The Morse Model Quack Factor.....

[Butch Snyder]

A lot of folks say the Morse doesn't quack. Some folks say it doesn't quack like a vintage Strat (I don't really think anything does; even newer Strats). Anyway, I have found a couple of very usable tones from my Morse. Keep in mind that that's in addition to the already huge amount of achievable tones. Even though I have replaced the stock pickups, vol/tone pots, and cap, the result holds true for any stock Morse. I've used these tones with my Morse when it was stock.

The first quack tone is a nice clean or dirty rhythm and really cool arpeggios. The 2-way toggle is down. The 3-way blade is all the forward. The 3-way toggle is in the middle position. You get the bridge pickup and both single coils.

The second is basically the 2-way toggle up, the 3-way blade in pos. 1, and the 3-way toggle in the middle. You're getting the bridge and slanted single coil. To my ears, it's a lot like Albert Lee's #2 position quack.

The main difference here, is the height of the pickups. My Morse came with the pickups set fairly low. I kept the singles at the stock height and raised the humbuckers up a tad. That made a nice difference.

This may or may not be anything new for anyone here. To me it was a nice discovery.

 

[fbecir]

...and this is exactly why I just can't get behind the y2d - most of my favorite tones use that slant single coil - which also sounds amazing by itself too I must add... don't get me wrong - the y2d is a NICE instrument, but the original is SO much more versatile.

The same here ! I really like the slanted single coil. Besides, the 3-way switch is really convenient when you need to change quickly your sound (for instance you can go from the 2xHB to the the slanted single coil in one operation). Steve is a clever guy

 

[ZeRaskolnikoff]

Blade on pos 1 (Humbucker) 3-way toggle in the middle (slant single) - great "Sweet Home" type tone.


~Bob

The funny thing is that I saw Morse playing "Sweet Home" on a DP gig in Ukraine in 2001 )) And yeah, it did sound right!

 

[Butch Snyder]

...and this is exactly why I just can't get behind the y2d - most of my favorite tones use that slant single coil - which also sounds amazing by itself too I must add... don't get me wrong - the y2d is a NICE instrument, but the original is SO much more versatile.

That's exactly why I traded my Y2D for a Standard model...

 

[Funky Chicken]

What I do quite a bit to clean up for verses is either pull the 3 way toggle up to the middle with the bridge pickup on (adds slanted single) or pull the 3 way blade up toward the neck with the 2 way toggle down (adds straight single to bridge).
Either one cleans up the sound a little and gives you a little more clarity.
I don't care that the guitar doesn't "quack" like a S***T. I'm not a fan of S***TS.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I don't care that the guitar doesn't "quack" like a S***T. I'm not a fan of S***TS.

That's my whole point - it does....

 

[marantz1300]

Which pups have you tried Butch ? What are you using now and which pots ? I'm going to buy a spare pickguard to experiment with pickups.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Which pups have you tried Butch ? What are you using now and which pots ? I'm going to buy a spare pickguard to experiment with pickups.

I'm using a DiMarzio Air Zone in the bridge position and a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck position. Both pots are CTS 500k and the cap is an Orange Drop 0.022uF.

 

[marantz1300]

Air Zone,Air Norton.Nice choice of pickups.Have you ever tried PAFs and Strat pups?

 

[Butch Snyder]

Air Zone,Air Norton.Nice choice of pickups.Have you ever tried PAFs and Strat pups?

Not tried PAFs and it has two Strat pickups already. I would like to try a Fred in the bridge or a Duncan JB/59 combo and a Duncan Twang Banger in the straight single coil slot...

 

[ScoobySteve]

I've never seen a morse in real life. Well I saw Steve's desert gold RW neck morse at the Hollywood Guitar Center clinic. But that's about it.

=(

Would like to try one though.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I've never seen a morse in real life. Well I saw Steve's desert gold RW neck morse at the Hollywood Guitar Center clinic. But that's about it.

=(

Would like to try one though.

I have never seen a Morse in a store - ever. But, you live in a much larger metropolis than I. Maybe you can find one. Too bad you can't get to New England though; I know Pete has some....

 

[e.mate]

Guess I got lucky. I got mine off the wall at West Chester Music.. .. I think it may help that tommyindelaware does some tech work there though.

hehehehe

 

[D.K.]

Morse has very beautiful clean tones and kinda quacks quite good - when recorded it sounds even quackier than to a human ear when playing (at least it's like that in my case). As Butch said, two single coils and the bridge hum sound great, also the slanted single in combination with the neck hum is very good for a sublime quack.

However, in terms of quack it gets beaten by a mile by an older SSS-Silo (don't know about the new silo specials, but they should also do the trick), and even, dare I say that, by the mid-position split coils on the JP model. They quack a lot better (strattier, so to speak) than the Morse.

 

[uOpt]

In my Morse the most important factor in making the single coils not lose their punch was to take the humbuckers pretty far down, away from the strings. With the humbuckers up the magnetic field would be messed up.