Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: ring on July 09, 2010, 06:18:30 PM
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First of all - I am new here - so hello!
I have a Gibson SG that I'm playing through a Blackheart Little Giant 5 watt and the bridge position is far too bright.
I play everything from Rolling Stones type rock to Stone Temple Pilots and Tool-ish tunes.
Can somebody recommend a replacement set of humbucker BKP?
Thanks in advance!
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First of all - I am new here - so hello!
I have a Gibson SG that I'm playing through a Blackheart Little Giant 5 watt and the bridge position is far too bright.
I play everything from Rolling Stones type rock to Stone Temple Pilots and Tool-ish tunes.
Can somebody recommend a replacement set of humbucker BKP?
Thanks in advance!
Sure - I'll make uggestions for your Sg but highly advise you to swap the cheap nasty capacitors that Gibson fit on your tone controls for some nice oil and paper ones first
You will notice an instant improvement - even if you play with the tone full up
Then look at the Emerald set - works a treat in an SG
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Hey bro!
Thanks for the suggestion. I know 0 about guitar maintenance. Can you post a link to a brand of capacitor I can get in the states? Also - how tough is it to change em??
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Here ya go
http://www.allparts.com/022-Vitamin-Q-Cap-p/ep-4156-000.htm
(http://www.allparts.com/v/vspfiles/photos/EP-4156-000-2.jpg)
Two solder joints is all it takes
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Here ya go
http://www.allparts.com/022-Vitamin-Q-Cap-p/ep-4156-000.htm
(http://www.allparts.com/v/vspfiles/photos/EP-4156-000-2.jpg)
Two solder joints is all it takes
Thanks, Felineguitars. I'm on it.
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Yep, those are the very capacitors that my Riff Raffs have in my SG :D
I wouldn't have been able to say that mine was overly bright before I installed them, but maybe someone else would have described it that way. I try these capacitors in guitars that don't seem to be breaking-up in the way I like... But my experience seems to suggest now that if it's a brighter sounding guitar, the Vitamin Qs can make an almost unbelievable improvement for me personally.
Also, if you haven't done it already, try adjusting the pickup heights. It affects all pickups, but seems really noticable with BKPs. You can make huge differences in the fine-tuning of "your" tone with small turns of the height adjuster screws either side of the pickup. A non-guitarist might not spot the difference, but you can make your guitar feel like a completely different guitar just by raising or lowering one or both sides of a pickup.
And welcome to the forum :D
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black dog
a class A 5w amp will still sound bright
you need a thicker sounding amp
a laney gh50l would get you there (still a very bright amp, but you can always roll off the presence and treble)
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Pickup adjustment definitely helped.
Thanks guys.
On the capacitors, am I replacing the little orange things between the tone and volume with the ones I the link above.
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I think the problem might rather be the amp than the guitar or the pickup to be honest.
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I think the problem might rather be the amp than the guitar or the pickup to be honest.
I think so too. I'm currently selling some gear to buy a Vox AC30. Love the tone of some of the stuff on STP purple record (Silvergun Superman and Still Remains)
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Are the stock capacitors the little organge circles?
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Are the stock capacitors the little organge circles?
Yes - those little orange discs - NASTY little caps!
They do the job that they are supposed to but they do your tone no favours in the process IMO
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OK guys! I have the new capacitors (Vitamin-Qs) -
Do I need to do anything special (facing a specific direction) or am I just soldering them where the orange ones are?
Also - any specific type of solder?
Thank you!
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OK guys! I have the new capacitors (Vitamin-Qs) -
Do I need to do anything special (facing a specific direction) or am I just soldering them where the orange ones are?
Also - any specific type of solder?
Thank you!
that is a really good question and I dont as yet have a definitive answer
In theory there should be no difference - just replace the ones that are there with these
I tend in practise to put them in so I can read the writing as I view the control cavity, but if you are willing to experiment you can try them one way first and then the other way round and see if you can hear any difference (and let us know what you found)
Use a 15-25w soldering iron and normal rosin/flux core solder
These days we have to advise you to use lead free which is what you will find in shops if you are in the UK or Europe
However if you have suitable old stock of leaded stuff it will work just fine (and we wont tell anyone)
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These days we have to advise you to use lead free which is what you will find in shops if you are in the UK or Europe
However if you have suitable old stock of leaded stuff it will work just fine (and we wont tell anyone)
Has lead-free solder come on, or is the leaded stuff still easier to work with?
G
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These days we have to advise you to use lead free which is what you will find in shops if you are in the UK or Europe
However if you have suitable old stock of leaded stuff it will work just fine (and we wont tell anyone)
Has lead-free solder come on, or is the leaded stuff still easier to work with?
G
No lead free is still awful (from there varieties I've tried).
I may look at the silver solder that some amp repairers favour as apparently it'll work better
Also
Has anyone else had trouble with switchcraft jack sockets not accepting any kind of solder?
They're driving me crazy - no matter which brand and with which iron I use and no matter how hot I get everything the solder just rolls off and refuses to stick.
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Has anyone else had trouble with switchcraft jack sockets not accepting any kind of solder?
They're driving me crazy - no matter which brand and with which iron I use and no matter how hot I get everything the solder just rolls off and refuses to stick.
i've had that with some pots (alpha), but never switchcraft jacks.
what i've done in the case of the pots is to use some medium grade wet&dry to remove the surface coating so the solder sticks.
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Sure - I'll make uggestions for your Sg but highly advise you to swap the cheap nasty capacitors that Gibson fit on your tone controls for some nice oil and paper ones first
+1
And while you're at it, get rid of the bloody treble bleed if there's on, and rewire your guitare 50's style (google is your friend).
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Sure - I'll make uggestions for your Sg but highly advise you to swap the cheap nasty capacitors that Gibson fit on your tone controls for some nice oil and paper ones first
+1
And while you're at it, get rid of the bloody treble bleed if there's on, and rewire your guitare 50's style (google is your friend).
I don't know what any of that means but I'll look into it.....LOL.
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Lead-free solder is horrible to use and it stinks too!
(It's still quite easy to get hold of tin/lead solder on eBay.)
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And while you're at it, get rid of the bloody treble bleed if there's on, and rewire your guitare 50's style (google is your friend).
I don't know what any of that means but I'll look into it.....LOL.
A "treble bleed" is an added cap (or cap+resistor) supposed to avoid the hi frequency loss when you turn the volume pot down. The result is usually that you end up with less lows too and get a really tiny shrilly harsh tone when you roll the volume down. The "Gibson 50s style wiring" is how the very first LPs where wired, with the tone cap always in the path. It also lessen the hi frequency loss problem but without losing low ends. It has other side effects - the tone and volume become more interactive, hence less predictable - so it's really a matter of personal tastes, but as far as I'm concerned I find it to sound WAY better that way.
Here's a link with wiring schemas for a typical Gibby:
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/tonefreaks/558-wiring-library.html#post4555 (http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/tonefreaks/558-wiring-library.html#post4555)