• Registered: 2014-01-11
  • Posts: 37

Topic: SD whole lotta humbucker?

With the SD bonamassas so hard to find now and being quite expensive, I've been looking for alternatives that still sound vintage but don't have a screechy high end in the bridge. One set that really got my attention was the whole lotta humbucker , which to me , sounds similar to the bare knuckle riff raffs. You know, good lows , slightly boosted mids (too much mids sounds attrocious to me) and a rounded high end. But playing through a stereo mesa rig really helps to curb that high end. If you have any experience the WLH or other recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

  • Registered: 2015-02-25
  • Posts: 14

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

The WLH has alnico 5 magnets vs alnico 2 and 3 in the Bonamassa pickups. If you want a Joe B type of sound I'd venture to say the Seth Lover or Antiquities would be a closer approximation. I got the Antiquities for 235$ shipped they are very cool.

3 Reply by NPB_EST.1979 (edited by NPB_EST.1979 2015-03-16 14:22:04)

  • From: Detroit
  • Registered: 2006-06-02
  • Posts: 5,807

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Lots of voodoo with guitar pickups.

There's and old adage: Know the best way to record Aretha Franklin? Put a microphone in front of her.

That said, if you have a nice sounding guitar, the pickups you put in will only do a subtle job.
Bridge buckers can be high end screechy, but if you roll back your tone to 5-8, it will taper off that edge. Vintage guitar players actually used their vol/tone controls. big_smile Most of us today keep everything on 10, and we are missing out on a lot of tonal flavors.

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool
  • From: Stockport, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-26
  • Posts: 110

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

NPB_EST.1979 wrote:

Lots of voodoo with guitar pickups.

There's and old adage: Know the best way to record Aretha Franklin? Put a microphone in front of her.

That said, if you have a nice sounding guitar, the pickups you put in will only do a subtle job.
Bridge buckers can be high end screechy, but if you roll back your tone to 5-8, it will taper off that edge. Vintage guitar players actually used their vol/tone controls. big_smile Most of us today keep everything on 10, and we are missing out on a lot of tonal flavors.

Wise words. I very rarely alter the settings on my amp during a gig. The volume and tone on the guitar are the only thing I use. A few pedals for flavour maybe, but that's about it.

  • From: East Devon, UK
  • Registered: 2015-01-20
  • Posts: 136

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

jbailes wrote:

With the SD bonamassas so hard to find now and being quite expensive, I've been looking for alternatives that still sound vintage but don't have a screechy high end in the bridge. One set that really got my attention was the whole lotta humbucker , which to me , sounds similar to the bare knuckle riff raffs. You know, good lows , slightly boosted mids (too much mids sounds attrocious to me) and a rounded high end. But playing through a stereo mesa rig really helps to curb that high end. If you have any experience the WLH or other recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Brain gone dead. whats a  SD Bonamassa?

  • DougH
  • DougH
  • BONAMETAL
  • Offline
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • Registered: 2011-04-01
  • Posts: 1,687

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

He's referring to the Seymour Duncan Joe Bonamassa pickups a recreation of Magellan's pickups

http://shop.jbonamassa.com/collections/ … sdpickup-1

---------------

(If only I had 1% of Joe's guitar talent)
  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2010-04-15
  • Posts: 1,373

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

There's and old adage: Know the best way to record Aretha Franklin? Put a microphone in front of her.

I like that one, I'll have to steal it.

My music & music blog: https://vincedickinson.home.blog/
New prog/rock album "Atlantis" available everywhere, including:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/atlantis/1411523163
https://open.spotify.com/album/3InrPujiALJCslZqp9V6e2

ZeyerGTR's Website

  • From: East Devon, UK
  • Registered: 2015-01-20
  • Posts: 136

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Of course! as i say brain went dead lol

  • Registered: 2009-02-24
  • Posts: 197

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

NPB_EST.1979 wrote:

Lots of voodoo with guitar pickups.

There's and old adage: Know the best way to record Aretha Franklin? Put a microphone in front of her.

.

Love that. And with regards to guitars/tone, I think JB's Red Rocks shows that quite well.... coming from his behemoth pedalboard and 4-amp-switching setup to 2 pedals and a few tweeds.....   while I'll never stop buying gear (actually, SELLING and buying- going "thru" gear- because it's all about different experiences....), I'm no longer searching for some "holy grail" guitar, pedal, or amp.  I'm just going to explore what I have at the moment, find out what's good about it, and enjoy it.  Funny thing- regardless of pickups, amp, OD pedal, etc.... my tone stays pretty much the same. Because I tweak whatever gear I have until I like what I hear anyway.

JD Simo, when he was in the Don Kelley band, played 3 hours a night with nothing but a tele, and DR, and an old fuzz pedal (that he used on only 2 songs).   He pulled country, honky tonk, blues, jazz/jump blues, and rock out of that simple setup.  That's when I started learning that particular lesson....  of course Joe's been teaching tat one awhile now, and he's taken it to his live rig now too.

On the subject of HBs specifically- I ended up loving my PRS Grissom pups- but not until I got rid of the whole coil-tap-treble-bleed PRS wiring scheme; when I wired them up like a regular ol' LP, magic happened. LOVE those pickups now.  But the others I was considering were the SD JBs and the WLHs.

  • Registered: 2014-01-11
  • Posts: 37

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

ruger9 wrote:
NPB_EST.1979 wrote:

Lots of voodoo with guitar pickups.

There's and old adage: Know the best way to record Aretha Franklin? Put a microphone in front of her.

.

Love that. And with regards to guitars/tone, I think JB's Red Rocks shows that quite well.... coming from his behemoth pedalboard and 4-amp-switching setup to 2 pedals and a few tweeds.....   while I'll never stop buying gear (actually, SELLING and buying- going "thru" gear- because it's all about different experiences....), I'm no longer searching for some "holy grail" guitar, pedal, or amp.  I'm just going to explore what I have at the moment, find out what's good about it, and enjoy it.  Funny thing- regardless of pickups, amp, OD pedal, etc.... my tone stays pretty much the same. Because I tweak whatever gear I have until I like what I hear anyway.

JD Simo, when he was in the Don Kelley band, played 3 hours a night with nothing but a tele, and DR, and an old fuzz pedal (that he used on only 2 songs).   He pulled country, honky tonk, blues, jazz/jump blues, and rock out of that simple setup.  That's when I started learning that particular lesson....  of course Joe's been teaching tat one awhile now, and he's taken it to his live rig now too.

On the subject of HBs specifically- I ended up loving my PRS Grissom pups- but not until I got rid of the whole coil-tap-treble-bleed PRS wiring scheme; when I wired them up like a regular ol' LP, magic happened. LOVE those pickups now.  But the others I was considering were the SD JBs and the WLHs.

Yeah, those 2 Duncan pickup sets are of the most interest to me. And the sound samples at the Bare knuckle web site are quite impressive. In fact, there seems to be quite a lot of similarity between Duncan's WLH and the bare knuckle riff raff set.

  • Registered: 2009-02-24
  • Posts: 197

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

jbailes wrote:

Yeah, those 2 Duncan pickup sets are of the most interest to me. And the sound samples at the Bare knuckle web site are quite impressive. In fact, there seems to be quite a lot of similarity between Duncan's WLH and the bare knuckle riff raff set.

I've never heard anything but raves for Bare Knuckles. I'm actually looking at a set of the Manhattans (low-wind P90s) for my Epi Broadway.... going for more of an old-school jazz/western swing/jump blues tone with that particular axe.

12 Reply by SlyStrat (edited by SlyStrat 2015-03-26 12:16:56)

  • Registered: 2011-02-25
  • Posts: 127

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Had the WLH's. Sold them.
My Suhr Doug Aldrich blow those away with great tone.
No, they don't sound too hot.
I get great Duane Allman tone from them.

  • From: Stockport, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-26
  • Posts: 110

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Check out OX4 pick-ups. Mark's a great guy, he'll sort out the wind you want! Superb pick-ups.

  • Registered: 2014-01-11
  • Posts: 37

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

wow, thanks guys. I'll check 'em out

  • Trevj
  • Trevj
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  • From: Blackpool
  • Registered: 2010-01-28
  • Posts: 96

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Not sure where you're based, but I've just bought a set of the Duncan JB's from Thomman for the best price I've seen them at in Europe - £235 (UK pounds).  Set 1850, so looks like they're getting close to the end of the run now.

  • jayb
  • jayb
  • Platinum
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  • From: Bundaberg Queensland
  • Registered: 2012-09-11
  • Posts: 136

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

ruger9 wrote:

On the subject of HBs specifically- I ended up loving my PRS Grissom pups- but not until I got rid of the whole coil-tap-treble-bleed PRS wiring scheme; when I wired them up like a regular ol' LP, magic happened. LOVE those pickups now.

Ruger can you give some detail on the changes you made? I have a DGT and find the bridge pup too bright and the neck too warm. With only one tone control I struggle to find a balance. Having to roll off the tone every time I switch pups is a pain and makes it near impossible to switch pups on the fly effectively.

  • Registered: 2009-02-24
  • Posts: 197

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

jayb wrote:
ruger9 wrote:

On the subject of HBs specifically- I ended up loving my PRS Grissom pups- but not until I got rid of the whole coil-tap-treble-bleed PRS wiring scheme; when I wired them up like a regular ol' LP, magic happened. LOVE those pickups now.

Ruger can you give some detail on the changes you made? I have a DGT and find the bridge pup too bright and the neck too warm. With only one tone control I struggle to find a balance. Having to roll off the tone every time I switch pups is a pain and makes it near impossible to switch pups on the fly effectively.


What I did was 2 things:

1) I got rid of the entire coil-tap scheme; my pickups are now hum buckers ONLY... no coil taps, no push-pull on the tone pot.  I also got rid of the PRS treble bleed cap.

2) I then did the famous "50's wiring", but with only the 1 vol 1 tone... same as my tele.....

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/ … yuni4g.jpg


As for the neck being too muddy, I struggled with that for a long time, then found some info on putting a capacitor/resistor network IN LINE with the neck pickup, after the pickup/before the switch.... 

Here's my info I have saved:
I wired up in parallel a .0033uf cap & 220K resistor, then soldered that onto the neck pup's hot lead, right before the selector switch. The neck pup is still very thick (like it should be), and isn't any "brighter", but the woofiness is gone (less bass mud), which was my main objective.

I experimented with several different cap values, and of the caps I had/could get at Radio Shack, the .0033uf sounded the best with my pickup. YMMV.

I did this BEFORE re-wiring the guitar to no coil tap/50's wiring,  and when I did THAT, the neck pickup sounded even better.  I was looking to replace the DGTs for awhile, but since doing the "de-mud" mod, and ESPECIALLY the 50s wiring, I am 100% happy.

FWIW, I did this because I screwed up a finish repair, and decided to refinish the whole guitar.... I modeled the color after the DGT Grissom currently plays....

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/ … 9b6c9e.jpg

  • jayb
  • jayb
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  • From: Bundaberg Queensland
  • Registered: 2012-09-11
  • Posts: 136

Re: SD whole lotta humbucker?

Many thanks Ruger9. I'll have a chat with my local tech and see if he can help me out with those changes.

Lovely finish btw. smile