Author Topic: Mother's Milk,/Crawler Set - A Quick Word (Read 8406 times)

willo · « **on:** March 04, 2006, 10:06:00 PM »

How about 'great'? :D

I had the pleasure of playing my new guitar fitted with the Mother's Milk/Crawler HSS set on Friday night at a loose kind of rehearsal thing for this project that I'm getting involved in. I was playing through my JCM800, which I invariably have set to a degree of amp break-up anyway, pre amp and master volumes both around 6-7.

Wow, though, these pickups eh?! Great stuff. I am currently in love with the Mother's Milk neck pickup. With my amp settings, rolling down the volume yielded some pretty nice clean tones, but when I roll the volume up to 10 the whole thing just seems to open up, and out comes this incredibly phat, honky, gritty but beautiful tone. It was great man, having all that available with just the use of the volume pot. Great stuff, and having the option to whack on the bridge humbucker for higher gain stuff was a great option - it seems to balance so well with the other two singlecoils, yet has a completely distinctive voice and tonal option than the others. I remember when Tim said that the MM/Crawler set was a particularly versatile option, and he's dead-on: it's great for a musical schizophrenic like myself! :)

So what can I say, except a big thanks to the guys who made my pickups. It's really great to be able to personally pass on my appreciation, because I am really enjoying this set up. Even more than my VHII's (and I didn't think that would happen)!

As for this band thing that seems to be happening for me, at the moment we are just a trio - myself coming from a rock/metal/hint of jazz kind of thing, a drummer heavily into Tangerine Dream and Can, and a bassist who's a big fan of electronica. From that, we put everything together and improvise. It's still very much in it's infancy, but so far, so good. So, happy days all round! :D

TwilightOdyssey · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2006, 11:31:09 PM »

Thanx for that description. Do you find any loss in power going from the Crawler to the Mother's Milk?

sambo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 05, 2006, 12:05:24 AM »

^one and good luck with the band thingy- keep us posted.

willo · « **Reply #3 on:** March 05, 2006, 12:32:10 AM »

Quote from: TwilightOdyssey

Thanx for that description. Do you find any loss in power going from the Crawler to the Mother's Milk?

hmmm...well, it's obviously not quite as powerful, but if you mean in terms of volume, I wouldn't have said there was a noticeable difference at all. However, I know you're more analytical of tone than myself, so I've got rehearsal again on Monday night - I'll properly have a listen to it all then and get back to you on that.

I guess we're into different styles of music, Ben

, but with the neck and an overdriven JCM800 I was getting the 'Pretty Little Ditty' (red hot chili peppers) tone, if you've heard that? Getting on to the Crawler opened up a more hard rock/metal tone, I would say spot on with 'Mountain Song' by Jane's Addiction. Again, I don't know if you've heard the song, apologies if you haven't. But as I said, I'm in rehearsal again on Monday night so I'll have a good hard listen to it all. Anything particular you'd like me to listen out for?

Sam, cheers lad. :)

TwilightOdyssey · « **Reply #4 on:** March 05, 2006, 01:18:17 AM »

Quote from: willo

But as I said, I'm in rehearsal again on Monday night so I'll have a good hard listen to it all. Anything particular you'd like me to listen out for?

That was really descriptive, too! :)
In my personal experience, I have a real balancing act with my Irish Tour. Tonally, I love it, and I think it's a great match for the Miracle Man in that particular guitar. When I crank up the gain, tho ... it can get NOISY, esp here in NYC.
As you said, we play different styles, and I don't find myself using mild overdrive too often. (Tho, by today's standards, my level of distortion IS considered tame for metal!!)

Tim · « **Reply #5 on:** March 05, 2006, 08:57:42 AM »

Glad you like them...............they're what we make for Geoff Whitehorn's work horse Strats, and having played them I know how versatile they are and recommend them without hesitation where a diversity of tone is required.The nice thing for me is they still sound like they're coming off one guitar and balance really well.

Ratrod · « **Reply #6 on:** March 05, 2006, 07:06:37 PM »

Crawlers are perfect for the musical schizophrenics. They'll go from tame to insane.

Ben, I never figured you for a Crawler type of guy. Why the interest, if I may be so bold?

They'll do a wide variety of metal tones but I wouldn't call them a typical metal pickup. They are quite different to the Miracle Man and VHII wich both seem to be made for the type of music you play.

PhilKing · « **Reply #7 on:** March 05, 2006, 08:07:33 PM »

Quote from: Ratrod

Ben, I never figured you for a Crawler type of guy. Why the interest, if I may be so bold?

He played my PRS EG with Crawler and 2 P-90's :twisted:

This is why he has been jonesing for LP Juniors :lol:

Kilby · « **Reply #8 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:45:29 AM »

Quote from: willo

a drummer heavily into Tangerine Dream and Can, and a bassist who's a big fan of electronica. From that, we put everything together and improvise. It's still very much in it's infancy, but so far, so good. So, happy days all round! :D

Hey a drummer into Can I hope he has a liking for the Ege Bamyasi period, as the drums are amazing.

LP jrs are the work of god ;) between considering a Jr (one of the faded versions, sigh if only they had wrapover bridges) or a set of pickups for my Mex strat (Leaning towards mothers milks)

Rob...

Ratrod · « **Reply #9 on:** March 06, 2006, 05:18:17 PM »

Quote from: PhilKing

Quote from: Ratrod
Ben, I never figured you for a Crawler type of guy. Why the interest, if I may be so bold?

He played my PRS EG with Crawler and 2 P-90's :twisted:

This is why he has been jonesing for LP Juniors :lol:

I think this would be perfect for Ben if you load it with some Crawlers. It's a flat top Les Paul with a Floyd and it's his favorite brand.

(Sorry for the hi jack, I'm doing it for the Crawlers)

TwilightOdyssey · « **Reply #10 on:** March 06, 2006, 06:05:49 PM »

LOL ... okay, before I get villified, lemme explain myself! PDT_008

My exposure to the Crawler is from Phil King; I was really impressed using this pup thru a Diezel VH-4 @ rehearsal.

I'm currently looking for a new pup for my M1 Tiger. Once I decided on the look of the pup (definitely as important as the pup itself imo), I compiled a short list of ones I thought would be a good fit. In this guitar it's going to be either the Crawler or the new Holy Diver. Once Phil gets his HD installed, I will compare em and make up my mind.

Now the P-90 thing is something else ENTIRELY, lol

willo · « **Reply #11 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:07:47 PM »

Right, just got back from another practice, a few things that hopefully might help you Ben.

I had no trouble balancing the MM/Crawler set today. I certainly got more output and a slight volume boost (I mean, really slight. In fact, it might just have been the fact it was a humbucker and maybe cutting through the mix better) when switching to the Crawler, but the set balanced perfectly well. In fact, I was getting quite a lot of power from the neck singlecoil when volume was wound up to full.

The Mother's Milk are very responsive to your attack. I had them set on volume 10 through the JCM800 (as before, both pre and master volumes were set around 6 or 7) and hitting them hard (as I generally tend to do) gave me plenty enough power to solo without engaging a fuzz pedal. PLaying softer, particularly on some arpeggio parts I was playing cleaned proceedings up somewhat, although there was obviously still some overdrive/distortion coming from the Marshall. So to get better clean tones, I'd roll the volume back to about 7 on the guitar. Rolling it back further almost seemed to cut the definition of the pup completely and so I seldom used this - although it might be a fault of the pots rather than the MM.

The best way I can think of describing the Crawler would be 'controlled agression'. It definitely has a tighter feel to it than my VHII's, and I feel it kicks my amp harder. Having said that, it can of course be controlled by the volume again and brought back to a more subtle, bluesy type tone.

Obviously, my VHIIs are in a mahogany/maple cap + ebony fretboard LP, and the MM/Crawler set is in an alder body, maple neck, rosewood board Strat, but I think the tone I get here is more powerful, and adaptable than the VHII set. However, the VHII + JCM800 gives you an absolutely killer crunch tone, which I don't get so well with the Crawler, it almost seems a touch more saturated. But I prefer soloing on my Crawler, whereas with just the VHII and an amp (no pedals) I felt a certain something was lacking, a little bit of 'ooomph' on the soloing note.

I'm sorry that I can't talk in technical terms, I'm not so good when referring to bass/mids/ etc; and I'm especially wary to recommend something in case it doesn't work out for the other guy - particularly when we play quite different music it seems - but I hope some of this can be some help to you!

Cheers, rambling over :D
Ian

Ratrod · « **Reply #12 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:47:57 PM »

That's very acurate Willo. Controlled agression, slightly more saturated, amp pushing, tight bass (for Alnico).

You're very good in describing how pickups sound and react.

willo · « **Reply #13 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:55:55 PM »

I get there in the end, you mean - you summarised my half page ramble into one sentence! :lol:

:D

TwilightOdyssey · « **Reply #14 on:** March 07, 2006, 03:11:03 AM »

Thanx for the followup, willo.

I will be checking the Crawler out again when I compare it against the Holy Diver. (If Phil can put up with me bashing his guitars again ... actually, Phil plays harder than I do)

What I liked about the Crawler was the open-throated midrange growl I got out of it in the studio. It immediately stuck in my mind as a pup to put on the short list.