No, the local guitar shop had a show of guitars. I went looking for tuners and to mess with stomp boxes and so on. And to maybe find a replacement neck for the partsocaster. Brought the guitar because of the aforementioned nut issue, but the guy who normally does the luthiering wasn’t there. So I showed the person at the counter the nut and guitar and they took pictures to show the luthier guy, and all of a sudden about ten people were around the guitar asking about it. It was kind of embarassing because the ones I recognized (eg, from around, not from famous) are ten times better than I am so the best I could do was say, ‘look, I suck, here, you try it.’ and trust they didn’t screw anything up. And now I got something to aim for. Because that shit was pretty rowdy, for bluesfiddlingabout.
One of these days I have to figure out how that bridge pickup works. It’s overwound, but it’s got fat pole pieces. Like, double diameter. I want to re-read that section of the pickup book and see what it tells me it should sound like, compared to what it does sound like.
Cool, thanks for the lowdown! Re: getting used to the pickups, I totally hear you. When I got my Tele, it took quite a while to get used to the low-output SCN single-coils. I’d considered putting in higher output ones, but I’m glad that I stuck with the stock ones, and I love them now. It does take time to find what works and how you approach the tone of a given instrument and its electronics.
Meaning? …that you will check out these pickups and if they don’t do cleans well and or get mushy when you gain them up, you might get a different bridge pickup?
Sorry if I read too much into that - but if I am close to correct, cool. And given what you have invested in your guitar, a pickup swap still keeps you way ahead of the game.
I will say again, my favorite Tele bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue- I would put it up against the boutique handwounds that go for 2 - 3x as much…does clean with warmth and takes gain and other effects better than any other I’ve heard…it came with the Parts-o-Caster orphan I adopted and transformed into my main player; I got it because the neck pickup was a Duncan Phat Cat which I had wanted to try (and kept) - little did I know that the bridge pickup was the real find…
Naw, I mean I go look up Seymour Duncan in my book and see if it has the Quarter Pounders. If not, I go read the bits about how size of polepieces and overwinding does things. Mr. Hunter’s not a big fan of overwound pickups, but I’m not getting what he said to expect, so I’m guessing the polepieces are moderating the heck out of things.
Oh. And the one thing it does not do is get mushy when you gain it up. It gets loud, it gets distorted, but it does not get mushy.
I am liking the hell out of this guitar. Specifically the bridge, the neck’s a little dark but okay.
It’s more a matter of he seems to state that everyone’s obsessing on overwinding overwinding overwinding high resistance LOOK at those numbers! And there are other factors that matter, and a lot of the time you get things just right with 4k or 5k. Even the guy from the Fender Custom Shop he interviews says the same.
Part of why I was dubious about the telemaster, because of the overwound bridge. Buuuut… it works.
What Mister Hunter has to say:
Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Tele
Type: Single Coil
Magnet: Alnico V
Wire: N/A
Resistance: Bridge, 17.4k ohms (8k ohms tapped), neck 11.8k ohms (6.6k ohms, tapped)
Pole Pieces: Six fixed poles made from extra-thick quarter-inch alnico rod magnets.
Sound: Thick, mid-forward high-output single-coil tone with enhanced sustain.
My Fatbody (bridge, 10k, 43ga wire) is considerably less wound than the Duncan, so it’s not quite as high-output. I think I like that. (How do you tap a single coil? Short out half the wire?)
It’s got the sustain and twang, though.
Let’s hope **Small Clanger **or another tech person chimes in; my take is that they are trying to kill two birds with one stone: provide a high-output pickup with an option to go low output via the tap, which accesses only a portion of the copper coil.
I will say it again: if you have a specific performance need for a feature like that, e.g., a gig need, cool - otherwise, it is safe to assume that you are better off avoiding stuff like and figure out how to get the tone you need from your technique…
Enjoy your autowah. If I ever got one, I would go for figuring out some White Stripes and Alice in Chains’ Man in a Box, which I think has both squawk box and autowah’d guitar in it. Oh, and I would go through my Rage Against the Machine riffs…have fun.
(as for why I don’t: I would get it, figure out all those riffs, have a great time, then put it away and then go back to what I always do - mess with a Tele, a Tweed and a dirtbox. Never changes and after 30+ years, I’ve learned to quit messing with it…)
quick question: is there a “set distance” between the neck pick-up and strings on a Tele? after fixing my pick-guard static issue, I have been tinkering with the height of the pick-up and wonder if there is a “standard”
The autowah is just a setting on the old DA5. Boy, did I buy the right amp. I still don’t own any pedals except for the multi-effect thing I got and have yet to actually use. (Well, and I’m still waiting on a specific thing of weirdness, but that’s a long story, and one of those ‘if you see it, don’t be a moron, get it. Someone’ll want it’ situations.)
I’m busy practicing as straight and clean as I can, except for when I run into something interesting in a book I’m reading and decide to try it out for five minutes.
The autowah may actually wind up being really handy for hammering practice cause it wahs nice and clear when I get it right.
**phungi **- cool. I usually set up the bridge pickup with a nickel under the High E and two nickels under the low E (so the pickup is tilted a bit), and then adjust the neck pickup to try to match the loudness of the bridge pickup - which means I am targeted the bridge pickup’s sweet spot, and then may be willing to sacrifice the neck pickup’s sweet spot in order to match the loudness (because sometimes the neck’s sweet spot is a bit closer than my rules would call for, but that close is much louder vs. the bridge, which is a problem at gigs…)
E-Sabs - thank you for actually taking the time to comment on my comment It sounds like you are trying to practice the right way, and yeah, if the auto-wah gives you clear feedback which helps you improve your fingering technique, then I am a huge fan.
That doesn’t stop me from wanting to buy everything TC Electronic has made.
Specially this Hall of Fame Reverb with Toneprint. The reviews and word of mouth are amazing.
Oh, hey, I found a thing the other day.
It’s a wall hanger, except on a coathook, so you can keep it in the closet.
a thread I started about Cee-lo Green and hisBand of Hotties- but check out Post #6; **BigShooter **links to a clip of his playing. Sounds really great - I love the rhythm tone and the lead work is very cool.
Why do some (mostly older or reissue, but also new) basses have a big metal u-shaped cover over one of the pickups, that stands above the strings? What purpose does it serve? Does it change the tone of that pickup? Is it for the player to rest his hand on? Just for pretty? I understand that 99% of players would whip out a screwdriver and remove it without a qualm, so I assume there’s not a whole lot of utility in having one. What’s the straight dope?
