Sentell Unmudbucker pickup

[Dave W]

Huh.  Not sure I'm into it; too unmudbuckery.  Better fingerstyle, but the TBplus was better with a pick; really surprised by the Sentell's lack of oomph actually.

I think being unmudbuckery is the general idea. You obviously think he's achieved that goal.   

[Granny Gremlin]

I was hoping he just took the edge off vs wound up a polar opposite beast.  Imagine that wussy thing with the choke/baroitone switch on; useless.

[Dave W]

I was hoping he just took the edge off vs wound up a polar opposite beast.

I've thought about having mine partially unwound, or rewound with the same gauge wire but fewer winds.

[clankenstein]

Good Idea.I wonder what the sweet spot would be for percentage of turns? it seems  that 50% is too much.

[ilan]

How about a treble-bleed capacitor to un-mud a Sidewinder? Like the evil cap on pre-'85 Rics. Wouldn't that work?

[Alanko]

How about a treble-bleed capacitor to un-mud a Sidewinder? Like the evil cap on pre-'85 Rics. Wouldn't that work?

I've wondered what would happen if you put a cap in series between the two coils of a humbucker. You get the low end of only one coil, but the upper mids and treble of both coils. A sorta 'half mud' setup.

The Sentell pickup is odd. I thought the plastic cover was just the thing they shipped it on. I didn't realise it was meant to be the cover on the bass as well. I don't like the naked coil look. 

[Dave W]

Good Idea.I wonder what the sweet spot would be for percentage of turns? it seems  that 50% is too much.

That's the problem, how to know when to stop.

How about a treble-bleed capacitor to un-mud a Sidewinder? Like the evil cap on pre-'85 Rics. Wouldn't that work?

It wouldn't help much b/c you have to have enough treble to pass to have a viable pickup. There's not much there.

The best easy mod to the stock wiring is to remove the .010 cap which bleeds most of the treble to ground. It doesn't stop the distortion but it helps the frequency response.

[Dave W]

I've wondered what would happen if you put a cap in series between the two coils of a humbucker. You get the low end of only one coil, but the upper mids and treble of both coils. A sorta 'half mud' setup.
....

That's an interesting thought. I'll ask a local expert what he thinks.

[Alanko]

That's an interesting thought. I'll ask a local expert what he thinks.

"No dice".

[Granny Gremlin]

That is the idea behind the choke, except that is a 2nd order filter (-12 db per octave - I forget the corner frequency but I calculated it once ages ago) vs a single cap which would be a less aggressive 1st order filter (-6 db per octave).  You only need that hard to find choke coil for the 2nd order filter, so you could easily replace it woith a cap tuned to were it works better for you.  Off the top of me head aiming for somewhere in the 100-200 Hz range so that you'e 12ish db down as regards the fundamental of Low E , but you could adjust to taste.  You could even put that on a pot - switch from a tone control per pup to master treble and bass tone controls (like a Triumph) and leave the choke circuit as is. In that latter case I would suggest a more aggressive cut because you could dial it back.

Incidentally, 2nd order filters also invert the phase of the signal so that may be better or worse for you when using both pups on an EB3 or EB2D.

[clankenstein]

For what its worth i used to have a switchable 250 pf cap to ground where the coils join on my mudbucker,it made a small un woofing contribution.

[amptech]

I've thought about having mine partially unwound, or rewound with the same gauge wire but fewer winds.

Both suggestions work fine. I never saw the point of struggeling to redesign the mudbucker, just fewer windings if you find the low end to crazy. I find about 12Kohm to 20Kohm output to be fine.

Good Idea.I wonder what the sweet spot would be for percentage of turns? it seems  that 50% is too much.

Not really, the lowest output mud rewind I did was matching the output of a 70's P pickup. Think I posted ealier here, can't remember how many turns but I think it was 11 or 12 Kohhms. Equally blended on a '74 P, they have the same volume but the mud still has good 'gibson' sound - but more bite and treble. It was a late 70's unit with ceramic magnets, but still..

[Dave W]

It's never been about having too much low end, it's about having low end that you can run without distorting. Too much distortion and you wind up with less low end.

I love my EB-0, the weight, balance, etc., everything else works great for me. I'll never sell it. But I'd like more clarity. If I don't have the mudbucker unwound or rewound, I'll probably put a different pickup in. Not any of the ones that are a drop-in fit.

[amptech]

If I don't have the mudbucker unwound or rewound, I'll probably put a different pickup in. Not any of the ones that are a drop-in fit.

That was more or less my point, both unwinding and rewinding mudbuckers give great results so I don't see the point of all the replacement muds - if you have a gibson pickup to begin with.

Unless you want it to look all modern and fancy or sound like a J or P of course

[Dave W]

That was more or less my point, both unwinding and rewinding mudbuckers give great results so I don't see the point of all the replacement muds - if you have a gibson pickup to begin with.

Unless you want it to look all modern and fancy or sound like a J or P of course

I have nothing against Js and Ps but I wouldn't want my EB-0 to sound like either one.