Did I tell you about that Dimarzio Cruiser bridge...

Wilmer X

Wilmer X

SG-smasher
...that I installed in the neck of my HM Strat Ultra, because I wanted it more Stratty after some years with some Lace Hot Golds?

I´ve always liked the sound that Andy Timmons gets from a 2 Dimarzio Cruiser Bridge in neck and mid. OK, so when I was in New York some months ago, I spent hours walking around to different music shops. But even if it was in New York, and Dimarzio is at Staten Island, not one single shop had that pickup. I looked in San Fransisco and Los Angeles too, but no success. So I had to ask a friend in NY to buy it from Ebay for me, and send it to me in Sweden.

So, finally I installed that bridge pickup it in the neck of my Strat and it sounded...Dark, huge, boomy, like a rubber baton. :confused: OK, I knew Timmons has 500k pots, and I had a 250k volume pot, because the Area 58 I got in mid is very bright. OK, so I changed to 500k pots, and...ouch, the other pickups in that Strat sounded like nails on chalkboard. OK, I realized the Cruiser was not for me, at least not in my HM Strat Ultra: it´s a VERY picky guitar. :mad:

Anyhow; I instead purchased a used Dimarzio Area 61 and installed it in the neck, kept the Area 58 in mid, and the Breed in the bridge. Runned it all with a 250k volume pot, and a TBX tone pot - which goes up to 1000k, very useful for dark sounding guitars.

And? Well, now it sounds great. The area 61 differs from the area 58, since its only slightly darker and has some compression, which is nice for what I use it for. The tweed sound in my Blues Deville amp comes through very nice. For me a tweed sound is like hitting a snare drum, without that rattling thing under it. I will post some soundclips as soon as I have recorded them. You will hate me. :grin:
 
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Actually its a pretty cool post in that it shows how hard it is to get a replacement pickup to play nice with the rest of your guitar if you already have sounds that you like in the other pickups.....
 
Hm, yes. I´ve heard a lot of talking about pickups being too dark, and I´ve found that not everyone have heard about these TBX-pots for tone, but they are really helpful. They go up to 1000k at 10, but should normally be put on 5, which is some 250k. When more treble is necessary it´s only to adjust the knob up to where it sounds OK. With three different sounding pickups in a Strat it makes life much easier.
 
I've not really been too big of a fan of the TBX control in guitars that I've tried with it...probably more just personal taste than anything else I guess.
 
i'm not surprised that a bridge pup didn't quite work in the other slots. they're wound darker to make up for the brighter signal they normally get. it's a cool experiment though. and i'm glad you got a pickup that you like.
 
It´s funny that Andy Timmons get such a great sound with that bridge pickup in the neck. But he got 500k volume pots, and I must have 250k pots in my Strat, otherwize it sounds just weird. I missed that detail. :(
Andy Timmons, not bad:
 
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Ugh, why cant anything just turn out the right way. Why must there always be a lot of troubles. :annoyed:

OK, the sound in my HM Strat Ultra is now to die for. The neck pickup, an area 61, sounds like a blend of steel, wood and butter. It´s the tone I had in my head and now I got it. The mid-pickup, an area 58, is slightly sharper and sounds like steel, wood and lemon butter. The Breed split, and with the area 58, sounds fat and nasty. The Breed as a humbucker, and with heavy dist, sounds like Ferdinand the Bull when he happened to sit on a bumble bee: 3.13 in this clip:



But, but...there is now some ground problem with the neck and mid-pickups so there is a disturbing crackling when I touch the strings. Its quite loud, I play somewhat loud to records at home and I can still hear it as soon I touch the strings or metal parts on the guitar. The neck pickup is dead quite, as was the two old pickups, so it must be the two new ones. Well, tomorrow I have invited a sound engineer for lunch and he will bring his soldering tong. Hope he will find the problem and can fix it. There´s no idea to give up now when I´m so close to my goal: the bestest sounding Strat in history. :)
 
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Any chance the bestest sounding Strat in history can be photoed with some local cranberry sauce?
Even my guitar is still feeling seasonal, because it snowed for a few moments this afternoon.
There's none on the ground.
My semi-solid-body tone might be steel, resin-nylon, wood, with a slight maple butter after-echo.
 
My endeavour compared to yours, John, is so much smaller. I just found a very good used guitar hanging on a wall in a shop, and purchased it on spot. They thought it was a quite common Fender Plus, but it was a rare HM Strat Ultra, and the price was reasonable. There was no need to build it from start, making a new paradigm, like you have done with your semi-solid. I only put on some new strings, adjusted the Kahler-Floyd trem and changed the pickups. Now after some years I have changed two of them again. It´s a picky guitar, the basswood body, the ebony fretboard, the Kahler-Floyd, the lack of a pickguard and the pickups mounted in the wood, makes everything sound pressed and somewhat harsh. OK, it´s a Heavy Metal Strat, so what to expect? But I´m very happy with it now. Cranberry sauce? Hm, it´s not common over here. We use lingonberry more. Maple butter? That sounds like a great tone. It starts snowing here now. The tech I spoke about says he will come later tomorrow because there will be a eclipse here tomorrow morning, darkest spot will be right here, and he´s very much into astronomy - not astrology.
 
You endeavor, just like the world you pursue it through, is so much greater than mine, Wilmer X.
My attempts, like the world around me, are poor, self-inflicted, left-handed creations.
If all I did was pick guitars and change them, my activities would involve so much more, and less down time from onstage.

I hope your tendonitis, your wrist problems, are behind you for the new decade. You haven't mentioned them for a while.
 
I bow for the creator of a new guitar paradigm. My endouver with this specific guitar is still not finished. It sounds great, but crackles as soon as I touch the strings, so its faraway from being perfect. Perhaps it will be, after the eclipse tomorrow morning. I will report...
 
Wilmer X, please, be careful what you try, and type here.
You know how difficult life got, and how short, for Robert Johnson, after he met the devil at a southern crossroad.
I know what you're trying to do, being another Northern person, sitting out with your guitar, waiting for the northern lights.
What they can do for your pickup magnetism is known only to the biggest guitar hit makers. But be careful.
Even Jack White turned more white during his Northern Lights tour.
 
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