What the hell is the difference between the TB-6 and SH-6?

Drew_TNBD

Seymour Duncan. I just get confused by their product names. What the hell is the difference between these two? Is one intended for F spaced guitars and the other not? Is one intended for guitars with trems and the other not? It's just not obvious, and their website doesn't even tell you what the difference is... it just lumps them together on the same product page!

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/high-output/sh6_duncan_dist/

Hence confusion.

guitarfishbay

TB is trem spaced.

DrBob

I Think TB denotes TremBucker and therefore 53mm spaced poles

DrBob

I say this because the TB-4 in my Tyler was basically an F spaced JB so 53 as opposed to 50mm space pole pieces

guitarfishbay

Here you go.  http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/frequently-asked/everything-else/what_does_tremb/

TB - 52.6mm (Trem/Floyd)

SH - 49 mm (Gibson)

Drew_TNBD

Riiight. I knew it'd be something like that. But they don't make it bloody obvious!

Probably going to move from Bareknuckles in my Les Paul. Fancy a change.

DrBob

Dammit I was 0.6 mm & 1 mm out respectively ! Must try harder ;-)

mike_l

DrBob said:

Dammit I was 0.6 mm & 1 mm out respectively ! Must try harder ;-)

Naughty corner for you

guitarfishbay

Distortion is nice, pretty hot though what BKPs are you removing and what spacing?  I quite like the Custom (ceramic), but by virtue of saying that I reckon you won't like it as I wonder if our tastes are opposite with guitar gear.   )

Drew_TNBD

guitarfishbay said:

Distortion is nice, pretty hot though what BKPs are you removing and what spacing?  I quite like the Custom (ceramic), but by virtue of saying that I reckon you won't like it as I wonder if our tastes are opposite with guitar gear.   )

I dunno, I think we like similar stuff... Big bastard amps for a start, and a teasing of the digital stuff

I've got BKP Rebel Yell calibrated set currently. I noticed recently that they're quite a bit noisier than my Seymour Duncans in my Chapman ML-1. It could be a dodgy pot or 3-way selector I suppose, but ICBM doesn't think it likely and I've rewired it 3 times trying out different things, and the noise never went away. So I think these pickups are just a bit noisier than others for some reason. They're 50mm spacing.

So I'm thinking perhaps the Duncan Distortion set - SH6's, one calibrated for bridge and the other for neck. My Chapman ML-1 has a TB-6 in the bridge and a SJBJ-1 in the neck.

I used to have the Hotrodded set in my Les Paul, two years ago. They lasted 3 months before I started to dislike them. Bridge was fine, but for some reason the neck was uber quiet and too crystally sounding. They weren't balanced at all, and I just thought balls to it, and went back to BKP.

But I do like the tone I'm getting from my Chapman, hence my toying with the idea of switching.

steamabacus

This is for your Les Paul? I'm not surprised you didn't like the JB in there  - they're often a bit hit and miss in LPs. Tend to suit superstrats better, I think.

I've never had a Duncan Distortion but I gather they have a quite bright, defined sound for a high output pickup. A lot of Metal dudes seem to like them.

What's the basic tone of your LP like (bright/dark, whatever)? It's a Custom, isn't it? The only Custom I've intimate knowledge of was an old 70s model - very bright, defined tone. From the weight, it seemed to be made of Neutron Star material - it gave me back ache after 10 minutes of playing. That one had weedy, bright pickups - crap for rock but actually pretty good clean (it's owner played reggae and funk).

Drew_TNBD

It's a pretty dark and low-mid heavy sounding guitar. It doesn't "twang" like a lot of guitars do when played acoustically. It has a low of low-end grunt to it, which traditionally I've calmed down on through pickup choice and backing off the bass and resonance on the amp. Worst case, adjust the pole pieces to lower the bass side.

It's an Orville Les Paul Custom from 1991, made in Japan. Body is Mahogany, fretboard is a very dark rosewood (lots of people mistake it for ebony!)

I didn't dislike the core tone of the JB in this guitar. I just didn't like the massive difference in output and contrast between the neck and bridge pickups. I could've quite happily stuck with the JB in the bridge I think, and shifted the neck pickup.

One other thing - the JB is obviously uncovered, and it was a lot more prone to feedback than the covered BKP's I use.  I didn't spend too long trying to resolve it. But was it pickup height, just the nature of uncovered pickups, or something else?

Don't really want to make the change if I am going to be plagued with squeally feedback all the time.

steamabacus

If your guitar's dark and mid-heavy I've got a bit of a left-field suggestion. Have a look at the Duncan Screamin' Demon. It's a bit mis-named. It's a moderate output (around 10 - 11k) pickup but with a very open, 'airy' sound, tightly defined bass and quite harmonically 'juicy'. I've got one in the bridge of my Lag Jet (superstrat) but I've not tried it in a LP-style guitar. The Screaming Demon gets a lot of love on the Seymour Duncan forum as a neck pickup in LPs. In my Lag it replaced an old JB and the SD is so much more articulate and open sounding but doesn't lack power.

ICBM

The Screamin' Demon is a *great* pickup.

It's actually more like a hotter, more open and complex PAF than anything really high-output.

I also really like the Custom Custom, but I suspect it may be too dark in that guitar.

guitarfishbay

The neck pickup in the Hot Rod set is the Jazz, and I'm not surprised you find it unbalanced next to the JB.  Personally I do not like that combination, nor have I found any situation where I like the Jazz as a neck humbucker, except for in the neck of an Ibanez RG when going for a high clarity 'shred lead' type of tone.

I don't think covered vs uncovered makes much difference for feedback, someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think something else was causing you problems.

The CC will be too dark for you, I think.  Avoid the C5 IMO, that thing is simultaneously hot but thin sounding in the guitars I've tried it in, has a surprisingly nice clean but I didn't find it punchy enough with gain.  The Custom (ceramic) is the best of that range that I've tried - it is better balanced for high gain work and has a good tight low end.  It is not as angry sounding as the Distortion though, so if aggression is what you want go for the distortion over the Custom.

ThePrettyDamned

Custom custom is great, or the regular custom sh-5 - I use that in my Ltd and it sounds great, nice and bright with tight bass.

I also really like the ones in the synyster gates sig, the invader pickups. Again, more suited to a darker guitar imo. The syn sig I played was fairly dull acoustically (I'd say dull rather than low mid - it was really dull and a bit pants!) but that pickup really elevated it.

Looks a bit odd if you're a traditionalist though.









Oh, there is always the Duncan zephyr set.

FelineGuitars

If your LP is very dark and could do with a bit more airiness that will also come through when plugged in - try two things to improve the acoustic response

1) swap tailpiece to aluminium

2) Swap the nut for an earvana one

also 3

swap the tag the capacitor feeds off to be like 50s wiring  - cap is attached to middle tag of volume pot

You may well find that the tone improves quite a bit

guitarfishbay

In a dark guitar I don't find the Custom bright.  I've had it in three super strats, two basswood and one polar.  It sounded best in my old Ibanez Roadstar, which if it was actually basswood was surely some kind of super heavy early 80s boat anchor basswood that Ibanez don't seem to get hold of any more.  That was a thick and dark sounding guitar and it sounded great with the Custom IMO.  Don't know if maple top was a veneer or not, I always assumed it was but IIRC maple is heavy.  I found it a bit zingy in the other two guitars but they were always much brighter.  I tuned the Roadstar to C with the Custom and I thought it held together really well, good tightness and good clarity without sounding weedy or boomy, I found it really well balanced.  Not as aggressive as you'd expect for a fairly hot ceramic pickup.

I thought the Invader was very middy and bassy, my friend has one in his SE.  I'm not sure I'd put one in a Les Paul type personally, especially since Drew tunes down.

ICBM

I do like the Invader - but it needs to go in something bright and defined, like the Tom Delonge Strat. It also coil-splits very well to something surprisingly like a Rickenbacker High-Gain, and cleans up well but only with a treble-pass cap on the volume, it gets too muddy otherwise.

I've always wanted to put one in a PRS, but never got round to it... partly because it would probably sound great, and partly to piss off the usual PRS snobs .

Drew_TNBD

So looks like the Custom or the Distortion are the ones to look at then. But I'm a little unsure. I took my Chapman ML-1 into the studio last night and played a few songs with it. It sounded quite different to my Les Paul, and it was kind of difficult to get the right level of saturation from it without it squealing and feeding back like a motherfrakker. I didn't sound bad, just different and I guess I wasn't used to it. Cleans were much much nicer than my Les Paul though.

Drew_TNBD

If I go for the Distortions, should I get the calibrate pair for bridge and neck - or should I couple it with another pickup for the neck position. If so, which one??