NZGuitars.com

I’m looking to thicken up the sound of my Ash with a new humbucker for the bridge. At the moment it switches between either a noiseless single coil and a blade style Dimarzio.

The middle and neck singles sound good but the bridge isn’t thick enough for my liking.

It’s quite a bright guitar, Korina body, maple top, maple neck. I’m thinking Dimarzio Tone Zone or Super Distortion? Anyone got anything laying around?

Super distortion will sound like nails down a chalkboard in that guitar if it’s already bright.
Anything paf based will work.
Alnico 2 might be too trebly, so a lower output a5 probably the way to go.

Dimarzio super 3 would be awesome. I don't have anything spare

BKP Alnico Warpig

Will a standard humbucker fit in that cavity though? It looks like it was specifically routed for those two single coils

Single coil has this right - go for vintage. I’ve met that guitar, it is indeed bright. Try changing the caps maybe, or the pots, before you change the pickups?

Mattallica wrote:Will a standard humbucker fit in that cavity though? It looks like it was specifically routed for those two single coils

Yeah I haven’t actually checked that yet. I would have thought two singles would need more room than a humbucker. I’ll have a look later on. Cheers for the suggestions so far.

olegmcnoleg wrote:Single coil has this right - go for vintage. I’ve met that guitar, it is indeed bright. Try changing the caps maybe, or the pots, before you change the pickups?

That would be a good way to tame the highs. I’m not a huge fan of single coil sized humbuckers either so reckon ultimately they’ll be swapped out.

Pretty sure it had 250k pots in it when I sold it, as I was trying to tame the brightness. Didn't change caps though.

Wonder how a thornbucker would sound in the bridge... Hmm.

36th Anniversaries all day.

My favourite vintage pickup, with plenty of crunch when you need it.

36th anniversary very good pickup.

Changing to a lower pot value (250 instead of 500k for instance) will just make the sweep shorter and give you less control. When it’s fully open, it’s still fully open.

That’s not right - the volume pot changes the impedance on the pickups, so in effect the higher the value the brighter it is. A no-load pot would take out the resistance at the end of the sweep which might be something you’d want.

I’ve got a set of 36th annis in my LP which is my go-to for everything. I know the PAF Pro in my Jem covers a lot of ground too.

If it’s a 250k pot in there now then I might want to go to a 500k - I use the vol pot all the time and could do with more sweep than what I have currently.

StratMatt wrote:I’ve got a set of 36th annis in my LP which is my go-to for everything. I know the PAF Pro in my Jem covers a lot of ground too.

If it’s a 250k pot in there now then I might want to go to a 500k - I use the vol pot all the time and could do with more sweep than what I have currently.

But with 500k pots it will be brighter still

olegmcnoleg wrote:

StratMatt wrote:I’ve got a set of 36th annis in my LP which is my go-to for everything. I know the PAF Pro in my Jem covers a lot of ground too.

If it’s a 250k pot in there now then I might want to go to a 500k - I use the vol pot all the time and could do with more sweep than what I have currently.

But with 500k pots it will be brighter still

Will it not be darker with a humbucker as opposed to stacked single coil/rail pickup?