New Luke and EMG questions

[Lance Romance]

Hi guys, been away for awhile, just long enough to snag me a great
Luke in Radiance Red w/matching headstock. Got it from one of our good customers, and this was actually my second chance at this particular guitar, having almost bought it when it was new. Light, resonant, non more red. Wonderful.
I have a question about the pickups. The combo of middle and bridge doesn't have as pronounced a hollow quack as I like, and I assume it's the 85. Has anyone tried an EMG 89 in the bridge to get that true singlecoil quack? Good quack? How does it sound full humbucking? Just looking to improve an already great guitar, and swapping EMG stuff is easy. Love to hear any input you folks might have.
Off to work to finish setting it up...Eric

 

[robelinda2]

Yeah i found that aspect of the Luke also to my disliking, you cant split the EMG humbucker, thats the reason no quack in bridge/middle i think. I love that tone on the AL or Silo Special SSS.

 

[kbaim]

I STILL haven't had my 89's installed and I bought them in January.
If I had a good guitar tech close by they would have been in by now.
I plan on putting one in a sunburst piezo luke, and the other in a black bfr quilt luke.

Hope to have them in this summer.

 

[beej]

Hey Eric-

Two other options for you-

Run the output of the bridge bucker into a 25k trimpot (wired like a volume) before the wiring harness. Then you can reduce the output of the bucker relative to the singles, will help with the quack.

Other option is to put a resistor and capacitor in series on the wiring harness where the bucker meets switch position 2 (bridge + middle). I haven't done this, but I've read about John Suhr and a few others discussing it. Good values are apparently 22k / .033uf. This drops the volume of the bucker a bit and reduces some of the bass. Makes it combine with the single and quack better.

Haven't seen the wiring of that switch, but presumably you'd want the output of the bucker wired right to position 1 (bridge) and then want the cap + resistor in series from that position to switch position 2 (bridge + middle). This assumes there is a separate switch position for the middle (not the standard strat switch). Else you'd need a new switch (e.g. a 4-pole 5-way megaswitch).

Btw- did you try other p'ups in your Albert Lee after the Areas? I had better luck with Bill Lawrence 200s and they're staying in there.

 

[Volt]

I can get a fair bit of quack with my Luke using the neck and middle pickups in parallel by using my Vox amp - which has much more brightness than the Fender amp that I usually use.

I would like a tapped bucker in the neck position. If I want quack I fire up one of my SSS guitars.

Interesting ideas Beej.

 

[Lance Romance]

Glad to hear it isn't the acid flashes again...I really do hear it right. To me, the two sounds I buy a strat for are neck-alone and middle-plus-bridge. Anything else is just a bonus. Thanks for the details beej, I was hoping you might chime in. The first time I played this axe when it was new a year ago, and I think I got what Luke was going for; a pretty guitar with the switch forward, and a rockin' guitar with the switch back. It strikes me again how well it works live, dead simple with lots of sounds. I have no restraint when it comes to modding modern guitars for the better, so either the 89 route, or go really silly and put in a EMG-H singlecoil and an SPC circuit in place of the tone control; sort of a reverse-tilt fat/EQ knob.
I'm going to play this one some more and see what other ideas might pop up. Of course, the day after I get this one I find out one of the new colors is pearl white...guess I have to get a Silhouette Special again.-Eric