squawken Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 There is a set of Golden Age Stewart-MacDonald pickups on e-bay. Just curious if anyone had experience with these, and what kind of tone they have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slider313 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I had a set and I believe these are the same as the stock Schallers Heritage uses. They sounded the same to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCovach Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 And if you're interested in stock Schallers, I have a few sets for sale--silver or gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmikdebriis Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 And if you're interested in stock Schallers, I have a few sets for sale--silver or gold. Does ANYBODY like the Schallers??? Seems to me, not. So why do H use them... Madness ??? Another thing that annoys me is... On their web site, models page, they list some models as having SD's or HRW's but some just say " two chrome humbucking pickups". These, presumably, are the Schallers. Are they just too embarrassed to say ??? It's kinda like Porsche releasing the new 911... With a moped engine... Rant over... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Seacup Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I don't mind the Schallers. I have a neck bucker in the 137D (someone replaced the bridge with an SD Custom) and the S-S-H int he 160V are all Schaller. While the bucker in the 137D can sound muddy with the tone knob turned down too far, the pups in the 160V have very good separation/note definition. Would they be the first things I'd buy? Maybe, maybe not...depends on my price range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggy1972 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I personally like the Schallers. Nice traditional PAF sound. Didnt find them muddy at all. I think you have to play around with the pickup heights. They possibly sound better on my 170 because there is less body wood like an SG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Seacup Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I personally like the Schallers. Nice traditional PAF sound. Didnt find them muddy at all. I think you have to play around with the pickup heights. They possibly sound better on my 170 because there is less body wood like an SG. That is something I haven't tried doing. It probably doesn't help that I put the (dreaded, by some) flatwounds on the 137. I'll have to see what difference pickup height makes; good suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squawken Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 So are you saying drop the pups down a bit? I don't mind the clear tones-acutally not bad. But when I blast away it gets too gritty and dirty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCovach Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 I'd experiment with pickup height for sure. It's amazing the difference this can make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggy1972 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 A lot of the time a subtle change can work wonders. I dropped mine down maybe 1mm (I did it by playing loud and dropping down just enough to eliminate the wolftones) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmikdebriis Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 As I understand it. The higher the pickup the louder however the proximity of the magnets to the strings affects their ability to resonate and results in less sustain and a certain amount of distortion. Anybody know of any other factors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggy1972 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 When I got my 170, the pickups were very close to the strings. This made them sound a little muddy. Dropping then just a tad made the output clearer.I think its all a question of what sound you are going for. http://www.ratcliffe.co.za/articles/pickupheight.shtml A little light reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundersteel Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Very informative--thanks for the link. Karma up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentrocks Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 funny that this was bought up...i was screwing around w/ the pickup height on the '00 170 the other day too......and it does make a big difference. too high definately sounds bad!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slider313 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 As I understand it. The higher the pickup the louder however the proximity of the magnets to the strings affects their ability to resonate and results in less sustain and a certain amount of distortion. Anybody know of any other factors? Another factor would be too much magnetic pull on the strings, which would in turn cause inntonation problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamison162 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Golden Age/Schaller are actually great pickups. Kinda wish I had mine back to compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthpawGuy Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I've started a topic in the Family Tree section, (as it does not involve Heritage guitars ). http://www.heritageownersclub.com/forums/i...pic,1080.0.html In the first clip Seymour Duncan replaces pickups on a LP, and adjusts the pickup height .... you might like to have a look. As far as magnet pull on strings goes active pickups do not suffer from this as much as the high power output comes from the pickup preamp and not the pickups magnets. They can be adjusted very close to the strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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