I've owned an es335 for a few months now and struggled to get the sounds I wanted out of it . I've even posted a couple of threads on here about changing the pickups . A few months ago i raised the pickups a bit to try and get some more dirt out if it .
Last week for a change I plugged it into my fender champion and noticed that the bottom strings were really farty sounding , even on the amps low input and with the volume low . I thought the amp might be knackered , so I plugged my Hamer studio in , nope , not the amp , not farty anymore .
So I lowered the bridge pickup on the 335 using the clean amp until the fartyness went.
Then I plugged it into my tiny terror hardwired . What a difference . The guitar is now much livelier , has more clarity and sparkle , and even sounds crunchier and more responsive . I'm finally getting the sounds I was after in the first place !
I had no idea lowering the pickup height a little would make such a huge difference !
Comments
You might want to try experimenting with the relative height of the screw poles (compared to the slug poles) as well. For example, I will often raise the screw poles on the bridge humbucker slightly. This seems to give more clarity and definition. I'm guessing this is affecting the relative influence of the two coils (maybe akin to slightly unbalanced coils?) but I'll leave it to someone more technically knowledgable to explain that one. Very effective, in combination with the overall pickup height and the relative height of the bass and treble ends of the pickup, for tuning in exactly the sound and response you need.
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154644
if the link no worky, search
Adjusting Pickups: The "Sweet Spot" with Soundclips
Clarky did advise me to adjust the pickup heights many moons ago.
The Charvel and ESP both sound way better since the pickups were lowered. Much clearer, no muddiness..
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
A great example of my stupidity as said Mr Weasel has already explained about P90 magnet swaps and sent me some new magnets to install.
You'd think that having disassembled and arsed about with some P90s, it might have sunk in that they are fundamentally different to strat pickups, but no.....
Well cool. Got the neck pickup well spankey and the bridge well aggressive
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
It did with both of mine that I mentioned. Especially the ESP, the Virtual Hot PAF actually sounds like a hot PAF, as opposed to a noisey mess.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
I took EMG's* out the ESP to fit DiMarzio's.
*EMG-a-likes
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)