Guest HRB853370 Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 I know many people are not fond of Schaller humbuckers, and I was recently playing an LP with 57 Classics, then picked up my 150 with the Schallers, and they sounded relatively muddy in comparison. Is that a fair assessment of Schaller buckers?Without having to endure the endless pain of selecting a replacement, I have heard several on this forum (notably Yoslate) praise the tone of Phat Cats. As a generalization, how do Phat Cats sound compared to SD 59's or Seth Lovers?
fxdx99 Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 I found Schallers to be kind of bright, didn't really find them muddy. They were a bit 'clean/pristine' to my taste is all where seth lovers are a bit more 'airy' if you will. Sorry, but there's no escaping the journey of pickup exploration. Mostly because it's not (imho) really about the pickup as it is about matching a pickup with a guitar. A bright guitar vs a dark guitar for example will probably not have the same pickup set as ideal for both. Maybe you have a 'dark' voiced guitar?... Phat Cats - I like 'em, although they're not humbuckers so a different thing going on. P90-ish kinda, bright, snappy, single coil sound. Very nice. Not the thick 'violin' sustain of a humbucker, tho.... Good news - swapping a 150 pus is easy compared to a semi so can do it yourself. Bad news - pickups cost a bit 'o money (oh - there's the pain your were talking about...). Generality... seth lover is a good all around PAF style pickup and they won't break the bank. Throbaks cost a lot more - they're a good pickup, too, but it's like adding horsepower to your Harley. Drilling out the pipes and increasing air flow is a terrific bang for the buck. Every $ spent after that is diminshed return on the dollar...
mars_hall Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Compared to the '59s, more defined and round. Compared to the Seth's more low-end and less high-freq buzz. More like pulling nails out of sappy oak . I've been playing a 150 w/ Phat Cats as my main guitar for the last month. Got a pretty good feel for it in my ears 'bout now.
DetroitBlues Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Phat cats are p90's, so very different. I suggest Duncan 59's or Gibson 57 classics.
Guest HRB853370 Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Phat cats are p90's, so very different. I suggest Duncan 59's or Gibson 57 classics. Phat cats are P90's, for real? Well that eliminates that option, as I have a 150 with Lollars in it. Don't need two 150's with P90's unless the sound is completely different.
TalismanRich Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Let me throw this into the mix. The old Schallers in the H140 were dull and somewhat muddy. I tried rewiring to vintage style, adding a treble bleed. They just didn't cut through. The Schallers in the 157 and 535 are definitely snappier than the ones in the 140. Both are brighter and crispier than the Seths in the Mille LE. In the end, the 140 was changed to APH-1 Alnico II Pro. They have a similarity to the SethLovers, but I think they were a bit crisper or tighter.
Guest HRB853370 Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Let me throw this into the mix. The old Schallers in the H140 were dull and somewhat muddy. I tried rewiring to vintage style, adding a treble bleed. They just didn't cut through. The Schallers in the 157 and 535 are definitely snappier than the ones in the 140. Both are brighter and crispier than the Seths in the Mille LE. In the end, the 140 was changed to APH-1 Alnico II Pro. They have a similarity to the SethLovers, but I think they were a bit crisper or tighter. These are from year 2000 Rich. Does that mean anything?
DetroitBlues Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 That just mean sits one of the last few years before Heritage gave up on them. Swap those pickups, a little change might bring that bad boy back to life.
FredZepp Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Let me throw this into the mix. The old Schallers in the H140 were dull and somewhat muddy. I tried rewiring to vintage style, adding a treble bleed. They just didn't cut through. The Schallers in the 157 and 535 are definitely snappier than the ones in the 140. Both are brighter and crispier than the Seths in the Mille LE. In the end, the 140 was changed to APH-1 Alnico II Pro. They have a similarity to the SethLovers, but I think they were a bit crisper or tighter. I wonder if this means there are a couple of different specs to Schaller pickups that Heritage used..... ? (excluding the HRW's ) What years are your guitars, Rich? .. ( I've got a set from '89, but I've never heard them... I liked ones in a 150 that I had for a couple of days to do a set up on )
mtpatty Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 try a set of burstbuckers...my les paul has a '57 classic in the neck and a burstbucker 3 in the bridge...i am fond of that configuration...
TalismanRich Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Will, my 140 is a D, 1987 model. The 535 and 157 are V and T, so 2005 and 2003 for those. I don't know if the older Schallers sound different from new ones, or if its because the 140s were uncovered, but there seemed to be a huge difference.
Hfan Posted July 12, 2012 Posted July 12, 2012 After reading this a few days back I got out my 157 with Schallers and played it through my Reverb Deluxe. I've always been a supporter of these pick ups partly because I don't want to spend $300 for boutique p ups (I could get 3 pairs of nice Tele p ups for that amount) and also because I've enjoyed the tone I get from them. The other night I did notice that I am not too fond of the neck p up by itself but when both pick ups are engaged and the neck is rolled off a little the tone is nice. Very descriptive I know, not up on the subtlities of tone description. So I am using the neck p up as a variable mud controller resulting in righteous tone. At least to my slightly aged and well used ears. By itself it may be a little muddy I suppose but I would need to try it again with other amps and I am currently too lazy to wrestle the Twin from it's storage area, there is the Blues Jr though. I believe that the amp is a huge factor in this stuff. That said, I wouldn't mind a little tinkering. If anyone has a gold covered neck p up laying around (SD 59 comes to mind but I'd consider anything) that they might want to part with for reasonable coin I may be interested. PM me. This p up swapping topic reminds me of a post I read on the tele forum. A guy was asking what Texas Specials would sound like if he put them in his Tele. Ron Kirn chimed in saying if he could play like SRV, he would sound like Stevie, if not then just a slightly different version of himself. I love Ron's advise.
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