ShortScale.org

I've posted about this in the Diary Thread a few times, but I ordered some pickups from Bulldog earlier this year.

Bulldog is Hayden Minett. He currently works for Matamp and has previously worked for Bareknuckle. He knows his stuff.

The pickups were for my Aerodyne Tele. So a neck P-90 and a tele Bridge. I need a fair bit of versatility from this guitar. I decided to go for a P-90 that was wound as a vintage P-90, but with an extra tap to make it hotter. This would give me a nice thick lead tone as and when I needed it. The tricky bit was going to be matching a bridge pickup to it. After a few emails, Hayden had the idea of putting an extra tap on the bridge too. So this is something around his usual Iceman pickup, with an extra tap to make it stand up to the P-90 a bit better.

I was looking forward to the P-90 the most, as I generally like big, thick, dark tones. For me, the bridge pickup was mostly about solving the problem of something having to go there. The P-90 sounds great, but the bridge pickup has totally blown me away. I first noticed how twangy it was, but after a bit of adjustments, it's a bit tamer. The incredible thing is the amount of low end, though. It sounds huuuge. Really impressed.

I can't hear a massive difference between the taps on the neck pickup. This sounds as huge and thick and warm as I was expecting.

The middle setting is quackier than I would have expected, or than I would really like. I think this will be a matter of continuing to play with heights etc and getting balances right. Pretty sure it's not a phase issue...

Going to have to spend quite a bit of time relearning my amp now.

Anyway, a demo. This is my Matamp 1224, a Matamp 412 with G12H75 Creambacks, and a Behringer XM8500 (SM58 clone) as the mic.

First time every micing a guitar amp. My ears hurt.

0'00 - 1'10" - Bridge pickup, low output tap (rhythm) (clean)
1'10 - 2'20" - Bridge pickup, high output tap (rhythm) (clean)
2'20" - 3'35" - Bridge pickup with some volume rolled off, both taps (lead) (clean)
3'35" - 4'15" - Neck pickup, low output tap, full volume (rhythm) (clean)
4'15" - 4'45" - Neck pickup, low output tap, volume rolled off (rhythm) (clean)
4'45" - 5'10" - Neck pickup, high output tap, full volume (rhythm) (clean)
5'10" - 5'25" - Neck pickup, high output tap, volume rolled off (rhythm) (clean)
5'25" - 6'40" - Neck pickup, various settings (lead) (clean)
6'40" - 8'10" - Both pickups, various settings (rhythm) (clean)
8'10" - 9'50" - Bridge pickup, various settings (rhythm) (overdrive)
9'50" - 12'00" - Neck pickup, various settings (rhythm and lead) (overdrive)
12'00" - 13'05" - Bridge pickup, low output tap (rhythm) (heavy overdrive)
13'05" - 14'25" - Bridge pickup, high output tap (rhythm) (heavy overdrive)
14'25" 15'00" - Neck pickup, high output tap (lead) (heavy overdrive)

Gonna have a proper proper listen tomorrow (just finishing for the day), but it sounds great!

I put it in the comments, but if you update your video description to use the timings in this format, it adds the chapters to the timeline automatically:

Didn’t get too far through it today but they are sounding good so far! Will listen properly tomorrow.

They sound great. I think the neck is lovely, and really clear when overdriven, very nice indeed. The bridge is super twangy! In a good way.

Hmm. For my money, that middle position is out-of-phase, although it's not as full-on as on some guitars; I guess due to the fact they're quite different pickups so have less in common tonally?

I'll look again, but there isn't enough a volume drop, and it's extremely unlikely that I'd have got the wires the wrong way round given how much care was taken.

Unless there's something else weird I've done. I've used the CTS pots, so it's conceivable that there's something weird shorting out on the other side of that panel that you solder to.

The magnet orientation of the pickups could be wrong.

There could be something in that, the neck is RWRP.

Does that mean that I have to wire it out of phase to get it in phase?

I think with a p90 you can unscrew the baseplate and flip both magnets - they still should be pulling towards each other, but should be flipped. It's an easy mod and you can flip them back if it's not the case.


EDIT: you'll still need to unsolder the wires that are soldered to the bobbin wires and connecting the pickup to the switch to do that irc looking at your baseplate I don't see the wire being screwed to the baseplate like they usually do with p90s. At this point there is usually a solder joint between it and the bobbin wires. Yours just seem to go right under the baseplate. I'm a bit apprehensive about your taps, it means that there are 3 or 4 wires, but it shouldn't be important at all. You can unscrew your baseplate and look what you have there. If the wires aren't in the way of the magnets, you can just flip them and screw the baseplate back

Here's a picture how the wire usually connects to the bobbin wires

I don't think that I'll take the pickup apart to check. They were tested by Hayden before being sent, so I can't imagine that there's anything wrong there.

I've had a look at my wiring, and it's correct. Think it might just be the nature of the pickups?

Either way, the next thing that this guitar gets is ONE OF THESE so I guess we're going to find out.

No, no it’s wrong, into the fire with the whole thing!

Bacchus wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 9:51 am There could be something in that, the neck is RWRP.

Does that mean that I have to wire it out of phase to get it in phase?

No, that's the point of reversing both winding and polarity at the same time.

Yeah, googled and read the very basics of what RWRP means and then felt silly for asking.

The middle setting does indeed sound out of phase. BTW the last double cut LP I had was “vintage spec” right down to the two pickups being out of phase. OG P90 Gibson guitars had 2 of the same pickups in them so if he’s built them overwound with a tap down to Vintage output WITH vintage spec wiring that’s likely the issue. So built correctly but not necessarily what you’re after.

And what a nice sounding amp you have. I've always assumed Matamp was making amps for super distorted grindcore toans

Well, the fancy switch is on its way, so we're going to find out what's going on when it gets here.

sunshiner wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:06 am And what a nice sounding amp you have. I've always assumed Matamp was making amps for super distorted grindcore toans

Thanks, the amp is amazing. Still makes me giddy every time I power it up. Matamps can do more than that big, fuzzy, doom tone. My amp, the 1224 is probably the most versatile and least "Matampey" Matamp. It can do pretty much anything, and still do that typical Matamp tone.

http://www.matamp.co.uk/shop-matamp-pr ... cba1185463

Yeah, they don't do fender cleans, but they always sound beautiful.

There's a whole spectrum between early Peter Green and Dragged into Sunlight (probably the most extreme metal example I can think of that use Matamp).

It does sound really good, well recorded too!

Fancy switch arrived. Wired it in and it works, except that the in/out phase positions are reversed. I was more or less expecting this.

Problem sorted then! Have been temped by one of those fancy switches at times.