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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2016 11:32:30 GMT
Just ordered a batch of Alnico 5 and Alnico 4 bar magnets to experiment with in the P90s. I'm looking forward to this.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2016 13:58:38 GMT
Forgot to mention, as this guitar came with the strings slackened off I thought I'd take the tuning up to a bit below full tension to start with, knowing I'd be taking them off again soon. So I tuned the bottom 5 to a semitone flat. Then, as I was tuning the top E I decided to stop at B(b), the same as the B string next to it, and a funny thing happened. I tried picking out what would normally be a D chord and I was playing A Design for Life. I don't know many other people's songs but could remember Crazy Little Thing and that sounded great but odd too. What was happening here was that the B string was being doubled as in a 12 string and creating both a pleasing chorusy sound and some jazzier chords since standard triads were not being played. I took all the strings up a semitone so the guitar was now at concert pitch but still with that doubled B string. A is now played either as a single barre across the second fret or, for a more interesting sound like we would all play an open A but now the top E string is playing a B. D and Dm sound great whatever I do with that E string. Only open C takes a bit of decision making, if I play it like a standard C it can sound a bit off so playing it with the index finger barring the top two strings sorts that out. Even lead lines became interesting as a rapid riff through the top 4 strings resulted in some pretty amazing double B string stutters that would be all but impossible strung normally. I decided to see how many of our band's songs could be played this way and pretty much all of them could but with a whole new feel. I like this sound, especially if I capo it at the third or fifth, and may permanently string this guitar with two B strings. It's a quick way to do some crowd-pleasing covers in a way they've never heard before as the song's melody sometimes has to be adjusted. I'm tempted to throw in A Design for Life at next month's gig to see at what point the crowd get it. Im working on a new tune called "The cat is on the roof staring at the Moon" which could use such chords you mention. Im also using some strange sounding chords which coupled with yours could yield some fun stuff  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2016 14:22:20 GMT
More good news papache. Compose away. On the P90s again? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2016 14:59:41 GMT
More good news papache. Compose away. On the P90s again? Yes, P90s and Bugera but this time Galaxy delay (Mooer Twin) and reverb are on  All very clean , bridge pup delivers lovely. |
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Post by marit on Sept 9, 2016 20:17:22 GMT
It is indeed very sweet...but which case?!  Oh dear  Since you have quite a lot of strato and/or telecasters it's your best bet, and whatever "other guitar models" it fits is a bonus. It's cheapo, you won't regret it  I mean this case; www.thomann.de/nl/thomann_egitarrencase.htm |
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Post by john on Sept 10, 2016 8:10:32 GMT
Thats a beautiful looking guitar @defjef.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2016 9:46:05 GMT
It is john. Just need to gt the pickups sounding right to my ear and hoping the various Alnico magnets winging their way from Philadelphia do the trick. PHILADELPHIA?  ? Yep, I suddenly fancied trying Alnico 2 vs Alnico 4 vs Alnico 5 and this seemed to be the best all round price...crazy. It's going to be like Frankenstein's laboratory for a while as I mix and match all these. Then somebody will say "Oh, I just use the tone knob". |
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Post by john on Sept 10, 2016 10:16:19 GMT
Haha, springs & cogs everywhere. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2016 11:58:54 GMT
Well the Alnico magnets arrived from Philadelphia two days ago and I'd been dying to crack my P90s open. What a cheap way to improve some pickups (£10.90 for three pairs of magnets). I can also inform everyone that the other way to tell if a magnet is ceramic (apart from the greyness of the thing) is that it snaps really easily when being prised off glue. I don't care. I didn't wanna keep them anyway - nasty. To change the magnets all I had to do was slacken the strings, unscrew the two central adjusting screws in each pup, yoink 'em out and turn them over. Underneath, a brass plate is held on with two more short screws. Take them out and there are your two nasty ceramic mags (two in each pup). Beware, the brass plate has earthing wires soldered to it so don't snap them off. The ceramic mags were held on with some glue that was stronger than they were. Prised those off and replaced them with Alnico 4 magnets at neck and bridge, taking great care to match the polarity directions to the ceramic ones as per this article: Making P90 Pickups
Then I stuck them in with double sided tape and reassembled the guitar. The difference is so much nicer. Once again, no more of that scratchy toppy tone but now notes that sound like they are generated by fingers, that bloom and have a heart as they flow out of my Fender Champ. Really, for the money saved, companies might as well toss the idea of ceramic pickups on cheap guitars in the bin. They are uniformly awful which is fine if awful is what you're going for. I did buy one pair of Alnico 5s as well in case the neck sounded a bit dark or the bridge a bit quiet but for the moment I'm liking things just as they are and I'll get used to things. As for the mysterious Alnico 4 nomenclature, I read this article Axesrus Alnico 4 plus a few others and decided to try them anyway. Might be no difference to Alnico 5 but they were actually slightly cheaper so hardly a gamble. |
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