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Michaelkaufman
Username: Michaelkaufman

Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 8:46 am:   

We may have gone over this many times, however, I'd like to reopen this topic for discussion:

I recently acquired an '81 AS50. Very nice guitar w/ V2's. I played in the studio last night and realized the the pickups are extremely hot. Even hotter than Super 80's (no surprise to folks here). In order to get the clean tone I was looking for, I needed to keep volume set around 3 which limited my overall volume.

I guess I'm a PAF type guy afterall. My questions are:

- how much of the hotness is due to the pups vs. the guitar itself?

- will a less hot pup reduce feedback?

- with most guitars, I find the lows & highs too strong and I adjust via EQ. For jazz, the lows are good, however, for rock, I find too much bass and the highs can be too shrill. I also find w/ Super 58's that the mids are too muddy when turned up. Do others agree?

- assuming different pups will address these issues, do you have any recommendations? Will they easily drop into my AS50??

Thanks,
mk
Michaelkaufman
Username: Michaelkaufman

Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 8:55 am:   

When looking at old posts, it appears that others have come to the same conclusion regarding the AS50 w/ V2's and that finding pup rings for other pups can be an issue for the guitar. Apparently, there are AS50's with Super 58's. How often do they come about?

mk
Funkle
Username: Funkle

Registered: 12-2001
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 11:52 pm:   

MK,

So is sounds like the V2s in the AS50 are causing your amp to break up sooner than you would like? Sounds like the pickup/guitar/amp combo is not working for you. maybe you should try some pickups that you like for clean tones - Super 58s or some other PAFs. Or maybe look into an amp with more clean headroom?

I think the V2s come from an era when amps didn't have the multiple gain stages and master volumes, or all these boosters, and people wanted a hot pickup to push the amp into overdrive at lower volumes. Now you can easily adjust for differences in pickup output with most amps. The V2s have a tone which is thick but never muddy, and for me, they deliver a very nice warm clean tone as well.

-Sven
Writersf4011
Username: Writersf4011

Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 1:08 am:   

MK,
I participated in that earlier thread when I found the new DiMarzio PAFs in my AS73 not staying clean enough long enough for my taste. Since then, I've picked up an '81 AS-50 with Gibson PAFs that I play thru a 65 BFPR or a 75 SFPR. I'm with you on tone, I think - I want clean, clean, with late break-up. I run either amp at 7 and control volume from the guitar. To my surprise (heresy), the SilverFace delivers the tone I want better than the BF. I believe the difference is the speaker: the BF has a Weber vintage series T150F -- forget the exact designation, but it's the popular one with the ceramic magnet -- which is loud, warm and OK for lead licks. But that amp breaks up early and chords are a touch muddy. The Silverface has a Jensen P10R alnico that is very clean and sweet and works for a jazz tone, blues, rock, you name it. Both amps are tweaked, tubed and biased correctly. I'm planning to do a speaker swap and see if it is in fact the alnico-equipped speaker that makes the difference. If it is, I'll have a Jensen alnico in the Black Face in short order. Regardless, I love my AS-50 with Gibson PAFs; I was ultimately disappointed by the AS-73 with DiMarzio PAFs, though it's still a really nice guitar. All of which is apples to oranges but there you go. Good luck. John

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