HRW - Part 2

[je00143]

Well, now, what a wonderful time for the first HRW thread to show up!! I have an "interesting situation..."

 

I just got home from a gig with a big band. I had replaced my HRW on the neck with a Duncan Jazz SH-2. These gigs were also the first trial for my

Fender jazzmaster Ultralight amp/speaker combination. The Duncan seemed to work fine with my Cube 60.

 

In order to get the sound that the leader wanted - and, to tell the truth, what I finally wanted, too - I ended up rolling the treble knob on the amp from the 12 o'clock position (flat) to the nine o'clock position to take some of the "twang" tone out of it. That worked, but I think I may have lost some flexibility in tone shadings.

 

My conundrum is this - do I re-install the HRW on the neck, do I roll the treble off at the instrument with the tone control (Stellartones), do I just roll off the treble at the head unit, or do I just deal with it?

 

I am open to suggestions, o masters of the Heritage realm. And I thank you.

[tulk1]

I've found the HRW's in my recent build to be very dynamic pickups. Whatever Ren is doing to them is pretty sweet. They are very bold and articulate ... at least in my Millennium DC. You didn't mention if you had to do all the eq'ing with the HRWs as you did with the Duncan. But if you had the sound, why'd you change?

[Gitfiddler]

HRW's are VERY dynamic p'ups, and respond differently depending on the guitar they are installed in. I've not tried SD SH2's in an archtop yet, but I bet they are less potent, more PAF'ish than HRW's. Both are fine pickups and can be fine-tuned by lowering/raising them and lowering/raising the individual pole pieces/screws. That is the cheapest solution.

 

It sounds like you liked the HRW's tone in your 575 through your previous rig, but for some reason you switched them out for the SD's. Without going through the hassle of re-installing the HRW's to get a comparison, maybe you can purchase a Boss EQ stompbox to expand/balance your EQ tones. I'm suprised that the Stellartone tone pot isn't giving you the desired tones.

 

Good luck and please let us know what solution you come up with.

[je00143]

OK - I learned my lesson. Just called my tech, who is a lot better at wielding a soldering iron than I am, and the pickups get swapped out tomorrow.

 

I was just trying something different, and I let the hype get in the way of the sound. Thank you for your comments - I will let you know how it goes.