dual blade and power blade question for my Legacy

[Fumble fingers]

what does the dual blade/power blade compare sound wise with Seymore Duncans rail type pick ups ?? .... trying to get a idea what they sound like to decide if the swap is worth doing , not digging the alnico's too much

are the G&L Dual Blade and Power Blade pickups a drop in replacement for my Legacy's alnico's pup's or need different cap or anything ??


thanks

[DanDoulogos]

I've got SD hotrails in the bridge on my (recently purchased) Legacy.

A previous owner wired it up like a strat, so the bridge on my legacy presently has no tone control at all. The result is when I go to the bridge pickup there is a (potentially) jarring volume jump accompanied by a tonic shift from the clean bell-like tones to a more ...distortable(?) tone. By that I mean a more layered tone, pulling in a lot more mid level tone than a single coil would give you, and with a lot more punch.

The pickup sounds pretty decent in the bridge position by my ear - though I plan to replace it with an SSL-6 (which is just an SSL-5 with flat poles), along with the middle pickup (putting in an SSL-2, RWRP), as I purchased this legacy as a project to cop Gilmour's black Strat sound. The guy who sold it to me however, absolutely loved the hotrails pickup - and used it exclusively to record with.

Hope that helps.

[Craig]

are the G&L Dual Blade and Power Blade pickups a drop in replacement for my Legacy's alnico's pup's or need different cap or anything ??


thanks

See: Album: Legacy Special Diagrams and Album: Legacy Diagrams.

Hope this helps.

[Fumble fingers]

thanks Craig ....

Dan , I wonder if the hot rails work with the PTB ??

[DanDoulogos]

Dan , I wonder if the hot rails work with the PTB ??

On a fender strat, the signal from both the neck and the middle pickup are filtered before the signal from that pickup is (possibly) combined with the signal from another pickup . Once the signals are combined - they pass together through the volumne pot and into the amp.

In a Passive Treble and Bass circuit, the signals are combined before they are filtered - and the filter is not just a low pass filter, but a high pass filter also (the two together are often called a "band" filter -since you can dial out both high -and- low frequencies.

Electronically, it doesn't matter if the signal that is being filtered is the aggregate of two single coils, or the aggregate of a single coil and a humbucker - it presents itself to the filter part of the circuit as a "signal" and it can be filtered just as easily.

So it "works" in the sense that as long as you pedal, you can ride a bike even if you are wearing dress shoes instead of tennis shoes.

But if by "works" you mean that it may not "sound" good... that's certainly a possibility. In regular strat wiring, hot rails are not filtered at all. In a PTB set up - you'd be able to trim both bass and treble out of their signal - and some of the signal would necessarily be lost to both the high and low filters - even if both (tone controls) were wide open. That might confuse people going from a strat wiring scheme to a PTB scheme - since even if you had the tone controls "on" only a little - it would do something to the hotrails that the strat wiring cannot do (shape it).

For some that ability to shape it would be a plus -for others, especially if they are expecting to hear it sound like a strat - it might be off-putting (at least until they understand what is happening, and adjust them).

[tdiers]

thanks Craig ....

Dan , I wonder if the hot rails work with the PTB ??

Rail single size humbuckers work fine with PTB. I have DiMarzio Fast Track Strat Set in my Tribute Legacy. They sound great! You just have to keep the wiring system as per the G&L diagrams. I decided on these to replace the originals, that were making a lot of sound due to interference, after watching Tony McKenzie's video using them in a home built strat. It's the one in the middle with the burning pickguard.
I also wired mine with a push/pull bass pot that adds the bridge to the neck (or vice versa) and all three pickups. I used a combination of wiring diagrams for the G&L Legacy, Legacy Special, S-500, & Dimarzio wiring for push/pull switches (http://www.dimarzio.com/support/wiring-diagrams#1-5-1-3) there are many to choose from.

Here's his demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdk7Sp6nhlQ
Here's a 21 minute video of him describing why he chose the parts he did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtIRCZEfLi4
And the 60 min. video of him building this guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_uBVCNdkfs

[DanDoulogos]

thanks Craig ....

Dan , I wonder if the hot rails work with the PTB ??

Rail single size humbuckers work fine with PTB. I have DiMarzio Fast Track Strat Set in my Tribute Legacy. They sound great! You just have to keep the wiring system as per the G&L diagrams. I decided on these to replace the originals, that were making a lot of sound due to interference, after watching Tony McKenzie's video using them in a home built strat. It's the one in the middle with the burning pickguard.
I also wired mine with a push/pull bass pot that adds the bridge to the neck (or vice versa) and all three pickups. I used a combination of wiring diagrams for the G&L Legacy, Legacy Special, S-500, & Dimarzio wiring for push/pull switches (http://www.dimarzio.com/support/wiring-diagrams#1-5-1-3) there are many to choose from.

Here's his demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdk7Sp6nhlQ
Here's a 21 minute video of him describing why he chose the parts he did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtIRCZEfLi4
And the 60 min. video of him building this guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_uBVCNdkfs

I really like Tony's videos - thanks for the links.

[tdiers]

I love Tony's videos! He has a great combination of tech savvy, humor, and is a kick@ss guitar player!