Burstbucker 1's

Ryan Sequeira (7665)

Guitar Equipment Forum · 7/20/2012 10:35 AM

What can y'all tell me about these pickups? A dude is offering one to me in a trade for my Dimarzio PAF Pro.

I've had the PAF Pro for aaaaages and frankly as nice a pickup as it is, I'm kinda burnt out on it, and I also dislike the fact that because of the different spacings/measurements of the internals, I can't swap magnets in it. (the dimarzio magnet is a few hairs thinner than the standard humbucker magnet, so the multitude of standard size mags I have just will not fit)

With the Burstbucker, I'll be able to mag-swap to my heart's content. Only downside is that it's vintage braided conductor so I wouldn't be able to do any fancy wiring without doing some surgery on the guts.

I'm planning to use it as a neck bucker along with a DMZ X2N in the bridge. good combo? or am I an idiot?

-Ryan

Responses

Respond to this

Re: Burstbucker 1's

7/20/2012 10:51 PM

David Mackie (11013) wrote:

The big problem I see is that the Burstbucker isn't potted at all. In a high gain situation (as would be typical with an X2N) it will tend to be microphonic and squeal-ly. Unless it's a Burstbucker pro-v, in which case it will be potted, but that will make magnet swaps more difficult. (at least, the first time) I'm a big fan of just trying things though, so for a straight across trade it might be a fun learning experience.

Respond to this

Re: Burstbucker 1's

7/29/2012 2:44 PM

Ryan Sequeira (7665) wrote:

Hi David,

thanks for the advice! This particular guitar has been a bit of a problem child for me. It's also my first mahogany bodied guitar. It's got a set maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and is a 25.5" scale.

The stock pickups were really thin and weak sounding so out they went. Replaced them with a SD Custom 5 and Jazz, and that wasn't doing it either. The Custom 5 lacks balls and mids, and the Jazz was too warm and muddy.

I changed the Custom 5's magnet to a ceramic making it a regular Custom, and that improved the mids problem, but it still lacked balls.

So I swapped em out for a Duncan Distortion and a DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell. The Distortion was good, but not the flavour I was looking for. The HFH on the other hand was much warmer than its EQ chart suggests, and simply couldn't keep up with the DD, output-wise.

Now I've got this X2N from 1979 in there and I decided to keep the PAF Pro and see how it sounded in this guitar, and much to my surprise, they're PERFECT together! Output balances nicely, the X2N has tons of balls, crunch and cut, and the PAF Pro is clear and articulate, but hot enough to not seem out of place next to the X2N.

This guitar now breathes fire as a full time job :D

-Ryan