Troubleshooting Hendrix's Bridge Pickup (woodstock)

[Brandon]

on my partscaster i put a jumper so the middle tone works on the bride also

That sounds like a good idea. How do you do that?

[Xplorer]

Please help, this has been driving me crazy. What can I do to achieve that tone?

i and Ylard keep repeating you to give a try to this 1$ shared cathod/splitt cathod switch mod. ^^
Why don't you try ? to me this is it. if you're on splitt cathode and desire to reach that nuance, you can't IMHO, whatever the tubes and pickups you'll try.

you're getting closer !
Do it and tell us if it is THE TONE. To me, reading you, this is the parameter that you're looking for since the beginning. Aren't you interested ?

[Xplorer]

Jimi's favorite '69 Super Lead was shared cathode, and his strat did not have a tone control on the bridge pick up. Most of the woodstock set was played on the bridge pickup. Every strat bridge pick up I have ever tried on the '69 (2.7K ohm,.68uf) Spec High Treble Channel has been like sticking an ice pick in my ear tone control or not. Shared Cathode (820 ohm, 250uf or 330uf) works way better for a Strat single coil bridge pick up no more ice pick. It does not make it darker it allows more low frequencies to pass on to the next gain stage, and was the standard V1 configuration from the 5F6A Bassman until 1968

Exactly. this is the key that Brandon is looking for. If you want to sound Hendrix at woodstock, why don't you get your amp the same, with this essential feature affecting an amp so much ? To me, on shared Cathode, he could play so many different strats and pickups : he would be closer anyway to the tone , than with the right strat and pickups and tubes and effect chain, into his 69 splitt cathode. What do you think on your side ?
Best part : it's so simple and cheap to do.
Jimi prefered his amps this way

[Brandon]

The reason why Ive been kind of ignoring that idea is because george said the woodstock amps were "definitely split".

However, I"m willing to try that idea. I'm thinking I'll take the amp up to tone merchants and have them do a "split/shared" switch.

you can do that right? If nothing else, I'll have more tonal options out of my amp and be able to get more cool tones.

Other idea I'm trying: having the true bypass removed on my RMC picture wah and fulltone deja vibe.

When I look at Jimi's woodstock setup, he's got so much freaking tone loss that it makes sense why his guitar ends up sounding so warm.

He's going through 90+ feet of curly cables, he's got that wah and uni-vibe sucking the tone away and it's going into two amps!

I've got about 75 feet of coily cords and the more I add the closer I get to the tone. Yes it's unbearable with a regular high current straight cord. But something starts happening with more tone loss.

[jcs]

Haha! Now you are getting it!

Why fool with your wah's?

I have a late 60's Italian Cry Baby wah, man the bypassed tone is very good,,,,maybe shaves just a hair of top end off.

I would venture into the extra cable!

Still if the neck and middle are happening and the bridge ain't? Well that narrows it down to the bridge pu in a Strat LOL!

One of the biggest complaints you will ever see about Strats is the bridge is too bright and thin but the neck and middle ain't bad.....CHANGE THE BRIDGE PU.

[Xplorer]

oh, that's why ..i thought about it actualy. well, if George says this, he has his reasons.
So among the 8 superleads he had, some were shared and some were split, and the one mik'ed at woodstock was split ...
can't be sure about that.
Anyway, having this switch isn't a loss, you'll get more hendrix tones with that shared cathode anyway. did you hear the clips of the hendrix superlead at amparchives ? you're lucky, it's the star splanged banner being played. it's a shared cathode...


http://amparchives.com/album/Marshall/1 ... mpmp3.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but my metro 69 on shared doesn't sounds "metalic" like that. There's something wrong with the recording made, or the speakers , i don't know, something ...

The reason why Ive been kind of ignoring that idea is because george said the woodstock amps were "definitely split".

However, I"m willing to try that idea. I'm thinking I'll take the amp up to tone merchants and have them do a "split/shared" switch.

you can do that right? If nothing else, I'll have more tonal options out of my amp and be able to get more cool tones.

Other idea I'm trying: having the true bypass removed on my RMC picture wah and fulltone deja vibe.

When I look at Jimi's woodstock setup, he's got so much freaking tone loss that it makes sense why his guitar ends up sounding so warm.

He's going through 90+ feet of curly cables, he's got that wah and uni-vibe sucking the tone away and it's going into two amps!

I've got about 75 feet of coily cords and the more I add the closer I get to the tone. Yes it's unbearable with a regular high current straight cord. But something starts happening with more tone loss.

[JimiJames]

Man the Stratocaster Bridge singlecoil is the hardest to nail. Although I have no prob's with clean, for distorted sounds, I still, after all these years, have not said WOW ! this is it...
Sometimes it's quite the nite mare finding one that jives and can live with the guitars' construction and amp & settings.

I heard some Lollars I liked and am interested in other manufactures (Slider's - The Fralin Woodstock's & Don Mare's) of Singles that I've only heard about.
You have to "start off" using the right pup then everything else falls into place, for the most part.
I like what I'm hearing with my Fender '69's but I think it can sound a little more beefy for my Jimi stuff, whatever amp I play.

One thing I do know where I like my Singles to be which is around 5.6 to 6.8's

For me, a tuff area to get right, Brandon.
How's that Metropolous '69 spec doin'?

[yladrd61]

Just remember one thing at the Fillmore, Woostock and Isle of Wight the only Volumes you see Jimi adjust are the outer 2 stacks, but the Mike is on the Center Stack Also if you make it switchable switch it on Standby !!!!

[Brandon]

Man the Stratocaster Bridge singlecoil is the hardest to nail. Although I have no prob's with clean, for distorted sounds, I still, after all these years, have not said WOW ! this is it...
Sometimes it's quite the nite mare finding one that jives and can live with the guitars' construction and amp & settings.

I heard some Lollars I liked and am interested in other manufactures (Slider's - The Fralin Woodstock's & Don Mare's) of Singles that I've only heard about.
You have to "start off" using the right pup then everything else falls into place, for the most part.
I like what I'm hearing with my Fender '69's but I think it can sound a little more beefy for my Jimi stuff, whatever amp I play.

One thing I do know where I like my Singles to be which is around 5.6 to 6.8's

For me, a tuff area to get right, Brandon.
How's that Metropolous '69 spec doin'?

Agreed!

You flip it to neck and it's amazing, you flip it to middle, amazing... then you flip it to bridge and you wonder what the HECK is going on!

This is what has happened in every single coil set I've gotten.

Well I'm going to take my wah and vibe in today to have the bypass removed. Hopefully this helps....

[Brandon]

oh, that's why ..i thought about it actualy. well, if George says this, he has his reasons.
So among the 8 superleads he had, some were shared and some were split, and the one mik'ed at woodstock was split ...
can't be sure about that.
Anyway, having this switch isn't a loss, you'll get more hendrix tones with that shared cathode anyway. did you hear the clips of the hendrix superlead at amparchives ? you're lucky, it's the star splanged banner being played. it's a shared cathode...


http://amparchives.com/album/Marshall/1 ... mpmp3.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but my metro 69 on shared doesn't sounds "metalic" like that. There's something wrong with the recording made, or the speakers , i don't know, something ...

Yeah I've heard that clip before, but yeah there's something up with the recording or the audio file or something. Sounds great though!

And for woodstock, I can see it being split because when I hook my SG up to the my Metropolous 69, it sounds like freaking WOODSTOCK.

Especially when I flip the guitar to the middle selection, it really hits the amp just right.

That's why I'm so confused about the strat and the bridge pickup... shouldn't the strat sound more like woodstock than the SG??? You would think..

Also I got an equalizer which really helped out getting the tone and hitting the amp just right.

I wonder though why I even need an equalizer... do different parts in the amp (ie modern vs nos) have different eq qualities to them?

[Brandon]

Haha! Now you are getting it!

Why fool with your wah's?

I have a late 60's Italian Cry Baby wah, man the bypassed tone is very good,,,,maybe shaves just a hair of top end off.

I would venture into the extra cable!

Still if the neck and middle are happening and the bridge ain't? Well that narrows it down to the bridge pu in a Strat LOL!

One of the biggest complaints you will ever see about Strats is the bridge is too bright and thin but the neck and middle ain't bad.....CHANGE THE BRIDGE PU.

Hmmm biggest complaint eh? That makes me feel better actually!

It kind of makes sense why. Seems like the bridge is a very "sensitive" pickup and will really expose the guitar for what it is... with the bridge, perhaps it's easier to hear all the small flaws of the guitar.

Perhaps when a guitar is flawless, the bridge becomes not an issue.

Also I just sent an email to slider, hopefully he'll know something.

[JimiJames]

Amp sounds good on that clip but the Vibe is AM sounding or set wrong. Something

Last resort would be a stacked Single. Even those are hard to nail and are just as persnikitty.
Getting one that's aesthetically pleasing is also a challenge because the blade style ones are usually beefier sounding...

Some I used were Fender SCN Samarium Cobalt Noiseless, (designed by Bill Lawrence, most true to traditional) SD Classic Strat Stack, DiMarzio Virtual series...
All of these have a vintage vibe. These are NOT single coils so when you do a comparison it should be apples to apples.

Maybe find a set of Evans Eliminator Series. I have E1's & E2's and they are by far the most bell-ish pup I've owned.
They are discontinued out of Canada, but pop up a couple times a year on eBay. These are what Stevie used in the Studio

[Tone seaker]

all theise clips you want to imulate have gone thru a studio mixing board. They are not the way they sounded live

[Brandon]

Last resort would be a stacked Single. Even those are hard to nail and are just as persnikitty.
Getting one that's aesthetically pleasing is also a challenge because the blade style ones are usually beefier sounding...

What is a stacked single? Is that like a humbucker?

Also I got a reply from slider and he said "I do "weight" the bridge to give it a little more output as well as slightly stronger "gauss" or magnetic power. Try lowering the bridge a little and see if this helps."

I did lower it and it helped, but I'm thinking that this is probably a big issue. My last set of pups were set the same way and I hated it. I think I just want my bridge to be the same output as the rest of them.

That's the way they did it back in the 60's right?

I don't understand why people do this to the bridge. Do they think it will make the bridge warmer? I think it only intensifies the icepicky twanginess of the bridge.

[Tone Slinger]

Fact,

Hendrix had the stock, very weak single coils (like the Fender '69's) in his white '68 and his black '68. The Black '68 seemed to be a better sounding Alder body, since all the other variables seem to be the same. The white one was awesome as well, but seemed to be a tad more shrill, and the set up wasnt quite as good (I hear more 'near fret outs' around the 14th fret F# area. A guitars neck and body are what will make the bridge pu sound good, regardless of output.

I would get several 2 piece Alder bodies and swap out the parts from one to another. When you find the right one, you will know it.

Also, the Fender reissue 6 screw tremelo is better sounding (especially on a single coil equipped strat) than the Callaham. The Callaham is brighter and has less Warmth. The Fender reissue is more accurate to what Hendrix had on his.