Still, even after backing the pickup away from the strings, the Powersound humbucker just wasn't something I wanted to use a lot. Any closer, it breaks up too quickly, making it less usable for anything but just full-out 80's metal sounds. I have my Powersound humbucker about 4-5 mm from the strings. Backing it up from the strings cleared up the tone a lot. I found that it mixed well with the other two pickups, not overpowering them.
It sounds great when you pick softly, and sounds good full-out - but there is a very thin threshold between the two that takes getting used to. It will roar, but it doesn't really 'sing' unless you really pick hard, or pick very softly. I found it works well through effects, and has definition and clarity, but it's anything but bluesy. The Powersound humbucker has more of an 80's metal sound. It is a Super Distortion clone with a ceramic magnet, and has fairly high output - it breaks up very quickly and easily. It took a bit for me to get used to it, as my other humbucker equipped guitars are bluesy sounding rock guitars with moderately high output that have a different 'breaking up' point. The Powersound humbucker is a different story. I can get a close tone to 70's guitarist Robin Trower's strat tone with them (backing off the volume and treble a bit, and running it through a Boss phaser and Boss DS-1 distortion box, with the DS-1's tone control turned to the left), and I can get a good, clear, jazzy tone out of the single coils also - which especially shines through when using effects boxes, like phaser, chorus, and echo. Some guys on the 'net dislike Powersound single coils because they "don't have character." I've found they have their own sort of character, and it's a bright sort of neutral, but very usable and very musical sound. The single coil Powersounds had a scooped quality - they are very clear, with lots of treble, adequate bass, and have very high definition. I tightened the tremolo springs all the way down to bring out the sustain of the guitar. I filed the bottoms of the height adjustment screws flatter to give the saddles more positive contact with the bridge plate I filed the tops of the adjustment screws down a little to keep them from digging into my hand while playing I had to lower the slots on the nut to get the lower register chords to intonate better (I press rather hard on the strings).
The low E bridge saddle needed to be filed shorter to intonate and resonate well on low D (I have the guitar tuned to D-standard). I disagree.įrom the first time I started to play the Gio, I had to adjust it to my playing. The pickups are Powersound pickups, which - if you go by what is said on the internet - are terrible pickups. My Gio is a GRX40, a 'superstrat' copy with a volume and tone control, a 5 way switch, two single coil pickups and a humbucker in the bridge position. And famous slide guitarist Ry Cooder's favorite guitar is a Teisco (a cheap Japanese brand from the 1970's - they weren't bad guitars sometimes all they needed were minor modifications and they would play quite well). Now that dry thump sound of plywood acoustics is sought after by some acoustic blues players. I rest my case.Īnother example is the blues guitar players from the 1930's through the 1950's, some of whom had cheaper guitars. The high tech didn't make the music good - the musicians playing the guitars did.Įddie Van Halen revolutionised music with a throw-together guitar and there is a suspicion that the pickup installed in the guitar he used on the first Van Halen album was a Mighty Mite (apparently a budget aftermarket pickup company), albeit modified.
The good hair bands (and there were a few - Ratt being one of them) used high tech guitars also. For example, half the mediocre hair bands from the 1980's used excellent, high tech, high dollar equipment, but not all of their music has stood the test of time. I've heard a lot of crap music being made on Gibsons and Fenders, even ones equipped with name-brand aftermarket pickups like Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, and EMG. I've especially applied this notion to guitars.
I have always had the belief that you can make do with moderate equipment - you just learn to work with it. I've never been particularly impressed with popular, name brand equipment, whether in my radio hobby, or in my music hobby.
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