NPD Oil City Wapping Wharf install - how'd it go?.......

Jimbro66

For a long time now my 1982 Schecter tele has had a Joe Barden Two-Tone tapped humbucker at the bridge. Nothing wrong with that, it's a great pickup and remains hum-cancelling even when tapped but I fancied a change back to a single coil pickup. And I always thought the humbucker-sized bridge plate looked a bit clunky. The neck pickup is a Joe Barden Danny Gatton which gives just the sound I like so it's staying.

Straight out of the box the Oil City Wapping Wharf looked ace and I thought this would be a fairly straight-forward swap but no, there were a few hurdles to cross. Firstly, the pickup would not fit easily into the bridge opening: The flatwork passed through when tilted at an angle but the string binding literally was 'binding' - too tight a fit in the opening to allow the pickup to be freely raised and lowered. Perhaps the extra windings of the WW make it just that bit fatter? I carefully shaved away a little of the string coating until it was possible to slide the pickup up and down sufficiently. Then came a DOH! moment when I removed the old bridge to find that the cavity had been partially routed out wider to accommodate the FS humbucker. The new bridge is 10mm narrower than the removed one so does not cover the wider routing. First thought was to reinstate the old bridge and pickup and buy a new body for the WW but I didn't have that patience  -  I wanted the WW installed now. So I carried on, telling myself that it's how a guitar plays and sounds that matters.

Installed pickup and bridge and wired up to control plate. Stringed up, plugged in and tried the tapped WW. Sounded good but switching to the neck pu caused quite a jump in volume. Adjusted the WW as close to the strings as I dare (1/8") and left the bass end of the pickup a little lower as advised by Ash (3/16"). Dropped the neck pickup a bit and got a better balance. So all done....er, no. Selector in middle position gave that 'orrible 'onk of out-of-phase. Unexpected, as I hadn't touched the neck pu wiring and it was in phase with the Two-Tone pu. Oh well, with no option to change polarity of the WW I swapped the wires on the neck pu which is fortunately 4-conductor, screen and dedicated ground. It was touch-and-go due to the existing cut lengths of the conductors but I just managed to coax the previous hot wire and ground to reach the volume pot casing.

All working at last and plugged into my modified 65 DRRI the tapped WW was instant early James Burton, Pirates-era Mick Green and Wilko of course. That brought a smile to my face. I'd sought Ash's advice on pickup choice saying I wanted a nice 'piano tone' on the lower strings but a smooth, not brittle, top end. Ash suggested the Wapping Warf because it uses Alnico II magnet for the 3 treble strings and Alnico V for the bottom three. This differs from the Honkytonk Angel which is Alnico II throughout. Good choice.

I'd strung up with a custom set 9, 11, 15, 26, 36, 46 instead of my usual 10s. I tried nickel coated and pure nickel for the wound strings and preferred the pure nickel. There was a bit of unbalance across the strings with the third and sixth a little louder than the others but an amp tweek and a touch of compression from a Dodd FX80-B evened things up more. Turning the amp up to small gig level and adding a touch of analogue delay (Vahlbruch SpaceTime) to the compressor gave a very rich sound. For anyone into Brent Mason and other recent Nashville hot pickers this is the sound. Ash has certainly nailed it!

All this with the Wapping Wharf tapped. Switching to full pickup increased output (obviously) and particularly boosted the bass and lower mids which certainly drove the 65 DRRI but, even at that volume, was a bit too much for this 1x12 combo IMO. It probably needs a 4x12 + head setup to make the most of it. I thought it was not a setting I could use  -  until I ran it through my Ethos Overdrive with the TLE switch on. A few control adjustments and I arrived at a sound very similar to Robben Ford's current sound with his blonde '60 Tele (without his playing skills of course ). Listen to this vid from about 3:30 and his later solo on Chevrolet.

The verdict: A superb pickup that I'm going to love using. Shame about the holes each side of the bridgeplate though (wrong guitar for Mickey Mouse ears). I should add that with the amp briefly turned up full there was no howl or squeal from the WW which is testament to Ash's quality construction.

OilCityPickups

Glad you like the pickups!

Some bridges that aren't to Fender vintage dimensions do have problems accommodating overwound pickups ... it's a bit of a suck it and see thing ... and is not just with my pickups, but with many brands. I can make the WW and all my Tele bridge pickups with tape winding for anyone with a tight orifice (fnar fnar).

It's worth noting that some far eastern bodies are not routed large enough for US spec pickup baseplates either!  

Jimbro66

Tried to insert an image or two but the old procedure for Flikr no longer seems to work

Jimbro66

Having at last figured out how (tediously) Flikr links now work, here are a few pics:

Lovely Oil City Wapping Wharf and compensated bridge (with tight orifice ) )


As it was with Joe Barden Two-Tone pickup in not-exactly-pretty bridge. Sounded great.



Cavity routed out to accommodate the Two-Tone


New installation - now with 'ears' and ill-fitting pickguard dammit!  -  but sounds BRILL

Jimbro66

Forgot to mention in my first post how the Wapping Wharf works for the blues as most players indulge in the blues at some stage (almost obligatory in later life ). I've got to say now that blues-rock is not my thing  -  at all. It seems to me that a Les Paul suits that best but who's to say. But if we are talking bloooz there's been quite a lot of Tele players but most have also been associated with other guitars -  e.g. the great Mike Bloomfield. To me the stand-out blues Tele player is Albert Collins so I tried to recreate his sound with the Wapping Wharf in the Schecter tele. Easier said than done!

On face value what Albert played is not at all complicated but it's how he played it. Incredible right hand attack (just fingers, no pick), vibrato to die for and incredible timing. Not to mention his masterful use of the volume control.

Yes, turning up the modified 65 DRRI's treble control, volume up around 6 and Power Scaling dialled back (for the neighbours' sake) the tapped WW does get close to Albert's tone but, even playing his licks, I didn't sound like him  -  of course Only Albert sounds like Albert the same as only Roy sounds like Roy. But if you have the time and determination to want to sound like Albert the WW gives a good basis.

Me? I'll stick to the ES-335 when I need to play the blues.