The Mod Squad
In the second part of our look at signature pickups, Dave Burrluck gets up close and personal with a beastly tone
Fresh from the shock of the new in the form of Rabea Massaad’s excellent Bare Knuckle Silo humbuckers that we checked out in last issue’s Mod Squad, it’s time to consider the opposite strand of the signature pickup world, and so we’re looking backwards!
For every top-level player who’s deserving of their own signature pickup (tweaked for their signature guitar perhaps), there seems to be an increasing number of signature pickups that aren’t improved or enhanced, they’re simply recreations of the artist’s pickups in one of their significant guitars, presumably with the warts ’n’ all of time and heavy use.
Few pickup makers, however, base their entire range on such historic signature designs. But one exception here in the UK is the revitalised Cream T brand that centres on this ‘historic signature’ pickup theme with models that have either been wound for the artist – be that Keith Richards or Jeff Beck – or are actually proper artist-endorsed signature pickups for, notably, Billy F Gibbons. His BFG Whisker-Buckers on a Patrick James Eggle Macon sounded magnificent and certainly outshone my own well-used 2001 PRS Singlecut.
“Why don’t you try our new Bernie Buckers?” suggested Cream T’s Tim Lobley. In truth, I’d been thinking about upgrading that model as PRS’s Singlecut has moved on in two decades, and while many would simply trade and move on up, I’ve always liked the guitar. Could I make it more like a 1959 Les Paul – or even Bernie Marsden’s fabled Beast?
Before I could think any further, the Bernie Buckers arrived, resplendent in their natty display box. Sadly, they don’t come with a ’59 Burst. Exactly what’s inside our BBs is kept secret and that reflects the methodology. Cream T founder Thomas Nilsen simply doesn’t believe in the 100 per cent ‘historically accurate’ route when it comes to the component parts. His aim is simply to achieve a sound that – after extensive measuring and testing – satisfies the artist. Thomas also believes that DCRs matter, but only if measured correctly. The Bernie Buckers sit at the ‘hot’ end of the PAF world, 8.5k ohms at bridge and 8.3k at neck, but that’s all the spec you’re gonna get.
Visually, this signature set aims to be exact replicas of Bernie’s pickups with shielded single-conductor hook-up wire, aged nickel covers and standard ‘long’ mounting legs. They’re joined by the slightly less expensive ‘Scan 2’ versions that can be customised for your own needs, without a cover, for example, and with four-conductor wiring – not quite the same as those on the Beast.
“Visually, this signature set aims to be exact replicas of Bernie’s pickups”
Playing Host
With any pickup, its success lies in the guitar it’s on and that’s where we come a little unstuck with the whole artist/historic model. Buying your BFG WhiskerBuckers will not turn your cheapo bolt-on ‘Les Paul’ into ‘Pearly Gates’. But, if Thomas’s readings are correct and he manages to reproduce the transducers, then the closer your host guitar is to the one you’re aiming to replicate, the closer the sound will be to your goal.
“I’m happy with the new wiring, but as I go to load in the neck pickup I realise a big school-boy error: it doesn’t fit”
Back in 2001, PRS’s Singlecut was a close cousin to an old Les Paul – enough, of course, to famously kick off a serious legal spat with Gibson. But there are plenty of differences, not least that the PRS has a longer 635mm (25-inch) scale and a onepiece wrapover bridge. That said, it’s a big, fat-sounding single-cut.
Still considering my modding adventure, the most obvious way to narrow the gap further is to rewire the guitar to the sort of spec Gibson would have used back in the day. Rather than mod the original circuit, I decide to remove that – keeping the toggle switch and output jack in place. And to that aim I call up Jeremy Tosh at Charles Guitars for some advice (read more on the page opposite), and set that part of the project in process.
Getting To Work
The fact that I’ve decided to fit oldstyle humbuckers into a much more contemporary build reveals a rather fundamental error on my part. I’m happy with the new wiring, but when I go to load in the neck pickup I realise a big school-boy error: it doesn’t fit. Depth-wise, the neck pickup cavity on the PRS is limited by the neck tenon, which extends all the way into the neck pickup cavity. Although the original PRS #7 and the Bernie Bucker have exactly the same ‘long’ legs, the adjustable polepiece screws, to original PAF size of the BBs, are longer than those on the #7. I need longer pickup mounting screws and shorter polepiece screws. So, if you’re doing this, make sure you tell Cream T when you order; the company can supply what you need, effectively a Scan 2 version. Within 24 hours, I have loaded in the shorter polepiece screws supplied by Thomas, and thanks
to those longer mounting screws I found in The Mod Squad’s ever-giving bits-box, we’re back in business.
Unleashing The Beast
Okay, so while I wasn’t expecting a huge difference, the changes here do result in a subtly brighter voicing that benefits clarity, particularly when the volumes are reduced. The RS SuperPots on both volumes have a slightly faster rise at the top of the pots’ travel, meaning slight adjustments have more effect. The cap values mean we have a slower roll-off, too, and both have a more than usable ‘woman’ tone full-off, rather than the previous woolly woof. There’s added dimension to the guitar.
Getting the balance you want is key to your enjoyment of any pickup set. There’s no right way and, although the DCRs tell us to expect more oomph from the neck, it’s easy to pull the bass side back and slightly reduce the polepiece heights on the bass side. To be honest, the voicings of old and new pickups really aren’t miles apart, and the voice of the guitar – that big powerful muscular tone – is still the dominant part of this PRS Singlecut. A set of Cream T BFG Bangers I’d fitted to a ‘wrong’ maplenecked, alder-bodied Tokai LP-alike, again aren’t a million miles away, but the voice of that guitar is noticeably brighter and lighter. It’s a very vivid reminder that what we hear is certainly not just the sound of the pickups – they can only pick up what the strings provide them with.
But to answer my initial question – could I make it more like a 1959 Les Paul? – yes, the combination of these pickups and the control circuit certainly edge our Singlecut in the right direction. It was always a classic
“While I wasn’t expecting a huge difference, the changes do result in a brighter voicing”
rock monster, now it has added subtlety if needed and, from what I’m hearing, just a little more vintage accuracy (or at least character) in its voice. Here are sounds that I and many others have been brought up on, and that’s what we’re chasing, isn’t it? We’re edging closer to the Holy Grail. Oh, and Bernie obviously likes them. Loaded into ‘No 1’ (his Gibson replica of the Beast) and compared to the real thing, he couldn’t tell the difference. I’ve seen the video.
That should give you something to think about till our next issue. In the meantime, if you have any modding questions, or suggestions, drop us a line – The Mod Squad.