ShortScale.org

Short version: Would a Dream 90 in the neck position and a Dragonfire Screamers bridge pup be horribly mismatched in terms of output?

Long version: Right now I've got a set of Dragonfire Screamers in my Super-Sonic, and I'm finding that they're just a little too hot to give me the versatility I want out of my primary guitar. They distort well, but when I split them and play clean, they're pretty ice picky. I've got a Duncan Jazz and JB in my Mockingbird that I like the sound of, but they'd see a lot more action if they were in the Super-Sonic, so I'm thinking I'll drop them in there.

That leaves the Mockingbird for me to mess around with any way I want, and it's the sort of guitar that deserves to have something ridiculous done to it. I've been gas'ing for something with P90s for a while, so I thought I might try some Dream 90s in there. I do like a hot humbucker as a bridge pickup to bring the RAWK, though, and that's where the Screamers shine. I usually go to a neck pup for my clean tones. Would a Dream 90 neck + Screamers bridge combination even make sense--or if not, is there another that would?

I'm developing a bad habit of planning projects on here and never actually starting them, but that's neither here nor there.

Dream 90 is 8.2k and the Screamers are like 16.9k so you've got a wide spread between the two. Still... depending on the magnet strength and distance from the strings you might be able to get something going. Best bet is to just try it and see.

Don't get too obsessed with the k reading. I think the type of pup (ceramic vs alnico etc) and the pots/caps make the most difference . I never really worry about matching pickups, I'm more likely to kick on a pedal mid song than switch pickups. It's more important to me to be able to get as much out of a guitar as possible and sometimes that means quite different/mismatched pickups.

My go-to guitar for jamming/rehearsals is my Jag with a vintage neck pickup and a SD distortion in the bridge. They're not matched very well but the guitar gives me every variation I need. As the previous poster said, if you really want to make any pickup match better you can just dick about with the pickup height.

you can probably get them to work together by adjusting pickup heights

a lot of "matched" high output humbucker sets can sound like total mud in the neck position anyway.

I ended up finding a deal on a Dream 90 neck + Mean 90 bridge on the 'bay, which will probably give me the sound I'm looking for. No wiring diagrams included, though. Can I just wire them as if they were two humbuckers? 500k pots all right?

Yeah, 500k pots and 2-wire bucker theory is all go for p90s, use .022uF caps too. Despite being single coils 250k pots don't work so well with P90s.
I had a Dream 90 in the neck of an SG with a variety of bridge pickups including a GFS A2, Vintage Split and DiMarzio Super D... you can get away with a mellower neck pickup, and the Dream 90 is more articulate than a bucker so the output difference doesn't stand out as much; output isn't everything, the neck ones are very well voiced. As George said, adjust it with the heights. Dream and Mean 90 are a perfect combo tho.

So suppose I wanted to cheap out on shielding/actually get to work instead of waiting for more stuff to ship: would I accomplish anything by lining the cavities with aluminum foil, or do I need real shielding tape/paint?

You'll achieve a reasonable amount of screening against radio frequencies. Make sure it makes contact with with something earthed, e.g with a solder tag screwed to the body and wired to wherever you earth - back of pot, switch frame or whatever.

I use contact cement and tinfoil for the back of pick guards. Then I let the foil touch one of the pots. That way it will be grounded with the rest of the stuff.

Out of curiosity, what would be happening if I had damaged the capacitor?

I only get sound from the bridge pickup, and the tone pot goes from nothing to sound, to sound plus a loud buzz, to nothing again. The possibilities that have occurred to me are that I wired it incorrectly--which seems unlikely since I took care to wire the new pickups exactly as the old pickups were wired--or that I fried the cap while I was soldering--which seems very likely, because I got clumsy. I suppose the neck pickup might be a dud, but I don't want it to be, and that wouldn't explain the tone pot.

A pic would help.

Well, I opened it up to take pictures and found one more ground wire that had come unsoldered, so I fixed that and plugged it back in, just out of curiosity. That time, everything worked as it should have--if I held all the wires just so. Then I jammed the whole mess back into the control cavity to call it a night, and the neck pup stopped working again. So the problem, fortunately, seems to be somewhere in my shoddy soldering and not in any defective components. I'll make another attempt tomorrow.

i think that sounds like an okay match

you may have to drop your bridge pup and lower your neck pup if you want them to be the same volume, but i don't think you'd end up getting annoyed at adjusting eq a lot.

a popular choice on the SD forums is something like a JB (high-ish output) in the bridge and a "jazz neck humbucker" (low output) in the neck, very similar to what you're thinking. the lower neck output is clearer and more articulate so is well matched to the eqs of the bridge pickup.

Here's the show-and-tell shot:


I meant to put the silly decal on it like a year ago, but that's how it goes.

cool, you striped it. is it all working now?

Yes it is. The problem turned out to be a ground wire I'd soldered sloppily. Thanks for your help.

i really like that body style, but i woul cut down the lower horn and do a 3x3 headstock.....
i really like that body style, i may end up making my own version for myself actually......
could you send me a tracing?

It's just a Bronze Series Mockingbird. I was going to say you could probably snag one for next to nothing pretty easily--I bought mine for $100 off a friend of a friend when I was in high school--but it looks like they're going for at least twice that now. I'll see about doing a tracing. PM me.

The 3x3 headstock might happen someday. I was actually just thinking about that this morning. For some reason the truss rod won't budge in either direction, and I can work with the amount of neck relief it's got, for now, but I may have someone take a look at that someday. If there's anything seriously wrong with it, replacing the whole neck would make as much sense as anything.