Any of y'all swap pickups in a St. Vincent HHH?

[St_G]

My St. V is, without a doubt, the best built guitar I've ever owned.

The Dimarzio Minihumbuckers, however, are not entirely to my taste. I think I see why Annie Clark chose them -- they have great string-to-string definition and hold together under even the highest gain/fuzz or most layers of effects -- but if I strip away most of the processing that she puts on her guitar parts, I'm left with pickups that sound, to my ears, a little flat.

Not dark, exactly, but largely lacking the chime and harmonics of my favorite guitars.

Again, this makes sense to me, as my chimey, very harmonically rich guitars tend to go mushy or abrasive under heavy gain. Horses for courses.

But I'm curious if anyone has played around with alternate pickups in these? I'm tempted to keep this one as-as and grab another one to toy with, but I'm not sure what direction I want to go. Possibly something hotter/darker/chunkier in the bridge, and a couple of MUCH brighter pickups on the middle and neck.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Well, which guitars do you like? Mini humbuckers are going to sound like mini hums. They are probably firebird style, so they are definitely a different sound than full size humbuckers or single coils.

 

[jonathane40]

I don't have the Ernie Ball but the Sterling version which has different pickups. I'm looking at getting the Dimarzio pickups in the St. Vincent and contacted Dimarzio. According to them, the St. Vincent come with the DP-168. According to Dimarzio, these pickups have a thicker and warmer sound than either the DP240 or DP241, although the output levels are similar.

Did you end up replacing the pickups on the St. Vincent? I currently like the ones on the Sterling but since these are my first guitar with mini hum buckers, I have been curious about either getting the ones on the Ernie Ball or even getting more traditional Firebird pickups. I think all Dimarzio mini buckers are ceramic and I'm not sure why. Would some Alnico mini buckers sound better?

 

[NickNihil]

They are certainly dark/neutral pickups compared to other mini-hums I've played, including Gibson Firebird V, the Sterling STV, and the new Goldie. I actually had a 500k tone pot installed in my Stealth Black hhh and it opened the tone up quite a bit without totally changing the character. I'd try a pot swap before a pickup swap.

 

[St_G]

Sorry for the late reply. After the first answer was "minibuckers gonna minibucker" (at BEST a meaningless tautology) and "they're Firebird" (incorrect and provably false info) I sort of forgot about this thread.

Anyway, just yesterday, I finally broke down and ordered a new pickup to try. Even in the relatively uncrowded minibucker size, the options were overwhelming and clips/reviews/notes basically useless. I eventually just had to eeny-meeny it and pull the trigger on a new neck pickup (since it's used in 3 of the settings, it seemed like the place to start).

In a few weeks, I should have a shiny new Lindy Fralin Firebird pickup to try out. I'll let you know how it goes.

FWIW, I've played plenty of pickups with ceramic magnets that sounded great, but I've also played pickups with identical winds and different magnets that, I swear, sounded noticeably different.

Did you end up replacing the pickups on the St. Vincent? I currently like the ones on the Sterling but since these are my first guitar with mini hum buckers, I have been curious about either getting the ones on the Ernie Ball or even getting more traditional Firebird pickups. I think all Dimarzio mini buckers are ceramic and I'm not sure why. Would some Alnico mini buckers sound better?

 

[TripHazard]

You’ve chosen well. Fralin or Lollar - ya can’t go wrong with either

 

[St_G]

Tempting, for sure, if only for the lower parts cost. It was actually your (I think?) video comparing the Goldie to the OG w/500k pots that convinced me that pots wouldn't be enough. I suspect I'll still need to do it IN ADDITION to changing the pickups, but we'll see.

Now that I've broken the seal, I'm going all-in. This is already the best built, best playing guitar I own. Time for it to be the best sounding too.

I'd try a pot swap before a pickup swap.

 

[NickNihil]

Hell yes. Looking forward to hearing about the results.

 

[Fantomaz]

They are certainly dark/neutral pickups compared to other mini-hums I've played, including Gibson Firebird V, the Sterling STV, and the new Goldie. I actually had a 500k tone pot installed in my Stealth Black hhh and it opened the tone up quite a bit without totally changing the character. I'd try a pot swap before a pickup swap.

I guess you have the Sterling version then, the pots are welded to the pub on the music man version.

 

[Johnny Alien]

Its really easy to change pots that are soldered to a PCB.

 

[NickNihil]

No, I have a Music Man. They got swapped on the PCB. Not a fun job, the terminals are custom sized to fit thusly through PCB with solder on both sides. Very tight fit. Had to get the pots through EBMM as no one else made pots that would fit.

 

[Fantomaz]

Thanks, that is what I suspected. Soldering pots on a tiny pcb definitely not in my skillset.

I absolutely love my original MM St Vincent but I am growing tired of "dullness" of the original di marzios.

I have tried the goldie and quite like it.

But I also love the pos 5 setting on my original St Vincent which would require a way to wire neck + bridge in parallel instead of the more traditional wiring on the goldie.

I am curious about the construction of the "mini humbucker" gold foils in the goldie, do you guys know if they are made like mini humbuckers of like firebird pickups?

 

[NickNihil]

They’re mini-humbucker style. Long have I thought about taking the PCB out of the Goldie and putting a ‘bridge on’ push/pull pot in so I can get bridge+neck and all 3. It’s kind of baffling they didn’t just do that on the original in the first place.

 

[Fantomaz]

It’s kind of baffling they didn’t just do that on the original in the first place.

Probably some "unconventional" thinking by Mrs Clark. I bet she didn't care about making her signature guitar super flexible.

That said, the St Vincent is an incredible design, super light and comfortable, well balanced, fantastic sounding, also I prefer the traditional nickel silver frets over the stainless steel I have in the cutlass.

I think that what you suggest can be done with a bit of wiring and a superswitch but feasible even with my limited soldering skills methinks.

I have just ordered today a set of custom wound 4 wire chrome "goldfoils" based on the firebird design. I will do some testing before deciding on the final wiring because I fear the "bridge + neck in parallel" pos 5 that I like so much is going to sound different than with the dimarzios, but I might go down the "superswitch + push pull tone pot" route, they should be here in a week, I'll let you know.

 

[NickNihil]

It's totally doable, I just haven't felt like doing it. (partly because 3 of my other guitars are 2 pickup as well) The pot swap in the original was really useful, but I've also been toying with changing the pickups to something more Firebird like as my the sight lines of the tones I want have changed over the past couple of years as my guitar collection has evolved. But then there are those times where that dark but with a leaner, clearer low end really works for me Plus the bridge + neck combo run through heavy drive is uniquely lovely as there's a combination of thickness, smooth top end, and clarity that none of my other guitars quite match. I'm just kind of bummed that my Stealth Black used to be my number 1 and now I'd put the Goldie, my Albert Lee HH (currently sporting an alternate pickguard I currently have loaded with Harmonic Design Z90s), my Jazzmaster, and my Duo Jet all ahead of it.

 

[Ventanaman]

They’re mini-humbucker style. Long have I thought about taking the PCB out of the Goldie and putting a ‘bridge on’ push/pull pot in so I can get bridge+neck and all 3. It’s kind of baffling they didn’t just do that on the original in the first place.

The first thing I did on my St. V was remove the PCB and put in all new (conventional) electronics. Switched the stock DiMarzios (HH) for BKP Polymaths and am very happy. Also added a kill switch.

 

[Fantomaz]

I swapped the pickups in my St Vincent HHH for a set of hand wired 4wires firebird style pickups.

I tried connecting them to the original pcb and it didn't sound nice at all. :-/ Lots of phase issues and volume differences.

I did test each new pickup on its own with and old 500k pot and they sound killer, so I would welcome any help in how to achieve the "goldie" wiring with a superswitch and bridge + neck with a push pull tone pot.

I am not electronics literate but I can follow a diagram.

I have already ordered a couple of 500k pots and a "long lever" superswitch from allparts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Fantomaz]

This looks like a good starting point, but I have no idea how to go from there to add the "neck + bridge with a push pull pot" thing

 

[Fantomaz]

Actually, this is not very nice in 4 and 2, the splitted firebird PUs dont sound as good as the full PUs in parallel.

I need to find something closer to the "goldie" wiring, ideally with the neck + bridge in parallel combo.

 

[Michael_E]

https://imgur.com/a/sj4ydso

These pickups are certainly not dark and neutral. I have an earlier run Rosewood neck unit and I gutted it and put in 500k pots and a Superswitch (almost fits). Absolutely made my guitar come alive. I now went a step further and made it in to a Junior. Push pull for Series/Parallel. Just a volume and tone pot. I’m having a custom guard made in short order. Now the guitar rings like crazy. Beautiful mostly cleans w/ feedback are jumping out of the guitar.