The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

[Tony_H]

Hi folks,
I'm back with a question:

I have this George Dennis guitar: basswood body, maple/RW neck, Schaller Floyd Rose tremolo. The guitar has always sounded pretty tame, even dull I could say, and I want to add some treble. Currently it's fitted with two Schaller S6 single-coils (see my post on pushing polepieces in) and a Duncan Custom TB.

I don't want any high-output meltdown monsters - I'm after some vintage chime. The SSL-1 seemed like a good idea, and I thought I could match the singles with a 59 Trembucker. Judging from the Tone Chart, these pups could be good match tone- and output-wise.

Anyone care to share an idea?

Thanks
Tony

 

[Tony_H]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

Bump

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

I think you're right on the money. SSL-1 and 59TB. Lew

 

[some_dude]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

I have a Fender Strat SSH basswood with RW/maple neck & Kahler Floyd Rose.

It's fitted with a DiMarizio Super Distortion and a pair of medium output single coils (I don't know what model)

I sounds nice and warm on the neck & middle, and the S-Distortion has plenty of high mids. It's not so much a vintage sound though, as it's definatly a shredding guitar.

I've heard that Fender Texas Specials pair well with a humbucker, and have a decently vintage sound for a high output single.

I don't know if this is helpful or not, just thought I'd bump the post back up near the top.

 

[RG 2570]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

Hi folks,
I'm back with a question:

I have this George Dennis guitar: basswood body, maple/RW neck, Schaller Floyd Rose tremolo. The guitar has always sounded pretty tame, even dull I could say, and I want to add some treble. Currently it's fitted with two Schaller S6 single-coils (see my post on pushing polepieces in) and a Duncan Custom TB.

I don't want any high-output meltdown monsters - I'm after some vintage chime. The SSL-1 seemed like a good idea, and I thought I could match the singles with a 59 Trembucker. Judging from the Tone Chart, these pups could be good match tone- and output-wise.

Anyone care to share an idea?

Thanks
Tony

lynch demon in the bridge or a paf pro

 

[Tony_H]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

Thanks folks.
I'll take look at the Tone Chart and ponder your suggestions.

My experience has been that low-output pickups bring out more of the actual nature of the guitar, whereas high-output pickups may color the guitar's tone somewhat. Well I have an alder-bodied, maple/RW-necked Strat-style testbed guitar that's extremely bright-sounding. I fitted it with several sorts of lower-output pickups and it always sounded shrill - even with Alnico II humbuckers (the other pups I tried were: a Gibson 490R/490T set, Gibson 496R/Duncan Custom, and RM Pickups Color Sound set - basically a PAF-style pickup). Only when I installed high-output A5 humbuckers, the tone got more pleasant to my ears. The way I see this is that the hotter signal with pronounced mids and bass overshadows or compresses the shrill high end (sorry for the terminology, it's funny trying to describe this :/)

So now I'm trying to think in the opposite direction: I want to bring out as many highs as I can, and I look for lower output pickups to do this. I think I'll go for the SSL1/TB1 set and see what it does.

Any more opinions please?
Thanks so far
Tony

 

[vegetablejoe]

Re: Schaller S6 in a basswood guitar?

Re: Schaller S6 in a basswood guitar?

Hi Tony,

It is rare that I find someone using Schaller S6 pickups. I used to use a set of those in my MIJ Strat with maple f/b. I presume the body to be basswood as that is more common. I am obviously no good at telling diff. woods apart by just looking at the grain!

As you characterized it, the guitar was quite tame, even dull. It was trebly enough, but low in volume and characterless. Quite usable for rhythm playing and some jazzy chords, but not for crunch chords, classic rock or blues.

After reading everyone's recommendations on this forum, I swapped the Schallers with the SD Antiquity Hot set, and the latter are not coming out of the guitar ever again! A big all around improvement in tone, volume, chime, and quack, plus a strong (but not ice-picky) sound from the custom bridge pup.

They sound all-around much better too than a set of TX Specials in a 2nd strat clone(alder-bodied SX), and a pair of 57/62's + APS1 in a 3rd strat clone (white pine body)

I hope that helps narrow down your choices. Good luck!

Jaime

btw, you seem to be one of the few people gigging with a Hawk! I have a similar-bodied Nighthawk SP2 but it sits in the corner just looking pretty. I guess I'm just too enamored with the Strat sound!

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Schaller S6 in a basswood guitar?

Re: Schaller S6 in a basswood guitar?

Hi Tony,

It is rare that I find someone using Schaller S6 pickups. I used to use a set of those in my MIJ Strat with maple f/b. I presume the body to be basswood as that is more common. I am obviously no good at telling diff. woods apart by just looking at the grain!

As you characterized it, the guitar was quite tame, even dull. It was trebly enough, but low in volume and characterless. Quite usable for rhythm playing and some jazzy chords, but not for crunch chords, classic rock or blues.

After reading everyone's recommendations on this forum, I swapped the Schallers with the SD Antiquity Hot set, and the latter are not coming out of the guitar ever again! A big all around improvement in tone, volume, chime, and quack, plus a strong (but not ice-picky) sound from the custom bridge pup.

They sound all-around much better too than a set of TX Specials in a 2nd strat clone(alder-bodied SX), and a pair of 57/62's + APS1 in a 3rd strat clone (white pine body)

I hope that helps narrow down your choices. Good luck!

Jaime

btw, you seem to be one of the few people gigging with a Hawk! I have a similar-bodied Nighthawk SP2 but it sits in the corner just looking pretty. I guess I'm just too enamored with the Strat sound!

Hot Antiquity you say? Mmmm... I'll give it a thought.

Well I just LOVE the Hawk. It's like the perfect guitar for me. I used to have a Les Paul Studio (a beautiful wine-red '92) but I ran short of money, had to sell a couple of guitars, and although I really dug the LP, I sold it and kept the Hawk because I like it better.
I haven't tried any other models from the Hawk series but I believe the BluesHawk could be a great guitar too - that is, if one took out the P-100s and put some decent P-90s in (see below).

As for the Schaller pups, I took them out of another guitar that I no longer have, and I had them lying around for some time until I tried them in the George Dennis. BTW I'm no expert at telling the wood type - well I can tell ash and mahogany, and maybe maple, but that's it - but with this guitar, I asked the manufacturer. They made a series of just about 100 units in the early 1990's and then the company refocused on amps (and they're doing much better with the amps).

And although I'm a Hawk aficionado, I'm recently in love with my Strat clone with Kent Armstrong (Sky) P-90s. I played that guitar on a gig last night and it sounded just perfectly balanced - gritty when I dug in, clean when I backed off, round and flutey on the neck pup, loud and cutting on the bridge pup, and always articulated.

 

[Tony_H]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

UPDATE!

So, in my quest for the bright tone I tried a SSL-1 staggered in the neck slot of the guitar. No improvement over the Schaller S6. I believe they're pretty much the same tone-wise.

So next up, I rewired the guitar with its original cheapo pickups and I'm going to sell it. I believe I've had it long enough - and tried it with pickups enough - to tell that it's not going to work for me. For the money I think I'll get for it, I can buy another HSS FR-equipped axe that will suit me better tonally.

One other thing I could do, though, is have the guitar's body duplicated from another type of wood (think ash). But what will I do with the old body? I mean, I could sell the guitar for like CZK 6,000 (that's about 200 bucks) and get another one - of matching quality - for anywhere between CZK 3,500 and 6,000 (all used), whereas having the body made would cost another CZK 6,000. What would you suggest?
(get some sort of GAS medication would be the best solution )
Peace
Tony

 

[\m/(00)\m/]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

demon bridge
ssl-1 for nekc and middle.

 

[Marcel]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

Maybe you wanna change the pot values to get more brightness. 500k pots gives you a brighter sound than 250k. What value do you have? But I have no experience with HSS setup....

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

UPDATE!


So next up, I rewired the guitar with its original cheapo pickups and I'm going to sell it. I believe I've had it long enough - and tried it with pickups enough - to tell that it's not going to work for me. For the money I think I'll get for it, I can buy another HSS FR-equipped axe that will suit me better tonally.

What's that quote about a silk purse and sow's ear? :laugh2: Some guitars are just duds...

Lew

 

[keano12]

Re: The brightest HSS setup for a basswood guitar?

How does the tone change between a LP mahgonhy and basswood Ibanez?