Sonic Bliss

Maximizing Your Tone

By John LeVan

In these modern times, we have many choices when it comes to great electronics. Before you decide to drop $300 bucks into new pickups, there are few things you need to know about maximizing your tone.

EQUALITY

When it comes to tone, not all guitars are created equally. All guitars have what is called a dominant resonant frequency. In other words, some guitars are naturally brighter, mid-rangy or just have tons more bass than others. When choosing new pickups, make sure that they will give you the tone you’re looking for. What sounds great in your friends Les Paul®, may sound like a wall of mud, or like a shrieking siren in yours.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PICKUPS

Carefully select the right pickups for your guitar, and playing style. Some pickups have more bass, midrange or treble, so be sure to find the one(s) that meet your expectations. Here are some factors to consider when choosing a pickup.

The type of magnets used in a pickup will determine the predominant tone of that pickup. Most pickups use one of three types of magnets; Alnico II, Alnico V or Ceramic Bar. Alnico II, tend to sound warmer (have more bass), Alnico V are brighter (for that vintage tone), and Ceramic Bar tend to be high output with a strong midrange (great for slide). One of my personal favorite combinations is Alnico II magnets for the treble side and Alnico V for the bass side of the pickup. Seymour Duncan® has such a pickup (the 5/2® or Five-Two) for both Tele® & Strat® style pickups.

Other parts of the pickup will shape tone. The type and size of the wire used to make the coil (a long strand of insulated copper wire), as well as, how many times it’s wound around the bobbin will affect the output and tone. What type of insulation is used on the wire will change a pickup’s tone. Even the different shapes and sizes of the bobbins impact how the pickup transmits the vibration of the strings. The more windings in the coil produce a hotter pickup.

Whatever your preference, make sure the pickups are going to compliment the dominant tone of your specific guitar.

WHY DO MY NEW PICKUPS SOUND WEAK?

Ok, you just installed a killer set of pickups but your tone is still weak. This is very common in a lot of guitars. It’s usually because the volume & tone controls are cheap, stock imports. If you’re spending the money to replace the pickups, it makes sense to replace the pots (controls), and maybe even the selector switch & output jack. If these components are substandard imports, they will squelch your tone. Remember, the signal from the pickups travel through the switch, pots and jack before it gets to your amp. Replacing them with good quality components will make huge improvement. Even a good quality guitar cable will make a big difference. High quality electronics can make even an inexpensive axe sound like professional guitar.

Pickup height is also important. If your pickups are too far away from the strings, they will produce a thinner, weaker signal. If they are too close to the strings, they will be too hot and overdrive your amp. This also increases string rattle and intonation issues because the magnets are pulling on the string. If the pickups are too close, it changes the pattern of the string’s vibration and knocks the string out of balance. Check the manufacturer’s recommendation for proper height adjustment.

SINGLE, TRIPLE OR FOUR CONDUCTOR?

Pickups are generally made with a single, triple or four conductor harness (sometimes referred to as a “rat tail”). Single conductor pickups are common in both single coil and double coil (humbucker) pickups. It limits the ability to modify the volume and tone of the pickup.

Pickups with three conductors can be coil tapped (cuts volume by up to 50%). This basically reduced the volume of a high output single coil or turns a humbucker into a single coil by turning off one of the coils.

Four conductor pickups are very versatile. It allows you to configure the pickup to be a humbucker (in series or parallel), a single coil and reverse its phase. Wiring in series (most all single conductor humbuckers are wired in series) produces the loudest, fullest tone possible. Parallel slightly reduces volume and bass (great for a muddy sounding guitar). Single coil just sounds like your typical Strat® or Tele® style pickup. Reversing the phase gives you a very thin, distant sound (the least used configuration).

A good friend of mine, Tim, from the band REV21 had me put the humbuckers in both of his Les Paul® style guitars. Guitar #1 sounded great! Guitar #2 sounded like a tub of lard with strings! So before replacing his pickup in guitar #2, I rewired the pickup from Series to Parallel. It totally changed his tone to match guitar #1! So the pickup you have may be fine, but the wiring may be wrong for that guitar.

The way you configure your pickups can make your guitar sound like a dream or an electronic nightmare, so experiment a little to find your tone.

HERE’S HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR TONE!

• Choose a pickup that matches the dominant resonant frequency of your guitar
• Replace substandard pots, switches and jack
• Adjust the height of your pickup correctly (see manufacturer’s specs)
• Find the right wiring configuration to match the pickups to your guitar
• Have a professional install your pickups if your unsure about the process
• Buy my latest, best selling book, Guitar Setup, Maintenance & Repair (Mel Bay Publishing), it’s full of awesome, easy to read diagrams!

Modifications

There’s nothing inherently wrong with modifying your guitar’s electronics, as long as it is reversible & undetectable! In other words, avoid drilling extra holes or routing out anything on your guitar. There are several ways to make modifications without butchering your guitar. For coil tapping, series/parallel and phase reversal, you can use either a push/push or a push/pull pot to replace a tone or volume control. They still function as a tone or volume, but with a switch added to reconfigure the way the pickup(s) are wired. In fact, you can coil tap two pickups with just one of these switches, or even activate the neck & bridge pickups (for a guitar with three pickups) with one switch. I have used these for years!

If you have any questions about this, or any of my other articles, feel free to e-mail me at guitarservices@aol.com. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.guitarservices.com

copyright©2009 John M. LeVan all rights reserved