Commodore 64
January 6th, 2011, 07:48 AM
Disclaimer: I'm making this post with the hopes that it will provide the motivation I need to finally attempt to do a video clip so you folks can hear the PUPs.
So I've heard about Rose PUPs (http://www.rosepickups.com) by reading various guitar forums. From what I understand, Ken, a guy in Cali, hand winds PUPs and also sells a few sets of maufactured ones on the cheap (e.g, Mariposa).
A few weeks ago, I ordered Rose Westerland neck and bridge pups. These are manufactured PUPs. I got the set for $45 shipped as Rose was blowing out the neck PUPs as blems (there is a tiny divet in the chrome cover). I put the set in my 2008 MiM Tele, replacing the stock ceramics. Stock, the 2008 MiM sounded very, very similar to my '94 MiM Squier Series which also has a rather hot set of ceramics, so I figured I'd have a side by side good comparison opportunity. The Westerlands are Alnico V Rod based PUPs. I don't rightly know how to describe the difference...but there is more clarity to the Rose PUPs than the ceramics. They aren't what I would call super twangy, but they are sweet sounding.
I liked the Westerland's so much that I went ahead and ordered a Rose Alba for the bridge, and a Bourbon for the neck. When I ordered the Alba, the Bourbons weren't yet listed so I ordered a second Westerland for the neck. A few days later I saw the Bourbon so I ordered it. The Alba and the Bourbon are hand wound by Ken, and he includes a frequency diagram for each pickup he winds. I got the Alba 2 days ago and he wound my Bourbon yesterday, so I hope to have that set soon.
So, this means I can possibly do a demo using:
1. '08 MiM with Rose Westerlands (250k pots)
2. '94 MiM SS with stock Ceramics (500k pots)
3. '94 MiM SS with Alba and Bourbon (I'll rewire it to 250k pots when I do the swap)
I think this will be a good basis for people to listen to the tonal differences. I'll also restring both guitars with new strings probably Ernie Ball or D'addario 10s.
Earlier this week, I tuned the '94 MiM to Open E and have been working on Gimme Shelter as shown in the tutorial here:
EmeBZSJMlvA
That's not me playing obviously. But I was TOTALLY diggin' the '94 ceramics on the neck PUP for this song...until I decided to put the '08 MiM in Open E as well with the Rose Westerland. I like that even more, and I think everyone would be able to hear a difference in the PUPS. So I think this would be a good basis for my first video, which I hope to do this weekend.
So I've heard about Rose PUPs (http://www.rosepickups.com) by reading various guitar forums. From what I understand, Ken, a guy in Cali, hand winds PUPs and also sells a few sets of maufactured ones on the cheap (e.g, Mariposa).
A few weeks ago, I ordered Rose Westerland neck and bridge pups. These are manufactured PUPs. I got the set for $45 shipped as Rose was blowing out the neck PUPs as blems (there is a tiny divet in the chrome cover). I put the set in my 2008 MiM Tele, replacing the stock ceramics. Stock, the 2008 MiM sounded very, very similar to my '94 MiM Squier Series which also has a rather hot set of ceramics, so I figured I'd have a side by side good comparison opportunity. The Westerlands are Alnico V Rod based PUPs. I don't rightly know how to describe the difference...but there is more clarity to the Rose PUPs than the ceramics. They aren't what I would call super twangy, but they are sweet sounding.
I liked the Westerland's so much that I went ahead and ordered a Rose Alba for the bridge, and a Bourbon for the neck. When I ordered the Alba, the Bourbons weren't yet listed so I ordered a second Westerland for the neck. A few days later I saw the Bourbon so I ordered it. The Alba and the Bourbon are hand wound by Ken, and he includes a frequency diagram for each pickup he winds. I got the Alba 2 days ago and he wound my Bourbon yesterday, so I hope to have that set soon.
So, this means I can possibly do a demo using:
1. '08 MiM with Rose Westerlands (250k pots)
2. '94 MiM SS with stock Ceramics (500k pots)
3. '94 MiM SS with Alba and Bourbon (I'll rewire it to 250k pots when I do the swap)
I think this will be a good basis for people to listen to the tonal differences. I'll also restring both guitars with new strings probably Ernie Ball or D'addario 10s.
Earlier this week, I tuned the '94 MiM to Open E and have been working on Gimme Shelter as shown in the tutorial here:
EmeBZSJMlvA
That's not me playing obviously. But I was TOTALLY diggin' the '94 ceramics on the neck PUP for this song...until I decided to put the '08 MiM in Open E as well with the Rose Westerland. I like that even more, and I think everyone would be able to hear a difference in the PUPS. So I think this would be a good basis for my first video, which I hope to do this weekend.