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The Ultimate 'Shlabotnik' HFC Pickup Discount - Round 2!


JGravelin

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Thanks to you as well, Josh!

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The orientation of the pickup has no effect on the phase. Flipping the magnet or switching the Hot (red) wire with the Ground (green) are the ways to do it. Obviously the hot/ground wire switching bit only applies if you have 4 conductor leads.

Some people like neck HBs with the screws toward the bridge - it's a slightly different sound and purely a matter of personal taste.

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My set, with Nickel covers, arrived in Sweden the other day and yesterday I got to play and hear them at rehearsal. They live in my (warning non Shishkov or Hamer content) Gibby R7 and the will stay there for sure! I have tried SD Seth Lovers and Sheptone Blue Skyes in the R7 but I wasn't really impressed. With the Shablotniks it really sounds like you think it would sound when you play it unplugged, like a really good 50's LP with that special crystal clear tone and with lots of punch at the same time! I am more than happy Josh, thank you!

This. Had rehearsal tonight with 0021 while it still had that "new guitar smell." I didn't expect everything about the guitar and pickups to be so... distinctive.

I'm tempted to just play the neck pickup all the time. It's really clear, balanced, chimey but never shrill and none of the bassiness a neck humbucker can have. I'm a pretty picky SOB, far pickier than my skills justify, and this is a flat-out remarkable neck pickup. The bridge is not a LESSER pickup but it's just not as "what the hell?" in its sound. It brings the rawk but again is not spike-trebly or boomy. At the same time they're not hi-fi like EMGs or Lace Sensors, not full-frequency/flat response.

I know that all sounds mixed up, but they sound really terrific in the Ultimate and I'd suppose they'd be a good choice for any guitar. If I had to go out on a limb I'd say they remind me a bit of the Seth Lovers I put in my old Koa Studio.

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Here's another one for you.

If you were making pickups for a triple humbucker guitar would you make the middle Bucker spec be between a typical neck pickup specs and bridge pickup specs? I bet this has already been answered since I believe you already did a triple Bucker set for Mr. Matthes but I can't find it.

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IIRC, mine has a bridge/neck/neck (or bridge/bridge/neck?)...

No unique pickup for the middle that I'm aware of.

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I did make Lord Matthes a superkungfuawesomecustom middle position bucker but publishing his otherworldly wind specs in a public forum would be unprofessional, not to mention diluting the mystique of his sublime 6 string twangstick.

If the neck position was 7.6k and the bridge 9.0k, I'd probably put the middle position 'bucker at 8.2k or so as a starting point.

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IIRC, mine has a bridge/neck/neck (or bridge/bridge/neck?)...

No unique pickup for the middle that I'm aware of.

It's a special wind, totally unique to your instrument! Really.

Damn-I'm even more pleased (and I didn't think that was possible)! Seriously-these pickups are tremendous. I'm waiting for things to settle down for a couple of days here and my other set is getting installed in one of my workhorses.

Thanks for all that you're doing, Josh-not just a home run, but a grand slam!

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This may have been covered elsewhere, but what is the switching configuration for 0003? It would be really cool if, among the other choices, the middle humbucker could be accessed by itself ala:

pete-townshend_msg_mar-1976_richard-e.-a

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  • 4 weeks later...

How would you guys describe these...like a PAF style? I know it's hard to describe these kind of things.

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Hi Sonic,

The Shlabotniks are basically a late 50's Gibson PAF variant: Alnico 2 in both positions, 7.6k neck - 8.9k bridge. It's a formula that's been used before - I'm certianly not the first dude to take a swing with these specs.

I could toss out the flowery verbiage and typical hype, but that's not my style. I hate ad-copy.

Instead, straight up: big, open, clear notes in both switched positions. Chimey and sweet in the middle, and lots of variation on tap otherwise: basically, its the widest range of classic shades of PAF-style tones that I could build into a pickup. Cohesive from one end to the other. A big, linear sweep with your Volume and Tone controls. The sweet spot with these lies around the '7' position so when you rip into a solo or need extra presence, ease it up...or dime it... and you'll be all set.

Many people have commented on the pickups in posts they've made regarding their new guitars, so give those a peek. If you have (or anyone else!) any questions, please contact me and I'll be happy answer honestly. Always.

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I should probably chime in, even though it may seem like "piling on" (but in a good way). :P

I had occasion to talk to Josh at length about replacing the bridge pickup in my new-to-me Centaura just because I figured I was gonna hate the JB like I usually do in Alder bolties with a Floyd. Well, it turns out I was wrong about the JB, so the PU went into my newer-to-me Centablo, replacing a Gibson pat# thingie. That done, I called him up and we talked about a bigger, louder, but still defined and crisp neck pickup to complement the bridge unit. In both cases, the pickups were in my mailbox within 48 hours, and I even got a blow-by-blow pictorial display of the building of the neck unit!

Observations I will add about the pickups themselves are thus; the voice I now have is extremely clear and defined, and very responsive to pick attack. "Clarity" is the operational word here, and the neck pickup is so much more useable than the Duncan '59 that I removed that a comparison isn't even fair. The '59 was wooly, muddy, and indistinct with heavy gain, and turned into complete mush with the volume control rolled down beyond "8" or so.

Conversely, the neck pickup Josh wound for me (wound to 8.1k) is completely a different animal than what I am used to with a rich, Hi-Fi character that makes me solo on it frequently. It is big and round and warm, and still "cuts" somehow if you know what I mean by that. At first I thought it was maybe thin sounding, but I realized quickly that rather than being "thin" (lacking ass) I was just not used to hearing a neck pickup that had so much going on up high in the tonal spectrum. It's all there, and so very supremely useable.

The BEST part of all this for me though, and one that Josh kindly explained the science of, is that when you start to roll back the volume you have WAY more useable travel on the roll, and the neck pickup NEVER GETS MUDDY AT REDUCED VOLUME!! Not only did the volume control become a more useful tone tool, but it appears that the tone control is far more useful with these pickups somehow as well. Go figure. This was a really big deal to me, and something I would love to hear about from other users to confirm what I am hearing compared to other pickups. I always thought that the way the sound responds to volume changes was all in the pot itself, but by simply switching pickups and having such a profoundly different response to rolling back, I have to conclude that the pickup brings much to the table in this equation.

Super happy customer here. I will order more product from Mr Gravelin for sure, and recommend you strongly consider what he has to offer if you are in the market for some custom pickups. It is all there and the price is certainly very reasonable too for what you get in return. I will likely never be able to order a custom Shishkov guitar, but when a simple pickup swap makes such a huge difference in the playing experience, and especially the range of useful sounds one can get from a single instrument, maybe I can still get where I want to go sonically with the planks I have and Josh's expert help.

So yeah, the guy is easy to work with, keen to hear about what, exactly, you are after tonally, and has great service. He also seems to know what the hell he is doing, and how to achieve your sonic goals. He also makes me laugh frequently, which I personally appreciate. :D

Great stuff. Thanks!

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^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

All of this!!!

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My serial number 001 set will be heading out to Nashville on Monday. They've been in two of my guitars and sounded great (Hamer chambered Standard w/ Mike's fingerprints and a 2001 '58 Tom Murphy Les Paul Authentic). Next, they'll be falling into an alder double-bound black Custom Tele-style Danocaster w/ a rosewood board. I can't wait.

I'll be ordering a few more sets directly for the aforementioned "test" guitars. I have some variations I'd like to employ.

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