Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 7,606
So, as I find myself playing this very guitar more and more (amazing, it had some years where it was only sitting in a case, I own it since 93 already), I finally decided to take the plunge some day soon and redo the electrics.
Now, assembling things is mainly pure horror, so I simply can't swap pickups all the time (thinking about some clever cable extension solution, but still...). And because of that, I need you fine folks' advice.
Before I start, here it is, right here, right now:
From all I know, it's built in Sept. '78, everything seems to be the stock parts, the model sticker inside the f-hole says "SA-100 BS".
Now, there's actually two issues with the pickups in this guitar.
(1)
The bridge pickup is very, very bright - or rather "harsh". Lots of high mids (sure, these kinda guitars somewhat lend to that). Apart from the guitar type enhancing that character, I also think the very short distance between pickup and bridge is part of it (note: I'm not gonna fool with the wood, but I know of some folks who have done so successfully, moving the brigde pickup a centimeter or so towards neck direction, which could mean worlds of a tonal difference in bridge position).
Now, this is the main thing I'd like to adress. So I need advice for a very warm, balanced sounding bridge pickup.
Fwiw, one thing I thought about was getting a mini humbucker and drilling some new holes for the screws so it'd fit as close to the "north" boundary of the existing pickup frame and mask the gap in the "south" somehow (a pickup frame for a mini humbucker would of course work but not place the pickup much more "north").
Would possibly not look too great.
So, what pickups should I possibly look for? Any takers?
Note: I'd really like it to be allround-ish, so I could as well use this guitar for some rock riffs and what not (think Malcolm Young).
But then, there's also the second issue...
(2)
The neck pickup sounds just fantastic for what I want. I couldn't imagine this to be improved much (if at all), so I'd really love being able to keep it at pretty much all costs. But then, here comes: It's *insanely* loud. I have lowered it as much as it gets already, and it's still the loudest pickup out of all guitars/pickups I have in my arsenal.
Now, one of the results of that would be that mixing and matching it with other guitars (esp. while possibly using the same patches live) is quite difficult. But that's something I can actually adress in one way or the other.
But something I can't adress as easily (if at all) is the neck pickup's volume to match with the bridge pickup. I don't want to use the volume pots (which I would even like to reduce to one single master volume) to balance them. And I can't imagine that, say, a Duncan Jazz would be able to keep up with the volume of this neck pickup.
In a nutshell: That very bridge pickup I'm looking for needs a certain volume as well, while still delivering a balanced, kinda oldfashioned overall tone.
So, that's that. Thanks in advance!
Now, assembling things is mainly pure horror, so I simply can't swap pickups all the time (thinking about some clever cable extension solution, but still...). And because of that, I need you fine folks' advice.
Before I start, here it is, right here, right now:
From all I know, it's built in Sept. '78, everything seems to be the stock parts, the model sticker inside the f-hole says "SA-100 BS".
Now, there's actually two issues with the pickups in this guitar.
(1)
The bridge pickup is very, very bright - or rather "harsh". Lots of high mids (sure, these kinda guitars somewhat lend to that). Apart from the guitar type enhancing that character, I also think the very short distance between pickup and bridge is part of it (note: I'm not gonna fool with the wood, but I know of some folks who have done so successfully, moving the brigde pickup a centimeter or so towards neck direction, which could mean worlds of a tonal difference in bridge position).
Now, this is the main thing I'd like to adress. So I need advice for a very warm, balanced sounding bridge pickup.
Fwiw, one thing I thought about was getting a mini humbucker and drilling some new holes for the screws so it'd fit as close to the "north" boundary of the existing pickup frame and mask the gap in the "south" somehow (a pickup frame for a mini humbucker would of course work but not place the pickup much more "north").
Would possibly not look too great.
So, what pickups should I possibly look for? Any takers?
Note: I'd really like it to be allround-ish, so I could as well use this guitar for some rock riffs and what not (think Malcolm Young).
But then, there's also the second issue...
(2)
The neck pickup sounds just fantastic for what I want. I couldn't imagine this to be improved much (if at all), so I'd really love being able to keep it at pretty much all costs. But then, here comes: It's *insanely* loud. I have lowered it as much as it gets already, and it's still the loudest pickup out of all guitars/pickups I have in my arsenal.
Now, one of the results of that would be that mixing and matching it with other guitars (esp. while possibly using the same patches live) is quite difficult. But that's something I can actually adress in one way or the other.
But something I can't adress as easily (if at all) is the neck pickup's volume to match with the bridge pickup. I don't want to use the volume pots (which I would even like to reduce to one single master volume) to balance them. And I can't imagine that, say, a Duncan Jazz would be able to keep up with the volume of this neck pickup.
In a nutshell: That very bridge pickup I'm looking for needs a certain volume as well, while still delivering a balanced, kinda oldfashioned overall tone.
So, that's that. Thanks in advance!
I have the original tarnished gold versions. They are nice looking, but doubt you'd want to do that. My Super 80s were fully sealed with some kind of wax/glue so good luck trying to remove those covers.
