36th goes back in

[musikarero]

I posted a while back that I replaced the 36th Anniversary in my Silo Special with a Duncan Invader. I thought the 36th sounded muddy in the lower register. Well the Invader took some of that away but added too much glass overall. Not a bad pickup but wasn't quite what I was looking for. Not sure if some folks are like me but there are some things I'm very comfortable doing......adjusting necks, fret dressing, swapping pickups.....but on some things I'm completely clueless. So with that being said I was determined to give the 36th another try with a little tweaking. I am not much of a humbucker guy to begin with and every guitar I've owned with one didn't last. My Silo though just plays and "feels" right if you know what I mean. It isn't the color I prefer, the bridge I prefer or the pickup configuration I like, but it just felt right when I played it the first time and still does. Anyway all I did was adjust the screws on the 36th.....not even sure what that does other than string volume perhaps but end result was I was able to brighten the pickup. Will it be enough before I say the heck with it and order a Silo pickguard with a SSS configuration......who knows....but it does sound a lot better than before.

 

[DrKev]

Ya know, I felt the same way about my Silo Special initially. I'd been so used to SSS I found the adjustment to HSS a little frustrating. I missed the extra clarity of a bridge single coil for rhythm work. At one point I had raised the humbucker's adjustable pole pieces by 2mm (5/64") which did give a little extra brightness (and changed the mid-range structure a little) but not enough that would be clearly audible to many people. I also found the volume changes between the different positions hard to work with. Particularly live, where the 2, 3, & 4 would get lost in the mix.

Then something happened - I realised I had fallen into a few 'logical traps'. One was subconsciously allowing my eye to veto the pickup heights. I didn't want the guitar to look funny by having one pickup too low compared to the others. The other thing I was that I didn't like a bright amplifier with my old strat, so I'd roll off a little treble to get a smoother tone. But I don't play the strat anymore and the Silo is a different guitar, so why keep doing that? Finally, I also had to accept the fact that bridge humbucker I always wanted for lead tones is not, and never can be, a single coil. It's a humbucker!

So, first I allowed my humbucker to be a humbucker - I lowered the screw poles back down and allowed it to be loud. Then I dropped the neck pickup enough that it's closer in volume to the 2, 3, and 4 positions. I added some treble to the amp, which not only brightened the humbucker but sounds better with these single coils too. I've never been happier! The humbucker is beautiful, and has such a wonderful harmonic structure. I'm so glad I'm allowing myself to appreciate it! I'm getting adept at rolling the volume knob off just enough to keep the humbucker rhythm volume in line with the singles.

Which brings me to a suggestion - if you add a treble bleed capacitor across the volume pot, without a series or parallel resistor, you could actually thin the sound a little just by rolling off the volume. Choosing the right size capacitor would be the key here but you might not like the effect and of course it'll also apply to the single coils.

I've quickly read back over some of your old posts. I don't know if anybody mentioned P90s? You can get a humbucker sized P90 that might just give you what you want. But ultimately if you can't accept humbuckers as humbuckers, I think you should stop fighting. If SSS is what you need, then go for it!


For those who are interested, my pickup heights are as follows,
fretting last fret and measuring from pole to bottom of string...

	Treble	Bass
Neck	4.5mm (11/64")	4.5mm (11/64")
Middle	3.5mm (9/64")	4.0mm (5/32")
Bridge	3.0mm (1/8")	4.0mm (5/32")

(yeah, I currently like my pickups pretty low!)


K

 

[LawDaddy]

The 36th is very sensitive to height adjustment, I've been running them in a couple of my guitars for a few years, including my Rosewood ASS. The pickup screws will also effect the balance between the coils. Small tweaks in height can have a big difference. If you lower the pup, but raise the screws, the coil nearest the bridge will be more prominent, and should make it brighter. I can get a P90/Telecaster tone that way.

Definitely one of my favorite pups that DiMarzio is making.