Monday, April 26, 2010

Opus!

Great! Tesla's Opus-2 pickup is another option for us who wish to have a single coil tone in a humbucker-spaced cavity; definitely looking forward to try this.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

better than hand wound?

i find this notion extremely misleading and stupid, nothing beats good ol' handwound pickups

subversion.sg said...

manufacturers can get over-the-top with their claims. if we believe claims more than the need to try, then we are commercially gullible.

good pickups are good pickups, hand wound or otherwise. it's the same debate- hand made guitars are better than machined products. we are sometimes victims of our own beliefs, looking at the world through a straw & claiming to see everything...

Ijau D. Koceng said...

got old, 2nd hand, used, unplayed, unwanted pickups to letgo bro? haha...

Ijau D. Koceng said...

i could find some buyers...

subversion.sg said...

i have default Ibanez models but i guess these don't mean much to those who are looking forward to upgrade their tones. thanks for asking :-)

reuel said...

hmmm sub. any of the ibanez pickups u have got a nice clear definition for riffing? and that isn't hot :p

i want something to go with a hss config project but i'm using the neck SC for solo-ing(not blade pup, just hum cancelling so it's pretty soft)

subversion.sg said...

hmm... the ones i like are still in the respective guitars :-) do keep in mind that how hot the pickup is- it's not about the design nature (blade type humbucker/ stack/ etc); it's about the units' output.

reuel said...

hmmm ok...but from what i see on the website, the pickups i intend to put as my neck SC is pretty low output, ok well maybe hotter than vintage SCs but still pretty low lol.

subversion.sg said...

i prefer low/ medium output single coils for distorted tones hence Duncan's Classic Stack Plus is my firm favourite. i hear a smoother, more rounded default voicing from such pickups compared to higher output ones.

in clean mode, lower output single coils sound warmer.

reuel said...

hmmm then what bridge pickup do u recommend that isnt thin yet isnt louder than the neck. btw will adjusting pickup height help to offset the difference in output?

subversion.sg said...

fundamentally, the bridge pickup would have more volume but it depends on other factors as well, one of which is the closeness to strings.

you can also try lower output pickups in the bridge position :-)

this is why during solos, players who prefer the neck pickup would also be activating a booster to increase the volume.

reuel said...

hmmm i've heard of boosters before but i'm afraid it'll change the quality of the tone. like single coil may start sounding like humbucker and passive humbuckers sound like active ones. but i'll see what i can do with it. thanks for the info as always :)

subversion.sg said...

there are many types of signal boosters out there, some aim to preserve the original signals just giving a volume swell, some add character but not drive, some are the all-in-one type :-) know what you want/ can make your tone more useful + try them out.

davidchangsr said...

Hi sub,

any chance you have managed to give the opus-2 a try. Im interested in the neck position more specifically. Does this single coil in a humbucker slot help in reducing 60cycle hum? From the manufacturing description it seems that there was only a suggestion of hum cancelling in the "middle" position, which to me is the same humcancelling position of 2 and 4 in a typical 5 way switch setup for single coils.

I suppose if the opus 2 is a true single coil and there are actually hum shielding features like that of lace pickups it would certainly be a very interesting product.

subversion.sg said...

hi bro :-) i've not tried the Opus 2 but it's definitely not humbucking. it's still a single coil unit, so is Duncan's Phat Cat (this one i own)& Gibson's P-94 :-)

davidchangsr said...

ic bro. From my understanding the phatcat is a P90 single coil in a humbucker cavity.

You have any idea if the opus 2 houses a p-90? or is it a strat style single coil? Thanks bro

subversion.sg said...

not quite a P-90, more soap bar-ish performance. p-90 to me refers to the Fender interpretation which has a slightly wider coil for a little difference.