PAF-style pickup clips -- Fat Dianes vs Wolfetones vs Ringer

[NitroLiq]

In Sonar, look at the differences in amplitude in clip 3 and clip 2's waveforms and just normalize clip 2 so it matches. (It should have 'normalize' as one of its processing features...pretty common for most DAWs).

[Flames1950]

Yup....tried that!!! But I'll look at it again in case I was in a hurry when I did that last.

[Flames1950]

Yeah, by the time I get clip 2 up to volume I'm starting to get digital distortion on top of the peaks. If I start limiting things then I add something else that other clips don't have. So I'm stuck!!!

I think if you dig in the clip info on there it says which is which.....so I'll go ahead and say what's what, and in fact they're in exactly the order I tried and recorded them -- 1 is the Fat Dianes in my LP, 2 is the Wolfetone prototypes in my LP, and 3 is my '82 Ibanez artist with Super 58's.

The Fat Dianes measured out at about 8.24K bridge and just shy of 8K on the neck pickup IIRC. I don't know the magnet specs used.

The Wolfetones I must have originally measured with a meter with batteries dying, because I thought they were around 7.8K bridge and 7.2 neck -- they're actually at about 8.6K bridge and 8K neck!! Again, I don't have the magnet specs -- "cfljames" said someone gave Wolfe the specs they wanted and only about five sets of the pickups were made, stickered "Marshallhead MKII."

The Ibanez Super 58's (old ones from the 70's and early 80's, don't know squat about the new ones!!) were supposedly AlNiCo 3 mags, and always seem to measure around 7.2K-7.4K, with no distinction between neck and bridge models. So a fair amount less DC resistance, but you'd not know it playing them in the room.

The Fat Dianes have been in my Les Paul (in fact, I've got them in all my Gibsons) for about a year. When I first put them in I was struck by how much "bigger" they sounded than the Smits I had in my LP at the time, which were fine pickups that I had no intention of replacing. Yet they aren't a very hot pickup as far as DC resistance, so it's something in the wind and magnets that give them the extra beef in the lows and low mids. Mostly I was wanting to look at neck pickups here -- the Dianes are big and chimey with a decent snap on the top when you spank the strings, but I'm always haunted by the '59 ES-335 a buddy's dad had, and how bright and clear the neck pickup was. So I'm always looking for the next thing for neck pickups.
When James sent the Wolfetones to try, it was because they were the most "PAF" pickup he'd found, and like me he had gotten lots of mud from neck humbuckers before. The set in one of his aged Historics had gotten the nod from Tom Murphy at some gathering as being damn close to the real deal. And like many original PAF's these do not have the big honkin' bottom that my Dianes had -- they're "thinner" but not in a derogatory way really, just vintage bright. When I listen to the clips I'm torn -- the Diane neck 'bucker has a killer bell-chime sound on the chordal work that I don't quite hear from the Wolfes, and a rich single-note sound -- but then listen to the Wolfetone neck pickup on the single-note lines, and how it grabs a high bend almost better than the bridge Wolfe does, with a brightness and clarity that is so hard to find in a neck pickup. Single-coil like, indeed!!! And with more overdrive that's a crucial consideration.
I've been on the hunt for old Super 58's, and clip 3 shows why -- they have some of the bigger, richer low end of the Diane's, but also a lot of the treble bite of the Wolfetones. Nowhere near as "hot" if you go by DC resistance readings, but they easily hold their own volume-wise. Again, all three sets have killer high-end content and overtones. I've got one Super 58 sitting here on my bench that I need a raw nickel cover for, to match in my Les Paul Standard, and I'm constantly looking for more. Once again, the Japanese had the US guitar makers beat back then, and they're killer if you can find some.

[jcm800nut]

My wife asked me what I wanted for christmas, and I gave her the part number for the ibanez super 58's they make now, they still put them in a few high end jazz-box guitars.

She went down to the local music store, a higher end guitar oriented shop, gave them the pn# and they laughed at her and told her that those are the pickups people usually take out of their guitars and throw away. They said they hadn't been made in 20 years, and then apparently called their 'ibanez warehouse guy' in california to see if they might still have some left. They told here nobody had them, and she was embarassed and left. What a bunch of jackasses...

I'd like to try a set of the current production super 58's, but I don't know where the heck to get them. It's insane that ibanez has produced such fantastic sounding paf's in the super 58 and 70, used all over early van halen recordings etc., and doesn't reissue them in a more formal sense. Talk about ignoring a starving market.

[Flames1950]

The original set from my '82 Artist I pulled shortly after getting the guitar in '89 -- aftermarket DiMarzios or Duncans just HAD to sound better, right? At least I kidded myself with that for a few years...........the originals disappeared in a guitar I lent someone else and it took forever to find a correct pair to replace them. The other one I've got sitting here I snagged as a repair, I had to replace the entire lead up into the pickup.
At least Super 70's and Super 80's turn up on eBay more often than the Super 58's, but the "flying finger" covers would look funny in my LP.

[NitroLiq]

I've never really messed around with pickups aside from having a tech pull out an EMG (bridge position) from an old Ibanez RG470 I bought out of high school and replacing it with a SD JB model. MY LPS still has the standard burstbuckers but I've been intrigued with some of the WCR offerings since I played a goldtop loaded with fillmores at one of our local ampfests.

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8799" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regarding the humbucker neck pickup, I've always used Zep's live version of No Quarter on TSRTS as my benchmark for what I like...clear, liquidy-sounding. I've found that playing straightamp I can get this but as soon as I add any kind of pedal (at lower vols anyway) I get that Guess Who American Woman type of neck sound which I can't stand. Warren Haynes falls somewhere in-between. Now, if only I could translate all this to pickup science!

[Flames1950]

jcm800nut, if you're looking for the full experience there's a few complete guitars on the 'Bay -- this one is a dead ringer for my Artist, color and all, minus all the wear:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1984-ibanez-artist- ... 7C294%3A50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Check this one out, nice......and with that BIN I'd take it if I could!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1982-Ibanez-Artist- ... 7C294%3A50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

These are exactly what a double-cutaway Les Paul should be, and every one from the early-80's I've tried was a great player. (I did have a very early '76 Artist that was a pretty stiff feeling guitar though.)

Here's mine, before I got the replacement set of vintage Super 58's:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2/Bl ... rtist1.jpg