WholeLottaHumbucker Help

[canon_mutant]

The stock pups on my Epi LP were crap so I switched to these WholeLottaHumbuckers. Initially, I was pleased but was mostly playing clean to just a bluesy crunch. Despite my 60 years, I have been getting back into a little more driving rock of late and the bridge pup is leaving me wanting. They are Alnico 5 and as much or more DC pop than my other 2 LP types bridge pups [have alnico 2 and 4 in my others]. Also, these pups dirty are only good at full volume. When I'm playing dirty, I prefer to leave the distortion at 12:00 or a bit more and just roll the guitar volume off to clean it up a bit. Just seems to get too quiet and flabby at anything but full volume. A bit flabby even at full volume. I also changed to CTS pots and Orange Drops when I did the pup swap.

Granted, I can just designate harder rock to my other guitars but "WholeLottaHumbucker" should at least have Zeppelin written all over it. Just not getting there.

Made the wrong pup choice?

EDIT: I guess my Alnico 4 Saturday Night Specials [which I love BTW] are a bit higher DC pop than the WholeLottaHumbuckers but barely.

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Two questions? Have you tried adjusting the pup height?
Are your pots 500k? I have the WLH’s in a Les Paul and
do not experience the same things you do. I’m quite fond
of them, they nail Zeppelin and classic hard rock in spades.

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Yup and yup!

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

You know, I just realized I put .047s orange drops in. Too big?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Those can be flubby with the tone rolled back. 500k on 10, the cap has a negligible effect.

 

[David Garner]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

You know, I just realized I put .047s orange drops in. Too big?

For sure. I have .022 on the bridge and .015 on the neck.

0.47 works great for Strats in my experience.

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Yup, why we have guitar forums! Was not worried about the quality of the parts I used but then :scratchch wait a minute . . .

Thanks!

Ironically, the neck sounds fine with the big cap.

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

How about a pic of that R9 Cognacburst!

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Guitar P O R N:

Actually, this is the reason I got other cheap LP variants. The R9 and I both turned 50 in 2009 so I wanted one but you never think at the time about how you really cannot leave the house with it. Oh, I still play it. Just cannot risk damage or theft taking it anywhere. VERY nice guitar though . . .

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

For capacitors 0.022uf (22nf) and 0.015uf (15nf) are a great option for this set as that's what I've been told Jimmy Page used so a lot of the time that's what I recommend to people. To just those after a brighter tone. But like Clint 55 said it's negligible at best unless you went from one extreme to another. The down side to smaller valued tone capacitors is when you turn the tone down you'll get less of an effect especially with the 15nf capacitor versus a 0.047uf (47nf).

Anything above 100 nanofarads is too much for a guitar unless it's active pickups. A 0.47uf (470nf) the only time you'll ever see a 470nf capacitor is in a seymour duncan blackout equipped guitar. I did a varitone using the wrong type of rotary switch where the capacitors combined. I was new to electronics and this was a long time ago and what ended up happening was certain values went together and made these outrageously high values where the switch created dead spots of no volume.

Have you tried the 1950s style les paul tone control hook up? Here is an article explaining the three. Why I bring it up is for the tone chasers wanting to broaden their wiring knowledge. Plus we've all got the parts already. No running to the store or anything. This would potentially improve the tone of your guitar. Even if someone came in with an epiphone les paul special to see me a few years ago this would improve their guitar with all the stock electronics.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/29161-mod-garage-three-ways-to-wire-a-tone-pot

Always remember too pickup height dictates how loud the pickup will become. It's a balance of loudness (output) and sustain
you get more sustain putting the pickup further away from the strings
you get more output putting the pickup closer to the strings
like I was saying on a post yesterday don't forget about adjusting pole pieces too on your pickup(s) to fine tune the EQ of the pickup. That ones over thinking things however.

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Amazing this worked at all . . .

Back during the initial installation, when I flipped the guitar over, I flipped the tone and volume pots around (in my brain). So, it was wired exactly backwards from how they are supposed to be. Other than that and the Strat caps, bang up job! :smack:

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

For capacitors 0.022uf (22nf) and 0.015uf (15nf) are a great option for this set as that's what I've been told Jimmy Page used so a lot of the time that's what I recommend to people.

Those are Eric Clapton “Woman Tone” cap values.

But +1 on using .022 caps and 50’s wiring with WLH set. You also may need to adjust your amp to find the sweet spot again. It takes a balance between the amp and guitar for them to work together.

 

[Mincer]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

You can always boost the tone later in the chain, either an overdrive or a Pickup Booster. The WLH set does the hard rock thing well, but I'd still think some kind of overdrive is needed.

 

[canon_mutant]

Re: WholeLottaHumbucker Help

Nah, it’s going to be fine. You see, I have done this before many times but clearly just had my head in the wrong place the day I did this pup swap. Grab the wrong caps out of the drawer AND wired the guitar exactly backwards when I flipped it over. Per my previous post, it is amazing it worked at all. And, the fact it worked OK clean to just a bluesy crunch I naturally did not expect my moron-a-thon solder work. Though I had it wired modern and am switching it to 50s, when you flip the picture exactly backwards, it is almost the same.