Painkillers in LTD EC1000. not what i expected.

[dheim]

i changed a couple of active EMGs (85-60) with a set of Painkillers in my LTD EC1000 VB (all mahogany with ebony fingerboard), and changed stock pots with 500k units.

the final result wasn't absolutely what i expected... and i know well the PKs, having them in an Ibanez S.

bridge unit is THICK. really, really powerful and full on low strings, but on high strings it seems to have the tone slightly rolled down, pinch harmonics are hard to get properly. and we're talking about a PK, for god's sake!

neck unit is trebly. it sounds good but almost identical to the bridge pickup! middle position is very close to the other two. and so it's completely useless (not that i use it much anyway, unless i split coils...)

so i think i have to deconnect the tone pot first, to get a bit more presence for the bridge... a pickup swap in neck position should help, but i just bought this set, damn!
any other idea?
some trick with capacitors?

[syr2012]

Try lower-valued caps, but if I wanted everything such a hot pickup had to offer (especially in mahogany), I'd use 1 meg pots, or at least 1 meg for the tone and 500k for the volume.

You have a TON of BKPs, so I wouldn't even think about suggesting you fiddle with the height of the pups...

[MDV]

Straight to jack, biatch!!

[AndyR]

You have a TON of BKPs, so I wouldn't even think about suggesting you fiddle with the height of the pups...

I would :lol:

This (hi-power humbuckers) isn't really my area - but your description of the bridge did get me thinking that some height adjustment/fiddling might be in order?

My BKPs still surprise me with what they can do differently with a quarter turn on one height adjustment screw - I did it to one of my Blackguard teles yesterday, I'm not even sure why I did it... but it turned into a different beast altogether :lol: (and better :D)

[hunter]

First thing i would try is vintage wiring. I always feel it does have an effect even if the pots are fully turned up.

Second, disconnecting tone pot indeed. I never use them anyway.

All is wired up correctly, rght?

[dheim]

ok, ok... in the last weeks i had really no time to play or even do some random bullsh+t on any of my guitars, but today (while fighting with a broken sink - in the end it won) i had the chance to pick the eclipse again, and madethings better in a really stupid way. lowering the bridge pickup.
of course i already played with height, but today i set it a bit lower than the pickup ring, and... voila! not too sexy but effective!
sooner or later the tone pot will go away, this is for sure...