So, a little over a year ago I contacted our very own Josh Gravelin @JGravelin about a bridge pickup for my Talladega. The stock DD is a cool pickup. Kind of a fat Tele if I had to describe it. For a while I had a Duncan custom shop humbucker in it and then put the DD back in for a few years. I decided I’m just a bridge position humbucker kind of guy.
Anyway, talked to Josh for a while. Told him what I was after. He said that his clone of the old 70’s Hamer/Dinarzio PAF pickups was the best fit. I told him to shut up and take my money.
Before I got it installed, I actually lent out my Talladega to a buddy of mine for about a year. He loved it so much he ended up buying his own.
Got the PAF installed yesterday and was able to spend a good amount of time with it today.
Holy crap…
Using the volume knob on the guitar:
3: clean with light touch/fingerpicking. Edge of breakup to slightly crunch when digging in.
5: this is where rock to hard rock riffing lives. Crunchy but still very articulate. If this was the only sound I could ever have from now on, I’d probably be totally fine with it. Spent a ton of time here playing everything from classic VH, Randy era Ozzy, Nugent, KISS, Zep, Sabbath…
8: hard rock and classic metal leads. Harmonics galore.
10: Shreddy leads, infinite sustain, effortless harmonics
The in between positions on the switch (both pickups in series and parallel) were a little less distinct than when used with the stock bridge DD, but still very usable.
Another home run. Out of the park home run. Josh is an absolute wizard. If you don’t already have one or more of his pickups in your guitar(s) then you owe it to yourself to remedy that ASAP.
Anyway, talked to Josh for a while. Told him what I was after. He said that his clone of the old 70’s Hamer/Dinarzio PAF pickups was the best fit. I told him to shut up and take my money.
Before I got it installed, I actually lent out my Talladega to a buddy of mine for about a year. He loved it so much he ended up buying his own.
Got the PAF installed yesterday and was able to spend a good amount of time with it today.
Holy crap…
Using the volume knob on the guitar:
3: clean with light touch/fingerpicking. Edge of breakup to slightly crunch when digging in.
5: this is where rock to hard rock riffing lives. Crunchy but still very articulate. If this was the only sound I could ever have from now on, I’d probably be totally fine with it. Spent a ton of time here playing everything from classic VH, Randy era Ozzy, Nugent, KISS, Zep, Sabbath…
8: hard rock and classic metal leads. Harmonics galore.
10: Shreddy leads, infinite sustain, effortless harmonics
The in between positions on the switch (both pickups in series and parallel) were a little less distinct than when used with the stock bridge DD, but still very usable.
Another home run. Out of the park home run. Josh is an absolute wizard. If you don’t already have one or more of his pickups in your guitar(s) then you owe it to yourself to remedy that ASAP.
