Robben Ford Discussion

[StratCat]

Following on from discussions some months ago about pickup choice, I've finally gotten around to changing my pickups over and am pretty happy with the result. The budget didn't stretch to some of the more exotic/handwound pickups but I'm pretty happy with the choice.



Now, I've replaced the neck pickup (a Duncan 59) with a Pearly Gates. Was always a little frustrated with the 59 as although it gives a nice warm, smooth sound when overdriven, the slightly compressed sound of the pickup can be a bit frustrating when clean. The Pearly Gates is a lot more responsive to string dynamics and has a little more bite (not overbearing though) and cleans up a lot better than the 59 when controlling drive levels from the guitars volume control.

The bridge pickup was a Duncan Custom. I've generally been happy with these pickups in the past (have one on my semi-acoustic too) but with my current setup it hasn't been working for me. I generally feel that the ceramic magnets work ok in a EL34 or recto type setup where the "spongy" nature of the amp can absorb some of the harshness of the pickups (I was using a Kitty Hawk EL34 powered amp until a few years ago). So I've replaced it with a Custom 5 - basically the same pickup but with an AlNiCo 5 magnet. A little bit less output (i.e. need to turn the overdrive up a little ) but a much nicer and more balanced sound without the harshness, and a bit more bottom end - a surprisingly good match for the PG.

So there you go. Just my 2c worth but worth keeping in mind if considering a change. Am playing through Boss GT3 (tonesucker) at the moment so am hoping this will only get better when my preamp's back from repair. (Is 8 months for a preamp transformer replacement normal? )



Chris
_________________
because I rock, and that's important.

[marinblues]

I had a C5 for a while. It's like a 59b, but stronger. The mids are scooped so they go well in a typically midrange guitar, like a mahogany or alder bodied one. What guitar did you put it in?

It didn't work well in mine since the guitar on its own had scooped mids so a custom custom worked better to balance it out.

Pearly gates are nice pickups, both in neck and bridge.
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Andrea De Adamich

[StratCat]

These pickups went in a Mahogony bodied guitar, so no scooped mids here! Maybe that explains my issue with the 59 - just too much midrange for that guitar. Might be ok for some players though. Very happy with the PG though - really nice. I'm not 100% yet on the Custom 5 but it's a very good configuration with the PG and is a vast improvement on the (ceramic) Custom.



Chris
_________________
because I rock, and that's important.