I can't agree more. I have several really great instruments. Each has it's own voice. I like getting to know them and finding the best use cases. If I give them a chance then my playing technique is impacted by each voice. When I first got the Kenai above I realized that I didn't like how it looked. And the low output P-51 pickups initially didn't do anything for me. So I tried to sell it at a loss on Craigslist. And no one wanted it unless I was willing to sell it for $1k under what I payed for it. So I gave the guitar another chance. Thank God I never sold it. I love that guitar, how it plays and how it sounds. It's a keeper for life, as far as I'm concerned.
Nice! Glad you kept it!
Yeah, tone is in the ear of the beholder. What I like may not work for you, and what you like may not work for me. About 25 years ago I traded a local luthier a computer for a custom built Les Paul style guitar. The luthier was youngish and worked in a place called Gilmer Wood Company in Portland. I met him when I went looking for a piece of quilted maple for the front of a custom made amp cabinet that the bass player in the band I was in was building for me. I got to talking to guy at the wood store and he shared that he built guitars. One thing led to another and he built me a guitar. The build took me 3 years to get. The builder didn't have a spray booth for finishing the guitar, so he contracted with Saul Koll, of Koll guitars (great guitars, by the way) to do the finish. The guitar was beautiful, a translucent pink that showed for the wood grain beautifully. It was also so heavy that it about caved in my shoulder. I never weighed it, but I'm guessing that it was about 11 lbs. Maybe I'm exagerating, but according to my memory it was at least that. The neck fit my hand perfectly though. It was a mahogany maple capped body, and that guitar had a shrill tone that just didn't sound good to me. I must have put in at least 6 different sets of pickups, but none of them fixed the problem. The closest I got to making the guitar sound good was using a set of Harmonic Design Z90 pixkups. They are Humbucker sized P90s, but more refined than the typical P90. I have a set in a Kenai J (not the red and black one). They sound like a cross between a P90 and a tele. I love those pickups. But they sound unique and they aren't for everyone. The 11 lb. guitar was eventually stolen from my apartment.I keep hearing good things about Vineham, definitely look interesting and the clips I've heard sound great.
Absolutely relate to this... there are several, like Throbak, Ron Ellis, Stephens Design, ReWind all look great, clips sound great, but just trying those four would be well over $3K with no guarantee that I'd even like them... $3K+ would go a long way toward a really nice fiddle.
The flip side of that are companies like Vineham, Arcane, Manilus, Sigil, Wolfetone, none of which are terribly expensive, then Monty's, OX4, Wizz that are around the price of BKP or custom shop Duncans. Certainly more affordable but trying multiple sets still adds up pretty quickly.
(And this part is where I was thinking of starting another thread; not trying to hijack this one, but hopefully relevant to the OT.)
And... to what end? I mean, if an accurate PAF replica is the goal, there are so many things that can affect the magnetic circuit, and the originals were a moving target at best. Another option is just a "vintage/lower" output humbucker, but that seems even more nebulous when most seem to be described as either "too modern" or "not vintage enough," even if/when the pickup in question is a completely original concept that deserves more than a cursory comparison to an ill-defined ideal. Without personal experience, it almost seems impossible to make anything other than just a wild guess at what will work.
(Of any of the companies I've mentioned in this post, the only ones I've tried are BKP and Duncan. I have tried other brands, just not the ones I've mentioned directly above.)
(Hopefully) obviously, it's important to know what tone one is looking for (I think the OP defined this very well) and what the guitar itself is capable of (also well-defined here). And... we all play different music, with different hands and different ears. And... recordings are representations of a moment in time, influenced by the recording environment, playback system, and the artifacts of the medium (e.g. YouTube compression, lossy formats, et al).
So, my question is... how does anyone judge what was worthy of spending the time and money to try? I think this is the part that is relevant to the OT and definitely of interest to me.
One way I've done that is to stick with the brands I know (Duncan in my case) and then take a lucky guess and find another that I really liked (BKP in my case). IMHO, Duncan and DiMarzio (EMG only slightly later) were the "original" aftermarket pickups and that was basically all there was before the Internet made marketing much easier for smaller companies. I think it is a GREAT thing that there are so many options these days, but it can also make the decision process much more complex, at least without spending "crazy money for something that I might not even like."
I'm legitimately wondering what works for others (and I know that I'm overthinking this to a large degree).
I think some of the lower cost pickups are using "off-the-shelf" components which indeed don't cost that much to manufacture. I can understand that some companies are recouping costs of having custom components made (magnets, low-carbon steel, etc.) for what could be considered almost museum-quality replicas (how much this actually matters or is actually worth is another debate, but I think maybe even more dependent on what one's ultimate goal is). Thankfully, most companies seem to be somewhere in the middle (but it can still add up without well-educated guesses and a bit of luck).
Anyway... back to the OT... I'm still curious to know what you think of those Wolfetones. I think word of mouth is at least as good as the best online clips. And I know exactly what you mean about not having a lot of time and being a crazy week. Been that way on my end, too.
Very nicely done wiring diagram. Thank you for taking the time to draw it out. I will keep this in mind. I have to install the Wolftones before I decide what's next.This could work:
If the middle pickup is North up and winding direction matches for in-phase operation.
NOTE: it is important to run separate wires from the 2p2t commons back to the middle lugs on the 4p5t, as you end up with unintended connections between things if you don't.
Tone pots are set up for N and N+B on the first tone pot, and N+M and B+M on the second. Other things are possible, but this works very well on my blue Strat....
If the middle pickup is not North up and correct winding direction, there are things we can do with rotating pickups and/or swapping wires (or flipping HB magnets, if you're brave) to make it work.
To have the possibility of the middle pickup alone, you need a 2p4t special on-on-on toggle and a bit more complicated diagram....
If it were my guitar, I would add an extra 180pf (not shown on the diagram) back to the volume pot output from each of the unused pot lugs on the tone pot, to add a bit more treble bypass to the existing one on the volume put, so that you can add a bit of extra zing on the N, N+M, N+B, and M+B combinations if needed. Bridge gets just the 180pF. You can also sub your favorite treble bypass for the 180pF ones I spec'ed.
You would think they were the Rebels Yell but they didn't say that when I asked specifically which I thought was a bit strange. The SS model on the Knaggs website does state Rebel Yells but from I've watched a few interviews with SS and I get the impressions he doesn't specifically use the Rebel Yells that much.
