The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I just picked up a Washburn Hawk from 1983...flat body set nec etc. The neck pickup looks original faded white but the bridge is black. I saw in another post of a yellow Raven that had Goto (without the H) written on his pups.I thought my Westone Thunder 1 and HB35 had hot pickups but this Hawk is even louder and more outstanding. The problem is the bridge pickup which is less powerful and has no charisma. What are the typical pups for this???? I hear Power Sustain, Dimarzio, Goto.....what's the truth. Dimarzio Super Distortion may be a good fit for the bridge???!!! There is a MK45 bridge for sale near me ...would it be made for this Hawk? Opinions and comments welcome. What should the approximate resistance be for the neck?.....bridge? Thanks for the help....Jeff

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If the rich get going run for cover. If the poor get going run for cover.

First of all if stock the pups as supplied by Yamaki Gakki will have dual upper adjustment screws to tilt of the pup can be held in control.(..and yes,these have been claimed to have been supplied by Goto. As for how accurate that claim is,i for one have no idea-some dozen Yamaki built guitars later)
Second of all you´re right in that the OEM pups seems to have a XXXX of an output,however..this to my knowledge is not totaly the case. When you measure the Yamaki pups these will normaly be all in around 8.3-8.5k Ohms. IOW medium value humbuckers. I agree tho that the character of the OEM pups is "heavy duty",or more to the point they´re to a large degree "80s" voiced.

I´ve tried various pups in both the Washys and the Daions...and truth be told the jury´s still out with one exception. Then...that´s just me. The one type of pup that seem to be at home no matter what you toss at it with a Yamaki,and many many Mat,guitar is the P94 type.
Ie; Seymour Duncan Phatcat,GFS dream and mean 90 asf. These IMO work VERY well in maple based guitars.

That is not to say that it will be the answer to all ills but it will certainly work.

As for the OEM pups they in my experience differ quite a lot. For the sake of argument i´ve had highend wings that were totall stock sound WAY different. Likewise...Daion Power MkXX;s that all in all were supposed to be the same guitars...one was totaly "heavy metal" to the sound and the one i´ve still got around is like a glove for bluesrock as far as genre. In short,they vary. LOTS.

But as a whole these early 80s "super guitars" often carry lot of maple and that coupled with the often insane quality builds per se brings that they can be tricky to find pups for. Many times you actualy end up trying to tame the beast DOWN-in contrast to almost all other type of guitars.

Even so with my just as Yamaki built Daion Headhunter. If the OEM Yamaki pups were EVER out of place it is in a HH...just trust me on that ,it actualy IS a laughin matter cause....what WERE they thinking?
In the case of my HH i´ve replaced both the pups and pupframes with generic GFS dream 90 stuff and it absolutely work wonders. When picking non stock pups for these guitars think VERY conservative as the builds are what they are and will in a VERY noticable way add to the total package.

Hi Racing: Thanks for the very personal observations you have made after swapping numerous pickups. I took the back off to see what was under the access plate. There was a tin box that I assume is to control feedback. Inside that is a circuit board which i did not think was on the Hawk model. I noticed where wires had been soldered they were cutoff in 2 locations. I am wondering if someone that added the pick up wired it wrong and it has affected the volume. You would think with push/pull on the volume controls he should have just resoldered as per the original pickup. I would like to find a wiring diagram for this guitar and would like to keep the circuit board if possible. I prefer as original as possible. Is it possible the bridge volume pot is just failing and that is causing the weak bridge pickup sound. Any thoughts????

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If the rich get going run for cover. If the poor get going run for cover.

They´re easy enough to diagnose. Most of them are splitable. In HB mode they should click in at the DC resistances per above.

My bet is that if you unbolt that PCB it´ll say Yamaki on one of the sides. Circuitry shouldn´t be cut anywhere to my knowledge.

Thanks Racing....I'll tear it down a bit tomorrow and see whats up....also check the ohms to see if it is within the perameters you give. I raised the bridge pickup (which I thought was fairly high already) and it came alive. Wow, didn't think they were that sensitive. Now both pickups have about the same loudness. Good lesson for those like me who don't fully realize the importance of pickup height. Of course that's why so many aftermarkets are sold....or at least 1 contributing factor. Thanks again. I can't post pics for a few weeks as my good camera is up north where I work.....but I will.......Jeff

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If the rich get going run for cover. If the poor get going run for cover.