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GrooveMerchant

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
91
Location
Canada
I picked up a used Morse a few weeks ago, and I'm having issues with the neck pickup.
It sounds wooly. Like muffled, as if there's a blanket over it or something.
I can get it to sound ok, but then the bridge pickup is too piercing or bright.
I just can't get it to work with all the other pups.
But if I tap in the slanted single with the neck it opens up, but is a noticeably thinner tone.
Is this a common thing with the Morse?
What I want is the thickness of a humbucker without the wooly flabby bass end.
Its fully stock btw.

Thoughts?
Suggestions?
Swap out the pup?
But with what?

I could really use a little guidance.
 

beej

Moderator
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
11,966
Location
Toronto, Canada
Yeah ... that's the Morse neck HB. It does great with lots of gain for solos, but is otherwise wooly. Totally works for Steve in that application.

One thing you can do is swap in a 500k volume pot (keeping the 250k tone pot). That will open it up a bit, without making the single coils too bright. I'm doing this on my Morse and Y2D and it definitely helps.

Beyond that, you're probably looking at swapping it out. (Dimarzio once recommended the Titan neck model to me as a good fit to mate with the controls and bridge pickup, though I've never tried it.)

If you do make a change, I'd love to hear what works for you.
 

tbonesullivan

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
2,250
Location
New Jersey
The neck pickup has a weak magnet with a very high number of winds, to give it a dark sound. Also make sure it isn't too close to the strings, as the pickups are designed to be relatively far from the strings. I find that it's really great for jazzy stuff. It's got a really thick bassy sound, which is exactly what Steve was looking for: something like a 335.
 
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