Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: indysmith on September 16, 2008, 12:17:43 PM
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Does anyone have a Mule/MQ set?
I was pretty much decided on that for my Edwards LP, but _tom_ reckons that the MQ won't balance as it is too loud in the neck for a Mule in the bridge? He said that even the Pig90 has trouble keeping up :o
The D.C. ratings seem to balance nicely, but obviously that doesn't represent the true 'loudness' of a pickup.
I definitely want a MQ in the neck - but is there another bridge humbucker that would balance better with it? I really wanted to keep within the 'vintage' kind of output levels if possible.
Thanks
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I think someone has a Riff Raff and MQ, so the Mule shouldn't be far behind I'd have thought. And more than one person has a Black Dog/MQ combo.
Maybe you could get the MQ slightly underwound to be on the safe side?
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MQs are hot and will overpower a lot of 'buckers. I would ask Tim and the boys for a low-wind MQ to match with the bridge 'bucker of your choice.
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Thanks guys - looks like an underwound MQ is definitely on the cards.
Any idea why it's so hot? If i hadn't been told I'd have assumed the 7K neck MQ would match fine with the 8.4K bridge Mule!
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Maybe it's something to do with inductance (... he says in total ignorance, just plucking a word out of the air... :oops: ).
No seriously, perhaps it's just because single coils are more "open" and don't cancel any frequencies? So a powerful single coil sounds "bigger" (albeit brighter) than a low-output humbucker with similar DC resistance?
But I'm making this up as I go along to be honest...
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Its that whole resonant peak issue that'll make it sound LOUD - if the MQ has a strong peak around 6k it'll be pokey as hell. The Pig90 will likely have a lower resonant peak (maybe 5k???) so wouldn't cut quite so much.
Tim would be the one to offer a better explanation on all this.
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I think it's to do with the low end of a P90? They always sound thick and powerful compared to PAF types.
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Why not going for a calibrated set of MQ's?
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I had a Alnico IV MQ neck, Alnico IV Mule bridge combo in my Esprit and never found the problems discussed above - there was a slight - and I mean slight - drop in volume for the neck pickup, but nothing that would not be within the range of normal pickups.
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LOL!
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Why do so many of the forum members have a totally wrong idea about the MQ bridge pickup?! They're not calibrated without a reason. If you want balls, cut and clarity (without compression) I'd say just go for it. It's trebly, close to the RY bridge pickup + it has a lovely, raw and strong bass response you won't get out of any humbucker. VERY sensitive to pick attack, the harder you hit, the 'rockier' the sound becomes. I love the fact that they stay clean at high volumes without unwanted drive/compression. It's such an underrated pickup to my opinion.
What do you mean? I've never seen anyone contradict that it has those qualities. Some people just prefer the sound of a humbucker over a P-90 in the bridge position, I don't think it has to do with having the "wrong idea" of what the MQ bridge sounds like.
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Why do so many of the forum members have a totally wrong idea about the MQ bridge pickup?! They're not calibrated without a reason. If you want balls, cut and clarity (without compression) I'd say just go for it. It's trebly, close to the RY bridge pickup + it has a lovely, raw and strong bass response you won't get out of any humbucker. VERY sensitive to pick attack, the harder you hit, the 'rockier' the sound becomes. I love the fact that they stay clean at high volumes without unwanted drive/compression. It's such an underrated pickup to my opinion.
What do you mean? I've never seen anyone contradict that it has those qualities. Some people just prefer the sound of a humbucker over a P-90 in the bridge position, I don't think it has to do with having the "wrong idea" of what the MQ bridge sounds like.
True, but not all P-90's are the same (same story goes for humbuckers). Why not trying the MQ bridge pickup first before having 1 opinion about ALL P-90's?
I've had Mules, Blackdogs and RY's but the MQ's (6,4K/7,0K) are by far my favorite of them all. It really isn''t a huge change, going from those humbuckers to these 'P-90 type MQ's'. Everything is still there, but it's just more alive/more sensitive to pick attack.
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True, but not all P-90's are the same (same story goes for humbuckers). Why not trying the MQ bridge pickup first before having 1 opinion about ALL P-90's?
That isn't what I'm saying either. I know that are many kinds of P-90s, but they have their distinct sound (in the same way that humbuckers, strat single coils, filtertrons, single-sized humbuckers etc have their own sound) and that just isn't always what the player wants, even though he does want a P-90 sound in the neck position. There's other reasons for wanting a different pickup than the MQ than just ignorance of how it sounds.
(just for the record, you're totally selling me the MQ as we speak :oops:)
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i have a manhattan/mule combo in my main guitar - extremely versatile and well matched!
a manhattan wouldnt be far off an underwound MQ - i think its under 6k. cant remember if the magnets are different to an MQ or not
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i have a manhattan/mule combo in my main guitar - extremely versatile and well matched!
a manhattan wouldnt be far off an underwound MQ - i think its under 6k. cant remember if the magnets are different to an MQ or not
Manhattan has Alnico III magnets. I remember a semi-long post about the effect of this from awhile ago but I can't find it.
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ah yes, i thought so, MQ is Alnico 4 aint it. I knew i wanted a manhattan and tim recommended the mule as a good match
anyway, i did have a couple of you tube videos, done on the digicam so not great quality but both start with the Manhattan and switch to the mule
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hACMNZzuclQ
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=406FLeqR62o
its my cousin nath playing not me - he moaned that i didnt give him long enough to practice
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Well I'll say it again as much of this is arm chair opinion and I own and play the combo referred to - an AIV MQ neck goes very very well with a AIV Mule bridge - with all due respect to Tom, who is an outstanding member of this site, his opinion is mistaken.
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Well I havent actually tried a MQ with Mule bridge but my MQ neck EASILY keeps up with my pig 90 bridge, which sounds hotter than my bridge Mule in the Epi. It can overpower the pig 90 if its not lowered to be level with the surround.. but then again the neck mule is sort of the same compared to bridge so its probably just neck pickups in general.
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Neck pickups in general tend to be louder, wider and thicker, especially the ones with AIV winding.