Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Dave Sloven on July 04, 2013, 01:19:39 AM
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I have an Epiphone Explorer that is a decent guitar (2006 production, Unsung Korea) with the ebony finish but I just don't like the sound of the cheap humbuckers that someone put in it. I'm thinking of getting a set of uncovered Miracle Mans to put in it, with a view of one day swapping them out into an SG Special or similar, or maybe even a chrome covered set so that they can be moved between that guitar and my SG Standard if needed, but I'm wondering if it's a waste of time (it might be the wood that's the issue)?
I've always thought the guitar to be a bit dark, but not sure if the pickups, the wood, or both. I could also swap out the pots and caps if needed, but I have to check what's in there now.
Given that I am only likely to get $400-500 for this guitar (with case) it might be worth putting some decent pickups in it and then swapping them out into something else if I do eventually sell it.
I'm assuming that these pickups are a good combo with the Explorer.
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the miracle man is quite bass heavy, and a little dark voiced, although it has a lot of treble
I felt that the cold sweat was already a bit too bass heavy in a gibson explorer
how about a painkiller?
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Well I was thinking of just letting them sit there a while until I could get a second SG to move them into. I find the Explorer a little uncomfortable to play compared to the SG (the heavier guitar irritates my neck/spine problems) so I would move to an SG eventually. It was just a thought about how I could make a guitar I don't use into one that might be useful.
Alternatively if someone in my area had an Epiphone SG that they wanted to swap for the Explorer I would do that and use a BKP set in that. It's just that prices are so low at the moment that I don't feel like selling it
This combo would also be with a view to playing grindcore and death metal, in C# and below
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the pk should well on both
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I'm thinking now that a Warpig set might be the best option for my second guitar.
Application: downtuned (crust punk, old school death metal, & grindcore), C# and lower tunings. Nice if it could be versatile enough to do some older style stuff in C#, like Sabbath and Venom.
Again, it is an Epiphone Korina Explorer, with the ebony poly finish, TOM bridge.
Would like it to be compatible also with an Epiphone or Gibson SG in case I find the Explorer annoys me again, so that I could swap the pickups out of it into an SG and sell the Explorer on with other pickups in that case.
I'm wondering what experiences of the Warpig set in Gibsons and Epiphones has been like, and opinions regarding the alnico magnet version versus the ceramic magnet version. I'm leaning toward the alnico version, but I'm interested to hear various views.
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I have a caparison horus with an uncovered ceramic warpig. The guitar itself sound pretty much like a flying v or explorer, being thick mahogany, though it has a floyd rose and a maple neck, but the sound is pretty close. For your genres I think a warpig would be optimal, it fits my grind/death/sludge band perfectly. I've never found it to be dark or muddy, the opposite in fact, it has its fair share of upper mid bite. It's also very tight, but you wont notice since the pickup sounds so massive. I play in drop B which I think is the best tuning for the pickup. However, I have used a les paul with emeralds as my backup guitar, and is has got me thinking about getting a alnico warpig aswell, the somewhat softer bass and bigger sound I think could be useful, especially when playing on higher strings. Just food for thought.
In conclusion, ceramic warpig is the safe bet, though the alnico version could potentially sound awesome as well, I have no experience regarding that version.
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Cheers.
Yeah the songs you have posted are probably the closest out of forum members to what I want this guitar to be able to do, although I suspect that if anything my guitar would possibly be less dark as a starting point and my needs for precision and tightness a bit less. If you feel that you could get by in your style with an A-pig I'm sure it would probably suit me really well, and give me more scope for the Sabbath, Venom, and Autopsy type material. I might also play some Electric Wizard or even Ahab type doom on this, which is of course tuned down pretty low
My amp is also very close to yours - it's a 6534+, but the lead channel of all of the 5150/6505 series Peavey amps seem pretty similar to me, although mine might be a tad warmer.
I have read that the A-pig can seem like it is a lower output when compared to other high-output pickups due to not being as compressed sounding as the high output Duncans etc, depending on how hard you drive it with your right hand, but that suits me fine.
I'd be interested to see your EQ settings as well, even though the 6505 and 6534+ pre-amps are different (6505+ are almost the same). What I have noticed in the week or so that I've had the Peavey is that the presence and resonance controls make a big difference, especially when you go over 8.
P.S. I'm assuming that an A-Pig into an SG is a no-brainer - is this a fair assumption?
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Aw that's nice to hear! :D Compared to other high gain pickups it's petty uncompressed, but very compressed compared to my other bkp's, though they are all vintage or vintage hot. It cleans up very well, I usually play some blues between songs during band practice, which my band mates hates haha. If an A-pig sounds they way I think it sounds, it should suit you perfectly.
I havent tried my warpig in my sg 61 ri, but when comparing the sounds a get from it when i've swapped other pickups in and out of it, I'd say the sg will have less bass and more of a gnarly twangyness, which I think will suit the warpig.
Regarding my eq-settings, when we recorded our ep and single I was using a way huge green rhino as a booster, but during practice I usually dont bother, it sounds good the way it is. I have the bass set halfway, 5-6, and the mids somewhat lower, from 4-5, it depends on what my ears are like that day. I have the treble very low, at 2-3, resonance at 6-7 I think, and the presence dimed, between 9-10 all the time. I use the lead channel, the master is usually on 4 and the gain is on 1.5 to 2.5, depending on my mood. I dont know if this is the regular way to set up an 6505 eq, but it works for me. I use an orange 2x12 cab with v30's and a orange 4x12 cab with g12t-75's, however, my drummer/recording technican said he used the 4x12 mostly on this recording.
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Cheers
I figured that was how you would EQ the Peavey to compensate for the huge bass of a C-Pig. Yeah I think that the SG I have is definitely brighter than the Explorer with the same pickups, which quite a lot of mids. It works well with an A-bomb for me, as I wanted this guitar to do more punky stuff, but I can see how a Warpig (either version) could work well with it when tuned down.
My cab is an Orange PPC412, i.e., four V30s, so I'm guessing its sound is somewhere between your two cabs
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Actually when I think about it probably the sound I am really going for is that Spanish deathgrind sound that you get on albums by Machetazo, Looking For An Answer, & Nashgul. A Gronibard sound in B tuning would also be nice! Those guys get an amazing fat sound that is still very crusty
In case people don't know what these bands sound like here are some samples on youtube.
Machetazo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5LA-3NlhJg)
Looking For An Answer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syb7BX9mx-w)
Nasgul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fn7fr6JuhI)
Gronibard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sofXsnHgAHI)
Basically sort of Swedish with something dirty and silly going on.
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Actually I just picked up these online. GAS over (for now)!
1 x 6 String Warpig humbucker - Calibrated Open Set
Bridge Spacing: 50 mm
Conductor: 4
Leg: Long (1/2")
Coil Colour: Black
Bridge Magnet: Alnico V
Aged Coils/Cover(s): No
Pole Screws: Black Bolts
Given that I'd probably only get AU$400-500 for the guitar (with hard case) as it stands if this converts it into a guitar that I want to play again then it's a bargain at just over $300 for the pickups delivered.
I figured it wasn't worth paying the extra $40 for battleworn camo covers
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I just got my Epiphone Explorer out for the first time in a while as it appears my SG might be experiencing an earthing problem and I was getting a lot of noise on cleans on two different times through both pickups and then it went away later. Changing straight from the SG to the Epi there was no problem with the Epi so that eliminates the cables, PolyTune, and amp as sources of the problem. I will have to look into it tomorrow or Saturday.
Having another play of the Epi though reminds me that it is a very dark guitar compared to the SG, even though it has 500K pots and what looks like an orange cap in there (the previous owner rewired it when he installed the Mighty Mite pups). Now these pups are pretty cr@ppy (especially for mids), but I am wondering if when I install the A-pigs whether I should upgrade to either 550K or 1 meg pots and what cap value I should use? What have people generally used with Warpigs in a dark sounding guitar?
One great thing about the Epi though is its sustain, which I think is due in part to the heavy thick body but also the fact that the bridge and especially the tailpiece sit real low with no problems. The tailpiece is flat against the wood whereas my SG has its jacked up. Although the Explorer doesn't need topwrapping the strings to achieve this I am more and more convinced that I should topwrap the SG's strings so that I can lower the tailpiece as far as possible. It also convinced me that with the proper pickups, pots, and caps that this will be a great death metal and grindcore guitar that I don't need to worry about scratching up (resale is nothing special and the poly finish is pretty tough anyway). The gold hardware looks a bit tarnished and there is a ping in at least one of the strings when you tune it (hopefully it is the nut, not one of the grovers) but overall these Korean made Epis are decent bar the electricals.
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what are the mighty mite pickups? if they are 22k alnico motherbuckers, those are in fact very dark and compressed
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The bridge is a motherbucker (marked 'MB').
Not sure of the output but as you say very dark and compressed.
They have a very 'plasticy' look. I'll post a photo when I get the chance.
If the output is around the same as a Warpig that's good because I like the output on these, just not the compressed, dark character of them, which seems a bit muffled.
Not sure what the neck pickup is, it's not marked 'MB' like the bridge. It might be their bluesbucker
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the motherbucker is definitely hotter than a pig
good news is that it's that the excessively dark tone is probably the pickups fault
I had that pup for a short period in my jap les paul copy (that had about 23 pickups)
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the motherbucker is definitely hotter than a pig
good news is that it's that the excessively dark tone is probably the pickups fault
I had that pup for a short period in my jap les paul copy (that had about 23 pickups)
That is good news. When I saw the info on the rating I thought I might be swapping in a more expensive version of the same basic problem but the compression seems to be a large part of its darkness problem. There are simply no dynamics at all with the MB. I like the output and the sustain, but I am hoping a large part of the sustain is from the heft of the wood and the design (i.e., the bridge and tailpiece sitting nice and low) rather than just an artifact of all that compression.
I saw somewhere that you had a MB when searching for comparison between the MB and the A-pig. Glad to hear that you don't regret ditching it for a BKP set!
Here's a photo of my current pickups:
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2lo4pr8.jpg)
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I think the motherbucker replaced an alnico 8 duncan custom
it sounded similar to the custom 8, but was darker and even more compressed
then I swapped for a holy diver and also put a cold sweat in the neck
that was my first bkp set
the diver was a huge improvement over anything I had before
the warpig has a lot in common with the diver, but sounds bigger and flatter
I recently sold a warpig to a friend and installed it in his gibson faded V w/ ebony scale
not a bright tone for sure, but didn't sound dark either
with an overdrive pedal, it had a lot of cut
I liked it with fuzz as well
you shouldn't have a problem playing some Ratos de Porão with the proper dirt pedal
saw them live in 2004 and 2007
killer shows
I think the guitarist had a jcm 900 and his fernandes les paul copy with emgs
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I get a pretty good RDP tone out of my SG with the A-bomb in it, straight into my Peavey 6534+ with the volume and tone pots on the A-bomb at full blast. I plan to get a Maxon OD-9 when I am in Sydney in a couple of weeks from now, that will tighten things up a bit. I could get a heap of other tones out of the Nailbomb but straight up RDP is the sound that seems to come most naturally to it. :)
I'm hoping to get some Venom and Sabbath out of the A-pig in C# as well as some Autopsy, Terrorizer, etc with the right EQ etc :guitar4:
P.S. I just tried out the Explorer with the Mighty Mites through the Peavey and the tone could best be compared to Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales album with the volume and tone on full. It's that dark. It did a pretty good 'Procreation of the Wicked' though. I haven't worked out how to EQ the amp and SG to get that tone out of them yet. But you'd hope that your base tone was a bit brighter than that!
P.P.S. I just got out of bed with a sore neck, back, and numb hands, largely as a result of playing this guitar for less than an hour last night. It reminded me of why I moved to the SG - largely ergonomic problems which resulted in symptoms that for a long time I thought were carpal tunnel syndrome (and led me to give up playing for years). I might need to get rid of this axe. I'll test the pickups out in it but I think I won't spend too much money before picking up a second SG, even if it is a cheapie Epi. I really don't want to go down that road again, even though I do like the sound of this guitar (which arises in part from its heaviness). I can get around the weight problem by wearing it really low, but then I am in a bad position for my wrists ...
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Well, I have mounted the Warpigs in my Explorer. It required a little bit of woodwork inside the pickup cavity with my Foredom SR Flexshaft to ensure that the baseplates cleared easily, but all was easy enough. With the installation, the coil with the wire coming from it should be closest to the neck on the neck pickup and closest to the bridge on the bridge pickup, right? I just wanted to check that before soldering them in. With allen bolts in both coils I find it a bit confusing - have I got them in upside down? (here are some photos - they look good with the black allen bolts, a big aesthetic improvement on the plasticky looking Mighty Mites for sure). It's not mahogany inside, anyone know what this wood is? Epiphone markets it as 'korina'
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2s84wg3.jpg)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/5s9zl.jpg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/9fwkqr.jpg)
(http://i43.tinypic.com/28jy2ki.jpg)
Also, for those curious about the Mighty Mite Motherbuckers (both were marked as such on the back) here are some photos of them out. The red and blue wires must be equivalent to the white and green wires on BKPs, as they weren't connected on this guitar.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/2jb70bb.jpg)
(http://i40.tinypic.com/1znoc9z.jpg)
(http://i43.tinypic.com/308ktcn.jpg)
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Nice! Difference in sound, first impressions? :)
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Nice! Difference in sound, first impressions? :)
I don't have them soldered in yet, I wasn't sure that I had the neck pickup in the right way. I checked with Ben though and he reassured me that I do - the pickup wire to the pot coming off the screw coil in each case. I have them set up then the standard way (i.e., neck screw coil toward the neck, bridge screw coil toward the bridge).
Hi David,
There is no way from looking at them from the top. The 'screw coil' is the side where the hook-up wire comes out from underneath. On the bridge pickup, the wire underneath should come out next to the bridge. On the neck pickup, the wire should come out from next to the neck.
Hope that is clear enough. Hope you like them!
Kind Regards,
Ben
--
Ben French
I'm out all day tomorrow - when I travel to the city I usually hang around for a gig in the evening as it is over 40km each way - but I'll solder them on Saturday. I have to take in the SG for a warranty repair in the morning and no time to do this and have a test before that.
I also need to have a tech look at my Peavey as it sounds somewhat odd since I came back from Sydney, very fizzy but also almost like it has a reverb installed (which of course it doesn't), so something might be wrong in there. I'm wondering if it is to do with a cold bias of the tubes. Also the ISP Decimator G-String does not seem to have any effect at the moment, but that might be because I don't have the effects loop side of it plugged in, only the guitar side.
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Well I soldered the pickups in, cleaned the guitar and fitted new strings but must have made some kind of mistake with the soldering as I have no sound at all. I did notice the following strange phenomenon though when tuning it.
1. The inbuilt tune in the old Roland Cube 30X did not pick up any signal
2. The TC Polytune acted as if everything was normal and allowed me to tune just fine.
I'm assuming that the Polytune was picking up a signal via the guitar lead rather than ambient sound from me strumming the guitar, so maybe this indicates that the jack is wired correctly at least? Maybe there is a problem with the red leads?
I will have to buy a mulitimeter and check it all out. The big problem with Explorers is that the cavity is very cramped, so maybe I damaged a solder joint when trying to get the pots back in?
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Soldering can be a pain in the arse, especially when you have a cramped cavity and taking some time and effort to do everything in a clean fashion is rather a must, which I had to find out the hard way. I'd suggest you to double check everything and go through all the connections and solder joints again comparing them one on one with the wiring diagram; I have often redone a soldering job from scratch again. Still the results are worth it so just be patient, the time you spend on making everything bullet proof will keep you from having to open up the guitar all over again.
Oh and I'd recommend you to do the simple screw driver - amp test before retuning with strings, tap the pole pieces of the guitar with a screwdriver whilst being connected to a running amp and see if you get a signal. When the bridge is selected both coils from the bridge humbucker should give you a scratching noise when you tap them with the screwdriver, the neck humbucker coils should remain silent. Then flick over the switch to the middle position and see if all coils respond and in the neck position only the neck humbucker should give you a signal.
Good luck, cheers!
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Oh and I'd recommend you to do the simple screw driver - amp test before retuning with strings, tap the pole pieces of the guitar with a screwdriver whilst being connected to a running amp and see if you get a signal. When the bridge is selected both coils from the bridge humbucker should give you a scratching noise when you tap them with the screwdriver, the neck humbucker coils should remain silent. Then flick over the switch to the middle position and see if all coils respond and in the neck position only the neck humbucker should give you a signal.
Good luck, cheers!
Cheers, yes I did this last time but I forgot this time mainly because it was getting colder in the garage and I wanted to get inside out of the cold, so I inadvertently skipped a step. Still I shouldn't need to remove the actual pickups so the new strings and the bridge etc can stay in place while I open up the body cavities as necessary.
What I need to go out and get tomorrow are a desoldering 'sucker' and a multimeter. The solder seems to be of a higher melting point though and I'm not sure that it will be easy to remove.
What is frustrating about all this is that I was planning to install a full custom harness anyway but just wanted to test it with these 500K pots to see if they are adequate or whether I should request 550K or even 1meg pots in the harness (made by the same guy who made my SG harness). So I guess I was rushing a bit just because I wanted to give it a quick test
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Hahaha, I know that feeling bro, the urge to get everything done asap so you can have a result, I screwed a good soldering job up more than once out of that reason ^^
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I just got my Epiphone Explorer out for the first time in a while as it appears my SG might be experiencing an earthing problem and I was getting a lot of noise on cleans on two different times through both pickups and then it went away later. Changing straight from the SG to the Epi there was no problem with the Epi so that eliminates the cables, PolyTune, and amp as sources of the problem. I will have to look into it tomorrow or Saturday.
Having another play of the Epi though reminds me that it is a very dark guitar compared to the SG, even though it has 500K pots and what looks like an orange cap in there (the previous owner rewired it when he installed the Mighty Mite pups). Now these pups are pretty cr@ppy (especially for mids), but I am wondering if when I install the A-pigs whether I should upgrade to either 550K or 1 meg pots and what cap value I should use? What have people generally used with Warpigs in a dark sounding guitar?
One great thing about the Epi though is its sustain, which I think is due in part to the heavy thick body but also the fact that the bridge and especially the tailpiece sit real low with no problems. The tailpiece is flat against the wood whereas my SG has its jacked up. Although the Explorer doesn't need topwrapping the strings to achieve this I am more and more convinced that I should topwrap the SG's strings so that I can lower the tailpiece as far as possible. It also convinced me that with the proper pickups, pots, and caps that this will be a great death metal and grindcore guitar that I don't need to worry about scratching up (resale is nothing special and the poly finish is pretty tough anyway). The gold hardware looks a bit tarnished and there is a ping in at least one of the strings when you tune it (hopefully it is the nut, not one of the grovers) but overall these Korean made Epis are decent bar the electricals.
The old srewed-down-tailpiece/strings-wrapped-over discussion.
I've tested it, it makes no difference.
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The old srewed-down-tailpiece/strings-wrapped-over discussion.
I've tested it, it makes no difference.
I'm thinking it might make a difference on my SG simply because the tailpiece is up really high at the moment. The break angle on the strings from the back of the bridge to the tailpiece on the Explorer is so shallow already that I think it would do more harm than good. Did you test it on an SG? The one 'conclusive' test I saw on youtube that showed it made no difference used an Explorer, which I thought was kind of silly as it already had the tailpiece right down. I expected the simple change from regular to top-wrap to make next to no difference if not combined with adjustments to the tailpiece. What I am interested to see is whether lowering the tailpiece to the wood makes a difference.
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On the wiring problem, here is the three pots. I think that black wire might be an earth loop, not sure.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/x55l4i.jpg)
On the other hand the jack looks pretty normal. Judging by the amount of wood particles I found there I'm assuming that I am the first person to remove it since it was installed at the Unsung factory in 2006.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/29f9o2u.jpg)
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The old srewed-down-tailpiece/strings-wrapped-over discussion.
I've tested it, it makes no difference.
I'm thinking it might make a difference on my SG simply because the tailpiece is up really high at the moment. The break angle on the strings from the back of the bridge to the tailpiece on the Explorer is so shallow already that I think it would do more harm than good. Did you test it on an SG? The one 'conclusive' test I saw on youtube that showed it made no difference used an Explorer, which I thought was kind of silly as it already had the tailpiece right down. I expected the simple change from regular to top-wrap to make next to no difference if not combined with adjustments to the tailpiece. What I am interested to see is whether lowering the tailpiece to the wood makes a difference.
No, I had this on two guitars (indeed my SG, and my ESP Eclipse). If you topwrap the strings, you're anyway reducing the angle again.
I think the only guitars where it makes a difference are ones where a problem with hardware/screws & bolts actually exists (too lose, not deep enough in the body, something like that); maybe what happens is that it can be compensated a bit by screwing it down completely.
What did make a difference was putting in an aluminium tailpiece. Quite surprisingly clear difference actually.
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I cleaned off some of the soldering mess on the back of the two volume pots and resoldered the black and bare wires to each pot and then before putting everything back together plugged in my Roland test amp and bingo! I get sound THEN I tighten up the pots, reinstall the knobs, and plug it in again and NOTHING!!! I think there might be some kind of problem with the jack BUT the multimeter I bought is next to useless as I found out today that it doesn't have continuity testing ... will take it back to the store and hopefully be able to change it for the other much more expensive unit they have (was really hard to tell what model I had, the multimeter is incredibly poorly labelled and does not have even a model number on it, even though the booklet cross-references all these model numbers :-/
The pickups sounded amazing for the few seconds I heard :(
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I had a problem when installing my warpigs, the sound would cut in and out unless I held it in a very specific position. After hours of resoldering I finally found the problem. The hot leg of the volume pot was touching the cavity wall very slightly, which seemed to be covered in conducting paint to stop hum, i guess. If you're having problems with everything installed that might have something to do with it?
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Thanks Roboten, I just logged in to say that I have solved the issue and it was exactly the same problem as yours, the neck pot red and black shorting due to contact with shielding paint in the very tight cavity. This explains why it worked fine with the pots hanging out and then as soon as I tightened everything up I lost power! After I worked out that it was the shielding paint causing the issue I rotated the pot half a turn, tightened everything up and it was fine. Lucky for me as none of the multimeters I got from the local Mitre 10 were any good, so I was unable to diagnose it with a continuity check (I got my money back on those).
First impression: no usable clean (everyone says this about Warpigs, but the contrast with the Cold Sweat neck and even the Nailbomb bridge in my SG was quite stark), much more bassy sound than the NB but not overly dark or bassy. In terms of sheer output it seems less than the Mighty Mites but with more dynamics. The Mighty Mite has a LOT of compression, which is one reason why they sound so loud. I will have to adjust my playing style on this axe to suit and after I am used to it I will say a bit more. I also need to experiment with my amp EQ.
I also bought some extra leads for my effects loop on the Peavey so now I can run the ISP Decimator G String II, which works how that it has all four leads plugged in.
EDIT: No real joy with the ISP (see thread in amps, effects, etc) but here's a photo of the guitar with Warpigs fitted.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/29pp8cx.jpg)
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Just play around with the height and your amp settings, eventually you will find the sweet spot. I loved the A-Pig in a mates axe, but then again tastes differ as much as guitars tend to do.
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Just play around with the height and your amp settings, eventually you will find the sweet spot. I loved the A-Pig in a mates axe, but then again tastes differ as much as guitars tend to do.
Cheers, I will try to set the bridge height and adjust the truss rod ASAP so that I can then move on to adjusting pickup heights. Something tells me this guitar/pickup combo will be less finicky in that regard than the A-bomb/SG combination
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It really depends on the guitar and BKPs are especially picky when it comes to the instrument, more so than other pickups, but I'm sure you will find the sweet spot. Had similar issues with my Painkiller until I found a setting that worked fine :)
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I did fiddle with the pickup height a little tonight, very roughly but I did even out the volume between the neck and bridge (the neck was louder so I raised the bridge). I also adjusted the bridge height to get rid of string rattle. I did try to adjust the truss rod but the gap between the strings and the truss rod hole are both very small and I could not use the wrench that came with my SG. The neck looks pretty straight though.
Also I played the guitar through a Fender amp tonight and the clean sounded much better than what I could get on the 6534+ with these pickups, acceptable but still nowhere near the clean of the Cold Sweat.
EDIT: I just played it again through the 6534+ and I got some great crust and UK hardcore tones out of it, ripped through 'Nazi Die' by Doom and 'Sick Boy' by GBH and it sounded great for both of those. Which augurs well for getting '80s style grindcore sounds from it once tuned down and the pace picked up some with double-picking etc. I also tried playing 'Ausgebombt' by Sodom and I am getting better tones with that each time I fiddle with settings etc. Not sure if people usually play this kind of punk with Warpigs but it seems to work (bridge pickup anyway). The Exploited didn't sound as good through this guitar as through my A-bomb SG, but I didn't expect that. Same with Poison Idea and RDP.
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Good to hear that you have found a setting that works, I find different flavours and sounds in every BKP I own every day more and more :)
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Tuned it down to C# standard tonight ... the Ernie Ball Light Top Heavy Bottom set were fine for that, and I was digging the light high strings, very expressive in an Iommi kind of way ... the low strings sound like a bass with these pickups! Tried playing a bit of the old Countess Bathory by Venom, sounds a lot more bassy and less middy than what Mantas used to get. Maybe some fiddling with the Maxon OD-9 pedal might give that Venom tone
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Keep on experimenting ^^
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I had an interesting problem with this guitar today:
I noticed that the pickups were a bit high as they would occasionally touch the strings and squeal. This was interesting as I never noticed it doing this the last time I played it. I then tried to adjust the pickup height with a screwdriver, and found that the pickups would tilt and move backward and forwards in the pickup rings. I'm assuming this is something to do with the pickup cavity being too tight in spots and the baseplate catching on the sides of the cavity as it moves up and down. Currently the bridge pickup is on a slight tilt. I want to pull the pickups out and play around with the wiring anyway at some point, and I am not gigging the guitar at this point, but I think I will have to take them out and hog out the cavities a bit more with my Foredom flex shaft before applying some more shielding paint.
Anyone else encountered a similar problem?
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I had to file down the legs of my Painkiller/Coldsweat combo in order to fit them into the cavities of my Jackson Fusion Pro (I would have ordered triangular tabs if I knew the cavities would be so tight), I had some similar issues with pickups tilting due to lack of space, but that only happened to me in cheap guitars so far.
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Well, it's an old Korean Epiphone that cost me $500 with case (and the Mighty Mite MBs and 500K pots and an orange cap fitted), so that was cheap! I think I can fix it with my Foredom flex-shaft. I didn't remove much from the front of the rear pickup cavity, and I think that's where it's rubbing.
For a cheap guitar it sounds killer and the neck is nice. It also stays in tune better with the Grover tuners than my Gibson SG does with its thin neck and Kluson tuners.
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Nothing wrong with a good cheap guitar. They just tend to need a little bit more attention and work than expensive ones :P
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I think the tilt in the pickup was due to the pickup lead. There is no real contact between the pickup and the cavity wall, although I did find a curious rough spot that looked like something was rubbing. The lead may have been pulled too far into the control cavity or something. Anyway when the techie installs my Triple Shots (after I get the harness sorted out) I will have plenty of lead there for him to play with.