SILO set not quite right in Ash body Ibanez

[Newman]

I dropped a SILO set in my Ibanez RG652AHM Prestige a while back and have never quite felt like they fit.  The guitar is ash body/maple neck/birdseye maple fretboard/Original Edge trem w/ brass block. 

My initial impression of the SILOs was favorable but not quite blown away.  The more I played them, the more I noticed something weird in the midrange that I could never quite dial out either in my amp or with my 10-band MXR (in the loop or in front).  I've also noticed that they sound very flubby when tuned down anywhere below D Standard.  For reference, I'm running a PRS MT-15 through a Marshall JCM 900 Lead 1936 2x12 loaded with Warehouse Guitar Retro 30s.

So before I replace them, I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar experience with the SILOs in ash body guitars?  Are they just not particularly suited to this style guitar? 

[Dave Sloven]

I wouldn't have expected the Silos to be flubby in C# and lower

If you want tight pickups in any tuning and body get the Impulses.  They are not suited to guitars with little low end but your guitar sounds like it has more than enough

[Newman]

I wouldn't have expected the Silos to be flubby in C# and lower

If you want tight pickups in any tuning and body get the Impulses.  They are not suited to guitars with little low end but your guitar sounds like it has more than enough

I also did not expect that to be the case.  It may be that this guitar just needs higher powered pickups. It's not dead sounding, but I do have a hard time pulling harmonics out of it and it is certainly less acoustically present given that it's a bolt on w/ a trem.

A few people who have owned this specific guitar have suggested that it really likes Dimarzio D-Activators.  Might give them a shot given how inexpensive they are.

[Chris Rowberry]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you're not having much joy with you Silo humbuckers. Can we go over this in a little more detail, please? Would you be able to email into sales@bareknucklepickups.co.uk and put the subject "FAO Chris"? this way the email will come directly to me.

If you could put a description of you guitar into the email too, that would be great.

[Dave Sloven]

I wouldn't have expected the Silos to be flubby in C# and lower

If you want tight pickups in any tuning and body get the Impulses.  They are not suited to guitars with little low end but your guitar sounds like it has more than enough

I also did not expect that to be the case.  It may be that this guitar just needs higher powered pickups. It's not dead sounding, but I do have a hard time pulling harmonics out of it and it is certainly less acoustically present given that it's a bolt on w/ a trem.

A few people who have owned this specific guitar have suggested that it really likes Dimarzio D-Activators.  Might give them a shot given how inexpensive they are.

Bolt on with a trem should be fine.  I've found a good bolt-on to be a match for set-neck and neck-through guitars in terms of sustain and resonance and generally lack the honky tone of a lot of neck-throughs or the darker tone of a lot of set-necks.   I would have asked whether you have a bad trem but you have the original Edge, which is made by Gotoh and first-class.  I have had zero issues with the Gotoh GE1996T, which is hardened steel with a (normal size) brass block.  There's nothing weird about the wood combination either.  Maybe check the condition of your stud inserts (are they in tight?) and the neck joint.

[Newman]

I wouldn't have expected the Silos to be flubby in C# and lower

If you want tight pickups in any tuning and body get the Impulses.  They are not suited to guitars with little low end but your guitar sounds like it has more than enough

I also did not expect that to be the case.  It may be that this guitar just needs higher powered pickups. It's not dead sounding, but I do have a hard time pulling harmonics out of it and it is certainly less acoustically present given that it's a bolt on w/ a trem.

A few people who have owned this specific guitar have suggested that it really likes Dimarzio D-Activators.  Might give them a shot given how inexpensive they are.

Bolt on with a trem should be fine.  I've found a good bolt-on to be a match for set-neck and neck-through guitars in terms of sustain and resonance and generally lack the honky tone of a lot of neck-throughs or the darker tone of a lot of set-necks.   I would have asked whether you have a bad trem but you have the original Edge, which is made by Gotoh and first-class.  I have had zero issues with the Gotoh GE1996T, which is hardened steel with a (normal size) brass block.  There's nothing weird about the wood combination either.  Maybe check the condition of your stud inserts (are they in tight?) and the neck joint.

Studs seem fine.  Neck was ok, but I was able to tighten the screws slightly.  My trem is in good condition but the knife edges suffered some very minor damage recently.  I had the guitar in with a tech to have a latching killswitch installed (for coil splitting) in place of the tone knob. The killswitch wouldn't fit without a little reeming, so I had a professional do it.  Anyway, the tech returned my guitar with the trem set on the threaded part of the posts.  I played it that way on and off for a week or so until the tuning instability got too frustrating prompting me to give it a fresh setup at which point I realized what he did.  The damage is barely visible and tuning has been OK since - so not sure if it's enough to warrant looking for a replacement trem.

I should say, I played around with the pickup height and found that lowering them considerably has helped quite a bit. Overall tone sounds tighter and less harsh.  Though in keeping with my bad luck streak with this guitar - one of the pickup screws has stripped.

[Newman]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you're not having much joy with you Silo humbuckers. Can we go over this in a little more detail, please? Would you be able to email into sales@bareknucklepickups.co.uk and put the subject "FAO Chris"? this way the email will come directly to me.

If you could put a description of you guitar into the email too, that would be great.

Appreciate that - will try to shoot over an email if I have time today.

[Dave Sloven]

My trem is in good condition but the knife edges suffered some very minor damage recently.  I had the guitar in with a tech to have a latching killswitch installed (for coil splitting) in place of the tone knob. The killswitch wouldn't fit without a little reeming, so I had a professional do it.  Anyway, the tech returned my guitar with the trem set on the threaded part of the posts.

This would seriously undermine my confidence in this tech