Entwistle Single-Coil Pickups.

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Everyone,


I have a Fender Mexican Standard Stratocaster that has a set of 3 Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups installed on it, while I really like the hum/noise-cancelling feature of these pickups, a couple of things about them have gotten me contemplating replacing them with some new/better ones, firstly the output seems a bit low, secondly they have a tone which is a bit too trebly, and when I plug my Strat into my Marshall MA100C Amp and use the Overdrive channel, the tone is a bit harsh.

I was wondering if other members have tried these Entwistle Single-Coil pickups, particularly the noiseless ones, and what have your experiences been, I've looked at the range of Entwistle Single-Coils on offer at Pitbull Guitars and there's about three options available to me as replacements for my current pickups, what would you suggest?


I'm pretty keen to keep the hum/noise-cancelling as it's something of an advantage while recording in a studio.

[dave.king1]

G'day Doc,

Have you had a fool around with cap and pot values, if they don't suit you may finish up with a bucket of pickups that you don't like because of a cheap and easy mod

[Scott J.]

Hey DrN,

Dave's recommendation is a pretty sensible one because its an easy option that's cheaply tried (and reversed if necessary) ... but they'll only make a difference when you roll the tone pot down.

I'm running a set of the Entwistle XS62N's in my "Scrapper" Strat (the "n" is for Neodynium, not "noiseless" but they're mounted in fully shielded cavities, so any "noise" is absolutely minimal) ...

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3312

... to be honest, I'm VERY happy with them - I'll get around to doing a sound demo in the next month or two when I've got some spare time (after this current semester). They've got bundles of output and really grunt when they're pushed (tho' I'm just running through a little old Fender Blues Junior with a Boss SD-1 overdrive) ... not what I'd call "dark" enough for full-on Metal ... and certainly wouldn't recommend them you're after a silky-smooth, clean sound for jazz ... but absolutely great for that dirty, driven rock-blues sound in the vein of Rory Gallagher

... and when compared to the price of the likes of Seymour's, DiMi's, etc., the Entwistle's are certainly one of the best bang-for-the-bucks pick-ups I tried in a long time!

[DrNomis_44]

Hey DrN,

Dave's recommendation is a pretty sensible one because its an easy option that's cheaply tried (and reversed if necessary) ... but they'll only make a difference when you roll the tone pot down.

I'm running a set of the Entwistle XS62N's in my "Scrapper" Strat (the "n" is for Neodynium, not "noiseless" but they're mounted in fully shielded cavities, so any "noise" is absolutely minimal) ...

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3312

... to be honest, I'm VERY happy with them - I'll get around to doing a sound demo in the next month or two when I've got some spare time (after this current semester). They've got bundles of output and really grunt when they're pushed (tho' I'm just running through a little old Fender Blues Junior with a Boss SD-1 overdrive) ... not what I'd call "dark" enough for full-on Metal ... and certainly wouldn't recommend them you're after a silky-smooth, clean sound for jazz ... but absolutely great for that dirty, driven rock-blues sound in the vein of Rory Gallagher

... and when compared to the price of the likes of Seymour's, DiMi's, etc., the Entwistle's are certainly one of the best bang-for-the-bucks pick-ups I tried in a long time!



Cheers Scott,


I checked out a demo video on youtube of those Entwistle Single-Coil pickups I was interested in and quite liked the tone, they seem pretty good for playing Blues music, which is something I've been getting into lately, I went as far as buying a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal last years as a Christmas present for myself and I'm liking it a lot, what got me interested in those Entwistle pickups the most is the price of them, I think my Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups cost me more, so I'm definitely interested in giving the Entwistles a go, my Strat is wired up the same way that Eric Johnson's Signature Strats are wired, that is, one tone control works on the neck pickup, the other tone control works on the bridge, seems to make a lot more sense to me than the standard Strat wiring does.


The amp I play my guitars through is a Marshall MA100C 100 Watt all valve 2 X 12 combo amp, the signal path through the amp is all valve, but the reverb/channel switching is all solid-state, the amp has a clean channel, and overdrive channel, and there's a panel button that engages boosted-overdrive mode.

[fatmunkey]

I threw a noiseless into the neck and a Neo into into the middle of my old beater Squier Strat.

Noiseless is really good, sounds clean and still has that single coil sound; not as good as lace sensors, but nowhere near as dear either. Would seriously buy these again. Although it diminishes the 2nd and 4th position quack somehow.

Neo sounds like junk, and I don't touch it at all. Being I'd already Fat-Stratted this guitar (bucker in the bridge) I now have no quacky middle position that I like. Dislike. This Neo will only get used as a tester pup as soon as I decide what to do with the strat next.

EDIT: I run through a variety of pedals (always changing) into a Peavey Vypyr that has a nice Fender Twin clone sound. Haven't yet found a chain I like the Neo in, except for heavily distorted and overdriven, and then it really doesn't matter what you're using.

[Scott J.]

Not intending to "rag" on you fatmunkey, but I do feel it's necessary to set the record somewhat straighter ...

I don't think its fair (or correct) to claim the Neo is "junk" just because it didn't produce the "quack" that you were used to getting from the previous p/up ... after all, no two different brands of the same p/up-type ever sound the same.

... and the p'ups aren't even half of the equation - there's a whole dark underworld in the dynamics of creating and modifying sound waves and their waveforms and EVERY individual component introduces its own multitude (poss. even infinite number) of variations

Simple example - take two amps ...

- a "true" amp (i.e. non-modelled) ... e.g. a Fender twin reverb is a good standard example
- and a "modelled amp" ... e.g. the Vypyr using its "Fender twin reverb" modelling (nice amp by the way)

... put the same p/up through each amp and you definitely won't get the same sound from each amp - depending on the p/up used you'll get anything from "pretty close" to "wildly different" - (N.B. to get the "same" sound from each amp you'd have to be using the same guitar with the same pick-ups and the same Fender twin reverb amp as the bloke did who created the sound that the modelling was created from!)

... and the more p/ups you put through that test loop, you'll find that each p/up not only produces a different sound from each amp but also the differences between the amps will be different.

Now throw a pedal into the same test loop (any pedal you like) and you've exponentially increased the potential for variances in the differences in both the produced sound AND the differences between the amps ... (possible variances)^e ... add another pedal and you'll get (possible variances)^e^e ... etc.

I'd suggest trying the Neo through a true tube amp rather than a modelled amp ... you might get a pleasant surprise ... but also you might not - it all depends on what sound you want.

But I digress ... in the end, it is all about the sound that the individual is seeking ... if your gear gives you the sound that you're after then that's great ... but if you're not getting the sound you want, it doesn't mean the gear's junk, it just means that you just need to try something else.

And when it comes to "gear and sound", I've found its always wise to bear in mind the "Bettencourt Principle" ... after being asked what it was like to have the chance to play through the actual personal rig of his idol (Eddie Van Halen), Nuno Bettencourt's one response was "I was so disappointed! ... I just sounded like me!" :D

[DrNomis_44]

I reckon that when it comes to getting a good guitar tone, you have to look at it as if each part of the guitar, pickup, and amp system is really a number of components working in synergy to produce the resulting tone, this also includes the musician playing the guitar too, and his/her playing style, this is why a musician, say Eddie Van Halen for example, sounds different to someone like Yngwie Malmsteen.

Ultimately, it's a case of "It's not what you use, but how you use it", one person's great guitar tone, is another person's horrible guitar tone.


I, myself, started off with the typical scooped-midrange Heavy Metal kind of guitar tone when I was younger, but lately I've been getting more into the midrangey edge-of-breakup kind of Blues guitar tone.