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In a bright solid state amp the tone is going to be much different than what I'm accustomed to. And I think both of these pickups sound good in this demo. I like Rick Severson's demos for jazz style playing/voicing, but that's worlds different from the tones I like to go for. But when he was riffing towards the end of the demo I heard some things I liked and that was with the Seths. That guy is a monster player!!!

I'm glad to hear this because I LOVE Schaller tuners.

Well said, Kuz. My take on the whole thread is this: Who cares? So an H150 might sound different from a Gibson LP. So what? That doesn't make it a bad or undesirable guitar. The entire 'holy grail' thing about LP tone is utter nonsense. Why should that be the standard by which everything else is judged? I think people should look at how much they enjoy an instrument's playability first--if you don't enjoy playing it, you're not likely to play it--, and maybe its sound later. Sound can be altered in so many ways from pickups to pedals to amps to amp settings, and I think it's pointless to chase after some mythical sound they think they hear from something manufactured 65 years ago.

Look, this is a very subjective and controversial subject on what impacts the tone of a guitar the most. I will default to Terry Mcinturff (master luthier and has made guitars for all major artists). Check him out on YouTube. His main concept is that pickups are only microphones that amplify the acoustic sound of an electric guitar's chassis. He states how Barbara Streisand's voice will definitely will change (mostly tonally) when she sings through different vintage microphones, but her basic vocal characteristics (her vibrato, her vocal range, her loudness and punch, ect) are still the same. His point; the wood dictates the essentials of an electric guitar's tone & sustain. Different pickups will change the overall tone/timbre, but it won't enhance the sustain, or the openness, or fix muddy or thin guitars. Pickups can only magnify what the acoustic tone coming from the body's chassis is producing. I have owned two McInturff's (still own one Carolina Custom) and it is truly the best single cut/LP style guitar, I have ever played. Bottom line, when shopping for an electric guitar spend most of your time playing it acoustically listening for the overall tone, sustain, and check for dead spots (sustain and dead spots can't be fixed by different pickups).

I did the same to my Heritages in the past and I lost 5-6ozs in weight!!!

The aluminum Pinnacle bridge and stoptail on the 150 Custom Core is definitely a step in the right direction, but I wish (for at least the CC models) they would have used a locking Faber ABR or an original ABR-1 bridge. The biggest problem with the Pinnacle bridge is it uses proprietary bridge studs (screwed directly into the top) that are larger in diameter than the original ABR-1. The Faber locking ABR bridge will still work if you use the Pinnacle bridge studs, the Pinnacle thumb wheels, and the Pinnacle locking top screws. I am not sure if a traditional (non-locking) ABR-1 will fit with the large Pinnacle studs. Original hardware... Locking Faber bridge (using Pinnacle bridge studs, thumb wheels, and top locking caps. Locking Faber stoptail studs using the Pinnacle aluminum bridge. Stoptail is flat to the body.

I really love that Teye, REALLY, REALLY love it. But in the past, I have never been able to get along with a guitar with 3 humbuckers.

I am sorry, YES, you are correct they were Sperzel tuners, not Schallers that stripped out. I stand corrected, thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Personally, I liked the Schallers better. You be the judge.

Yes, I have. A bunch of them actually. Schaller made pickups from the same stuff everyone else does. Here's one fully apart. Alnico V magnet, 42AWG copper wire, 8.5k DCR, I have the electrical and magnetic measurements as well, Inductance, Ls 4.98 henries, Q2.02, Cs 98pf, DCR 8.394k. Also the same pickup being characterized on my oscilloscope with an exciter coil connected to a signal generator.

I think they do, I've swapped many magnets around and have heard some pretty big differences. I've even heard changes from pole piece slugs! Funny thing though I mostly apply this to guitars when I'm looking for a classic PAF sound. My Teye guitar has potted Lollars (very light potting), a 5 way switch, and a mood knob (which is like HPF), crazy aluminum bridge and tailpiece, and I love the sound of that guitar! I doesn't have the classic Gibson/Heritage sound though.

Has anyone pulled apart a Schaller & documented what kind of wire & magnets they used? There has to be a quantitative reason they sound like they do. I've heard audio & studio transformer experts talking about metallurgy & formulas being a key part of their sound: trade secrets, sometimes lost forever after businesses folded, and modern materials not having the same character. In something as basic as a gtr pickup, maybe raw materials matter more?

Yeah my #1 H150 is a "94 or so. All I did was put an Aluminium tailpiece on, abr1 style bridge, Wolfetone Legend pups. At one point I installed a custom boutique wiring harness, but I changed it back to stock as it sounded better. I think I put some vintage bumblebees, or Russian PIO caps in too.

The set I had in a old H-150 were horribly bright and thin sounding.

Thanks Nuke. I have also read that it may affect electronics. I think I'm going to stay away from this process. The sun has been working well for the case and I'm thinking of trying the Naptha on the guitar it's self.

Car detailers will put the ozone generator in the smoky car, close it up tight, turn it on, leave it on overnight, or even the whole weekend. Rumor that it works on cars that may have had a deceased person in them as well. Ozone won't hurt most materials, but it may degrade certain foam rubbers.

I have a 1998 H150 CM, VSB. It was ordered from the factory with Seymour Duncan 59's, tune-o-matic bridge and standard stop bar tailpiece. I bought it a few years used, and have played for well over 20 years now. It's been a great, no issues instrument. It is a little over 9lbs, I'm getting to where that's kind of my limit. What's interesting is that swapping the zinc (heavy) stop bar for aluminum and the Grovers (also heavy) for vintage-style tuners would bring it under the magical 9lbs mark. It's always been very resonant. I've really done nothing to it all these years, other than change the pots a few years ago when one of them got to be a little funky.

I'm curious, what did you find awful?

Are you sure these weren't Sperzel tuners? I've had this exact problem with Sperzel tuners, which Wolfe ordered on his guitars for a while, but never with Schallers.

Gee thanks Rich. I was going to swear that my ThroBaks were crap, but I guess it was me all along!

Gee, I thought that it was my playing that made me sound beyond awful! It was the pickups in my 157 all along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mURVofPTnY Here's a comparison of Schallers with Seth Lovers. I happen to like Seths, too.

I haven't forgotten to post pics, the neck was destroyed by whomever attempted to fix the broken headstock in the past. Although it will no longer be fully original we decided to fabricate a neck from scratch and match the contour and headstock shape. I hope to have it back in a couple weeks. I had to to go with "F" being 100% original, I want to play this bass!! Original post was "Whats an HB-1 Worth"" by Punk Kitty.

Thank you.

Schaller humbuckers were beyond awful!