Yesterday I had a rehearsal with my band. My amp's not ready yet, so I took my small hybrid practice combo (Kustom Tube12) to the place. I'm listing my impressions:
- That thick block of old mahogany sounds like thunder when played hard!!! 8) It's not the amount of mids or bass, but the feel of the sound. Very, very dense and heavy.
- The guitar's by far the heaviest axe I've ever played. By the end of the rehearsal my left arm got very tired at the shoulder, although I'm usually training every day. I'll need to switch between my Strat and this guitar at concerts.
- Despite the weight, the body resonates like mad, and has a strong clean acoustic sound I haven't heard from any LP before. Now I use Newtone 10-49's on the guitar, so it also has a nice tight feel.
- Now about the amplified sound: THE MULES ARE GREAT!!! :D They have lots of articulation and just the right amount of tightness for the music I play. At the rehearsal we played things ranging from funk to some heavy metal, and the three sounds I get from a set were just enough for that.
NECK: Surprisingly balanced. I was expecting to hear a bassy/slightly muddy sound (the sound I hear on LP's with different pickups), but I was wrong. Tim was right when he mentioned that as a LP player he knew how important it was for a neck pickup to sound clear and articulated. The neck Mule sounds clean and woooody. The sound of mahogany perfectly comes through, the sound reminds me of the acoustic sound of the guitar.
MIDDLE: My favourite... A clean quack sound with heaveny sparkle. That's the kind of sound I thought to be only possible with a Strat. But it's still different because it has the warmth of mahogany. The wound strings have that hollow metallic ring (not as much, though) as on a Strat in quack position, and the unwound strings are pure sparkle. Altogether, a nice acoustic type of sound.
BRIDGE: Again: balanced. 8) My practice combo has a range of gain more suited for classic rock, but still enough to make a Dimarzio Air Zone muddy. With the Mules I could max the gain and still hear individual notes in chords and things sounded bigger then ever! So low output doesn't necessarily mean you have to sacrifice definition, you have to work a lot more for it, though. Although perfectly balanced, the bridge Mule has a certain 'cut' I really like. It's kind of a singing quality with lots of attitude, which sounds good for blues. When chicken-picking some gritty bluesy licks, I could even hear some Tele character, but my ears might be wrong and I don't have a Tele either.
These Mules are cool pickups indeed, I'll make a more precise testing when my amp's ready at last. And some clips, of course. You must hear that quack sound... :D
