Strat Pickup Swap | Suhr Thornbucker Meets Mojotone Quiet Coil '67s

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[@fiddlix]

You have enough tonal options on that strat to a man confused for a lifetime. Great stuff..!

[@jimbeaux4988]

This is cool. Was just sitting around with all the family over for Christmas and we pulled out all my guitars and listened to pickups and amps. I have one sss strat and a dual humbucker strat. They could not sound more different.

[@oldguy5381]

Good to see you tinkering with your stuff. Chasing that tone

[@rescd4]

Wow, sounds great. Really appreciate watching you doing "test/adjustment". Very straight forward and provides a base for evaluation....Thank You great learning experience

[@leiferickson3183]

Grace under pressure was the first Rush album I bought when it came out - I think I was just starting High School. I bought that one and then went back and bought everything that came out before. I saw them on that Tour and on Power Windows as well. Relistening now. It is strangely releiving when you get rid of the buzz in a guitar - it is like suddenly a stressor is gone that you didnt even realize was there because it has become normal. You can hear down into the tails and quiet bits so much better. Best Wishes for 2022!

[@danz4904]

I know what you mean about the plastic attack on DiMarzio Area pickups. I tried Area 61, 58, 67, and Injectors, then finally gave up and went back to traditional single coils. Not saying DiMarzios are bad, they're just different and smoother sounding than I like from a single coil. I was able to mitigate the single coil hum by completely shielding the body cavity and pickguard with copper foil. Now I can even play with high gain and the hum is quite low.

[@tracyc7813]

I have a few Mojotone Quiet Coil P90's in a couple of my guitars and I love them. I was able to remove the cover on one of them and can confirm that the P90 Quiet Coils are sidewinders.

[@DDP73]

middle position and neck "too high" both raised my eyebrows. Sounds good here

[@Shiloh7377]

I got some seymour duncans/seth lover that I put into my squier vintage modified telecaster custom, but I pulled seymour Duncan's magnets out and put Alnico 3s in them...awsome sound...

[@weschilton]

That's a pretty versatile Strat now... and very quiet, at least on this end. I don't actually mind a *little* single coil hum, but I have everything in my studio running through filtered power so the noise is minimal.

[@johnwilliamson467]

Check the quality of the grounding rod at your main panel . It the past I have run into noise problem in residential 240 volt USA main panel with poor grounding rod connections worth looking at. Mt house is 90 plus years old and the new grounding rod fixed some issue I had .

[@PsionicAudio]

See my response to CW Cooper. I could wish that was the problem.

[@johnwilliamson467]

@@PsionicAudio Sound way out of spec. For a security system . Should have some thing like a 24 volt transformer and a battery back up . How well grounded is that unit.

[@Shiloh7377]

I put a mojotone blender solderless wiring harness in my strat, and I love it...

[@matthewf1979]

Mojotone sure sells some awesome stuff!

[@phillamoore157]

Any chance you have a video showing how to do a standard bridge humbucker installation? I'm putting an SSV+ into the bride of a strat, and don't have a lot to go on.

[@frantisca]

Very intersting. I'm not that much of a Strat guy, but your PU combination/wiring sounds really fine :) Kudos !

[@shawnkhan2901]

Hey, I have a set of these as well. The covers are field replaceable. They are simply being held on with a very small amount of wax. Grab a tiny flat head screwdriver and gently pry them off.

[@MrShredarg]

I have the Thornbucker my strat bridge, it was to warm then I installed it backwards with the screw poles towards the neck and it brighter for sure, becase the slug poles more closer to bridge while slugs are mostly more dominant part in a humbucker.

[@desvega5849]

Eyyyy it's Josie at 24:07. What a great riff for demoing pickups

[@mightymikeamps9317]

I had no idea those Evans pickups were used by Alex. A fellow Amp builder friend of mine let another amp builder friend borrow his Evans, and he just had him ship them to me to try. I’ve been so busy , I was just going to ship them to him and pass . It looked like 2 sets of Strat Pickups.. but they looked weird. I figured they must be active. I was surprised to hear you say those Pete Thorns were dark. I just ordered a Thornbucker F Spaced Bridge for a Partcaster I built Hope it sounds good with a Northern Ash Body. If not I will check that pickup placement!

[@blazeofglory1982]

Great video. Think I’ll go with this setup!

[@bretolson8484]

I feel very justified for loving those Rush albums now 😁 I grew up playing two Cort/Sears Strats, an SSS and an HSS. I just haven’t learned to appreciate the HSS though I regularly play guitars w/humbuckers. Suppose I’m a bit spoiled to have a few guitars. Thanks for sharing your critical exams with us ! I’m enjoying my pickups from Tom Brantley Rewinds and JonesyBlues

[@DanielBobke]

Unfortunately, the supply chain issues persist. To get individual pickups, it is a 16 week lead time. You can buy a set of 3 with the "hot bridge" in stock, but that is $250. It may be Christmas 2022 if you want these as individual pickups.

[@michael_caz_nyc]

I've seen Rush 5x's, and every-show Alex Lifeson was "Lazer Accurate" = Freewill solo, La Villa ect . . . he is a phenomenal guitar player. Alex Lifeson is a huge Inspiration for me (having played in a Rush cover band). Always enjoy your interesting content.

[@matthewf1979]

I really like all of the Mojotone pickups that I’ve purchased over the years. The 59 Clone PAF’s, Broadcaster and 59 Stratocaster pickups I have are as good or better than boutique winders. The low wind A4 PAF Clones absolutely destroy the Custombuckers that came in my R9. I’m still salty at how bad the pickups were in a $6500 guitar. I haven’t used any of the noiseless Fender style pickups though. I haven’t been impressed by any I’ve tried and haven’t been on my radar for a decade because of it. I’ll be around for the after honeymoon review!

[@Antman-cy8ch]

Mojotone pickups are great. Alex Lifeson is a monster player. All eras.

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Love Alex Lifeson " La Villa " he is a monster. ( super-nice humble guy too )

[@jbolt247]

Love the Thornbucker. The mojos sounded good. Definitely the best canceling I’ve heard. They did seem to be missing some of the presence that I normally associate with the deluxe. Just ever ever so slightly flatter, less open sounding. Would love to hear them through a Vox or the Excalibur when you are happy with the setup.

[@PsionicAudio]

This was the Deluxe Reverb with the controls at noon with no bright cap. Later you'll hear it through the same amp with the Treble and Bass adjusted a bit. But for initial setup, I wanted a neutral amp, and the pickups were a little neutral in that setting. Which is good. They aren't bright but they aren't dark. They are full but they aren't muddy. Next I'll dial them in to pretty. The icing comes last. First I had to make sure the cake was good.

[@olanfender8326]

250k or 500k pots bro..?

[@waynegram8907]

What pickups would you use to get those Alex Lifeson tones? You mentioned he used a single coil pickup in the bridge but you're using a humbucker

[@monet812]

Sounds good. Is it my imagination or is the neck pickup pole spacing out of alignment with the strings?

[@PsionicAudio]

It's my understanding that the "pole pieces" on these pickups are cosmetic. Just little bits in the plastic cover. Beneath the cover are two side by side coils doing the actual sensing.

[@jimshomestudio]

The brushed finish on the Thornbucker pickup could use a little scotchbrite? I always wondered what the best way to clean them. Bare Knuckle has something similar. I got one of the PT Sig Std guitars, has a Plus in the bridge position. Nice to see you confirm the series/parallel as descriptors. Always struggle to understand what’s what. Electronics aren’t my thing! 😜 Nice wiring, way to go on the Lifeson riffs. I just use reg XL’s. NYXL are a bit more glassy. Or try Ernie Ball 9.5’s. That’s what PT uses. The engineering on those Rush records was amazing, so that I could never quite get anything Rush never surprised me. Trident A range console. I was always shocked to learn that 2112 was a Deluxe.

[@PsionicAudio]

I'm not fussed about cleaning it. But ask Suhr before using any solvents or abrasives. BTW 2112 was done with a Super Reverb, not a Deluxe. Not trying to be That Guy but things like that make a difference.

[@jimshomestudio]

@@PsionicAudio No, I appreciate the clarification. 👍😊

[@roncarter2188]

Sounds nice, I was wondering what amp you was using in this video?

[@PsionicAudio]

A '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb I gutted and rebuilt as a real amp with a WGS ET65 speaker.

[@roncarter2188]

@@PsionicAudio and I wouldn't expect anything else coming from you, well it sounds fabulous you did a great job, please keep it up I love seeing these videos.

[@maverick_trail]

I swear at times I felt like I was listening to one of Neil Peart's audio books.

[@tkbyd]

I've always preferred 50's wiring instead of a bad treble bleed option. volume and tone are far more interactive Subjective of course Cheers from the great white north.

[@halhawkins7641]

I had forgotten about that difference in the bridge pickup placement. I know we talked about it.....

[@guyworthington6470]

23 minutes until you played!

[@PsionicAudio]

What is the title of the video?

[@NudnikShpilkus]

I have a pickguard with the smaller spacing in a drawer somewhere. Turns out I like the larger dimension. I have Lawrence L45S, L45S, and L90-4H in mine, and the 4p5t super switch doing auto-series/parallel handling for the bridge pickup, defaulting to parallel for bridge/middle and switchable otherwise via a mini toggle....

[@NudnikShpilkus]

The *other* mini toggle swaps the middle alone for neck/bridge, which gives a fair Tele-ish sound when the bridge is in series mode....

[@NudnikShpilkus]

My bench has an *orange* towel. ;)

[@NudnikShpilkus]

I automatically snip grounds to baseplates and covers and add a separate ground wire in things like this, so phase issues and/or phase switching and/or series wiring are easy peasy....

[@NudnikShpilkus]

They look ok to me. Pickup covers often age to a different color anyway.

[@NudnikShpilkus]

Bridge parallel sounds nice. Also nice with the middle. Does it have the "Sweet Home Alabama" and/or "Sultans of Swing" sort of sound?

[@JRFarmercom]

I find my Thornbuckers are quite a bit higher output than my Pearly Gates. Love them both, though.

[@PsionicAudio]

8.88K vs 8.2K on these. I don't know what wire they each use. I know the magnets are different. I'll probably put the Faux Pearly back in at some point just to satisfy my curiosity once I "know" what the current setup sounds like. It's just kind of a pain to swap. We'll see which one makes the grade long term. The Thornbucker looks cooler at least ..

[@paulcargo4233]

Do you have any thoughts on the various versions of the fender noiseless pups for strats.

[@PsionicAudio]

Yeah, I've played I think every version they've put out. I could have bought them for this guitar, and I most certainly did not.

[@Siam_Thai.]

Fender Noiseless Gen 4 is the best!

[@jinx1499]

Does anybody know where one would find a wiring diagram for this type of setup?? Thanks in advance!

[@PsionicAudio]

I’m sure Duncan has the stuff you need. My first “tone” pot is Blend for the neck pickup. My second tone pot is tone but also a push-pull to go between series and parallel for the bridge HB. Nothing really new here, but it works well for me.

[@jinx1499]

@@PsionicAudio Thanks, I'll look around for it!

[@GolecLuka]

Lyle, you hear greater treble loss because of the 500k pot you used insted of 250k. I dont think pickups are cousing that.

[@PsionicAudio]

Nope. You got that backwards.

[@RedArrow73]

Do you own a bass?

[@PsionicAudio]

Yes. Squier P with a Fralin in it.

[@GolecLuka]

How do you darken pickguard?

[@PsionicAudio]

I meant pickup covers, which can usually be darkened with teas and other mild dyes. But the covers don't seem to come off the quiet coils, so it's not an option here.

[@GolecLuka]

Ty

[@cwcooper3463]

Clean up your earth ground on your home and it will make a great difference on your 60 cycle hum.

[@PsionicAudio]

Not the issue here (and I did that the first week in the house). There is no buzz in the amp/outlet. But there is a big field coming from the home security panel in the next room. I need to find the time to call the company so I can turn it all off without them calling the cops, and shield the inside of the unit and the bigger box in a closet. It's like the field from a cheap dimmer switch.

[@cwcooper3463]

@@PsionicAudio just a suggestion brother. Hope you have a great year. 👍