WCR Darkburst pickups
Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:15 pm
I'd been mulling around with changing my pickups since I got my LP in Sept. and finally ordered some WCR "Darkburst" hummers. My LP had a 490 and 498 that I found to be a little too hot sounding for me. The Darkburst is essentially the Crossroads model(PAF Clone) just wound to replicate Duanes humbuckers. I mulled over getting the Fillmore model, but decided that my 1959 Reissue with '69 board and Sozo's had enough gain and I wanted a little less output pickup. I researched on HC the LP Forum and even read about these pickups on Tonequest report. Everything kind of pointed me this way.
They showed up friday and I got them installed fri night. Beautiful Zebra bobbins with the solid nickel covers that come unsoldered. No wax potting and the workmanship is top notch. Jim has got his technique down so that he doesn't use wax, but there is no feedback unless you're right next to your raging amp. Comparing the workmanship between the stock Gibson Hummers and the Darkbursts was quite noticable. When I took off the covers on the Gibsons the tape or what ever they use to keep the winding in place wasn't even covering the winding. Now it might have come off when I took the cover off with all that wax, but it looked shotty. The Darkburst in comparrison is clean and tidy. I like that.
Now the the sound. I don't have any recording equipment, as I would do some clips, but nonetheless I'll try my best to describe the sound.
At first I was taken back by the difference in sound between the Gibson and the Darkburst. Less ouput, a little brighter with tons more individual note definition. Bridge Pickup with my bright channel on 8 and the normal channel on 4 (jumpered) It seems like the sweet spot is reached. Think full on Angus solo tone, rolling back the Volume you can get close to the ellusive Angus Clean/Dirty Raunch rhythm tone. Since that to me is the sickest rock tone ever, I was really happy. I did have to expirament with pickup height and amp settings, not to mention using different brand of strings that I normally use.
The neck pickup I haven't used extensively yet. I don't use the neck too often, but I could see using it for Jazzy/ funky things. It got a little muddy at the previously mentioned amp settings, but at lower settings it has real full warm tones and if really reacts well to changes in the volume controll.
If any of you are thinking about new pickups look into Jim's pickups. www.crcoils.com is his website. I emailed him about 10 times and never had to wait longer than about an hour for a reply. He's a cool guy and makes a good product. The only downside is the price. I chose the solid nickel cover as he sells chrome also. You can get them without the covers for about $50 bucks cheaper. I went the whole hog, but hopefully I wont have to buy any new pickups for that guitar again. I'm going to expirament with the covers off and see if I like the tone.
I'm digging these pickups, I played constantly all weekend and really never found bad tones.
Later
Jeff
They showed up friday and I got them installed fri night. Beautiful Zebra bobbins with the solid nickel covers that come unsoldered. No wax potting and the workmanship is top notch. Jim has got his technique down so that he doesn't use wax, but there is no feedback unless you're right next to your raging amp. Comparing the workmanship between the stock Gibson Hummers and the Darkbursts was quite noticable. When I took off the covers on the Gibsons the tape or what ever they use to keep the winding in place wasn't even covering the winding. Now it might have come off when I took the cover off with all that wax, but it looked shotty. The Darkburst in comparrison is clean and tidy. I like that.
Now the the sound. I don't have any recording equipment, as I would do some clips, but nonetheless I'll try my best to describe the sound.
At first I was taken back by the difference in sound between the Gibson and the Darkburst. Less ouput, a little brighter with tons more individual note definition. Bridge Pickup with my bright channel on 8 and the normal channel on 4 (jumpered) It seems like the sweet spot is reached. Think full on Angus solo tone, rolling back the Volume you can get close to the ellusive Angus Clean/Dirty Raunch rhythm tone. Since that to me is the sickest rock tone ever, I was really happy. I did have to expirament with pickup height and amp settings, not to mention using different brand of strings that I normally use.
The neck pickup I haven't used extensively yet. I don't use the neck too often, but I could see using it for Jazzy/ funky things. It got a little muddy at the previously mentioned amp settings, but at lower settings it has real full warm tones and if really reacts well to changes in the volume controll.
If any of you are thinking about new pickups look into Jim's pickups. www.crcoils.com is his website. I emailed him about 10 times and never had to wait longer than about an hour for a reply. He's a cool guy and makes a good product. The only downside is the price. I chose the solid nickel cover as he sells chrome also. You can get them without the covers for about $50 bucks cheaper. I went the whole hog, but hopefully I wont have to buy any new pickups for that guitar again. I'm going to expirament with the covers off and see if I like the tone.
I'm digging these pickups, I played constantly all weekend and really never found bad tones.
Later
Jeff