adamg67

In the interests of getting something up, I did a very quick recording of the pickups late last night. Apologies for the ropey playing, I literally just fired up my DAW, grabbed a drumbeat and started playing, so it's a bit all over the place.

It runs through a 12 bar ish thing 6 times with a different setting on the guitar each time, no change to the amp. I've added the times from the clip. In order, they are:

• 0:00 Bridge pickup, treble on full
• 0:21 Bridge pickup, bright switch on (direct out)
• 0:40 Bridge pickup, treble rolled off half way
• 0:59 Bridge + Neck in parallel, treble on full
• 1:18 Bridge + Neck in series, treble on full
• 1:36 Neck only, treble on full

The amp sim is Amplitube's Fender '57 Deluxe, just as it came on a preset with some overdrive on it.

On 26/08/2018 at 14:34, bottomofthebarrel said:

I've never played one, but anything Yamaha is probably a good enough. Flute, guitar, motorcycle or whatever.

With "whatever" including concert grand pianos and pretty good PA gear. Got to agree that it's hard to go wrong with a Yamaha whatever-it-is-you're-buying.

I've gone over completely to software (Amplitube mainly) for guitar, on the laptop + interface for recording at home or the iPad + iRig for taking out of the house, in which case I'll either run it through the PA or take my MarkBass Multiamp, which works as a power amp. I was quite surprised how good it sounds through a MarkBass 1x15 speaker. I'm just jamming with people though, havn't had to depend on it live. 

I would never go back to a "real" amp now, I've never had such a good sound and I've had some decent amps.

For some reason I've got GAS for a Telecaster Deluxe, but with a normal size headstock instead of the oversized 70s one.

So like this but with a strat neck: https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitars/telecaster/fender-72-telecaster-deluxe-electric-guitar-black-maple-neck

I'm really tempted to make one (out of parts I mean, not from scratch - MIM Tele body, MIM strat neck maybe, I like doing the electrics anyway).

11 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

I sense a bit of snake oil thinking here. I sense a search for that magic tone and feel.

I sense a distraction from what the strings are actually there to do.

This is why I'm recording each set as I fit them, to see what (if any) difference it really makes. If it's none, I can use whatever I'm happy with and save a few bob as well. If it's enough difference to pay more for something then at least I'll know why I'm doing it. I play through my laptop at home anyway, so doing a quick recording of each set of strings once they're played in will take me literally the time it takes to press "record".

After a while, I'll know for sure whether string choice makes a difference for me, which will be a nice feeling whichever way it turns out.

22 hours ago, darkandrew said:

The odd thing is that although D'addario are my first choice for guitar strings, I've never really been won over by them for the bass where I prefer DR Silver Stars / Black Beauties coated strings (except for my EBMM Sterling which has EB Slinkies on it because I couldn't get the coated strings to grip onto the tuning posts).

I've got some D'Addario NYXLs on my "rock" bass at the moment and they're working really well for playing with a pick.

Right, back to talking about guitars...

I'm liking the sound of the Thomastik Power Brights on my Tele, but then I have new pickups in it and they're the first strings on there so I don't have anything else to compare them to, I might just be liking the sound of the guitar.

3 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Funny, I've always used Ernie Balls (with the exception of the jazz guitar, for which I used D'addario flats IIRC - been a while so I could be wrong about the make). Never found a reason to change TBH. Elixirs on the acoustics. I don't gig any more so don't go through them like I used to, but I've never been much of an experimenter with strings: life's too short to worry about such stuff IMHO. Once I've found something I'm happy with the job is done.

I think playing about with gear, even just strings, is more of a fun thing than a worry for some of us

How about Billy Gibbons? Hendrix's favourite guitarist apparently, some of the earlier (pre Eliminator) stuff has some really nice playing on it.

2 hours ago, madshadows said:

Mick Ronson, always loved his tone

John

Good call, he really played guitar as the man said.

After sticking with EB Slinkys for a long time for no particular reason, I'm looking for other strings to try. As I try them I'm recording them when they're just played in, so I don't think the new ones are always better than the old ones. I've got two guitars to find my favourite strings for, a PRS Custom 24 and a Tele with Texas Special pups. I'm mostly into blues / rock stuff, and I like 10s.

I'm currently trying D'Addario NYXLs on one and Thomastik Power Brights on the other.

Any suggestions for things to try?

As mentioned in this topic, I recently picked up a nice MIM Telecaster with some aftermarket pickups fitted. After trying them out for a while, I decided I wanted something a good bit more “Tele”, so after a look around I decided to try a pair of Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials The idea was that these would take me most of the way to a Tele sound but still satisfy my blues rock leanings.

It wasn’t really clear from the internet whether 500k or 250k pots would be best, the “high output” tag and my desire for a tele sound led me to try 500k first. Nope, the tone rolled off much too quickly, and volume was clearly going to work nicely with 250k. No problem, I wired the control plate with chocolate block so I could just unhook it and try again. I was confident enough that 250k would work to ditch the chocolate block, except for the tone cap so I could play with different values. So the controls are:

250k tone pot, 0.047uF orange drop cap
250k volume pot with push / pull for direct out (aka “bright switch”)
4 way selector switch with the 2 pickups in both series and parallel

I also shielded all the cavities with copper tape while I was at it. The new stuff with conductive glue makes this so easy.

The end result is *exactly* what I was after. Clear and cutting without being over-twangy, lovely and clear for clean work through something like a Fender Champ model. Good for bluesy rocky stuff as well, really good for cutting through the mix. The direct out switch is worth doing with these pickups and 250k pots, it does noticeably bump the brightness. The neck / bridge combos are nice too, the series one gives a nice fat soloing sound. These will definitely be staying in the guitar now.

I will try and do some sound clips when I get chance. I’m also hoping to do a back to back test with the standard MIM Tele pickups, if my mate still has his guitar, which is nearly identical but with stock pups.
 

I love that. It's a good job (for my wallet) that you're in Kent and I'm in Yorkshire. GLWTS

Now I'm working on my guitar playing a bit more, I've been looking for some nice riffs to practice with. I thought I'd relearn a few obvious AC/DC things, so I had a listen to a couple of early albums. The main thing I noticed: nice riffs, awful lyrics Really genuinely mysogynistic in places, and overall just the same old crap again and again. I suppose I was a teenager when I was listening to them first time around, maybe now I'm supposedly grown up I just notice the content a bit more. Probably not unique to AC/DC. Anyone else noticed this about them, or other bands from your past?

I recently bought a nice MIM Telecaster, mainly for the way it played but I also liked the pickups that had been installed, so I thought I’d share what I thought of them on here. They’re the DiMarzio “Chopper T” and “Twang King” as fitted to the Fender Ritchie Kotzen Signature Telecaster (https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/electric-guitars/telecaster/richie-kotzen-telecaster/0255202532.html?rl=en_US)

After a few sessions with the guitar it was obvious it had some electrical problems, no big surprise when aftermarket pickups have been fitted, so I gave it a new control plate (no problem, I keep looking for wiring projects anyway at the moment) and got it working nicely.

Overall impressions: The bridge humbucker is the defining thing about these pickups, and it’s a proper humbucker as far as tone goes. These pickups don’t give a classic Tele sound at all, and the main thing I noticed after using it for a while was how close it was tone wise to my PRS Custom 24. Nice middle-ground humbucker sound from the bridge, and the neck seemed fairly dark for a Tele as well, and very different to the bridge. Both of them are quality pickups, great with some crunch, drive or distortion.

I used 500k pots, definitely needed for that bridge pickup, and used push/pull for both. Tone cap was 0.047uf and the tone knob had pull for series/parallel on the bridge pickup, which was well worth doing, really does two different sounds from one pickup. The volume had pull for direct out, which I like on a Tele normally, but it’s not such a big difference with a 500k tone pot as with a 250k, I suppose because there’s not as much treble loss on the “high” tone setting to start with. I stuck a coil tap in as well just to see, but that wasn’t really needed - there was hardly any difference between the bridge pickup tapped and in series, and the series option keeps the hum cancelling.

If I was doing another control plate for these, I’d stick with the 500k pots and the 0.047 cap values and the push/pull for series/parallel, but not bother with the direct out or the coil tap.  I had the 4 way mod as well with parallel neck & bridge which gave a really nice fat sound.

In the end, for me for my only Telecaster these pups didn’t give me that classic Tele sound, which shouldn’t have surprised me, and they’ve now been swapped out for a Texas Special pair - but, they’re good for what they are, they would be perfect for building a Blues Rock or a straight out Rock Tele.
 

If you want something good but cheap, Ibanez Artcores can be had second hand for well under £300. If you want something that will probably be a as good, objectively, as a Gibson then the Ibanez Artstar will do it, and you might get one used for £300, or just a touch over. Amazing value guitars second hand.

On 05/09/2018 at 14:19, pilotbicycles said:

Feel free to fire any trade offers my way through DM. Money is king right now, but I am always up for the right trade.

Ah, just before I saw your reply I decided to upgrade my current MIM tele and ordered a set of Texas Special pups to replace the DiMarzios it came with, so that will be Tele needs taken care of. Thanks anyway.

It's genuinely quite sad that there's nowhere near me. It's not like I live in the middle of nowhere, I'm 30 minutes from Leeds on the train and less to Bradford. Anyone know of anywhere in that area?

Are they any good for metal?

14 hours ago, Pinball said:

Here's my weopon of choice, a Starla. I love bigsby's so I needed to look no furthur. 

Nice, I've not come across the Starla before, good vintage vibe going on there.

I need a new Telecaster, I bought one with DiMarzio pups that sounds great, but not enough like a tele really. I want a really tele sounding cut through anything kind of tele.

I know PRS can divide opinion, and they're often seen as a middle aged person's choice of guitar, but I'm middle aged anyway so that's fine. Here's mine just to get things started, it's not a full fat "core" PRS (I'm not actually a fan of the fancy ten top style ones), it's a PRS S2 Custom 24, so that's made in the same factory in the USA but without the carved top and a few other things to save money. It still has the set neck and the same quality control etc, but at a much more sensible price, and this was second hand as well. It's basically this: https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/s2/s2_custom_24_2018. Not to be confused with the PRS SE guitars which are made in Korea, I actually traded a PRS SE 245 for this and it's a huge step up from the SE.

It's the nicest playing guitar I've ever owned, I really like the way it looks - the picture doesn't quite do the colour justice - and the sound is just exactly what I wanted. I think it will be my #1 guitar for a good while.

(I don't know why the picture comes out that way round when it's vertical on my PC, but it does't really matter. It is actually hanging on the wall, not performing some levitation trick!)

Tracks like that just go straight to my brain and do good things to it.

Are you interested in any trades? Anything I've got to trade at the mo would be money your way on top.

Also, if you fancy something slightly different, try one of these: http://www.ibanez.com/products/eg_detail18.php?year=2018&area_id=3&cat_id=1&series_id=1&data_id=337&color=CL01

Longer scale and wider neck, and the EMG pickups are pretty flexible, so it's actually pretty good for lots of styles. You can pick them up for £200 - 300, I think mine was £260 IIRC, in mint nick.

I think some of the Ibanez thin neck shredder style guitars are a bit wider even than a Fender. Might be worth looking at some of their "nicer" models, they do a big range. Plenty of choice second hand if you know what you're looking for, and the website has specs including all the dimensions. 

http://www.ibanez.com/products/eg_top18.php?area_id=3&year=2018&cat_id=1