RedPlated
Well-known member
My favorite bridge pickups in my Nitro Aged are BKP Holy Diver and EVH Frankenstein. I currently have the BKP in there.
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braintheory
Well-known member
To me their place is in the garbage, but to each their own. Even the '70's Superdistortion and '79 X2N I had recently didn't stay long, but the TS set has spoiled me for sure and humiliated those pickups. I was also totally happy with the way they sounded in it and even thought maybe I underestimated the Dimarzios until actually swapping them lol. I was never ever one for the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" thing. I like to optimize what I can and like learning from trying even if it ends up sounding worse after tinkering. Thankfully that wasn't the case this time, but definitely has happened many other times lol
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blackie13
Well-known member
Which tone specific set are you using?
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braintheory
Well-known member
It’s a highoutput set that’s not yet released. It sounds nothing like any of his other sets that are more PAF voiced. This one is metal voiced and a beast. I hope he releases it so that others here can try it. The Iron Man was my favorite highoutput pickup before and had 4 of them at one point, but sold all my Wagner’s since getting this set. There is no other highoutput pickup out there that can remotely touch this one in terms of being organic, detailed/nuanced (almost like his PAF sets) and articulate, while still sounding absolutely brutal and is the tightest and most robust passive pickup I’ve tried. Kinda like a pickup equivalent to a Larry (at least based on what I’ve heard of the Larry’s)
I also thought the TS Bloombucker bridge paired with the Virtuoso neck in it sounded killer. More vintage vibe, warmer with an incredible throaty growl and the virtuoso neck is very fat and liquidy. The TS Strat pickups in the neck sounded great too (tried both a ‘59 and bloomcaster), but am gonna stay with humbuckers in it
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blackie13
Well-known member
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braintheory
Well-known member
Out of respect for Tone Specific, I can’t reveal that info
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
Sounds like a cool pickup. After trying to gel with PAF style pickups they just aren’t for me. The Greco Dry is supposed to be one of the best out there, and the TS PAF clone you sent me all have the same thing going on that I just can’t get on with. Something in the mids, compression I think that ‘narrows’ the sound under higher gain. I’d take a regular old SD Custom every day and twice on Sunday over a PAF style pickup. At least for a higher gain tone. Maybe a real PAF would sway me? But all you guys wanting PAFs can keep em. Lol.
Maybe for lower gain classic rock..but even through my tremolo I heard the same weird compression.
I’d be interested to try the high gain TS pickup though, if it is truly better than the IM.
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braintheory
Well-known member
Yeah this other TS is nothing at all like his other sets. Don't let that one I sent you have any influence over the high output one. The Iron Man is more compressed and "hotter in DC", but the TS Highoutput set actually is higher in actual output and is considerably more articulate, 3D, organic, detailed, tighter, punchier and more cutting than the IM. Don't get me wrong, the IM was my absolute favorite high output pickup and was only one I used for a long time and sent others packing, but when designing this TS set I was very clear in talking with him about everything I liked about the IM and what I wanted to hear in this set. The goal very much was to make any other high output set I had tried before obsolete and to finally have a metal set that has similar levels of detail and 3D-ness of PAF's while being a brutal metal pickup and he really succeeded I feel. The only thing the Iron Man has to me over this set is that the mids on the Iron Man are more saturated and bluesy voiced, while the mids are flatter and more metal on this TS set and because of that there are some guitars that it doesn't always work well in, but the finalized versions will likely have the mids tweaked a bit to be more saturated and the pickup should also get a little hotter (but not too different). The neck pickup is perfect and glorious as is and will humiliate/demolish any Wagner or others I've had. I will say the pickup as is super articulate in a such a way that if your guitar has inherently bad tone it'll get highlighted even more with this pickup, but you’ll be equally rewarded if the guitar has good tone like this yellow Charvel, while an Iron Man would cover that up. The IM sounds killer in literally any guitars it seemed when I had it
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
Interesting. I’ve had ‘thin’ sounding guitars that improved with better pickups, changing a pot metal bridge for an ofr (88 Jackson strat) and adding a brass block to it. I would think a better pickup would make a bad sounding guitar better, in every circumstance. If it’s a bad or average guitar I’d expect the TS pup to improve it, like others have in my experience.
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braintheory
Well-known member
Real PAF’s and Tone Specific’s are more transparent in a way than Duncan’s, Dimarzio’s or also the Iron Man, so if the guitar has bad tonal qualities about it, it can’t hide, while something like a Duncan Distortion or Dimarzio can cover that up more. I actually would say I still prefer bad sounding guitars with those better pickups overall, but I don’t like that it also amplifies those bad qualities of them lol. It can be sort of like a reality check/wake up call that the guitar is not as good as I first thought after all, or in the case of this yellow Charvel further confirm that it really does sound great. Sometimes when I have great pickups in a not great guitar, I’ll play the guitar again unplugged and be like how did I not notice this bad thing this guitar had unplugged before lol. The good ones can amplify those qualities, but also be more rewarding if it’s actually a great sounding guitar
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braintheory
Well-known member
Those Dry’s to me were pretty good, but not like real PAF’s and imo also nowhere near as good as TS. If I have one not in a guitar, I can send you a Bloombucker bridge to try. I AB’ed it in my McInturff with vintage Gibson’s with real PAF’s and to me it really has the PAF tone down. If you don’t like that either, than I guess you’re just not a PAF guy. The other TS set you tried was more like the early ‘60’s Gibson pickups imo, but still sort of its own thing, but I guess still in the paf ballpark. The Bloombucker to me has the most throaty, warm growl of any pickup I’ve tried. I like PAF style or highoutput pickups (like the IM) equally well for metal, just depends on the guitar, playing style and tweaking the setup a bit, but just imo I guess. Maybe I’ll try to make a comparison clip with me playing the same thing with the Bloombucker and highoutput TS. I feel the paf style’s can get just as brutal in their own way and have a lot more detail, tonal complexity and you can just be a lot more expressive of a player with them, especially for leads and vibratos
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
I get my 84 Charvel back soon; I’d definitely be interested in trying those out. So far it’s been 3/3 with vintage Charvels sounding great..I’m expecting the same with this next one.
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braintheory
Well-known member
Awesome, I bet it will sound great! The only thing is that imo maple body guitars can sometimes be weird about what pickups sound good in them from my experience. The IM should be a safe bet in it. In my all maple ‘86 Charvel I actually liked the TS Twang best in the bridge, which is even less hot than his other PAF-y sets. The Bloombcuker and Highoutput weren’t bad, but the Twang I felt just complemented it better, but every guitar is different. Maybe your ‘84 might like them. The Bloombucker really excels in mahogany guitars or any guitar that sounds real growly and warm, which mahogany guitars generally do, so it was also pretty good in the blue ‘84 I got from you, but the highoutput set was better imo in it. The highoutput set seems to like most guitars that sound really punchy and have adequate beef. The ‘84 is an excellent fit for them. The Bloombucker was killer in my yellow Charvel, but not as good in the Dakota red one. Despite them having the same exact woods, I think it sounded a lot better in the yellow one because the yellow one has all roasted woods, which I think is why it sounds so much warmer, more growly and also tighter and punchier. I am a big fan of guitars with roasted woods and wish it was done more often. I love my vintage Charvel’s and keeping them, but to me these 2 aged nitros (especially this yellow one) are the best ones in tone and as a nice bonus my favorites also in playability. The ‘84 though has that huge bottom end and the ‘86 has the maple brightness that’s nice. I think there may have been some more recent Charvel’s here there that were also maple. Would be interesting to try
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blackie13
Well-known member
I respect that...but is it a JB like dc or more like a medium output 10k pickup...?
I have a 42g custom wound 10k pickup that is gainy af...
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
I wonder if the Nitro itself is the reason they sound better than the vintage ones…maybe I should’ve asked for nitro. Thinner finish, wood ‘breathes’ more…
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braintheory
Well-known member
I’m not allowed to disclose the DC, the final product might have a little different DC anyway than what I currently have, but I will say the JB is more compressed than this one, but the Tone Specific set I have still has more actual output. I had it in several guitars where I compared it with a JB and the JB sounded like a toy in comparison, but I do admit the JB had a bit more saturation in the midrange and can sometimes make bad guitar still sound somewhat decent because of it
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braintheory
Well-known member
Some might call me crazy, but finish is in my experience VERY important for tone and can for sure make or break a guitar. I’m not by any stretch an expert on finish nor can I identify them by looking or anything, but soundwise it can be huge. For example, at Chelsea guitars in nyc they had a real ‘52 Tele that was re-finished and it sounded ok relative to other vintage Tele’s I’ve tried, better than newer guitars still, but not great, thought it was a dud, however the guys at Chelsea had it later re-finished again in what they felt was the “proper” way and I swear it sounded like a completely different guitar and from that point on sounded the way a good vintage Tele should imo. Not the very best vintage Tele I’ve tried, but a very good one and both re-finishes were nitro, but not sure why it sounded so much better on the 2nd one. Everything else remained the same on it
Poly finishes imo are terrible and imo a waste of good tonewood unless thin enough and tends to make guitars sound sterile, choked, you lose the woodiness, it doesn’t breathe, just bad, but if thin enough can still sound good or even great if all the other specs are great. That’s why I’m guessing I’ve hated the tone of most PRS’s, Suhr’s and Anderson’s I’ve tried. Oil finishes to me have the most open sound, which I like, but also imo too dry sounding and lacking harmonics to me. The right kind of nitro to me really is the best. There was this great video I’ve seen that explains more scientifically what it is about the right nitro finish that makes them sound better, but even more so as they age and get beat up. I’ll see if I can find the link. It confirms all my experiences with respect to guitar tone. I have noticed that pretty much all my best sounding guitars all look beat up (even my all aluminum EGC), whether it’s from purposely being relic’ed, being old or just my own fault lol
IMO it’s a shame that some of these boutique companies will waste these beautiful looking tone woods with all that poly finish, but better looking woods don’t sound better necessarily anyway and I guess it just helps them with their goal of making the most luxurious looking guitars rather than if they sound good or not
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braintheory
Well-known member
I think so, but I also would bet money that the roasted woods on this yellow one I just got is also a very important factor. All my roasted woods guitars (Novo’s and Riggio as well) have this certain of type of sound that I love that my non-roasted guitars just don't have. The ‘80’s ones I have still have a certain type of liveliness and warmth to their tone that you only get in older guitars, the new nitro ones don’t quite have that, which is why I’m keeping the ‘80’s still, but as a whole I think the aged nitros sounds better to me and also play better, but again they all play very well to me. I’d also say that both these nitros are the most balanced sounding guitars I’ve had, which is maybe also why they work so well with all sorts of different types of pickups in them. The lows are very tight, but still enough beef, mids are prominent, but not nasal or boxy, nice singing highs that can bite when needed, but always round and pleasing when playing leads
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Daxman73
New member
Man, that's beautiful. Good info on how the roasted woods affect tone. I'm itching for a Charvel custom, I'm such a huge fan of them and own/owned tons of the older pre-90's MIJ stuff. Always wanted a USA Custom model, especially a nitro finished one. Thanks for sharing.
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psychodave
Well-known member
Finish is super important. I had a guitar that ripped, but was an ugly color. I got it refinished and the guitar just wasnt the same. I regretted getting it refinished and sold it.