Thoughts on Sho Bud pickups..

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

I have an old 6139 S 10 with 6 and 4... It has a BL 710 and it sounds magnificent,, Just a sweet,vintage all Bud tone... As always with my old Fender amps however, the 710 humbucker WILL send the amp into overdrive.. I blame the amp front ends,, . NOT the pickup... However,since I will never use anything but old tube amps, this problem will probably not go away..

Lowering the pickup helps some, but you can only lower so much.. Buckers overdrive my Fender amps.. all 4 of them,.. Showman,Bassman 70,Bassman,Princeton ReverbII.. Not real bad, but enough to notice.. I have made a deal on a swap with a forumite, .. My 710 for his old Bud coil tap unit... I am certain the old Bud pickup will not load up the front end the way this 710 does... Just asking thoughts on this... I love the sound of the old Bud coil tap units, but I am also loving this 710... What would you Bud players do??.. I Think I made the right move. I hope...

Its a done deal, and I won't go back,but I guess I need some positive reinforcement...My Bud playing friends,, you think I made the right move?.. Jeez I hate giving up something I like for something I THINK I might like more!!!!! thoughts??? bob

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

From what I glean from the tele player I work with a lot the Joe Barden HBs were more lightly wound and didn't have the OD problem.

Again it's a tendency to overwind PUs, I think.

Danny Shields, the S in MSA was a believer in winding them "thin", though I don't remember what "resistance" he used on the ones he wound for me, and I long ago wore them out.

EJL

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

I want to replace the original pickup in my Pro 1.
This one has three holes for mounting (are they all like that?).
Seeking a fuller spectrum tonally (this one is all treble).
Anybody got a winner they would like to reccomend?
Thx,
~pb

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Why not add a volume control to the guitar? If you back off the volume, you won't overdrive the amp. Seems like the easiest solution.

To my ears, the BL 710 sounds nothing like the original Sho-Bud pickup with its off-center tap. I remember adding a blend control for the top half of the winding. Those 70's era Sho-Bud pickups were really versatile.

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Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Henry Nagle · From: Santa Rosa, California

Hey b0b.. Did that blend pot work out well? That sounds like a great idea.

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

I have original shobud coil tap pickups in my '70 shobud Professional. I couldn't be happier with my tone.

Pete, what's the rest of your rig? Amp? Speaker? That's got a whole lot to do with your tone, besides the pickup.

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I played a SHoBud D-10 for over 10 years and tried the BL610s, 710s, 910s, the George'l 10-1 and wound up going back to the stock single coils(Wallace rewounds). That's the sound I like. That's all I use now in my guitars.

Larry Robbins · From: Fort Edward, New York

I love the coil taps in my old Buds' and wont switch come hell or high water. I think you did ok, just remember that you can allways have our friend Jerry Wallace custom wind the taps for you!. Thats what I did on my 73 Pro II. 11.5 and 17K and I love em through my old Fender Twin..Through ALL my amps BTW! Go get EM Bob!

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72 Professional 8&5,73 PRO II 8&4, 79/80 PRO III 8&4,Fender Steelking, Hilton pedal, USA Tele, Fender Twin,Peterson tuner,Tut Taylor Reso's and Twang to the Bone!!

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

TT s on all my buds, sound good to me. D10 and Pro 1.

ernie

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I like the blend pot idea. It always worked well for me. I added the same feature to the Danny Shields pickup in my Sierra that also had a coil tap. the effect is subtle, but with proper amplification it can be dramatic.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I really like Bill Lawrence pickups. From the ones I've tried so far, I probably prefer the 705 pickup to the 710, but that's personal taste.

Still, you'll have to pry the original tapped early 70s Sho Bud pickup from my rack and barrel S-10 out of my cold, dead fingers. That is some serious tone.

On the overdrive, perhaps you should consider using a lower-gain preamp tube in the first stage of your Fender tube amp. I generally use a 5751 or 12AY7 if I want clean Tele or pedal steel tone. You could even use lower-gain tubes if that doesn't lower the gain enough - here's a chart of gain ratios of various miniature dual-preamp tubes - http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/006922.html

These tubes are essentially interchangable, but of course, the tone and drive quality will be different. I know people who use the much lower-gain 12AU7 in the first gain stage of Fender amps.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Pete.

I'd check the ohms and call JW. If it's real thin it might have shorted out internally. They're usually plenty full. Around 22-5k. Maybe it was a tapped coil that got rewired to the tap. Hard to say.

I had JW wind me some at 16k and they're just the way I like them. Believe it or not they're thinner than my stock tele pickups.

As far as True Tones, I tried one from JW with the larger magnets and I didn't like the tone response for some reason. The original SB smaller magnets sounded a lot better and more even.

Also since you are going for a "fuller" tone, you might try a 710 hb.

I'm thinking Larry or Doug might have one you can try.

See you at the Harley thing next Sunday if you can.

EJL

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

My 6139 sounded thin and brittle with the original pickup and the 710 I put in it. Oh well.

Putting a volume control on the guitar and then backing it down will also roll off the high frequencies same as rolling down a passive tone control. I wouldn't consider that a good solution. Guess in your case Bob I'd have to go with a lower output-pickup too, unless you want to buy a good mixer or some effect that has an output volume level control and put it between your guitar and your amp, and that probably would color your tone too. Some effects have output volume controls only for the effect, and others have a level control for the effect unit even when the effect is switched "out", which it really isn't, it's still running through the unit's preamp unless it has true bypass switching, and then it's not going to have a level control unless they put a passive one on it and that's not likely.

I mention all this only as a possibility, even if a remote one or last resort.... but anything with a preamp and level out between your guitar and amp would solve your problem, as you could just turn it down. The reason this kind of level control wouldn't roll of the highs the way a passive control on your guitar would do, is because the control would be in active preamp circuitry.

David Wren · From: Placerville, California, USA

If it helps, I had Tom Bradshaw mail me a replacement PU for my '70 MSA, it was 23K... this measurement of course came off the un-broken PU, which was my E9 neck, not sure if they were wound the same, but the new PU sounded great on the 6th. Every now and then I play my MSA, and I do like that single coil sound... if only my Carter didn't sound so fine with the PU it already has Smile

.... I have the same problem when gals are running around the beach in bikinis....

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Dave Wren
'96 Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Twin Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box
www.ameechapman.com

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

When a hot pickup causes distortion, turn the amp volumes up (yes...wide open), and just use less volume pedal!

When you get distortion at relatively low volumes, it's usually a sign that the first preamp stage is overloaded with signal. Turning the amp volume down usually just compounds the problem, since the amp's volume control is usually in the second preamp stage.

Also, if you use an amplified volume pedal, be aware that they can supply too much signal, also, and may need their internal gain turned down to prevent distortion.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Also Bob, don't most Fender amps have a little bit of attenuation in the number 2 input? Mine have, my '68 Bandmaster does.... you might just try plugging into the number two input, if you haven't already, and like Donny said if you're using an amp'ed volume pedal, set it lower and turn the amp up higher.

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