Badfish Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Hey! I own an H-535 VIP, and I don't feel like the schaller pickups are doing it any justice. Not in full humbucker and especially not when split into singles. They just sound too thin for this type of guitar in my opinion. I'll be grateful to hear some suggestions amd advice from experienced h-535 owners on what they replaced them with. I play it mostly clean, and a good single coil tone is important to me. Thanks!
eljay Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 hey, back, badfish. I cannot speak to the single coil issue but many 535 owners really dig the Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" humbuckers.
tulk1 Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 I had HRW's in mine, and still felt they didn't do the split justice. I had some Rio Grande pickups in a different guitar; they were specifically designed for splitting - true single coil when in that mode. Sounded good in HB mode, as well. Don't recall which ones they were, tho'. Not truly helping, I know. Good luck in your search; there are SO MANY to choose from. Hunting is half the fun.
Horace Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 My 555 had Seth Lovers which I liked very much. But if I were to replace them I would give some real consideration to these, especially if I was chasing a more single coil sound...
Yooper Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 One more Duncan Seth Lover/Semi-hollow fan here. It blows away my old stock Gibson ES 347...and it's an Epiphone Dot Deluxe.
Gianluca Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 hi Badfish my H535 is equipped with SD 59s, coil splitting by tone controls push-pulls I like them, and wen splitted are nice, stable and rich. As I have wrote on other replies I'd keep the guitar as it comes, admittedly I changed my mind and maybe today I wouldn't use SD 59s. I'd check Throbaks or Lollar. If you're interested in clearity of tone you'd probably want to check Lollar's "El Rayo" note: I never tried those ones myself and looks like they're more suited for solid bodies, so mine is just a shared interest #my2c
Badfish Posted June 7, 2015 Author Posted June 7, 2015 Thanks for your replies everyone! I guess the rio grande's in question are the tallboy model? Which guitar model did you had them in? I have heard more than once that rio grande's are the way to go for a sweet and genuine single coil tones when split. I would be real happy for some more input on them if anyone had them in a 535 As for seth lovers - I dont have any experience with them but I assume they might be a little too weak for a proper splitting tone? I do have an SD 59 in my les paul bridge (although 2 conductor) which sounds great but i am changing it as it's too weak for my needs in a les paul. I'm definitely not ruling them out for my 535 but I'd be thankful to hear more suggestions and experiences. Wish I had the time to conduct a proper search and enjoy the hunt, but I'm a med student and its exam period now and I'm buried deep in orthopedic surgery books, so I'm really grateful for your help guys and any advice is appreciated!
big bob Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Ken Rambow makes pickups. I hear they are pretty nice!
Millennium Maestro Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 I have a question for you Badfish... The Schallers are a PAF reproduction. Do you want that kind of sound in the Humbucker untapped position? When I use the tap features I am trying to clean up the sound and not really concerned about output... Seth Lovers are a 2 wire pickup unless special ordered, The great thing about Seths is that they are unpotted, I believe this amplifies more of the wood and surrounding ambient noise...Downfall is they are not a great pickup for really load players. I like A2 magnet pickups for their textures the Antiquities are aged Seths.A little Hotter would be the Pearly Gates, next hotter is the Alnico pros and Slashes in the A2 family they are potted. I would love to play around with Throbaks they are sold as True PAF family Replicas. To expensive for my blood at $500 a set. Heritage uses Stag Mag Duncans in Coiltap H-170 which is Duncans supposed coiltap pickup, they are HOT at 16K+ as a humbucker in comparison to the 8.1K full output Seth Lover. My opinion if the like PAF sounds, Seths if you have controlled volume or Pearly Gates if you look for a more raw tone. Subnote. I also like Dimarzio 36th anniversary DP223 and DP103 neck
Gianluca Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 I have a question for you Badfish... The Schallers are a PAF reproduction. Do you want that kind of sound in the Humbucker untapped position? When I use the tap features I am trying to clean up the sound and not really concerned about output... Seth Lovers are a 2 wire pickup unless special ordered, The great thing about Seths is that they are unpotted, I believe this amplifies more of the wood and surrounding ambient noise...Downfall is they are not a great pickup for really load players. I like A2 magnet pickups for their textures the Antiquities are aged Seths. A little Hotter would be the Pearly Gates, next hotter is the Alnico pros and Slashes in the A2 family they are potted. I would love to play around with Throbaks they are sold as True PAF family Replicas. To expensive for my blood at $500 a set. Heritage uses Stag Mag Duncans in Coiltap H-170 which is Duncans supposed coiltap pickup, they are HOT at 16K+ as a humbucker in comparison to the 8.1K full output Seth Lover. My opinion if the like PAF sounds, Seths if you have controlled volume or Pearly Gates if you look for a more raw tone. Subnote. I also like Dimarzio 36th anniversary DP223 and DP103 neck +1 slightly OT: Flame Tone '59 Classic PAFs I don't know if you can split them, great PUs italian hand made (https://twitter.com/jbonamassa/status/309055199278931968) another list of PUs is here: http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=124577(bookmarked from my prev searches)
HANGAR18 Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 I'm a big fan of Seymour Duncan pickups and the factory installs a lot of them these days. Pick your favorite from their tone charts (description on the SD web site) and go from there. I've got 59's in my 535 but Pearly Gates would suit me just fine too. I usually prefer wax potted pickups but you may like the non-wax potted PAF style pickups like the Seth Lovers. A lot of people here in the HOC also speak very highly of the Throbacks.
Gitfiddler Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 Some great pickup suggestions have already given. Here are a couple of not so well known PAF style p'ups that you might consider that work exceptionally well in semi-hollow gits. Ibanez Super 58 pickups sound great, and can be split/coil tapped with good tone retention. Kent Armstrong custom winds some great sounding pickups and can do pretty much whatever you want if you email him. He winds a very sweet sounding 4-wire PAF for master luthier, Bill Comins' GCS semi-hollow guitars. The coil tapped option is as good as any I've ever heard.
tulk1 Posted June 8, 2015 Posted June 8, 2015 This just popped up yesterday from Chris Brooks and Seymour Duncan
Ghostbound Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 I have an SD' 59 and a Custom Custom in the neck and bridge positions of my H555, respectively, and I absolutely love that combination. I am also very, very curious about the humbucker-sized P90s that Bare Knuckle has out, as I am a huge fan of their pickups in general. -Alec
Badfish Posted June 11, 2015 Author Posted June 11, 2015 I have a question for you Badfish... The Schallers are a PAF reproduction. Do you want that kind of sound in the Humbucker untapped position? When I use the tap features I am trying to clean up the sound and not really concerned about output... Seth Lovers are a 2 wire pickup unless special ordered, The great thing about Seths is that they are unpotted, I believe this amplifies more of the wood and surrounding ambient noise...Downfall is they are not a great pickup for really load players. I like A2 magnet pickups for their textures the Antiquities are aged Seths. A little Hotter would be the Pearly Gates, next hotter is the Alnico pros and Slashes in the A2 family they are potted. I would love to play around with Throbaks they are sold as True PAF family Replicas. To expensive for my blood at $500 a set. Heritage uses Stag Mag Duncans in Coiltap H-170 which is Duncans supposed coiltap pickup, they are HOT at 16K+ as a humbucker in comparison to the 8.1K full output Seth Lover. My opinion if the like PAF sounds, Seths if you have controlled volume or Pearly Gates if you look for a more raw tone. Subnote. I also like Dimarzio 36th anniversary DP223 and DP103 neck Actually one of my problems with the Schallers is that they sound very hi-fi and not very PAF like to my ears, as opposed the SD 59 which is great for that purpose. Also I don't feel like the Schallers do any justice to bass and mids of the 535. From my experience with my other guitars I prefer AlNiCo 5 over 2, so that rules out the Seth Lovers. As for the Throbaks, that's a bit too much for me as well For the neck position - I'm looking for something like a 59 but with more output, mids and bass, but still open sounding. For the bridge I'm considering the 59/custom hybrid, but I'm still not sure.
Millennium Maestro Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 Concider the Whole Lotta Humbuckers, from Seymour Duncan.Links- http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/vintage-output/whole_lotta_hum/ Its an A5 based, Hotter 8.78k PAF pickup with Hotter neck 8.2k By the way are you in Hungary??
Badfish Posted June 11, 2015 Author Posted June 11, 2015 Hi Guy! My bad! I didn't notice it was you buddy! I gave them a thought but they sounded a bit compressed on a 335 in the demos I heard, I guess I'm looking for something similar but more open sounding for the tone I'm looking for.
Millennium Maestro Posted June 11, 2015 Posted June 11, 2015 Too bad we were not in better contact, the wife is off to Hungary shortly... Could have had her bring a set of pups to you and save you all the extra importing stuff! I have a 3 pup Black beauty if you make it stateside!
Badfish Posted June 12, 2015 Author Posted June 12, 2015 Yeah definitely, but thanks for the kind thought! The weather is crazy hot here right now, your wife won't notice that she left Vegas! A 3 pup black beauty is a dream! I really hope I'll get to Vegas on time.I gave them a second thought and ordered set of Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker. Hopefully it'll get here quickly and I'll report how it came out.I also intend to customize the VIP wiring so that I will have separate volume and tone controls for each pickup while retaining the VIP wiring.I ordered 4 Bourns 500k push/pull pots and sprague orange drop 022 caps, and I'm going to replace the 2 coil split switch knobs with the push pull function of the pots, and utilize the hole already drills for them to add the additional two pots. I also intend to add series/parallel switching and out-of-phase wiring for both pickups.The VIP switch will remain where it is and the VIP control pot will be moved next to it (between where a volume and tone pots will be).
Millennium Maestro Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 Thats gonna be quite the wiring harness.
Badfish Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 So I finally got the Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker set installed in my 535 VIP a few days ago, and had the wiring harness modified to have separate volume and tone controls for each pickup instead of the master controls. Looks a bit odd with 5 knobs, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It uses two Bourns 500k audio push/pull tone pots to split the humbuckers instead of the original coil split switches. I am very, very pleased with the result! I cannot stress enough how great these pickups sound in this guitar! They just fill in the lack of bass and mids, and they make this baby sound big and proper. The full humbucker tone is incredible, like a dreamy SD 59 with sweet mids and more bass, and the split single coil tone is great and twangy. They really took this guitar to the next level! I hope I'll have some free time to record a quick demo. Huge thanks to Guy (Millennium Maestro), who is also the awesome dude who sold me this amazing guitar in the first place - that without his suggestion I wouldn't have given these a second thought!Highly recommended!
kidsmoke Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Geez, Guy, have you ever considered making a living at this stuff? Oh, wait....
Millennium Maestro Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Enjoy that beauty, She has an amazing thin neck and now some amazing new upgrades.
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