Hotter is not always better

[Greg_L]

https://reverb.com/news/daves-corner-pi ... ays-better

[rayc]

That was an interesting and logical read - it supports a lot of Tone Thread discussion as well.

[JD01]

Wish I'd read that a couple of years ago - but even if I had I probably wouldn't have taken it on board. Gotta learn by doing really.

[Greg_L]

I've personally never really met a high output pickup that I like. They all sound like compressed mush to me.

[JD01]

Suppose "High" is relative. My current one is 10.5k and I'm pretty happy with that.

[Greg_L]

Suppose "High" is relative. My current one is 10.5k and I'm pretty happy with that.

And it sounds way better than that horrid JB, right?

It's not really relative. I think the general consensus is that "high output" starts around 11-12k and/or uses ceramic magnets. Neither the DCR or magnets are specific to output, but they do often tell the general story. A higher DCR is pretty much always hotter.

[JD01]

Yeah. Much better, my Jazz in the neck sounds weird with it though. It's so much clearer and more articulate than the JB.

I meant that the the mutt pup is relatively low output compared to the JB but then relatively it's pretty high compared to most vintage pickups.

The amount of gain on tap in modern amps renders extra hot pickups pointless if you want them purely for the purpose of extra gain I suppose.

[Greg_L]

Yeah. Much better, my Jazz in the neck sounds weird with it though. It's so much clearer and more articulate than the JB.

Make sure they're not wired out of phase.

The amount of gain on tap in modern amps renders extra hot pickups pointless if you want them purely for the purpose of extra gain I suppose.

Yup. Way back in the day hot pickups helped push mild amps. Amps have crazy gain now so a hot pickup is mostly unnecessary unless you're playing metal, which sucks anyway.

[JD01]

Make sure they're not wired out of phase.

Just mean that the Jazz sounds much louder and boomier than the bridge. It might be shonky wiring - but I don't think so - I was pretty careful to do it exactly like for like.

[Greg_L]

Just mean that the Jazz sounds much louder and boomier than the bridge. It might be shonky wiring - but I don't think so - I was pretty careful to do it exactly like for like.

Lower the neck pickup down to the body more until they balance out.

[Lt. Bob]

I'll look for an article I read recently but in a nutshell (it was some p'up designer0 he said you can't really tell the output of a p'up by the resistance .... you HAVE to know the magnet make-up and strength.
The example he gave was that a p'up wound to 15k will have zero output with no magnet.
It'll have extremely low output with magnets that have low gauss etc.

[Greg_L]

I'll look for an article I read recently but in a nutshell (it was some p'up designer0 he said you can't really tell the output of a p'up by the resistance .... you HAVE to know the magnet make-up and strength.
The example he gave was that a p'up wound to 15k will have zero output with no magnet.
It'll have extremely low output with magnets that have low gauss etc.

Yup, that's true. My custom made Hallmark pickup has pretty high resistance, but it's not blazing hot. But you know that higher resistance readings usually means hotter output. Most of the time it's just a convenient way to judge how the pickup is gonna act since they pretty much all use one of the same three or four magnet choices.

[Minerman]

Good topic/thread...I've done a complete 180 with my gear/tones since becoming a Tone-Tard...I used to think more was better, more gain, more output from p'ups, whatever, but I've learned a lot since those days...

I recently went over the pre-amp tubes in my EVH LBX, & swapped the normal gain tubes for lower gained tubes, again, taming it even more than it was...It's way more versatile this way...I just can't understand why anyone would want that much gain in a guitar amp in it's stock form...

[Greg_L]

Good topic/thread...I've done a complete 180 with my gear/tones since becoming a Tone-Tard...I used to think more was better, more gain, more output from p'ups, whatever, but I've learned a lot since those days...

I recently went over the pre-amp tubes in my EVH LBX, & swapped the normal gain tubes for lower gained tubes, again, taming it even more than it was...It's way more versatile this way...I just can't understand why anyone would want that much gain in a guitar amp in it's stock form...

I can understand it. Look at the name on your amp. EVH. That means GAIN!

Put up some clips. I wanna hear your lowered gain amp!

[Minerman]

I can understand it. Look at the name on your amp. EVH. That means GAIN!

Put up some clips. I wanna hear your lowered gain amp!

Well dude, I can understand it to a point, but fuck...I like gain-y tones a lot myself, you know that, but holy fuck...On the "crunch" channel (blue), with stock tubes the od/gain kicks in around "1" on the dial, & just mushes/fuzzes out more & more as you turn the knob...There's no articulation IMO, it's just a big wall of distorted mess...The lead (red) channel has even more gain...

Gimme a few minutes & I'll throw something up dude...