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pickup question

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11/10/1997 12:21 AM

pickup question

The pickups in my Parker Fly were giving me
trouble on two accounts. First, because of
the novel mounting scheme, they are very
difficult change out. Secondly, the stock
pickups are gain monsters with an "aw", thin
vowel-like sound to them which screams
"plastic, plastic" to my ears. It was not
possible to move the pickups far enough away
from the strings to compensate for this sound.
Stock pickups in the Parker are the Dimarzio
"air zone" and "tone zone" humbuckings. Out of pure desperation, I changed out the only
thing I could get at, the pickup magnets. I
don't know anything about the stock magnets
other than some empirical testing showed I
had some others the same size that were significantly weaker. Well, the miracle
happened - one of my fixes worked. I am happy
but not happy. I can accept the gain is
reduced, however, I am wondering how just a
magnet change can lose the mid-range, nasal
sound, too. Anybody got some ideas?

11/10/1997 4:28 PM

Hi Ken

The weaker magnet is allowing the strings to swing more easily, producing a more natural sound.

A strong magnet will tend to dampen the low frequencies (the wide excursions) and can even pull the strings out of tune, in an extreme case.

So by changing magnets you haven't gotten rid of the nasal, mid range tone - it's still there, it just has additional low (and high?) frequencies.

You've kind of loosened it's neck tie and allowed it to breathe a bit better.

Fender Lace Sensor pickups are an excellent design in this respect.

See Ya

Ozzie

11/12/1997 11:47 AM
Ken Drottar	Thanks, your reply makes a lot of sense. I probably got myself into this tone problem by using larger strings than the manufacturer intended.

11/12/1997 3:43 PM
Austin C	AHA! Yes, fat strings makes sense. Out of interest what guage do Parker recommend for the Fly? Have you ever played a Modulus Genesis? I'm wondering how the two compare. See Ya Ozzie

11/13/1997 12:24 AM
Ken Drottar	Parker comes with .009 > .042 I'm an .011 > .049 kind of guy. I have not played a Modulus Genesis.

11/13/1997 7:29 AM

I noticed when I bought my Parker Nitefly that the nut doesn't even allow enough room on the low strings for anything bigger than .009-.042. That will have to change, I prefer light top, heavy bottom sets. Guess that will have to be filed out.

-Y.
(wyatt poist)

P.S. You string "11's" on a Parker? Wow. Don't get me wrong, I know thicker strings means better tone (back when I owned my Ric, I used "11's" with a wound G string), but most people I know who buy Parkers are the fusion jazz/guitar wizards sorts that would play "8's" or something.

11/13/1997 11:09 AM

Wyatt,
What a P.S! Got a good grin over that. If
only I'd known the key to guitar wizardry
was light strings!

Here I felt like 11's were my concession to
time. Having been raised on drugstore brand
Black Diamond strings, I have always had a
terrible time with intonation if the strings
don't have some resiliency. Probably why I
prefer a long scale neck, too.

My Parker nut is that plastic/graphite stuff.
If yours is, too, careful with that file. It
trims really quick. Good Luck. Have Fun.

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