H Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Hi all, Today I'm taking out the SD59s and old mismatched mounting rings from the 150 and loading up new Schaller rings and Phat Cats. Might even have a play with a few caps of various flavours I have knocking around (an .033 bumblebee, 2 Vitamin Q at both .022 and .047 and a couple of Sprague Orange Drops at .047). I'll do a little photoshoot and will post it up if anyone is interested. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 I feel just a little invested in this one. Really looking forward to some pics, but especially to a review of The Phat Cats, Howard. Gigged my Phat Cat 150 Thursday night, bi-amping The Felix with my Princeton. Gorgeous tone! Man I love that guitar! Hope you're pleased with your results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 The opportunity to swap out the pickups in a 575 has piqued my interest. Smurf1's (former) 137 has shifted a good number of amps back to the front of the pack. I'm really enjoying the P90s! Between your retrofit with Phat Cats and KBP810's P90s in his 575 I'm thinking this minor gas bubble has got to burst. I'm curious about your take on the Phat Cats; porn to go along is a plus! Good luck. We're all counting on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 I sorta kinda feel some vested interest in this, as well. Kinda. Sorta. I've been gigging the PC loaded Prospect more recently, and I just don't think it can get much better. Looking forward to hearing what you think about them. I'd be real interested in hearing what caps you land with, and why. PLUS!! what wiring scheme you end with. If I had one complaint about the way my PCs are wired, it's that the vol controls aren't as responsive as I'd like. I figure it's just the wiring scheme. Anyway .... count me interested and looking forward to the photo shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 OK -all done. It took me two hours all in However, I didn't play with the caps as I couldn't find the box with them in Left the stock .022s in there - yellow cylindrical ones with no discernable brand. Looks like I'll have to go shopping! I'm putting the photoshoot up on Photobucket as I don't seem to be able to get all the pics into my gallery. Here's the link: http://s824.photobucket.com/albums/zz165/HowardND/H-150%20Pickup%20swap/ First impressions? HUGE difference in string definition - they completely blow the SD59s out of the water! All the power, none of the mud. The neck has a smooth delivery with the tone up and fabulous 'woman' tone when rolled off. The bridge is monstrous - barking, powerful but beautifully defined even on 10. Sweet and bluesy under 7. I need to adjust the neck pickup a little relative to the strings as it's a little quieter than the neck at the same volume points on the pots. Both together I prefer to neck a little more prominent - my playing style is Cream-era Clapton and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to nail lots of his sounds from that time with these pickups. Through my Night Train I can have jangle, chime, blues and blues-rock just from adjustments to the volume pots and flicking from neck to bridge. Through Guitar Rig 4, I can't imagine what fun I'm going to have yet! I knew I would be pleased but I am stunned at how good these sound... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 Click on the pictures to get a bit of info on what was happening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredZepp Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 A pic of the finished article for those too impatient to look on PhotBucket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredZepp Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Great Job.... The pics are quite cool. And the result looks (and I'm sure sounds also) fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 Fred - you're amazing You have much more patience than I do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 PLUS!! what wiring scheme you end with. Left the wiring stock - hopefully you'll see from the pics. Might try some new caps when I can get hold of some - SD recommend .047s for Phat Cats so I'd like to hear the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 You did a good job, but honestly I can't see a facelift at all. You changed the pup rings but the extra holes from the Schallers are not really a facelift. I also wouldn't want to refer to pups as the brain of a guitar. For me the brain is still the electrics. It would have been interesting if you would have found your caps. Don't get me wrong. You did a great job, its just another definition philosophy. Guido Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 16, 2010 Author Share Posted October 16, 2010 You did a good job, but honestly I can't see a facelift at all. You changed the pup rings but the extra holes from the Schallers are not really a facelift. I also wouldn't want to refer to pups as the brain of a guitar. For me the brain is still the electrics. It would have been interesting if you would have found your caps. Don't get me wrong. You did a great job, its just another definition philosophy. Guido The brain/facelift stuff was a joke... I'll do the caps in the next couple of weeks so keep looking. I'm going to get Orange Drops and Vitamin Q at .022, .033 and .047 - any other recommendations? They don't cost much so I'm happy to try a few out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 The brain/facelift stuff was a joke... I'll do the caps in the next couple of weeks so keep looking. I'm going to get Orange Drops and Vitamin Q at .022, .033 and .047 - any other recommendations? They don't cost much so I'm happy to try a few out Ok then I outed myself as probably the only one that missed the joke! Unfortunately I can't give you any advice on the cap values, because I'm not experienced with P90's. I'm a Humbucker guy. So for me the mentioned cap values would be too high. But for P90's they should work. I find it interesting to experiment with cap values. I have a classic .022 value for the bridge and a .011 value for the neck. To my ears the .011 value gave me exactly what I was looking for: a creamy woman tone. But the tone control looses some influence with lower cap numbers. The difference from 10 to 0 on the tone control is not so prominent anymore. Still noticeable but less prominent. I get all my caps from this guy: Axegrinderz! He has great caps for a fair price and he doesn't sell fake ones. I can only recommend him. Guido Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted October 18, 2010 Author Share Posted October 18, 2010 I'd be real interested in hearing what caps you land with, and why. PLUS!! what wiring scheme you end with. If I had one complaint about the way my PCs are wired, it's that the vol controls aren't as responsive as I'd like. I figure it's just the wiring scheme. Further to this part of Tulk's post - has anyone recently AB'd two identical guitars with modern and vintage wiring? My H-150 has modern wiring and it doesn't look like a difficult job to change to vintage, just swapping the lugs the caps go from pot to pot. Since I'll be doing a cap test sooner or later I can incorporate this into my tests and let you know what happens. On a connected note, does anyone know what manufacturer Heritage uses for caps? They are cylindrical, acid-yellow items with the wires coming from the ends of the tube. All of my Heritages have the same type of caps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 I changed my H150 to vintage wiring. Personally I think the treble loss, when rolling back the volume, is not so prominent anymore. But I can't really hear a big difference. I asked the question about the heritage caps myself also. You need to be careful when pulling them out of the guitar. I actually damaged one by pulling out the wire. I found similar ones by different manufacturers, which are just small yellow ceramic caps. IMO Heritage just uses some cheap no name / brand caps. Maybe somebody else knows better than me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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