Diabolus in Musica

Seymour Duncan's El Diablo humbucker has a single appeal; it feeds on distortion, the more the better. Is it worth buying? Well, considering it's made with a very narrow objective in mind & it's a custom shop model, the immediate answer here is no. However, if you've been through several high output pickups & love distortion more than anything else, the El Diablo would offer a good variation to a certain extent. Unlike the Dimebucker, this one has more bottom end on board but do not raise it too close to the strings as notes get muffled at high gain/ high distortion settings. That's right, it suffers from poor single note separation. I had to lower mine more than the default Ibanez pickup height recommendation. Thereafter, the El Diablo is a beast as the name implies.

The El Diablo is paired up with a Hot Stack & the latter simply could not match the beast in terms of output & distortion.  Anyway, I require less aggression & more clarity in the neck to prevent my tapped notes from sounding like trash. Thanks to Davis GMC for their continuous commitment when it comes to having Custom Shop / Custom Floor models available every once in a while. 

Headless endeavour

 

Spent time with these two today; light stuff since yesterday's episode involved a very heavy guitar. I didn't realize that both are in the same colour family, fixed bridge & sporting a 5-way pickup selector. FYI, the Ibanez is the lighter between the two. Also, despite the fretboard hue difference, both are maple fretboards. 

The Kiesel - This Vader needer some getting used to. It's not the headless detail but that lacquered neck. I'm in no way a fan of glossed out necks but I endured many Les Pauls to appreciate their tone signatures so this one shouldn't be given a different treatment. No mods for this one less an Orange cap in the tone circuit.

The Ibanez - Let me be upfront with this one - it's  B-Stock. Perhaps one day I will get into the flawed details but not in this episode, definitely. I was OK with the default Ibanez single coils in this guitar but the humbucker was something else. Decided to overhaul the entire pickup line up. Very happy with the ergonomics, even the rounder neck profile is a hit with me. If it's within my means this year, would wanna try the 7-string version. Current pickups (Seymour Duncan): JB / Hot Stack x2

Rosy re-string

This has to be my shred Tele; action is super low on this one. I'm actually making full use of the smaller, shorter frets which allow for a lower action. The overall satin finish on this one also spurs me to play faster. I bought this at Davis GMC when there were many Japanese Fender models in store. Good to know that they are bringing in more of such Fenders soon. 

If you take a closer look, I've swapped out the original M-type string retainer for this rounded, modern version. The former pushed the strings way down, strings are touching the headstock bit just after the nut. This helped with the elevation issue & it's more responsive to tuning as well.

Unexpected combo but what a pair! These Seymour Duncan pickups simply compliment each other. Despite being labelled as a Vintage Stack, the neck pickup can keep up with the bridge Hot Stack in terms of drive & distortion. Also, these stack models don't wimp out in terms of clarity which is essential for me. 

La Bella strings this time & they are good strings indeed. Note that these feature coloured ball ends & not to me mistaken for D'Addarios.

Fender TL Rose: Duncanized

This familiar pose- yes, it's Beez at work. Brought my Fender TL Rose to him today.

I got these fixed in:

• Neck: Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack
• Bridge: Seymour Duncan Hot Stack

I can't quite live with vintage (output) pickups. That's the primary reason the default pickups made way for these Duncans. However, I was bent on keeping the tones in the neck below scorching hot. I realized that I might want to keep things a little 'vintage' (whatever that means) this time round hence the Vintage Stack in there. Whatever 'vintage' tones it needs to churn out, there's a high probability that it would be fed into lots of distortion so it has to hum-free.

So this marks the 2nd Japanese Telecaster in my possession to sport Seymour Duncan pickups instead of their default ones. I'm happier this way, I don't don't play much clean tones anyway so my needs are first & foremost. It had been a rewarding Saturday :-)

Stacked & pounded

I have always had a thing for Teles but it seems they don't make too many Teles to my liking. The one you see above is something I fancy & it was featured here prior to some make-over: The TL71.

The default string retainer was done away with. In place now is the American Standard version featuring rounded parts to reduce string snapping.

The Gotoh tilt-friendly  saddles are superb in keeping things vintage-looking with a contemporary twist. I didn't know such things exist in the first place until I did some window shopping. The objective here was to keep the tone single coil but I can use something a little hotter. So the pickups on board:

• Neck: Duncan Quarter Pound
• Bridge: Hot Stack

I hear lots of angry distortion coming from both pickups & they don't sound rounded at the top end unlike some other manufacturers' manifestations. All this while keeping the true single coil tones in tact & that's the reason I fancy Seymour Duncan single coils above others.

Wishing everyone a good February :-)

Duncanized: LTD ST213

My LTD ST213 is one of my preferred guitars in terms of tone & feel. It's no hiding the fact that it's a Strat wanna-be but it works for me. Not that I got a Strat for less but I got a guitar to my specs (namely ash body + maple fretboard), that's more important.

Some mods done:

• Bridge saddles- TUSQ units are in.
• Pickups- Duncan Classic Stack + (N/M), Hot Stack (B)