Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: the_bleeding on November 28, 2007, 09:24:24 AM
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SOO!
say i wanted a humbucker that would smash a single channel non-master volume amp in the face like a sledgehammer, and make it crunch hard.
I do not want smooth liquidy tone, i want gritty, raunchy crunch like Motorhead's song "You Better Swim" but with more bass (if this is entirely amp dependent, please tell me, and then disregard it :roll: )
I like tight bass, lots of mids, and i play lots of heavy riff based rhythm (stoner, downtempo, hard rock, heavy metal) stuff, but dont want my leads to sound dead. Think: dozer, sleep, motorhead, high on fire, probot, men of porn, bongzilla
I want it to feel like a cathedral door being propelled into my face from a nuclear explosion when i palm mute. (think: chug chug chug, not flub flub flub)
When the other guitarist in my band plays, i do not want to be drowned out; i like presence :D
At the same time (and this is the hard part) i dont want it to lose alot of versatility. i.e, i love blues, and lighter forms of rock, and enjoy a clean tone here and there. But if it comes between pristine cleans and overdriving a non-master amp, i'll take overdriving a non-master; and i'll use neck pickup and volume knob for cleans.
And lastly, i do not want my notes to blend together into a muddy mess.
What pickup would do this for me?
If different pickups coincide to different parts of my post, please tell me about that too :)
further notes: this will be going into a mahogany body/neck, maple cap, ebony fretboard, 24.75" guitar. I use heavy strings (11's), and am currently looking for some brighter sounding strings (that arent entirely steel so they dont chew up my frets) so they arent as muddy. Downtuning almost certain (Eb standard)
Thankyou so much for reading the longest post ever. :)
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Ok, I'm not gonna contribute much to this cuz I'm not NEARLY as pro with BKP pups as some of the old-timers in here...
But I've a feeling they're gonna guide you towards a ceramic Warpig with 1 Meg pots. APPARENTLY, it cleans up pretty well and it delivers all the cutting, crunchy, astronomically powerful drive you're after.
But I'm just having a stab in the dark here. Wait for the pros ;)
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I'm no pro either, but C-Pig sounds about right :)
Miracle Man might do too, in a mahogany guitar. But I think C-Pig is more spot on.
Or possibly a painkiller...
:)
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my fear with the c-pig is that it will only do metal... and will be too sterile.
I love warm, fat tone, and i heard the c-pig doesnt do fat as well as the classic pig.
Oh, and if it's a pig, i'll be FOR SURE using 2meg pots, other pickups probably 1meg.
i'll wait for more replies though :D
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Alnico Warpig could be an option, particularly with pots of that value. It will rip your face off if you want it to, but it can clean up very nicely for bluesy playing if you roll the volume down. It also coil-taps down very well, if that is something you're willing to consider.
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The standard alnico WP will give you all the grunt you could ever want, however I could never get any amp to do clean with it. You'd need a coil split option for cleans - apparently it sounds really nice that way.
I would never call the WP sterile, it's fat and organic but with more grunt than you've ever had from a pickup.
I'd personally go with a Holy Diver if you want to err on the hotter side of things and sacrifice some clean tones. Or if you want better cleans, but still a fair degree of grunt - try a Black Dog (at 9.75k it's no slouch - could even ask for it slightly overwound).
You don't need anything near as hot as the WP for the stuff you listed imo. I'd try the pickups with standard 500k pots too - I think 1M will make them way too bright.
:twisted:
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There seems to be alot of talk about pots goin' on here- could i have a lil help?
I am ordering a ceramic WP over the christmas holidays (not too long now!) and i am wondering wether i should change all my pots. IS it worth doing this just for better quality even if im not changing pot resistance values?
And should i change values? I have a double humbucker guitar so i guess they are @ 500 right? singlecoils @ 250? should i go to 1meg?
also, should i replace the jack?
cheers
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^ It depends on what the current pots/electrics are like. If they are decent quality, there's no point replacing them for the sake of it.
You're right, the ones currently in your guitar should be 500k pots.
What guitar do you have?
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oh yea, its a Washburn X50pro-
http://www.washburn.com/products/electrics/x/x50.aspx
i have no idea what the pot quality would be like but i took a look inside and the wiring is nicely done.....better than my jackson anyway- had masking tape holding it together!
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Right. Well if you're guitar has the active EMGs, I believe the pots will be for the active setup, in which case they will have a very low value, because of the active circuit.
Are you replacing the neck pickup? I seem to remember it's problematic to run 1 passive, 1 active pickup on the same guitar.
Of course, if you've got the one with the duncans, you'll be fine.
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oops, shoukda said- ive got the Duncan equipped one and im replacing the bridge only. so is it worth putting new pots in? what about the jack- does that contribute to anything?
cheers for help. :roll:
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I'd say it's probably worth replacing the pots and switch while you're at it - it won't cost much more to replace the ones in there with high-quality items, and you'll then get the best from the pickup.
When I put a Nailbomb in my Epi LP, i replaced the eletronics, and it even made the stock neck pickup respond a tiny bit better.
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ok, cool. sorry for stealing this thread a bit! but what value pots should i go for? 500 again?
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Yeah, I think so. I've got 500k pots with my Warpig set and they sound just fine. 1 meg might be overkill with pickups that powerful!
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The value of the pots has nothing to do with power :P
The higher the value, the brighter the sound, that's all. Warpigs are a little dark to begin with, so go with 500k if you want them that way. Otherwise go higher value if you want the Piggys a little brighter-sounding.
That is all.
:D
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The value of the pots has nothing to do with power :P
The higher the value, the brighter the sound, that's all. Warpigs are a little dark to begin with, so go with 500k if you want them that way. Otherwise go higher value if you want the Piggys a little brighter-sounding.
That is all.
:D
You mean IF WPs are a little too dark.
I dont find them dark at all.
I think a standard Pig is what you want, Bleeding.
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If they are too dark, don't you just raise the bridge end polepieces?
I thought that was the idea of double screws, more control and versatility with tailoring the sound as you wish?
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i will be for sure installing coil splits.
and did i hear HTH say the holy diver was hotter than the alnico WP? Or is it just the ceramic magnet that makes it dirtier instead of clean?
And question between these two: which one is crunchier sounding. I'm after heavy crunch, not smooth lead tone.
Oh, and i have a great explaination for the pots
We all know that high resistance pots mean that less current is bled off to ground, and therefore there is less treble and volume loss.
Having a higher rated pot will increase all frequencies (therefore volume) and an extra increase in treble. Basically opens it up, less compression (from less volume leveing), more organic attack, and better sustain.
High meg pots are good for high impedance pickups because high impedance generally comes from more winds, which generally means they have more abss and mids at sacrifice for highs. Therefore higher impedance pot will bring out the treble.
The general opinion that 1meg and 2meg pots are harsh and trebley sounding stems from fender's early telecasters. They were making low impedance single coils (lots of treble, little bass), and putting them together with 1megk pots! As you can imagine, it didnt sound pretty.
Good guidline for pots:
"(1megK pot) Recommended for pickups with resistance/impedance between 8,000 ohms and 12,000 ohms. Above 12,000 ohms the 2 meg pot is recommended." -- Torres Engineering
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so ALL bkp "contemporary" pickups should have 2 meg pots??
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so ALL bkp "contemporary" pickups should have 2 meg pots??
GUIDLINES for pots, those numbers aren't my idea... personally i think theyre a little crazy.
anyways...
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me tooo. my 500k's work just fine :P
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All BK humbuckers are voiced, AFAIK for 500K pots.
Any other values are compensations to taste after you heard them with 500s and maybe didnt like it.
I believe it would be a mistake to assume that a particular pickup needs a different pot value.