" happening! So thinking the CC is a keeper in that guitar. Scored another CC on Ebay for cheap that's going in a Musikraft Swamp-Ash Strat body with a nearly NOS Charvel Maple neck.
BUT, I also needed one for my baby, my number 1, first guitar I ever assembled (carefully not saying "built" to not offend the word-police
) as a teen. My old favorite Charvel neck (exactly the same as the other one I'd basically kept as a spare all these years) on a Northern Ash body. Originally had a Duncan SH-6 on it back in the day that got replaced with an EMG 81 in the 90s when I joined a band that wanted the Metallica "Black" album Rhythm tone. Heck, already had the Boogie...lol. It ended up staying in there for awhile, wasn't even using this guitar much for a period.But once I'd grown tired of EMGs, this one had to go as well, and this guitar has recently come back into service to become my primary Dropped-D guitar. I'd read in several threads here that the regular Custom sounded great for drop-tunings and didn't mush out.
Scored an older, non-logo'd TB-5 on Ebay the other day for CHEAP as well, and it arrived rather quickly since the seller was also in California. Installed it yesterday morning, goofed around with it all day today, and it too kicks a**! Maybe a wee bit of the ceramic snarl on the top end, but overall VERY nice; tight lows, especially on palm-mutes, and just enough mids.
So basically, I like them both! :cool2: Lead-wise, it seems to me at least (at first) that the TB-11 has the more pleasing voice of the two, but that's not to say the TB-5 is slouchy in that department, either.
Not seeing myself desperate to run out and try a C5 now, but still would like to check out a C8 and an Alt8 soon...but liking the A2 and Ceramic in their respective instruments and applications so far, don't see myself changing magnets in those two! :scratchch
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