Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: wixomwhat on June 15, 2005, 05:32:21 AM
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Am I the only person who doesn't like A5 magnets?
I think they sound fine in Single coil pickups but sound (for the most part) terrible in Humbuckers.
I do like Dimarzios Humbucker from Hell- but thats supposed to sound like a single coil so I dunno if it counts.
So people has great tones with pickups that have A5's but They just dont work for me.
Ceramics seem perfect for me in humbuckers. Even PAFish type pickups, I think they sound better with Ceramics.
What about you guys? Dislike any magnet type? prefer one over the other etc, etc?
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Don't say that! I just ordered a VHII!!! LOL
Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, man ...
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Sorry Bro. I'm sure your new Pup will sound great! :D
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I've actually always been a fan of the A5 magnet, and have only recently been converted to the joys of a great ceramic pup ...
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Ceramics do a great job where gain is involved but they're way to efficient for cleans or vintage tone and sound hard and clinical if used in a PAF type design.
Alnico V is a great magnet when used in the right context.I use it where power is required or a big wind needs to be powered. You try powering a DC16K sets of coils with A2,A3 or A4 and they'll sound like mush-all mids no highs.OK this is where ceramics come into their own but A5's too and if you want a more organic tone and sweeter cleans then A5s rule the roost.
Let's take TOs VHII now winging it's way over the water, the DC of the 52mm spaced coils is DC9.2K, wound with 42 AWG plain enamel-this is hot for that type of wire.Put an A2 under those coils and the definition goes, likewise A4, ceramic brings the bottom up way too much and turns the highs to glass, A5 sits just right.It's down to square peg,square hole.........I spent months winding, playing diferent versions of this one-HJM was involved too and had an early prototype.The wind evolved hugely and it features an unusal offset-I'm not trying to claim I invented the wheel here but the pickup is tuned totally by ear. OK, it's called a VHII and will get you into the early EVH tone ballpark-but it's a VERY versatile pickup and what you do with it is down to you as a player. It won't make you sound like Eddie-nothing will-you can go plug into Eddies rig with his guitar and you won't sound like him-that part of the tone is in the player.It will put you on the right side of the fence and deliver the vibe but it's capable of doing so much.
So, as with all my pickups, excuse my artistic licence with the names, I like to indulge myself alittle :D and give a hint of where you're starting from with one of my pickups.Where you go with it is down to you....................
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The A5 VHII is so much better than the last one I had (AIV I think!).
I had Tim send me some magnets, and happily spent a week swapping magnets around. And I have to say, Tim's choices were spot on!
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I think it's not the magnet you dislike. I think the pickups you heard as a whole sucked. Did you hear some of the clip? Most of them are A5. I don't hear anything wrong with them.
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I like A5's but Tim turned me on to the A4/A5 combo and this really sounds nice. I am a classic rock/blues player and for me the A5 really powers the pickup. I have Crawler, VHII, Emerald, Pig-90, p-90's, Miracle Man (the bridge in a clibrated set), RiffRaff (Tim recommended this to work with a Stormy Monday with A4), NailBomb and Trilogies all with A5's and they all sound great :boulet:
That said, all my BKP's sound great, so perhaps the magnet is not really an issue. Which A5 pickups did you hear that you didn't like?
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Guys- I'm not trying to bash any pickups here. Like I said, some guys sound Killer with A5 loaded pickups, actually alot of guys do, I just can't get the pups i've tried to work for me.
I think it's not the magnet you dislike. I think the pickups you heard as a whole sucked. Did you hear some of the clip? Most of them are A5. I don't hear anything wrong with them.
Thats what I'm talking about, those clips are Awsome!
It must be my set up or the way I play or something. Ceramic + distortion= good tone for me.
A5+ Distortion= Mid/Mud city.
I set my amp like this- Highs=6, Mids=6 and Low=5.5
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ive just spent the past hour playing with my VHII's and i think i am close to nailing my perfect tone...it sounds awesome, soooo nice.
just playing into a plexi modeller (i aim to get a real one maybe), and through a Catalinbread Clean Boost, its not muddy at all, but defined and articulate but with lots of grunt and power.
(i just wanted to say that :wink: )
anyway, i was thinking about tone yesterday and at the end of the day, somethings work for some people and some don't for others. Different strokes for different folks and all that. What A5 pickups have you tried, and what kind of music do you play?
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I think wixom is a metalhead, unless I'm mistaken.
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A5 magnets enhance the lows and highs, not the mids, right?
Mid/muddy pickups are usually overwound. However most BKP's have a lot of winds and the Crawler, for example, is middy but not muddy at all. Must be the scatterwinding.
How am I doing so far?
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I think wixom is a metalhead, unless I'm mistaken.
Your correct :)
I guess my style is thrash mixed with 80's hair metal.
Though my favorite bands are Maiden, Dio, Megadeth, Children of Bodom and ... Weezer- lol. Rivers Coumo can really rip.
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The whole LA metal scene is what I love. Big hair, Great guitar playing and Kramers, badass IMO.
But yeah like I said, Maiden and Bodom and stuff are my Favorites.
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other stuff I'm into includes
Def Leppard, Journey, Bon Jovi, Queen, King's X, and Rush.
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You didn't mention TO!!!! :evil:
j/k ;)
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Tim said something in an earlier post which rang an alarm bell in my head, shortly followed by a light bulb!
For years now I have been annoying my guitar playing friend by knowing almost instantly if a pickup has a ceramic magnet or not. My ears just do not like ceramic and Tim stating that, especially clean, ceramic tends to have a more clinical sound backed up my thinking/experiences.
I am absolutely in love with the tone the VHII is providing me. It certainly does capture that early Van Halen tone, it's big, open and brown, it has power but does not dominate proceedings. For me, it's the perfect humbucker for the bridge of my Strat, hence the reason it is currently sitting there!
Willo,
If you ever make get the chance to own a Plexi, a Mk.II 1959 or a reissue you will love the range of tones and the simplicity of the amp. One big piece of advice though.... if you ever fire it up at home make sure you live in the middle of nowhere... these are LOUD! I've worked with VHT, Engl, Koch, Trace Elliot, Peavey and Marshall JCM heads in my time, but none are as powerfull as a 1959 in terms of eardrum bursting potential! The tone is awesome though, after 1 the volume controls cease to do anything in regards to out and out volume, they just alter the amount of gain! It's a must experience experience! 8) :D
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hey thanks for the advice March, i was checking out one of the reissues, but its still very much a 'maybe'. I was also looking at maybe a JCM800 or a Matamp or suchlike, but its all a bit up in the air. Unfortunately, i live in a terrace as opposed to the middle of nowhere :cry: but i figured id get an attenuator to deal with that. :)
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The whole LA metal scene is what I love. Big hair, Great guitar playing and Kramers, badass IMO.
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hmmm...i dont know much about that whole scene, it was a little before my time :wink: i guess the only band i know really well from LA around that time is Jane's Addiction, i can definitely get a Dave Navarro tone on my VHII's, and i know he uses a ceramic PRS pickup at the bridge. Obviously, its not exactly spot on, but its certainly not lacking in terms of power - at least, in my opinion. I think it will be good to see if TO gets a chance to record a clip with his VHII's - im sure he could put them through their paces better than i could!
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The whole LA metal scene is what I love. Big hair, Great guitar playing and Kramers, badass IMO.
.
hmmm...i dont know much about that whole scene, it was a little before my time :wink: i guess the only band i know really well from LA around that time is Jane's Addiction, i can definitely get a Dave Navarro tone on my VHII's, and i know he uses a ceramic PRS pickup at the bridge. Obviously, its not exactly spot on, but its certainly not lacking in terms of power - at least, in my opinion. I think it will be good to see if TO gets a chance to record a clip with his VHII's - im sure he could put them through their paces better than i could!
NO, your thinking the wrong thing.
I'm talking about 80's LA. Hair Metal.
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You didn't mention TO!!!! :evil:
j/k ;)
Sorry Bro,
I haven't ordered a copy of your new CD yet.
I should be ordering a copy pretty soon.
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NO, your thinking the wrong thing.
I'm talking about 80's LA. Hair Metal.
yeah, i dont really know about that kind of thing, sorry.
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I'm talking about 80's LA. Hair Metal.
He's talking Dokken, RATT, Styper, Enuff Z Nuff, Cinderalla, Poison, Warrant, Krokus, White Lion, etc etc etc :)
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Mötley Crüe is touring again.
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Forgot the Crue!! Oops!
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NO, your thinking the wrong thing.
I'm talking about 80's LA. Hair Metal.
yeah, i dont really know about that kind of thing, sorry.
Sorry sorry, I didn't mean to come off as a jerk or anything.
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I have a mate with an original Plexi- allegedly ex Townsend he says but it works and is not in bits so it can't be true. Sounds quite good to me
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Sorry sorry, I didn't mean to come off as a jerk or anything.
haha, no worries, i didnt think that at all! I was just worried i'd been wasting your time by talking about something that you totally weren't after. i dont really know too much about pickups, best to stick with Twilight Odyssey and Tim, and pretty everyone else here when it comes to that! :)
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Forgot the Crue!! Oops!
:D
You also forgot Autograph, Nightranger,Y/T ,Journey ? Not sure if they where classed as part of the L.A scene, How about Whitesister from NY don`t no if you`ve heard of them TO ? :?: :D 8)
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Whitesister? No ...
How about TT Quick and Ruff Cutt?
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I had Journey on my list, I love um.
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Whitesister? No ...
How about TT Quick and Ruff Cutt?
:guitar4: Ruff Cutt rings a bell tho i can`t think why TT Quick doesn`t. Whitesister releaesd an album through the music for nations record company. [heavy metal america] it was produced by greg giuffria [ i think thats how you spell it ] used to be in a band called Angel [ i think ] :D 8)
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Greg Giuffria played keys in Angel, and then went on to form the band Giuffria with a young Craig Goldie on guitar. :)
Afterwards, he formed Kingdom Come with Laney Cordolla on guitar ...
Yes, I have lots of useless knowledge like that at my fingertips, LOL
TT Quick was a local band to NYC, but they had the big 80s LA sound; I will dig up their 1st album (which I have on cassette) one of these days and transfer it to digital for y'all.
I'm definitely gonna ask some of the old timers here in NYC about Whitesister, tho ... sounds like my kinda band.
Another great underground metal band in the 80s was V.V.S.I. ... I have that on cassette, too ... I will definitley be transfering that to digital! It kicks!!
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:D Ok "wixomwhat" i hadn`t read all of this thread before i replied to TO your right you did put Journey on your list as it goes i`ve got a set of VHII`s check out the Players section i`ll be putting down a rock oriented demo shortly you seem to have quite a wierd mix of bands you want to sound like !!! :D
i`m certain the VHII`s will be able to handle the more thrashy type stuff without a problem but they will also be able to handle that warm neck tone that Neil Schon gets without a problem also.
"willo" they reviewed the new "Plexi" hand wired amps in last months Guitarist they gave them great reviews try tracking them down they recommend that if your going to buy a Plexi buy one of the new ones as there be more reliable and made with better sourced components than the older ones & buy all accounts they sound the same as the originals. i used to own one [original that is] Bloody Loud isn`t the word it was either on or off !!! :D drove my parents, nieghbours, & people 3 blocks away mad for a year !!! :P i havn`t heard the new ones yet but will be going to my local guitar shop to hear one shortly. & will probably get all nostalgic about `em :D
"TO" how`s about Aldo Nova "subject" did you like ? have you heard ?
what did you think ? :D 8)
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Aldo Nova = RAWK!!!! \m/
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:D And Yes HJM & others i spelt Loud wrong !! i`m doing this in a hurry before the boss finds me !! :P 8)
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:D And Yes HJM & others i spelt Loud wrong !! i`m doing this in a hurry before the boss finds me !! :P 8)
Hehe ... there IS an 'edit' button, ya know ;)
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"willo" they reviewed the new "Plexi" hand wired amps in last months Guitarist they gave them great reviews try tracking them down they recommend that if your going to buy a Plexi buy one of the new ones as there be more reliable and made with better sourced components than the older ones & buy all accounts they sound the same as the originals.
I've had the pleasure of trying a new HW, an original 'unmolested' SLP (69) and a MK.II 1959, Compared to an original the new one's are not quite as warm tonally. The older one tends to break up a little bit earlier. Compared to my 73 MK.II, the MK.II has more gain, still not super heavy gain, but it's noticable.