Bluesboy bridge pickup change---suggestion?

[acjohnson77]

New to the forum. Thanks for having a spot for such a discussion.

Anyway, I have been GASing lately over a bluesboy and well, picked one up on the "cheap" the other day. LOVE THIS GUITAR! the fit, finish and feel is absolutely top notch. However, I'm just not crazy about the mfd bridge pickup. I realize that may be sacrilege on here, so sorry if I have offended. It is just a little too modern sounding for what I do and want more of a vintage thinline sound in the bridge position.

So, has anyone had success with changing out that bridge pickup in a bluesboy? and if so, with what.... Suggestions?? The guitar is a swamp ash body, sunburst, fhole, maple neck, rosewood fretboard.

Many thanks in advance.

[blargfromouterspace]

The vintage pickup thing is hard when there's a humbucker in the neck as the difference in output between pickups is too drastic and can only be corrected by lowering the neck p/u to the point where it sounds like rubbish. By all means do some experimenting - I had an OC Duff Plank'ster (an overwound vintage style p/u, which I had overwound more still) in mine for a while, which balanced out well, but I ended up putting the MFD back in because it sounded better to me. The pickup manufacturers are happy to respond to emails and make suggestions based on your guitar and style - try Vintage Vibe, Zhangbucker, OC Duff they've all been very helpful to me in the past.

[Halowords]

The pickup manufacturers are happy to respond to emails and make suggestions based on your guitar and style - try Vintage Vibe, Zhangbucker, OC Duff they've all been very helpful to me in the past.

I know this is probably toooootally subjective, but any input on how Vintage Vibe compares/contrasts to Zhangbucker? Vintage Vibe I've heard nothing but great about. Concerning Zhangbuckers, this came up on another forum, however Zhangbucker's pure handwound stuff in particular boasts some pretty lofty claims, however reviews tend to be pretty positive and the splat feature for coil splitting sounds pretty nice. Granted, that deals with humbuckers which won't really help with a Bluesboy bridge, and I tend to disbelieve in the notion of magical pickups that do it all a/o their being a "best", but I happened to see this and thought I'd inquire if you've had experience with both and feel like sharing said experience.

I actually haven't heard of OC Duff before.

-Cheers

[blargfromouterspace]

any input on how Vintage Vibe compares/contrasts to Zhangbucker? Vintage Vibe I've heard nothing but great about.

To be honest, and IME, its all much of a muchness. They all have numerous different models which you can customise for wahtever. Go with whoever answers your questions better and can give you a better price! I mention VintageVibe and Zhangbucker because they have what I consider to be realistic prices for custom orders, others not so much - ever see the Lollar price list The only pickups I've tried that really stand out as being different from others are those manufactured by Bill Lawrence. YMMV.

[acjohnson77]

Thanks for the replies. For now, I have decided to go with a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge pickup. It has alNIco II poles... the same as the seth lover and it is marketed as being modeled after Jerry Donahue's '52 tele's bridge pickup. Therefore, in theory, it should be have a vintage vibe. It is wound to 7.8 k and the Seth is wound to 7.4, so they complement each other pretty well. It took me a minute to get them balanced (height), but now... good to go. The second position does not loose it's magic either. In fact, I think it sounds awesome. The only complaint is that when I go from the neck to the bridge, I have to roll off the tone just a little bit.

I do like the mfd, and if i start playing in a more modern style group, I'll reinstall it. So far so good on the JD bridge pup though... If i go another route it will be the Fralin blues special... stay tuned

[Craig]

Thanks for the replies. For now, I have decided to go with a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge pickup. It has alNIco II poles... the same as the seth lover and it is marketed as being modeled after Jerry Donahue's '52 tele's bridge pickup. Therefore, in theory, it should be have a vintage vibe. It is wound to 7.8 k and the Seth is wound to 7.4, so they complement each other pretty well. It took me a minute to get them balanced (height), but now... good to go. The second position does not loose it's magic either. In fact, I think it sounds awesome. The only complaint is that when I go from the neck to the bridge, I have to roll off the tone just a little bit.

I do like the mfd, and if i start playing in a more modern style group, I'll reinstall it. So far so good on the JD bridge pup though... If i go another route it will be the Fralin blues special... stay tuned

Make sure to retain the MFD bridge pickup because it is a special pickup for the stock US Bluesboy model and must be used to return the instrument back to it's original state.

[blargfromouterspace]

The only complaint is that when I go from the neck to the bridge, I have to roll off the tone just a little bit.

Try installing that 200k resistor (ignore the rest of the circuit) - it cuts some of the highs from the bridge pickup. You may find that your only complaint might just be rectified for less than 5 cents.

[acjohnson77]

Thanks.. and i will retain the mfd. I was super impressed with the construction of the pickup when I pulled it, as well as the rest of the wiring. TOP NOTCH!

[Miles Smiles]

Try installing that 200k resistor (ignore the rest of the circuit) - it cuts some of the highs from the bridge pickup

Doesn't it just reduce the overall output of the bridge pickup? In fact, it might have the same effect as rolling off the volume a little bit, but without having the effect of the treble-bleed capacitor on the volume control.

To not effect the output, there should be a capacitor and maybe combined with a resistor at that position. It could also work to connect that resistor not to the volume control housing, but to the leg of the tone control to which the capacitor is soldered. If that resistor has the same value as the rolled off tone control has in that very liked position, that might have the exactly same impact to the sound.

[NickHorne]

I realise this is 3 months late, but:

The resistor WILL cut high frequency. A pickup is an inductive source, which means that its output becomes increasingly attenuated by a resistive load at higher frequencies.
A big value like the one in Bill L's drawing won't cut drastically, it will be subtle, but you could experiment with a pot until you find a value you like, measure it, and then fit a matching fixed resistor.
We all know a pickup is (very) susceptible to capacitive loading (the effect of which increases more rapidly with frequency), but resistive loading does a gentler version of the same thing. It's actually quite nice as an alternative tone control (try 22k ohm where the tone control cap would usually go, perhaps selected on a pull-pot), sort of an old Bakersfield straight-in-the-board middly niceness, if you like that sort of thing. You can even experiment with just an old lead, and try wiring the resistor, or pot, across either of the jacks (only works correctly with the guitar's volume all the way up), which will give you the ballpark value for the resistor you might like.