Recommend me some pickups for a 335 Style guitar

Fingers Mcginty

I'm looking to change out the pickups on me ould yamaha 335 copy. (SA1000)TBH when it comes to pickups i'm normally tone deaf and wouldn't be able to tell the difference between good/bad pickups but the lads that are on it at the moment sound sterile to me ...no life...if ya know what i mean Thing is I love the actual guitar...lovely feel and great unplugged sound. Humbuckers are on the guitar already BTW and they are extremely bassy and muddy ...i was thiniking maybe Seymour Duncan 57's as a replacement..any suggestions?

Dord

Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P90's?

Basically they're P90's in a Humbucker casing, apparently they were designed by Jol Dantzig of Hamer Guitars.

Fingers Mcginty

single coils in a 335...mmm interesting

Dord

If I had my way P90's would be in every guitar!

Nice pickups though. Not quite single coils not quite humbuckers in terms of sound. You'd be surprised how many people use P90 guitars when recording. A lot of metal bands have used them to thicken the sound in the studio. Granted, they are single coils in theory so you might have a bit of feedback but if you put both on together it cancels the hum.

punchdrunk

seymour duncan seth lovers are rockin!

fish-head

I've a nice GFS gold humsized P90, I'll give it to you for twenny quid.

Fingers Mcginty

Fish i was wondering when you'd through your 2 pence in as i know you're another hollow body player but i think i might go the Phat cat route...........any other suggestions...BTW...blues/classic rock is where i'm at

Quattroste

Fingers. Don't rule out the Bare Knuckle route. You be talking best part of €300(new) for a set but they are the best.

I have a Semi too and its giving a little trouble on the wiring front. Will you let me know who you get to do the pup change and how much they charged, how good they were etc?

fish-head

TV Jones pickups are definitely worth a look. He has a new mounting system to put Filtertrons in a Hum sized cavity.

www.tvjones.com

His pickups are second to none in my opinion.

Fingers Mcginty

No experience with bareknuckles although i've heard good reports. Which ones to put in a 335 though?...BTW i'll be installing meself. I know it's supposed to be a bit trickier in a hollowbody but i'll give it a shot

Fingers Mcginty

I suppose i should have mentioned what sound i is looking for. Think early Peter Green. That sort of outta phase ....ammm sqauaky ...nasal type tone. I know he used a Les Paul but i Just can't play Les Pauls anymore...too heavy etc. I believe it's achievable on a 335:). Now i'm thinking of going the bare knuckle route and getting a pair of calibrated PG blues which are out of phase with each other to begin with so i won't have to flip any magnets.etc. BTW i already flipped the magnet in the stock neck humbucker but still not getting the tone i'm looking for. Any suggestions welcome....I'm gonna supply pics Quattro as i install them.

Fingers Mcginty

OK ...looks like i'm going for the bareknuckles but changing pickups on a 335 ain't ,from what i hear, for the faint hearted.......I'm thinking of coping out and just cutting the old pickup wire and splicing the new pickup wires to the existing harness within the pickup cavities

Dord

I guess you could probably do that. But if you're going to do that it'd probably be best to put those little terminals and connectors on the wires, the coloured ones that you crimp on. Don't shorten the pickup leads though. just tuck them in there if you can.

You can get those little terminals and connectors in Maplins.

Fingers Mcginty

Yeah...i think i'll go down that route. Thsi type of connection shouldn't add any more electrical resistance to the pickups hopefully though.

Dord

I wouldn't say so, and if it would it's probably so small of a difference it wouldn't be noticible.

Fingers Mcginty

well any other inputs.,..eh?

fourmations

hi all

i installed a GFS mean 90 in my epi LP neck position yesterday
and although i only dossed with it for an hour or so
I am well happy with it on first impressions

its like a single coil on steriods but cleans up really well
to a point where you could easily play jazz on it

distorted it gets very dirty and growly and more fuzzy than smooth
but in a good way, (think pumpkins siamese dream sound)

the whole 60cycle hum thing is not bad at all
it obviously hums due to its nature but its very acceptable
(i have a jazzmaster with boutique pups and its quieter than those)
it also splits nicely with the stock bridge humbucker thats in it

I will give a full report but initial impressions are very good

these pups will go in my 335 copy eventually but I wanted to hear
one so it went in the LP,

rgds

4

Fingers Mcginty

well i just ordered the BKP PG blues calibrated set.

punchdrunk

i've got bareknuckle trilogy's in my strat
and a set of emerald humbuckers that have been hanging around for ages to go into my SG
they get my thumbs up!

Fingers Mcginty

They've arrived

Fingers Mcginty

Let's have a look inside ....

Fingers Mcginty

ah...i spot a little problemo...



The bareknuckles have only 1 screwhole each side of the pickup whereas the originals have 3 holes...the pickup mounting rings 1 screw on one side and 2 on the other

fish-head

Sure some new rings aren't a big deal. It's just plastic.

Fingers Mcginty

Ah no ...i want to get these babies in ...here we go

pics to follow

Fingers Mcginty

righty then strings slackened and tailpiece removed

Fingers Mcginty

proetect that gorgeous finish *drools* ...mmm this looks handy a ground wire and a signal wire soldered to tabs...nice one....*gets the iron heated up* ,,,that should do ...........

Fingers Mcginty

****...that was easy ...neck pickup removed *cracks open another can*

Fingers Mcginty

damn...that's annoying ,,,,,new pickups only have one screwhole on the baseplate compared to 3 on the originals ....

Fingers Mcginty

**** it...lets drill that mounting ring...steady on ....pilot drill first then larger bit...nothing to lay it on only the bloody carving board ...here we go

Fingers Mcginty

ahhhhhh a 3rd star ...at last ...ok let's have a look at that mounting ring now and evaluate my questionable drilling skills .....not bad

Fingers Mcginty

And now for the bridge pickup ...again this is so easy ...solder melts quickly and the iron is in and out in no time...no threat to the originals if i ever decide to put them up on the bay...

Fingers Mcginty

ok ...this is the neck pickup installed....may i just note that the most head wrecking task of changing out most pickups is getting the base plate screw /spring attached to the new pickup ....frustrating. It is quite difficult (for me anyways ) to try and line up the long fine threaded screw to the pickup base plate and at the same time try and hold back the spring .....ah the stress!!!!!!!:mad: ...ah well here is the pickup fitted finally to the guitar ....:cool:

Fingers Mcginty

more info 2morro..ie soldering the pickup wires...pickmup height adjustment and most importantly sonic evaluation. BTW here is a clip of what the guitar sounded like with the original pickups......

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HNvSoqQuJc0

Fingers Mcginty

**** sake ...not even 1 comment after all that :eek:

DeadSkin

Fingers Mcginty wrote: »

**** sake ...not even 1 comment after all that :eek:

Fair play Fingers!!! Nice to see a few more heads gettin' their hands dirty .
Throw up some pics of the finished product. Them pups look nice and shiny, I be changin' mine soon on the oul' RG.

fourmations

what guitar is it?

rgds

4

feylya

How did you solder the pickups in without removing the pots?

Fingers Mcginty

Feyla:well i haven't soldered the pickups in yet. They are in place but not electrically connected yet. I'm taking the easy route of snipping the wires and splicing in the pickup compartments. Ideally i suppose the whole wiring harness should be removed thru the f hole but i couldn't be arsed. Haven't got around to soldering them in yet.

Four...tis a late 70's yamaha SA1000

Deadskin ...more pics on the way

punchdrunk

lookin good chief!

Quattroste

Sorry Fingers but i was so engrossed in the thread that I didn't reply. How exactly do you intend to do the splicing? Wont each pup have 4 wires?

Fingers Mcginty

no Quattro these babies only have 2 wires...a ground and a signal (no coil splitting on these) ...i may just solder ...better connection and less resistance methinks...cheers

Fingers Mcginty

right where the **** was i ...oh yeah..pickups. Ok so removing the neck pickup ...let's have a look...mmm looks quite simple.,.. Solder ground to ground and signal to signal...

Fingers Mcginty

but first let's throw some heatshrink on the wire prior to soldering ....bollox ...that's a ****e photo

Fingers Mcginty

that's a bit better

Fingers Mcginty

and now the 2 wires are soldered together...same applies for the bridge pickup except for another ground comes into the equation (not shown)

Fingers Mcginty

after applying some inulation tape...the geetar is bottoned up and low and behold the pickup poles line up perfectly with the strings...thanks to the ould 50mm spacing on the new bare knuckles