Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: TwilightOdyssey on October 22, 2006, 08:25:01 PM
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When I arrived at Phil's house for the NYC Chapter jam & drink, my Agile AL-2800 was finally ready with the new BKs installed: Riff Raff bridge, Stormy Monday neck. It sounds amazing! I will be posting comparative clips of the pups soon. (Tonight?)
I gutted most of the controls off of the LP and replaced them with mini switches, which I will explain later, when I post the clips up. Stay tuned!
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Sounds like fun TO! I'm interested to hear about how you wired it up, I'm in the process of stripping a guitar and I think I'll try some wacky wiring. Plus I need a LP style guitar, and the Agiles look sweet!
Can't wait for the clips!
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Well, I had 5 minutes, so I made this quick clip. It's solo guitar, clean, so there is minimal damage done by converting it to mp3.
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4580565&q=hi
The clip is:
Riff Raff - Series
Riff Raff - Parallel
Stormy Monday - Series
Stormy Monday - Parallel
3 of the 4 volume and tone pots were replaced by mini switches. 2 of the switches take each pickup from series to parallel wiring. As you can hear, parallel really cleans up the sound, but the volume goes down a bit as a result. There is one master volume control now. Where the original pickup selector was, that toggle now has 3 different levels of high frequency roll off.
Pics to follow!
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really loved the sound of the SM!
Sounds really bluesy without any of that muddyness, can't wait to hear some more stuff.
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Well, I had 5 minutes, so I made this quick clip. It's solo guitar, clean, so there is minimal damage done by converting it to mp3.
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4580565&q=hi
The clip is:
Riff Raff - Series
Riff Raff - Parallel
Stormy Monday - Series
Stormy Monday - Parallel
3 of the 4 volume and tone pots were replaced by mini switches. 2 of the switches take each pickup from series to parallel wiring. As you can hear, parallel really cleans up the sound, but the volume goes down a bit as a result. There is one master volume control now. Where the original pickup selector was, that toggle now has 3 different levels of high frequency roll off.
Pics to follow!
you went with "manly wiring" then? :lol:
The SM (er... :oops: ) sounds great though. Nice and jazzy. The riff raff sounds great too, a bit crunchier though.
I was impressed with the serial/parallel difference too- as you said (actually, it was probably phil who said it) in my previous thread, it sounds different, but as good- whereas coli splitting can sometimes sound a little worse than the full humbucker (basically because humbuckers aren't really meant to be split).
:drink:
EDIT: was that through the quick rod?
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What exactly is the difference between series and parallel wiring? I'm guessing series is just the full humbucker sound, and parallel is what exactly?
Clip sounds great btw, the SM neck sounds really nice.
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^ i'm guessing (totally guessing) it's like the difference in wiring two light bulbs in serial or parallel, like the way you used to do in physics class.
Could be totally different, though.
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I dont actually remember doing that :lol:
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Very brief outline, if you think of 4 wires where A & B are the start and end of one coil and C & D are the start and end of the other
Series is both coils but the end of one is the start of the other. So it is A to live, B & D connect and C goes to ground (the circuit through each coil is in the opposite direction).
Parallel is A and D to live, B and C to ground. Still humbucking, coils still go in the opposite direction. It is the same connection as Fender make when they hace 2 pickups on at the same time in a Strat or Tele.
When I wired Ben's Agile, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the pots and switches in it. So much so that I used one of the original pots and the original PU selector as the tone switch. The only thing other than the pickups that I changed was to replace most of the connecting wire with good quality screened wire.
The other mini toggle that replaced a pot is the pickup selector.
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EDIT: was that through the quick rod?
No, my QR is in storage, and only comes out for gigs, until the elevator in my bldg is finished being replaced. My rig is too big to carry down (and then back up) 7 stories!
That clip is my VG-88, set for the plexi setting.
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Very quick pic:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/TwilightOdyssey/AgileControlsExplainedcopy.jpg)
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Very cool clip Ben. It was very interesting to hear some humbuckers in parallel. It's also nice to hear those Agile guitars are of decent quality. I'm kicking around buying a 7 string off of them.
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Here's a quick jam I just tracked, all improvised, so don't expect anything spectacular! It goes Stormy Monday/Riff Raff melody/Riff Raff solo/Riff Raff melody/Stormy Monday solo
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4583926&q=hi
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Here's a quick jam I just tracked, all improvised, so don't expect anything spectacular! It goes Stormy Monday/Riff Raff melody/Riff Raff solo/Riff Raff melody/Stormy Monday solo
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4583926&q=hi
Sounds amazing! Love the whole vibe of the song. Very nice!!!
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Thanx, Shag ...
The whole point of this guitar was to get a 70s rock monster!
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From that clip and what I heard over the weekend. You definitely accomplished what you set out to do..
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Here's a quick jam I just tracked, all improvised, so don't expect anything spectacular! It goes Stormy Monday/Riff Raff melody/Riff Raff solo/Riff Raff melody/Stormy Monday solo
This last clip is a bit of a departure for you tone and style wise. No?
Could it be? Hmm. Probably shouldn't say this out loud but perhaps
it's just a matter of time you'll be playing slide through a small tweed.
Hmm. Yes? Maybe? :wink:
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LOL, you are correct, TL ... it is a bit of a departure from my 'norm'.
Waiting to see how the next year goes (2007), and if I don't end up in jail, I would like to start working on a side project that's Led Zep/Badlands/Free influenced. I've been in the planning stages of this for about a year, and I finally have the guitar that can do that range of sounds, so that's one less obstacle. It has to fit dead last into my musical plans, as TO seems to get busier every year.
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I dont actually remember doing that :lol:
kids today, eh?
I haven't been in a physics class for almost 10 years and I remember that...
And then we'd go to the flicks for only 15p, and with the change you could buy a brand new ferrarri.
of course, phil has a much better explanation than I do. :lol:
No, my QR is in storage, and only comes out for gigs, until the elevator in my bldg is finished being replaced. My rig is too big to carry down (and then back up) 7 stories!
That clip is my VG-88, set for the plexi setting.
ah, ok, cool. yeah, 7 stories with half-stack = bad. when the postie delivered my cab, i was glad he lifted it into my hall, so I didn't have to get it up the front step (singular) myself.
:lol:
Very quick pic:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/TwilightOdyssey/AgileControlsExplainedcopy.jpg)
nice- i like blue guitars. any reason you went for the uncovered bridge, or do you just like the look of that?
Here's a quick jam I just tracked, all improvised, so don't expect anything spectacular! It goes Stormy Monday/Riff Raff melody/Riff Raff solo/Riff Raff melody/Stormy Monday solo
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4583926&q=hi
nice. i especially liked the lead at 1.23 or so- kind of zeppeliny, but extreme to the max (or something like that). I'm guessing judging by the rest of the tones in the clip that that was the riff raff?
\m/
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i like blue guitars. any reason you went for the uncovered bridge, or do you just like the look of that?
No reason other than cosmetics. The black open coil bridge matches the hardware, and the polished nickel in the neck provides the contrast I like to have in all my guitars. (My neck pickup rarely matches the guitar it's in; it's an 80s thing PDT_008 )
i especially liked the lead at 1.23 or so- kind of zeppeliny, but extreme to the max (or something like that). I'm guessing judging by the rest of the tones in the clip that that was the riff raff?
The Riff Raff has the most amazing 'snarl' to it. It's different from the VHII, which is cleaner and has more low end growl. The Riff Raff loves getting dirty. The Stormy Monday is the most suprising pickup I've played since the MQ. (Which I will get into a guitar some day) It has such balls. I can now see why PAFs are so highly coveted!!!
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The 80's ruled!
but yeah, don't say too much nice stuff about the SM/RR ben, i've pretty much decided on the MQ set now for my gordon smith i'm about to order- you know how indecisive i am, the slightest little bit of doubt and it'll be another 6 months!
:lol:
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Get the MQs -- You won't be disappointed!
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ditch the pickguard...
or at least get one in green... it's so not... Ben like.
i'll listen to the clip when i get my computer back.
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Get the MQs -- You won't be disappointed!
yeah, that's what i figured- being humbucker-sized, they're easy to swap too. being indecisive and all.
:lol:
:drink:
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Ben, seeing you live with a Les Paul would just look wrong for some reason! :lol:. The clips are cool though! :D
yeah, that's what i figured- being humbucker-sized, they're easy to swap too. being indecisive and all.
:lol:
:drink:
Be prepared to route a little if you decide to swap the pickups on your Gordon Smith after you get it ;)
When I ordered my Gordon Smith, I also supplied the pickups for the guitar. John only appears to route the guitars just enough to fit the pickups in.
When I later changed the pickups for the Black Dog and Riff Raff that's currently in it, I had to buy a dremel to remove a fair bit more wood to get the Bareknuckles to fit!
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^ thanks for the heads-up, man. To be honest, it's 95% that I'll be fine with the MQ's- my reluctance to solder etc. tends to win out, lol.
:drink:
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^ thanks for the heads-up, man. To be honest, it's 95% that I'll be fine with the MQ's- my reluctance to solder etc. tends to win out, lol.
:drink:
No worries mate, thought it was worth a fair warning :)
I think MQs would sound awesome in a GSG myself :)
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^ :drink:
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nice overall sound, eveyones gotta have a low gain sensative side ;)