- Thread starter oooogie
- Start date
I think TrapperJ has one, I know at least one person on here has one. They are pretty cool.
Glenn |B)
Daniel
Well-known member
I do! How can I help you?
Just looking for your impression. How you route the pups? Do you miss the tone knob? Are you blending the neck pup regularly? I assume you can run all three single coils and the piezo at the same time. Not sure I ever would but ya never know.
This guitar looks to have it all and I just sold an Axis SS with piezo and have been playing a standard Cutlass for a few months. I was thinking of buying a Fishman bridge and installing it on my Cutlass when I ran across this version. I was instantly smitten and figured someone on the boards would have some experience with it. So what do you think? And thanks.
jones4tone
Well-known member
I spend most of my time on neck and neck-middle, so I don't use the blend knob a lot, but it does have a noticeable effect on tone. I'm glad to have the piezo, but honestly haven't used it much to date. I don't have a suitable signal chain for the piezo to maximize its potential, so I just don't use it much.
Using the blend knob with the blade switch on bridge-middle is a cool sound when you get all 3 coils in. Can't say I've used that a ton, either, but I like the tone in that mode.
Once I switched from M-Steels to Slinkys, I can't say I miss the tone knob. It was too bright for my ears on my rig with the M-Steels, but I really like the neck and middle tone as they are now, and the blend works well for me when on bridge.
I don't know exactly what the differences are coil-wise between the pickups on the Hayes vs standard Cutlass, but they do sound different. (My son has a Cutlass, and we have compared them a good amount.) The Hayes tends to be a somewhat brighter to my ear. It's a great guitar, and I'm really glad to have a hard-tail Cutlass. You will notice the difference in neck profile from your current Cutlass. It's definitely not a V shape, and thinner front to back.
Using the blend knob with the blade switch on bridge-middle is a cool sound when you get all 3 coils in. Can't say I've used that a ton, either, but I like the tone in that mode.
Once I switched from M-Steels to Slinkys, I can't say I miss the tone knob. It was too bright for my ears on my rig with the M-Steels, but I really like the neck and middle tone as they are now, and the blend works well for me when on bridge.
I don't know exactly what the differences are coil-wise between the pickups on the Hayes vs standard Cutlass, but they do sound different. (My son has a Cutlass, and we have compared them a good amount.) The Hayes tends to be a somewhat brighter to my ear. It's a great guitar, and I'm really glad to have a hard-tail Cutlass. You will notice the difference in neck profile from your current Cutlass. It's definitely not a V shape, and thinner front to back.
Thanks for the info. I'll spend a little time digesting this but all sounds good. The thinner neck won't be a problem and going back to the oil and wax finish will be like heaven again for me. Since having the AxiaSS with that neck finish I've refinished two other guitar with that finish because I love the feel. Thanks for your response.
Daniel
Well-known member
I can say that having the option to blend that pickup in can be very useful. Especially if you want to run the neck and bridge pickups at the same time. It's just another great tone option that you don't get on any other guitar. With the addition of the piezo bridge, you have almost unlimited tonal options.
The neck profile is a little different from the Cutlass, which is a soft-V in the first 5 frets and tapers to a soft-C shape by fret 12. The Hunter Hayes is a little thinner and has a consistent carve up the entire neck.
The Hunter Hayes also has a boost switch which will give you up to 20db more output on your mag pickups.
Thanks Dan. Just picked it up today and haven't plugged it in yet but it feels really good to play and actually sounds good acoustically which is always a good sign. I have another question thought. With this guitar and the Axis I had there are 2 outputs. The chart that came with the guitar shows 3 options. With my Axis I would either run both the mags and the piezo into a single source with a mono 1/4" cord out of the mono output. Or I would run 2 chords into different sources using both outputs. What would one do with a stereo TRS cord out of the stereo output? The Axis had a toggle switch to blend in the piezo. This guitar looks to achieve this with the volume knob. One other thing, I'm a little confused by the neck blend knob. Do you actually blend the neck pickup by turning the knob down? Thanks all. Looks like I'm going to like this one a lot.
Daniel
Well-known member
Congrats on the new guitar! The Hunter Hayes Cutlass is a great guitar.
The ability to run a TRS cable is an advantage some some players who like to run direct into digital IOs or amp modeling devices who don't want to run two separate inputs.
You are correct about the piezo blend knob. Instead of an on/off switch, you can use the knob to turn it down or cut it out completely.
The neck blend knob gives you a lot of tonal options especially when the switch is in positions 4 and 5. You can blend that neck pickup back in to get a brighter tone whenever you want. Or you can leave it turned down and use your 5 way switch as normal. I personally like being able to run the neck and bridge pickups at the same time, which is not a tone option you normally get on an SSS guitar.
