To Use, Or Not To Use, Two Burstbucker 2s Together?

[crunchee]

I was doing a mini-inventory of my guitar parts stash today, and I found that I have two Burstbucker 2 pickups setting idle, and I'm itching to drop them into one of my guitars. Yeah, if I was going to follow conventional wisdom, I'd probably think about trading out one of the BB2s for a BB1 or a BB3...but then I realized, BBs all tend to be a bit different when measuring resistance, even among the same model/level. I also like the idea of having a little extra oomph with the neck pickup, as compared with the bridge pickup...though I'm NOT aiming to overpower the bridge pickup. If I go through with it, I will still put the lower value of the two in the neck position, and the higher value PU in the bridge position. Question is, has anybody ever installed two BB2s (and ONLY two BB2s) together in a guitar before, or known of anybody doing this? What was the result like? TIA!

[Disturber]

What is the difference between having two BB1s installed vs two BB2s? It just the mag that differs, or am I wrong?

Just try them, they should be A5s. If you need a different eq in one of them, probably the bridge one, just swap the mag to a A2 to make it a BB1. They sound pretty good in the bridge I think.

A5s are good in the neck if you want more clarity. So the BB2 could sound good there.

Just try. Soldering in new pups takes like 15 20 minutes.

[crunchee]

Actually, Burstbuckers are Alnico 2, regardless of whether they are BB1, BB2, or BB3s. Burstbucker Pros, on the other hand, are Alnico 5. I'm not a fan of Alnico 5 pickups.

I'm not sure about other pickup models or manufacturers, but the Burstbuckers (the Alnico 2 series) seem to me to be the only commonly available models that I can think of (next to handwound PUs, correct me if I'm wrong) that have some small yet significant variances in their resistance ratings, from each individual PU of the SAME series to another...in other words, they're 'inconsistently consistent' (or, is that 'consistently inconsistent'? ). BB2s are 'middle ground' for Alnico II Burstbuckers, as far as resistance goes, and they can be used individually in either neck or bridge positions. Sure, I could ask the same question about BB1s or BB3s, but I've got BB2s instead. Besides, I'm not sure that I would want a pair of BB1s, or a pair of BB3s together in a guitar, even if I had them!

[Armitage]

In old Les Pauls there wasn't a bridge or neck pickup, an it was luck of the draw which one was over or under.

Be Vintage Correct! Say screw it, and put those babes in!

[crunchee]

In old Les Pauls there wasn't a bridge or neck pickup, an it was luck of the draw which one was over or under.

Be Vintage Correct! Say screw it, and put those babes in!

This! ^^^^^ That makes as much sense to me as anything! The simplest answer is often the best, there's no point in overthinking it sometimes. I think I have my answer, thanks Armitage!

P.S., Tone report when I get the PUs in, I don't have a soldering iron, and wouldn't know what to do if I did. Yeah, I know, now is the time to learn!

[murkat]

BB's, 1, 2, 3, etc,

just a number to identify the hotness.

1 being the weakest, 3 being the hottest.

guitar building for dummies, general labor, at the custom shop.

use the the two 2's!

[crunchee]

BB's, 1, 2, 3, etc,

just a number to identify the hotness.

1 being the weakest, 3 being the hottest.

guitar building for dummies, general labor, at the custom shop.

use the the two 2's!

This also! ^^^^^ I shoulda mentioned the hotness level, I just assumed that everybody knew that, and that it wasn't only about resistance. I need to follow the KISS principle (no, not Gene and Paul's KISS principle, though I could use the money ), and keep my explanations simple, too.

[RichRS6]

Hamer was the first guitar builder to actually specify different winding resistance for Neck and Bridge pickups, up to that point no one really cared.