hot pickups
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
hot pickups
Hello, My guitar has two Bill Lawernce mini humbuckers that have a high output.The front PU is wired in parallel and the rear is humbucking. With the Rocket at 10:00 and the guitar volume about 3 it has a beautiful sound. With the guitar volume on 10 it is too grating to my ears- too much bass and too much treble. I don't get a nice crunch. My guitar volume pot is 250ohms. I've used Sammi, Tone Tubby alnico, and a Warehouse 65 all with the same results. Would changing the input resistor help? Any advice would be appreciated.
Re: hot pickups
alot of the high output pickups turn the bass to mush when they are full up.. or seems like the full spectrum between treble and bass.. Might try some other pickups, or try using some other guitar that has different pickups, and see how that sounds before you decide..
Re: hot pickups
You might try lowering the pickups (more distance from pickups to the strings). Maybe it will help, maybe not. It's a cheap and easy thing to try though.
Re: hot pickups
The Rocket, according to Derek Ferwerda, was intended for single coil pickups. If you must keep the high output humbuckers, you may want to try lowering the value of R1 (currently 1M). A trimmer pot might help you dial it in. If not, I'd suggest you try a 500K for starters and adjust to taste.
Backing off the pickups from the strings will help but I recall those pickups as pretty darn hot.
Backing off the pickups from the strings will help but I recall those pickups as pretty darn hot.
Re: hot pickups
Hi all and thanks for the replies. Yep they are hot- even with a coil tap. How does changing the 1meg differ from raising the input resistor? Thanks again!
-
RJ Guitars
- Posts: 2663
- Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:49 am
- Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
- Contact:
Re: hot pickups
Andrew,
I am learning that the Rocket while an extremely simple and straight forward amp, can easily be over driven.
Some guys get really clean clear pristine sounds while others get great sounding crunch. I am studying that a bit now and have just started to use the O'Scope with my own builds to really dig in and understand the amp better.
My inclination is that the Rocket takes clean right to the edge with the tube lineup and design. I don't think it takes much to push it over the edge... hot pickups will do that for sure.
The Rocket preamp is basically a 59' Bassman design with a hotter tube in V1 (12AX7 instead of 12AY7) plus does not use any negative feedback. If you study the old 59' Bassman you know they are famous for great tone... and Fender was working at making a low distortion amp for a Bass. The Rocket pushes that envelope a bit further here and thus feeds my inclination that it's pretty easy to makes these things crunch.
Zippy mentioned Derek Ferwerda's feedback to us on his Rocket. I'll reiterate and add... Derek only uses single coils (nothing high output & never a humbucker), doesn't like pedals, and he also uses the volume control on his guitar a lot. He gets great sounding crunch starting at about 1 O'Clock... between 1 & 2 O'Clock is where he likes to play. He does use one of the original KF power brakes and sometimes uses an isolation cab. When he wants it clean, he rolls the volume down on the guitar and he has also mentioned that he varies his pick attack to get what he wants as well. He has told me many times that "You have to learn how to play a Rocket".
Good luck... let us know how it turns out.
rj
I am learning that the Rocket while an extremely simple and straight forward amp, can easily be over driven.
Some guys get really clean clear pristine sounds while others get great sounding crunch. I am studying that a bit now and have just started to use the O'Scope with my own builds to really dig in and understand the amp better.
My inclination is that the Rocket takes clean right to the edge with the tube lineup and design. I don't think it takes much to push it over the edge... hot pickups will do that for sure.
The Rocket preamp is basically a 59' Bassman design with a hotter tube in V1 (12AX7 instead of 12AY7) plus does not use any negative feedback. If you study the old 59' Bassman you know they are famous for great tone... and Fender was working at making a low distortion amp for a Bass. The Rocket pushes that envelope a bit further here and thus feeds my inclination that it's pretty easy to makes these things crunch.
Zippy mentioned Derek Ferwerda's feedback to us on his Rocket. I'll reiterate and add... Derek only uses single coils (nothing high output & never a humbucker), doesn't like pedals, and he also uses the volume control on his guitar a lot. He gets great sounding crunch starting at about 1 O'Clock... between 1 & 2 O'Clock is where he likes to play. He does use one of the original KF power brakes and sometimes uses an isolation cab. When he wants it clean, he rolls the volume down on the guitar and he has also mentioned that he varies his pick attack to get what he wants as well. He has told me many times that "You have to learn how to play a Rocket".
Good luck... let us know how it turns out.
rj
Good, Fast, or Cheap -- Pick two...
http://www.rjguitars.net
http://www.rjaudioresearch.com/
http://diyguitaramps.prophpbb.com/
http://www.rjguitars.net
http://www.rjaudioresearch.com/
http://diyguitaramps.prophpbb.com/
Re: hot pickups
[quote]How does changing the 1meg differ from raising the input resistor? quote]
Playing with the 1M value will bleed some of the signal off so you have less hitting the tube. If you review the Blues Express in the files section, you will see a pot / trimmer in place of the 1M pot which is used to reduce the signal level into the first stage. It s just like dropping some signal level between stages.
https://tubeamparchive.com/files/wreckxpr.pdf
If you raise the input resistor you will at the very least, impact the frequency response into the stage. Check the load line plotter xls out on the valve wizard site. You can play with some values and see what difference it makes.
http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard/links.html
Playing with the 1M value will bleed some of the signal off so you have less hitting the tube. If you review the Blues Express in the files section, you will see a pot / trimmer in place of the 1M pot which is used to reduce the signal level into the first stage. It s just like dropping some signal level between stages.
https://tubeamparchive.com/files/wreckxpr.pdf
If you raise the input resistor you will at the very least, impact the frequency response into the stage. Check the load line plotter xls out on the valve wizard site. You can play with some values and see what difference it makes.
http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard/links.html
Re: hot pickups
I installed a 1 M pot and I'll see what happens. Thanks again everyone.
Re: hot pickups
Another option would be to remove (or switch) the cathode cap on the 1st triode. That should not change the EQ but will reduce the amplification potential of that stage. If it's too tame after that, you could place a resistor in series with it and re-connect. A pot could be used temporarily to determine your ideal resistor value. I think some amps may have this setup pemanently on them.
If it says "Vintage" on it, -it isn't.