AftermanGuitars
New member
Hey all,
I have been experimenting with changing the bridge pickup in my DK Artist Series Stingray lately. Everything about that guitar for me is perfect, but for the style of music I play, I found the pickups to lack a certain aggression and clarity I desire.
I put a SD Nazgûl in it, and while I loved the change, I did notice it sounded quite compressed. Curious about another pickup, I installed a SD Pegasus in my Sterling SR50 that I modded to have an HS configuration with the concentric volume and tone knob. Sterling’s pots and switches are fully passive, whereas the DK has some active circuitry within it. After a while and after warming up more to the Pegasus, I decided to swap the two.
To my surprise, when I installed the Pegasus into the DK, that compressed character was just as obvious as it had been with the Nazgûl installed, and the Nazgûl now in the Sterling sounded just as good as when it had the Pegasus, but with tighter bass response.
I was really hoping to get the sound of how the Pegasus did when it was in my Sterling, but I’m guessing the compression is coming from the active circuitry in the DK preamp?
Has anyone else dropped in a different bridge pickup in their DK, and what were your findings?
Is there some kind of adjustment or trim somewhere in the PCB to remedy that compression characteristic?
The compressed character is present with the bypass button disengaged and engaged. No difference at all.
I don’t want to gut the circuitry to get the sound I’m after so if anyone can shed some light on this, I’d greatly appreciate it!
I have been experimenting with changing the bridge pickup in my DK Artist Series Stingray lately. Everything about that guitar for me is perfect, but for the style of music I play, I found the pickups to lack a certain aggression and clarity I desire.
I put a SD Nazgûl in it, and while I loved the change, I did notice it sounded quite compressed. Curious about another pickup, I installed a SD Pegasus in my Sterling SR50 that I modded to have an HS configuration with the concentric volume and tone knob. Sterling’s pots and switches are fully passive, whereas the DK has some active circuitry within it. After a while and after warming up more to the Pegasus, I decided to swap the two.
To my surprise, when I installed the Pegasus into the DK, that compressed character was just as obvious as it had been with the Nazgûl installed, and the Nazgûl now in the Sterling sounded just as good as when it had the Pegasus, but with tighter bass response.
I was really hoping to get the sound of how the Pegasus did when it was in my Sterling, but I’m guessing the compression is coming from the active circuitry in the DK preamp?
Has anyone else dropped in a different bridge pickup in their DK, and what were your findings?
Is there some kind of adjustment or trim somewhere in the PCB to remedy that compression characteristic?
The compressed character is present with the bypass button disengaged and engaged. No difference at all.
I don’t want to gut the circuitry to get the sound I’m after so if anyone can shed some light on this, I’d greatly appreciate it!
