Couple of ??'s re my h575 special please.

[toddinjax]

Hello all,

 

I picked up a beautiful 1993 H 575 special, maple top and floating pickup, on ebay a while ago and have a couple questions you can maybe answer for me.

 

#1) The pickup is a DOG and I'm going to replace it with the standard#3 (thanks to Grahm at Wolfe) anyway, the original pup that's on it  has a smooth gold cover, no poles to adjust, and the B string has got to be greater than 50% louder than all the other strings! Even if I play a note and bend it pretty far, it still is way out proportion to the others. Electrical demons maybe...? Played unplugged the strings are of course very well balanced in volume. Now if you look at the pup, it is not centered under the strings, there's more pickup hanging past the low e string than the high e string. Are there pole pieces beneath that smooth top that should "line up" with the strings? Could the floater have been mounted incorrectly to the finger rest?

 

#2)The maple top, as I expected, does not have the acoustic volume & tone of my carved spruce instrument, but I notice it seems to be less transparent, a little "blurred" say playing F#maj7 chord at the 2nd fret. Is this a commonly documented difference between spruce and maple tops. It's hard to be at all specific about the plugged in sound (see ? # 1 :-[). I haven't played/owned an electric guitar since 30 years ago; I think I might be "judging" the sound by what I expect of an acoustic instrument (with a maple top, this is an electric guitar in my mind). Should one expect an electric guitar to have a similar clarity, & transparency of sound to a fine acoustic while unplugged?

 

Thanks for any insight offered.

[PacerX]

Should one expect an electric guitar to have a similar clarity, & transparency of sound to a fine acoustic while unplugged?

 

In a word, no.  A laminate or solid maple top will never sound like the razor-thin slab of spruce that a fine acoustic is made with.

 

And that's a good thing - they're radically different tools for radically different jobs.

 

Furthermore, because of the placement of the pickup closer to the neck the tone will fatten up a bit and you'll lose some of the upper harmonics.  It's a lot like picking closer to the neck vs. picking closer to the bridge.

 

The issue with the B string being louder than the rest is just bizarre.

 

 

It may be worth having a repairman look at it.  Bizarre things happen on Ebay guitars... goofy wiring... odd pickup choices... etc...  I bought a Kramer once off Ebay that had every wire in it replaced with a twisted pair of smaller gage wires - that one surprised me a bit.  I rewired it completely, and had it setup by a pro with a fret dress and it's the best playing guitar I have now.

 

 

 

Finally, when Heritage is available to, your 1993 was not Plek'd at the time of production (mostly because the machine didn't exist).  You might consider having that done.

[soybean]

Is that by any chance a floating pickup? Those are often made without pole pieces. But that would usually be on a spruce top guitar. Normally, a 575 has a humbucking pickup (built into the top of the guitar) with adjustable pole pieces for string balance. furthermore, their standard pickups (made by Schaller) are adjustable themselves for height and angle.

 

The B-string being too loud was common in the old days. Gibson changed their Charlie Christian pickup to fix this problem.

 

What do you mean by "575 special"? Is that written on the label? Heritage makes a H-575 and a H-575 Custom.

[toddinjax]

Yes, it is a floating pup, and also yes it is labeled h575 special. It has a bound, ebony board with block mop inlays along with the floater and a very pretty flamed maple top. It must have been a custom order as it is also a lefty. I grabbed it for just $1150. so I don't mind spending a lit to replace the pick up. I just had my guy level the frets and strobe cut the saddle. I never use the phrase " like butter" but the action/neck now feel.... ;D

[Dick Seacup]

What does "strobe cut the saddle" mean?  Never heard that term before.  But, then again, I'm not terribly picky about my setups.  Heh.

[toddinjax]

The wood bridge or saddle is of course not as fine tunable like a tunomatic, most folk just position it so both the high and low e strings intonate properly and live with however the rest of the strings come out. Strobe cutting the bridge is the process of finding the string(s) that need the most(often B & G) forward (towards the nut) point of contact to intonate correctly, and the cutting out wood at each of the other string point of contact so the they intonate correctly.It is a permanent alteration.  So in short, picture a tunomatic,  with each strings saddle being positioned different from the others, and carving out little bits of wood from your bridge to mimic those varied contact points. Do NOT attempt this yourself, and also know the once it's done, you really should keep to the same gauge and brand of strings, as different gauges and different tensions between strings brands will hane an  effect. Hope that makes sense. 

[soybean]

Yes, it is a floating pup, and also yes it is labeled h575 special. It has a bound, ebony board with block mop inlays along with the floater and a very pretty flamed maple top. It must have been a custom order as it is also a lefty.

That sounds like a pretty unique model. Any chance you could post some photos?