Peavey Wolfgang Special - bridge pickup replacements?

[AndyK]

I recently got a used Peavey Wolfie Special. After playing it all weekend, I decided that the bridge pickup easily recreates EVH's tone on the later Sammy era tunes. My problem - I can't stand Ed's later tone! The pickup is super high output, and very lower mid heavy. Pretty oppossite of his early, high-mid crunch tone.

Has anyone tried a Super Distortion in their Wolfgangs? I would like to get closer to Ed's early tone, and Pete Thorn says the Super Distortion does it. Not sure what it does in a solid Basswood guitar though.

 

[Meathead]

I have a Dimarzio SD in two strats and it does the old VH tone nice. A little more highs, less low mids. It's a bit fussy about placement, really mess with the distance from the strings to find the sweet spot...not to close, it gets congested sounding.
I bet it would work well in the Wolfgang. If not try it in a strat next, it loves strats.

 

[AndyK]

I may give it a shot, since the Dimarzio pickups seem to be drop in replacements. Hopefully the mounting legs of the pickup match the Wolfie pickup - I don't want to route the guitar to adjust the height!

 

[Meathead]

I may give it a shot, since the Dimarzio pickups seem to be drop in replacements. Hopefully the mounting legs of the pickup match the Wolfie pickup - I don't want to route the guitar to adjust the height!

I believe the Wolfgang pickups are Dimarzio's as well. Pull one out first and have a look.

 

[AndyK]

I happen to have a black F spaced SD that I can measure to see if the mounting length is the same as the stock Wolfie pickups.

 

[mniel8195]

how about a bareknuckle vhii? seems like it would be a great choice for that guitar

 

[marvcus]

Peavey made the custom pickups in Peavey Wolfgangs. DiMarzio made the pickups in the EBMM EVH model.

I have heard the Tone Zone is a close DiMarzio approximation of the EBMM model, but, alas, that's the Sammy era.

Definitely recommend making sure the replacement pickup size will retrofit into the Wolfgang pickup slot.

 

[AndyK]

Problem with the Bare Knuckle VH is it's low output. I have read that low output pickups sound dead in the Wolfie for some reason. Plus, I want to keep the neck pickup, and don't want a huge volume drop. And, the Dimarzios mount looks like the same as the stock pickups.

I'll be happy to just alter the mids of the stock pickup sound, to get less low end mids, and better high mids. Right now, to me, the stock pickup sounds like a Duncan JB - which I have always hated because of the nasal mid quality.

 

[mniel8195]

then i would look at the rebell yell...sounds like the holy diver would be sweet to...like a jb done perfectly. but the dimarzios would work as well.

 

[AndyK]

All of Mark's (Rockstah) sound samples are done using a Dimarzio SD. That's good enough for me!

 

[Meathead]

All of Mark's (Rockstah) sound samples are done using a Dimarzio SD. That's good enough for me!

George at Metro digs them to for old VH tone. That's why I grabbed them last year.

 

[rcm78]

That pickup is nothing more then a 43ga 14k Alnico V pickup. It sounds the way it sounds in that particular guitar. It might take some experimentation to get a higher mid focused sound out of a basswood guitar.

Take that wolfgang pickup and put it in an Ash guitar like Ed's Franky and I'd bet it would be more high mid focused...

 

[AndyK]

That pickup is nothing more then a 43ga 14k Alnico V pickup. It sounds the way it sounds in that particular guitar. It might take some experimentation to get a higher mid focused sound out of a basswood guitar.

Take that wolfgang pickup and put it in an Ash guitar like Ed's Franky and I'd bet it would be more high mid focused...

So are you saying no pickup change will alter the tone of the Wolfie Special?

 

[romanianreaper]

Other than the pickup, how are you liking the Wolfgang? I have one on the way in black. I've read in reviews that it is just as good as the regular Wolfgang, although some obvious changes look-wise. I have a hardtail version coming.

 

[rjohns1]

Believe it or not, the AT-1 sounds incredible in the Axis, which is very similar to the wolfgang. I replaced my bridge pickup for the same reason. It is very much balanced like the ernie ball pickup, but a little less hot, and more classic sounding. I've owned many wolf gangs and Axis guitars. Never tried the super distortion though.

 

[AndyK]

Other than the pickup, how are you liking the Wolfgang? I have one on the way in black. I've read in reviews that it is just as good as the regular Wolfgang, although some obvious changes look-wise. I have a hardtail version coming.

I like the Wolfie Special much better than the Standard (I have had several of both over the years). The Special is light, warmer, and the neck is the same as the Standard, minus the figuring. No tone knob (good), flat top (easier to rest you arm and hand on), a no nonsense version that EVH played often on tour. I never tried a hard tail, but I am guessing the hard tail has more sustain because of the missing tremolo routing.

What are the stats on the Andy Timmons pickup??

 

[ledvedder]

I put Sounds of Sin pickups in my Wolfgang, and I've been happy ever since! This was after trying a number of different Dimarzios and Seymour Duncans.

 

[ericsabbath]

this guy seems happy: http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/i ... ic=26640.0

I'm ordering a VHII set very soon

 

[ericsabbath]

then i would look at the rebell yell...sounds like the holy diver would be sweet to...like a jb done perfectly. but the dimarzios would work as well.

yeah, the diver works great for early VH
really natural fluid leads quality without the excessive compression of duncans and dimarzios

 

[mniel8195]

i just put a rebell yell in the bridge of my esp eclipse and a vhii in the neck. Not done tweaking the height yet but im close. They are both amazing pups. Im probably going to pull the jb out of the bridge of my charvel and put in a holy diver and two single coils not sure which ones its the last model they made in the usa the trans kandy gold so it has direct mount pickups. i may put some foam under the pickups and longer screws so i can adjust the height of them. I picked up standard wolf gang in guitar center, the neck felt really small didnt get a chance to play though.