Question St. Vincent HH Wiring/PCB

[Ventanaman]

Hi all!

I was able to pick up a stealth St. Vincent HH a few weeks ago and when I opened the control cavity, I was surprised to see the volume and tone pots mounted to a PCB. The HH switching configuration is essentially the same as the Axis Super Sport, which is wired in a traditional fashion, and without a PCB.

Does anyone know why EBMM would choose this route? If there is a pot failure, the entire PCB would need to be replaced, which is not something that could be done without ordering the parts from EBMM. And if they ever discontinue the model, that could also be a problem.

I am assuming this is the same PCB used on the mini HHH configuration and having this setup makes it easier/faster to assemble in the factory.

In any case, I will be doing a pickup swap (to Bare Knuckle Polymaths) so I may choose to replace all of the electronics to avoid any future issues.

 

[Johnny Alien]

Actually you can replace a pot on the PCB board. Just unsolder the old one and then solder in the new one. I used to be real anti-PCB board until I discovered its often easier to change parts.

 

[NickNihil]

That said these pots seem to have specially sized terminals to fit into the slots on the PCB and I believe you'd have to get replacement pots from EBMM-when I swapped the 250k's for 500k's on my original STV hhh I wanted for some reason to get them into the pcb instead of rewiring the whole thing and I couldn't find any with terminals that would fit outside of getting them directly from EBMM. The tech I took it to (as I was ill equipped to deal with the pcb) did a great job but said getting those pots out was a giant pain. Replacing pickups on them is a breeze, though, as long as the pickups have the same wire configurations.

 

[NickNihil]

Also, curious as to your take on the stock pickups (ostensibly they’re not your favorites as you’re changing them out). I love the St Vincent models, have an original and a Goldie, and at some point would love to get my hands on an HH at some point.

 

[stardustaudio]

Also, curious as to your take on the stock pickups (ostensibly they’re not your favorites as you’re changing them out). I love the St Vincent models, have an original and a Goldie, and at some point would love to get my hands on an HH at some point.

I have an HH and the pickups are certainly higher output than the Goldie, but still pretty sweet IMO. I personally like the original pickups quite a lot in fact, at least for my style, and while they're a bit hotter than either HHH St Vincent for sure, they're probably not a first choice for prog-metal or something of that ilk (as the OP mentioned BKP Polymaths).

 

[Ventanaman]

I bought the guitar specifically for the BKP Polymaths. They are a truly unique pickup in that they are modern voiced, but not high output and they have very little compression and split well. They are also minimally potted, so they are very open with tons of harmonics and can be used with just about any genre.

I put a set in my Axis (with an added tone circuit) and they are fabulous.

I am excited about pairing them with the St. V.

 

[stardustaudio]

I bought the guitar specifically for the BKP Polymaths. They are a truly unique pickup in that they are modern voiced, but not high output and they have very little compression and split well. They are also minimally potted, so they are very open with tons of harmonics and can be used with just about any genre.

I put a set in my Axis (with an added tone circuit) and they are fabulous.

I am excited about pairing them with the St. V.

Fair enough, I was mostly thinking in terms of Nolly's style, but the versatility is noted. I actually have Polymaths on order for another guitar, so I'll find out soon how that works out myself.

If you do decide to sell the StV HH pickups, I may be interested, you can DM me here.