Pickup mods: Magnet-Swaps and the "Half-Air" mod demystified

[jhale667]

Gee, I guess they liked it...

Wow! @jhale667 has uploaded a clip of the Bomber with 59/Custom Hybrid and STK-S7 and it sounds HUGE. soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/…— Seymour Duncan (@SeymourDuncan) October 6, 2012

[jhale667]

Yo Sesh, here's a Custom 8...rhythm and lead.

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/gone-riff

[jhale667]

Next up for review: The Alt 8, SD's new offering with an A8 mag and a high-output wind that's supposed to do the brootals amazingly well...also getting a TB-59 for the neck as I'm doing this review in the Kramer Voyager. Cool of Duncan, they don't make TB-59s as a regular production model, but since I use the insanely wide necks and am the guy that needs one, they're going to make one for me!

I'm almost done with the STK set review too, but have to disassemble the Strat again...fishy ground wire connection No 1, and unfortunately taking the neck off aggravated an old injury from when my singer before the last one drunkenly knocked it off a stand, causing it to land on its headstock and strip the attachement holes slightly. I currently have "Whammy neck" -- I squeeze too hard, pitch changes. NOT cool, and makes me wish I hadn't resisted the urge to beat him mercilessly back then.... So gotta re-dowel the neck holes. PITA.

[jhale667]

This seemed to be the week for wiring issues, also had a gimpy coil-tap connection in Excalibur (the Koa Warmoth) fucking up the JB's overall performance. Blew off re-wiring the Sunburst Strat due to a friend's bday thing tonight, but that was a fix I could quickly pull off while doing all the other crap I had to do today. Fixed it quickly this afternoon, and HOLY CRAP. I really like that pickup, more so than the CC that was in it, I think - not 100% sure yet, but so far VERY impressed.

On the other hand, upon a 2nd listen, the STK-S6 doesn't match up with a humbucker nearly as well as the STK-S7 does; not like it's terrible or anything, but not the seamless switch-off you get with the STK-S7. Funny considering the STK-S6 is supposedly the higher output of the two IIRC. Dunno... this was all in Pro Tools with PODfarm as the plug-in, will do an amp test this week...

[jhale667]

Trying this in the Voyager for the next couple or 3 reviews... the Liberator, Duncan's (in this case 500k) pot w/solderless connections for quicker pickups changes. This schematic is going to allow me to split both humbuckers in a 1 vol/ 1 tone scenario w/ a single push-pull pot in the 80s Kramer body that has a Tele-style rear-routed cavity and takes a freaking endpin jack to boot!

[jhale667]

OK, I'm hosed on that, since apparently the vintage Kramer cavity is even narrower than a Tele's - has to be- because the Liberator doesn't fit. Geez. I knew there was a reason I left this body in the closet for 20 years. I DID however, do the Eric Johnson tone mod on the Warmoth Sunburst Strat, and the neck attachment hole dowels worked, no more whammy neck. So I recorded clips to go along with the Stack Plus set review I'd been holding off on submitting, it was nice to finally get that one done, and they sound GRATE:

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/...ck-fx-and-lead

[jhale667]

I've decided I don't give a shit if the Liberator doesn't fit the vintage Kramer body... for the sake of having the ability to do solderless pickup swaps for the next few reviews, gonna use the damn thing anyway...lol

[Nitro Express]

Eddie would have just taken a chisel and made a hole big enough.

[jhale667]

He would, but I wouldn't. I mean, I put a Boogie Bodies neck on it, but I specifically sourced the studs from Floyd Rose in black so I WOULDn't have to modify the vintage body. After this round of testing/reviews is done, slapping a CTS 500K volume and tone in there and fuhghedabahdit. Just couldn't use it live at the moment, not like THAT's a concern.

[jhale667]

Btw, here's what the JB and STK-S6 sound like in "Excalibur" my Koa Warmoth:

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/meet-the-jb-stk-s6

[jhale667]

This could be kinda cool, and could conceivably augment even a direct-mounted pickup: