The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Just goes to show that what comes around goes around

Or maybe "a little tit for tat" is a better proverb.. who cares

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Confessed MAA member since April 21st 2011.
Went through MAA detox in April 2012.

Hey Racing.

I'm just getting around to checking out your new treasure. Reading the first post, I was expecting something in pretty rough shape. However, it's a gorgeous thing in the pictures.

I got the chance to play one of these not so long ago (not for sale, of course). The combination of the pickups & the slightly (maybe a little more than slightly) more rigid body put out a VH Ibanez Destroyer kind of vibe--only more resonant. VERY nice.

Definitely moved to the top of my "want" list.

CONGRATS!!!

Thanx Kendall.

Yeah.
The HH isn´t your typical latino.That much is beyond doubt.
I think you understand perfectly when i say that right now i´m really occupied trying to figure out what pups should reside in her.

The thing is that she´s so full of attach and attitude that she needs to come down a little IMO.
Like i wrote i for now replaced that god awful bastard bridge pup that was in there with a neck pup from Tonerider.
That shure helped,showing that the thinking is right,but it is by NO means the answer.

Where the TA can be called upon to roar like a lion the HH does so all the time.
In short,that brings the TA to be the wider instrument of current and hence i need to figure that out for the HH.

As Oscar came through on the missing pup issue i think i´ll just order a set of PAF clones and be done with it already.
They´re cheap enough and that way i at least have two different sets to play around with for starters.

Push came to shove as fellow band member had a set of GFS Dream 90 pups left over. I bought ém off him with the Headhunter in mind,and they have been laying around fer a while as i´ve other things on my mind.

Well. Last night time was up.



The OEM pups which are black too are with open bobbins and as i´ve written earlier these ain´t exactly your run off the mill softcore jazz pups...(or blues/bluesrock for that matter)
Replacing the OEM ones with the P90 style ones is pretty straightforward. Only thing is that the pup cutouts of all Yamaki made guitars are on the fabled hair to be able to make a pup with a cover fit. That aside...straightforward.

Difference in tone though is like night n day. As some of you know i´ve grown very partial to the humbucker sized P90 style pickups and the Headhunter in turn carries very large amounts of tone in itself-hence why i picked the "lesser" of the two GFS offerings.(The Mean 90s are hotter in output)
Within the band we´ve run the SD Phatcat back to back with the GFS Dream 90 vs the GFS Mean 90 and i for one have come to the conclusion that the GFS offerings are a downright bargain. A set of GFS pups run approx just high of HALF of the cost of ONE Phatcat...and they sound VERY similar.

What the 90s brought to the Headhunter in case was even beyond my expectations. Just like the TA-100 when in order the Headhunter carries massive amounts of tone. To the point where both the Headhunter and the TA-100 under certain circumstances could benefit from being tamed down a little.
The 90 style pups in turn lets much more "string" come through and under gain...it just screams rock n roll IMO.

What i´m saying is that for anyone out there giving thought to altering the sound of a given guitar...have the GFS offerings in mind when on a budget. IMO they are THE bang for the buck in their class.

Thanks for the endorsement of the GFS pups Jesper.
I've been wanting to try P90's in my MIK TA-60. The stock humbuckers sound OK but I think P90's would sound better.

But I'm not sure from your post if you are talking about the Dream 90's or the Mean 90's. I'm leaning towards the Means. Which do you think would sound better in TA-60?

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

The ones i tossed into the Headhunter are Dream 90s.
As far as which to go for...pick your poison IMO Barry. They´re both worth the effort as far as i´m concerned.

A guitar like the Headhunter though,like the TA-100,carries more top end than for instance my 70 and hence i think i would opt for the Mean 90s in that one.
Got a Phatcat installed in the neck of that one since a while back,which is more direct vis a vis the Mean 90,and couldn´t be happier.

Short summary would be to use the Dream 90 pups in guitars that have a lot of sustain and top end and the Mean 90s in more "normal" guitars.

I came to the same conclusion Jesper. I'm on my 3rd set of GFS pickups and have been very impressed, even BEFORE factoring in the "Bang for the Buck" equation.Just dropped $60 PAIR of Alnico Fat Pats into the Straycat, and holy cow, it sounds great I really can't endorse these highly enough for folks on a budget.

I have a Dream and a Mean in the Skylark, and I think the Dream is a little nicer sounding, just depends what you are looking for.

Cheers,
Scott

Cheers for the info guys!
I be jammin' one day soon!

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Update time.



Ever since i got this axe it´s had an annoying feature in as much that it at times devloped a "hum". Now,of course the single coil GFS Dream 90 pups hums being singles,but this came and went and was of a different nature. Intermittent.

So.
Just about two weeks ago i said nuff is e´nuff already... and ripped the electronics out of there once again. I took all of the pots apart and sanded down the plating ever so carefully to ensure good contact before i resoldered the the ground wires....no dice...
Since previously i had 1000pF caps installed over the volume pots(treble bleeds)...tried letting go of those...no dice... I even let go of the leg of the tone caps that is soldered to the tonepots...no dice...
As i had the whole innards hanging on the outside of the guitar i by chance moved my hand across the wiring...and when i got to the actual tonecaps...the hummin increased!!

Well...i guess there needs to be a first for everything....



So i cut these babies out of the equation....and the axe turned quiet as a mouse-when it should be. In short,this was due to defective 0.047mF tonecaps....
Replaced them with a pair of orangedrops.....and it was all good.

As much as i had found the sound of the axe good before....a fresh side of it showed itself,and this side...is even better than before. Absolutely fantastic even.
In short those old caps must have eaten tone just being in the circuitry.