Author Topic: Unpotted Stormy Mondays (Read 4901 times)

Jonesy · « **on:** September 02, 2006, 10:25:06 AM »

Hows it goin...
Firstly, i dont realy have much of an idea of what standard SM's sound like...im guessing a mellow vintage blues tone?

Anyways, I know ther was quite a big thread on this before but I cant find it so, What difference does a lack of wax potting make?

Also, how far could an unpotted SM be driven into overdrive before the lack of the potting became a problem?

Cheers guys,
Rory

Trendkiller · « **Reply #1 on:** September 02, 2006, 03:55:35 PM »

Hi.
You might get a bit more open tone with unpotted pick ups.

For clean and crunchy tones at moderate volumes, I think this is ok.

BUT, crank that mother to 11, or have a high-gain amp running at higher volumes...Well, You'll have some serious problems with squeals.
I've told Tim to wax the pick ups REAL good to avoid the squeals at high gain and loud volumes. It works great. What I "might" loose in the tone dept., is way less important than have a guitar that works in a live situation.
So, IMO go for a waxed pick up, You won't regret it.
Good luck!
8)

www.trendkillerweb.com

PhilKing · « **Reply #2 on:** September 02, 2006, 10:47:51 PM »

I have unpotted Stormy Mondays in my 335 and to test it out for you I turned my amp up until the guitar was feeding back instantly when I took my hands off the strings - no squeals at all. This amp has a pretty high gain preamp and was giving me great harmonic feedback all the time. It was the perfect blues rock tone with nice crunchy chords and cleans up perfectly when I back off the volume. Now I admit that this was just a 10 watt valve amp - but I would have expected it to squeal when I was stood in front of it anyway.

Tim has nailed the way of keeping the pickups open with out squeal.

Trendkiller · « **Reply #3 on:** September 03, 2006, 05:16:29 PM »

For my experience, both unpotted Fralins and Gibson Burstbuckers have squealed like pigs when the amps were turned up.
These are good for crunchy tones at moderate volumes, but into a high gainer (like a Soldano SLO) running at high volumes, they were just unusable.
Maybe Tim has done some tricks with his unpotted pickups to avoid squeals?
Anyway, why not have the pickups potted in the first place, and have no worries later on...... 8)

PhilKing · « **Reply #4 on:** September 03, 2006, 06:59:51 PM »

Tim had a set of unpotted Mules in a Les Paul at LGS, into several amps, 2 Zakk Wyldes, 2 different H&K (one was the Alex Lifeson model), an Engl and a Framus. No one at the show had squeal problems (and the amps were being driven - we also had Keely modded SD-1's in front of them).

Tim suggested the unpotted - he thinks it gives a more vintage tone and I have to agree. I was comparing with a real PAF (which is obviously unpotted), and the sound is really close, though the BK's are more open. Since I was putting them into a 335 and wanted to keep the semi-accoustic tone, the unpotted seemed like a great idea too. For blues and classic rock, I think they give a great sound.

5F6-A · « **Reply #5 on:** October 21, 2006, 04:33:11 PM »

check a video of my LP with unpotted Sotrmy Mondays!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NctEXt9mQf4

Tim · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2006, 08:09:15 PM »

I test my unpotted humbuckers standing infront of a 100w Marshall stack at full tilt with my hands muting the strings-no squeal.We make ours differently to Gibson/Fralin and put a tiny bit of wax under the cover and around the magnet..............the coils stay completely unpotted.