Hi everyone. I'm new; my Super Sonic is not. It's been my main guitar since 1998, but I'd never bothered to Google it until a couple months ago. Ever since then I've been all "Oh cool; I own a rare guitar." I've been lurking for a few weeks and finally decided to register. You seem like a fun bunch.
Anyway, here's my old friend (sorry for the lousy phone pic; I'm without a dedicated camera at the moment). SSPX0422 by ehanson85, on Flickr
It's pretty much stock except for the pickguard. However, the volume pots are starting to get a little staticky, and I'm wondering if I maybe ought to reconsider the pickups as long as I'm dealing with those. Maybe. I've gotten very used to the stock ones, and they distort well, but I'm starting to realize that the clean tones are just too muddy for my liking. What kind of pups do you all favor on a Super Sonic? I've got an SH-1 '59 (neck) and an SH-4 (bridge) on my backup guitar (a B.C. Rich Bronze Series Mockingbird). I get a good versatile sound out of those, so on the one hand, I could just throw another set in the SS. On the other hand, having the same pups in both guitars seems a little boring. Thoughts?
I agree, a muddy clean tone is no good. Have you considered just changing the neck pup and leaving the bridge pup alone?
mixtape wrote:having the same pups in both guitars seems a little boring.
I completely agree. I would think about the type of sound you really want out of the SS and listen to clips of various pups online. Might be cool to go with a boutique pup like a Novak. Sorry I don't have any specific recommendations, hopefully others will chime in.
I don't think having the same pickups in two guitars is boring. However, I could also recommend a TB-5 in the bridge instead of a JB. Also, try the Dragonfire Screamers. They sound very good and are priced well.
Anyway, the reason I thought he might want to go with different pups in these guitars is because a BC Rich and a SS are very different to begin with. Having the same pups in two Fender shortscales seems to makes more sense, if you love those pups and that's your sound.
after playing humbuckers for most of my youts, i sold all of them off to buy my jaguar. the guitars that i kept with humbuckers i replaced them with single coil pickguards and put SC's in them.
anyways. if you want a cleaner sounding big fat sound you are looking for a P90. these do the job perfect.
they are reverse wound match sets, meaning they both come in N and B varieties and if you buy a dream90N and a mean90B they will still hum cancel when you put the toggley in the middle with both on.
i love super sonics. i love that they built that guitar and said fuck an tone knob and gave it 2Vols. it makes it so easy to clean up the sound on one pickup and get nuts on the other while playing a tube amp. ive rewired half of my collection of shit with 2vols and thrown out the tone caps.
Heya... on my Supersonic, the bridge pickup was replaced with a Duncan JB+Split, and the neck pickup is stock. I find that when both pickups are on, and the bridge is split, I get an amazing tone.
As far as the pots go, the volume pot for the bridge was replaced with a push-pull 500k pot, and it works fine. However, the original volume pot for the neck pickup was very scratchy, so I'm beginning to think that this is an issue with the Supersonic in general.
Yeah, the volume for the neck pickup is the problem pot on mine too. I gave it another critical listen this morning, compared it to the pups on the Mockingbird again, and lowered the neck pup a bit, which helped somewhat. It's really only the low E and A strings that get muddy, so I might also try adjusting the polepieces and see what that does to it. The SS pickups sound a little brighter than the Duncans I've got in the Mockingbird, I think, and I really do love their tone (mostly). It's what I grew up with and what I built my style on. So I like the idea of leaving the bridge pup alone and changing out the neck one for something that will give me a bit more clarity but still have most of the character of the stock pup. My hesitation with P90s is, would I have to cut the holes in the pickguard bigger? If so, I'd give preference to another open-coil humbucker (but I could be persuaded otherwise). But it's very tempting to stick with the devil I know, or at least a similar but better-quality devil.
mixtape wrote:My hesitation with P90s is, would I have to cut the holes in the pickguard bigger? If so, I'd give preference to another open-coil humbucker (but I could be persuaded otherwise). But it's very tempting to stick with the devil I know, or at least a similar but better-quality devil.
I didn't realize when I made my post, but yeah if the pickguard you have on now is like a stock squier supersonic's and the pickup routes aren't rectangular then you'd have to shave off the little bit between the two coils for a phat cat or anything with a cover
I was originally thinking the same thing as Robroe ... humbucker sized P90. But it would be much easier to stick with something that doesn't require modds.
I listened to samples of the SH-1 and agree it is a great sounding pup ... clean and articulate yet still a bit chunky. Quite a few other Duncan 'buckers will fit that pickguard just fine too, but it's hard to recommend one over the SH-1. I think you may have your answer, but you can always do a bit more listening here: Duncan Humbuckers
Lindy Fralin also makes a Pure PAF that will fit your guard, but it's a very different sound.
+1 to sticking with the stock bridge pup. If it ain't broke...
I have five Super-Sonics, and all of them have had their pickups swapped out. My blue one has Fender Custom Shop Fat 50s (so three single coils, middle reverse wound). The black one and the coral one are set up as Esquires with no neck pickups (my favourite set-up). My white one has Dimarzio HBs, a Tone Zone (hot) in the bridge and a PAF in the neck (like a Gibson neck HB), both coil tapped. The silver one has P-Rails, so I can have a P90, a strat-ish single coil, or HBs in series or parallel.
My suggestion, if you want a neck pickup at all, is to go with a P-Rail. Four sounds with one pickup. You would have to square the top and bottom bumps off of the pickguard for this, but that is easy.
If I get a sixth, I may put TV Jones Power'Trons in it, because I like the ones in my Billy Bo.
A Whole Bunch of Guitars. Some with sparkles. Some with Pearl. Some with racing stripes.
I have a SD JB(SH4) in the bridge and a SD Jazz in the neck. I actually rewired mine with just a single volume knob. I love the Jazz neck pickup. It's my clean tone. I have a hot rodded Marshall type amp. I can have some serious brutal high gain tones then with a switch to the neck pickup and lowering the volume knob get some really nice punchy and still bright clean tones. I had a Bare Knuckle Pickups Painkiller in the bridge for a little while. It was a bit too dry and tight. My amp is pretty tight already. I put the JB back in. What kind of amp and music do you play?
mine has the stockpickup on neckposition and in bridgeposition there is a invader. It was so as i bought it and i like it. For cleantones i use the volumepot and the neckpickup...
I DON'T KNOW IF YOU GUYS NOTICED OR NOT, OR LIKE HAVE EYEBALLS? BECAUSE HE IS ALREADY ON PICKGUARD #2.
HES GOT A BLACK ONE ON THERE. WHY ARE YOU SAYING ITS NOT GOING TO FIT AND POSTING PHOTOS OF A STOCK WHITE PICKGUARD WHEN HE DOESN'T HAVE ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE ?
WHO MAKES ROUNDY W CUTS IN REPRO PICKGUARDS?
THE POST SAYING THAT MY PICKUPS ARE P90 SIZE WAS WRONG
THE 3 OTHER POSTS SAYING THEY WON'T FIT ARE WRONG.
