1

The Pickup Place / Re: Mellowing out Air Norton neck in Charvel So-Cal?

« on: November 17, 2023, 09:39:00 AM »

Funny enough, back then I found that flipping it brought it from "well, I guess it sounds ok" to "ok, now we're talking!" territory!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Mellowing out Air Norton neck in Charvel So-Cal?

« on: November 06, 2023, 07:03:52 AM »

Have you tried flipping the Air Norton?
When I had one, I found flipping it made a serious difference in tone.

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The Pickup Place / Re: JP Neck Pickups

« on: February 21, 2020, 03:27:15 AM »

Also not a fan of the Air Norton. Was just too "airy", warm and muddy.
I half-Air modded mine and it improved to the point where I really liked it. The output increased, and the flutey-ness and airyness was gone with much improved pick-attack.
I prefer the stock Liquifire over the stock Air Norton. But for me the Liquifire needs to be wired straight to the volumepot with no tone pot connected and there it's usable. Otherwise it's again, a tad too warm.
Haven't tried the other JP pickups yet.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Press Release : DiMarzio releases Fortitude Pickup

« on: February 20, 2020, 07:58:20 AM »

...the neck pickup is a low output mudbomb.

Absolutely, I agree 1000%!!! It was so muddy in my first PRS Singlecut (2006) that I almost thought the guitar was a problem. When I changed the 7's to Bareknuckle SILO's, I really discovered how well the neck pickup can sound.
My newly acquired '00 Singlecut, had exactly the same mudbomb neck pickup problem (and uninspiring bridge). I just wanted a different flavor for the '00 (hence the Fortitude & Bluesbucker).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Press Release : DiMarzio releases Fortitude Pickup

« on: February 17, 2020, 07:31:48 AM »

I just bought the Fortitude yesterday for the bridge of my 2000 PRS Singlecut together with a Bluebucker for the neck position.
The current stock PRS Pickups No. 7 bridge and neck suck bigtime.
But I'm in Europe and I ordered them from banjomikez in the US so it will be another 7 - 8 days before I can drop them in.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wax Potting

« on: January 23, 2020, 08:43:11 AM »

Unpotted pickups!!

Trust me, I tried a few of the Bareknuckle Pickups unpotted - the squeal you get is unbearable... I sent them back after two days of trying and now I request potted pickups only.
There is almost no audible difference (and I say "almost", because guys like Eric Johnson will hear a difference - the rest of us won't!).
if you play with "any" sort of gain - don't even go there.... you'll be in *a lot* of trouble!
I'd never go for unpotted pickups again in my lifetime.

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News & New Guys / Re: Happy Holidays!!!

« on: December 17, 2019, 04:33:32 AM »

Happy holidays!

What's the issue??

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The Pickup Place / Re: Need a chunkier pickup than the Paf Pro

« on: April 17, 2019, 05:11:23 AM »

Breed neck in the bridge is a killer pickup!
I would never again consider a Paf Pro for the bridge position as the Breed Neck is chunkier and perfectly balanced! It's my all time favorite since trying it about 2 months ago for the first time...

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The Pickup Place / Re: D activator (neck) vs Illuminator/Liquifire (neck)

« on: March 09, 2019, 03:04:05 AM »

Initialy i was thinking about the superD for the bridge but i found them to be a bit more warmer sounding than the d-act and i want sometning that cut through the mix because i am more focused on the modern stuff and occasionally ill go for the classics just for fun. As for the neck i am pretty much in unknown territory thats why i came here.

Fair enough. Keep in mind, if you think the SuperD is too warm for you, then you definitely will not want a Illuminator / Liquifire. The liquifire is almost muddy sounding - it's really warm! The Illuminator is ever so slightly brighter (I own both) but still has that flutey voicing going on. So if you're set on bright and cutting through you're only option is a set of DActivators. Or a Super 2 neck. But since you're more into modern metal, you really can't go wrong with the DActivators neck and bridge.

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The Pickup Place / Re: D activator (neck) vs Illuminator/Liquifire (neck)

« on: March 08, 2019, 04:41:26 AM »

Well it's going to be a less spectacular recommendation from me.

But IMHO, Maiden, Dio and Priest scream for a classic SuperD bridge, Paf36th neck combo.
Or you can also go SuperD bridge / Paf 59 neck.

I have both combos and play in an 80s/90s metal tribute band - and both combos are exactly what is needed for those... I slightly prefer the Paf 36th over the 59 though... but this is personal

11

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Tone Zone

« on: February 26, 2019, 05:01:08 AM »

So, I got a Tone Zone to play with after about 11 years of having briefly owned one.

What can I say... again at first I thought: wow this is the biggest and best sound ever! How can anyone not love this?
But the more I played the more I felt overwhelmed by it... it's just too much! And the dynamics are just too compressed. Someone somewhere said that the Tone Zone feels like you have a boost pedal or compressor in there that is always on. And yes, I totally agree with this statement. While I like the basic tone, I feel there's no dynamics whatsoever and it's just pure slegde-hammer all the time.
I fiddled with height but could not come to a dynamic interaction I would love.

So I figured what the hell, and I started reading about the Half-Air mod!

Now I'm not one to fiddle with stuff - in fact I'm a bit incompetent when it comes to technical stuff, but I figured if I ruined the pickup - heck it's just a relatively small amount I wasted. So I gave it a shot!

Lonephantom's guide was easy enough so even a technically handicapped person like myself could easily follow it:
http://www.lonephantom.com/2010/07/modifying-pickups-the-half-air-mod/


So the mod felt super easy to do. Just remove the 4 screws, carefully open the brass plate, use a screwdriver to remove the magnet and the little metal plate that latches onto the screws and put the magnet back in. put the brass cover back on and you're set!

Now I know that lonephantom aired the slugs (magnet touching only the screws). So I figured, why not try it the other way around first - so airing the screws first (magnet only touching the slugs).
So I put the magnet next to the slugs, put the brass plate back on and re-strung the guitar.
Result: The ToneZone felt a touch tamed down, but much fuzzier. There was a fuzzy quality all of the sudden. So that went the opposite direction of what I wanted.

Strings back off, pickup off, opened brass plate, and put the magnet now only touching the screws. Brass plate back on, installed the pickup back, strings back on.
Again, a tamed-down ToneZone but now a brighter tone - clearer and a bit improved dynamics.
I like it much more! (plus LonePhantom had it right from the very beginning)

So the moral of this long post:
If you have a Tone Zone you like but sometimes feel overwhelmed by it, try the half air mod with the magnet touching only the screws. Opens up the Tone Zone and improves the dynamics. It's not night and day - the tone is still "Tone Zone" and the change is subtle - but just enough to be worth doing it.

Btw. I found you don't even need to put anything inbetween the small air gap as the magnet clinches on to the screws by magnetic force, thus keeping it from moving around.

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Pair Steve Morse Neck with...? (not Steve Morse bridge!)

« on: February 20, 2019, 05:25:02 AM »

Many thanks for all the suggestions!

Just to report back that for my taste and style - the ticket was the Breed Neck model (DP165).
I'm running the neck Steve Morse with a 500k volume and disconnected tone pot and it has become a lot brighter without losing the singing quality.
The Breed neck with 500k and connected 500k tone pot blends in superbly, output- and tone-wise!
In fact, the DP165 is the best bridge pickup I ever had in this superstrat by itself... couldn't stop playing this for the past 3 days now. Looks like the DP165 is a hidden gem.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pair Steve Morse Neck with...? (not Steve Morse bridge!)

« on: February 06, 2019, 08:03:42 AM »

Cool! I guess I'll just experiment and see if my plan works

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pair Steve Morse Neck with...? (not Steve Morse bridge!)

« on: February 06, 2019, 05:36:15 AM »

Hi Stephan,

Breed bridge could work.

Question, let's assume I were to go with a SM Bridge - could the brightness of the Steve Morse Bridge Model be tamed by changing the pots to 250k (volume and tone) for the bridge and keep a singe volume (500k) and no tone for the neck?
I have a feeling this might be a feasible option - but it's more of a gut feeling (and my gut has been wrong plenty of times)

15

The Pickup Place / Pair Steve Morse Neck with...? (not Steve Morse bridge!)

« on: February 06, 2019, 03:10:45 AM »

Hi guys,

ok, the obvious answer is Steve Morse bridge. But I suspect this is not what I want.

Background story: dual humbucking Alder Strat (fixed bridge) with maple/Rosewood neck.
It had a FRED in the bridge and a PAF in the neck with 3x500k controls.

I got the Steve Morse neck pretty cheap from a friend who did not like it and as I had never played one, just tried it in the neck spot for fun. To my surprise I quite enjoy the darkish low output tone. And the flutey singing quality it has. So I decided to keep it and need a matching bridge pickup.
The FRED in the bridge is voiced totally different. The attack is much sharper and the overall tonality is too much of a contrast - so out it goes and I need something different.

Now the Steve Morse bridge is a super bright pickup from what I read - not sure I want that.
Probably need something in the bridge spot that is closer to the slightly darker tonality of the SM Neck and will complement it nicely.

What would you recommend?