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deytookerjaabs

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Everything posted by deytookerjaabs

  1. Yeah, it's kind of a gnarly thing, pickups/guitars like that are somewhere in between really amazing or cheap sound depending on one's taste for tone. I love it. What did Dolly Parton say? "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."
  2. What I'm talking about isn't just potting. For instance, I have a strat set right here in a cool replica build, zero potting as requested. Will it squeal? Yeah, I guess if I play with gain. But when you play with the guitar, all the little things like flipping the switch or hitting the body are relatively quiet, barely come through the amp until you really crank it. Yet, the old strat with the grey bottoms, all the extemporaneous noise goes right to the amp and when I moved those pickups around builds? That attribute stayed the same. My '64 335, same deal. '62 pat sticker pickups and '64 harness. It's all vintage, no potting ever, every part now 60 years old. But it doesn't have the level of microphonic my '68 Riviera has. You flip the switch on the 335, tap the body, etc, barely comes through the amp. It's quiet like that. Yet, The Riv? You hear the toggle clank more, hear the guitar louder through the amp if you just tap on the body at the same volumes, etc. Who knows, that might mean the pickups are going to short out soon, lol. But, it's definitely a thing and it adds just a little something on the note attack IMO.
  3. I might have to investigate this down the road. I've played guitars with throbaks at a shop but never owned a set. Out of the pricier pickups I've had I haven't had one that's done it yet, random Gibson offerings, a Re-Wind JPP set, a random Wizz set, two SD sets. Not that they all didn't sound great, they did.
  4. One thing hard to replicate is the microphonic thing. I'm not taking about squeal/feedback either. I'm talking about the raw aspect of it. Not all old pickups have that thing either, my '62 pat stickers don't. So that's important to consider. But, for instance, I have some old strat grey bottoms. Upon installing them when I flipped the 5-way switch it came through the amp far louder than the switches on any other guitar. It was like "ooooh, we got a wild one here!". I've had that same feeling with other vintage guitars regardless of the finer details. You hit the toggle switch and it goes "ker kuh klunk" right through the pickups, like the guitar is humming. That type of microphonic makes a guitar ring a bit different, subtle and more personal but it's still there. If I had to go off the ledge, I'd say those guitars you hear just a tiny bit more body in the note on that first millisecond of the pick attack. That's not something I've experience with replica pickups/harness as of yet.
  5. A while back I got a custom shop FB I, same deal, it happened to have the R7+ neck profile (why?). Seller said he couldn't measure it and that "it's not too big." Haha, it almost could not have been bigger! Thought about shaving it but it was white...so shaving the neck would have looked terrible unless I had some high end finish dude touch it up. It had other issues, too light weight. The big neck plus banjo tuners with the featherweight wood made it a neck diver extraordinaire, even when sitting I had to hold my elbow on the horn. It's ironic that it was the lamest Firebird I've owned, as it was also the most expensive, but it did look the best by far. Always thought it was a shame they only made a few of the heritage birds (plus many seemed to have the ABR + Tailpiece + regular buckers setup) then the rest were custom ordered, the cult following drove up those prices. Heck, the Gribbons 'bird prices on the used market are going up too. "Back in my day...." no one wanted a 'bird, now these kids can't get off my lawn. Hmmmmm!
  6. In my experience the stout C that's over .90 at the first fret is not on a large % of 50's Gibson guitars. Some '58's have it, and other years you see it pop up too but it's definitely not the majority or anything like that. My last Gribbons had the "Carmelita" profile and that neck was nice, close to my '64 335. I think it's just this "boutique=huge" thing that people are looking for, sadly. Good news is you can take wood away quite easily....adding it on is another story!
  7. I got a message back from a dealer basically echoing that they're all "chunky with some shoulder." Might be better off just going to a standard. My last 150 was an '02 I think, low bridge height and a nice soft V neck, great guitar. Back to the thrill of the hunt!
  8. I already have a replica that has a big neck which is overdue for a shave/sand, don't want to shave two necks. I'm not terribly picky but I don't like classic R7/8 type necks with depth and lots of shoulder yet tons of higher priced single cuts often have real big necks. If there's a lot of depth I prefer soft V, less depth is generally fine with any profile. I've seen some used H-150 cores and the depth usually measures over .90 at the first and described as a "C," are they pretty much all like that? And, are the bridge heights all over the place or set up to a certain spec? Not sure if I'm going to nab one, still in the browsing phase!
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