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Big Willie Style said:
I found the neck too muddy in mine too so I replaced them with a set of LeoSounds Growldogs. Check them out online. They sound great and are probably around the same price for a set of handwound pickups as the SD Slash.
I actually find the neck to be okay on distortion but its very muddy on the bridge since i use the bridge mainly for crunchy rhythm and neck for some creamy solos. I just realized i have bass all the way down all my amp's clean settings :eek:
Ive listened to couple demos on the Growldogs and the Creamgem models and found them sound quite the same to my ears? I liked their bridge tone very much but i wouldnt get one for the neck. I think i will stick with my SD slash pickup plans for now :p
Big Willie Style said:
Funny about pickups and personal tastes - the same MKII's came in my '02 ES-120, my '05 LS-150 and my '07 SG-155. I found them to be muddy in my LS, shrill in the SG, but perfect in the ES.

Jason
I actually find them very bright on the neck. Bright and muddy? :-? Id say the ES actually balanced out the muddyness and gave it a good blend of trebles, or the other way around.
messer said:
If it's a new Tokai, don't wrap strings dude. Tailpiece and it's screws are bad quality in low Tokai models, they are too soft. Screws bend and strings dig into the edges of tailpiece.
IME it's not worth it. But I would try to screw all the way down tailpiece's screws to prevent their bending.
Buy a better tailpiece and locking kit if you want to wrap.
I wont be doing tail wrap any time soon as for now and i doubt the Tokai's bridge would be too soft. Like marcus said i dont use 12's, only 10's. But i am planning to swap in a aluminium tail piece when the store has it in stock. Other than that and the pickups, i think i will leave the hardwares alone now.

Marcus, took me awhile to understand what youre trying to say but now i get it. Ill definitely keep that in mind if i do ever want to try some tail wrapping business :wink:
 
warxy said:
Marcus, took me awhile to understand what youre trying to say but now i get it. Ill definitely keep that in mind if i do ever want to try some tail wrapping business :wink:

The distance between the strings and the bridge frame is probably more applicable to a non wrap, standard tailpiece set up.

The reason being that when you wrap the strings, the strings are much higher from the tailpiece to the bridge.... thus greatly reducing the angle where the strings meet the saddles. In many cases, with a top wrap, you can pretty much screw the tailpiece all the way down and the strings won't even be near the bridge frame - which is fine. You just don't want the strings resting on the bridge frame after they pass thru the saddles.
 
messer said:
If it's a new Tokai, don't wrap strings dude. Tailpiece and it's screws are bad quality in low Tokai models, they are too soft. Screws bend and strings dig into the edges of tailpiece.
IME it's not worth it. But I would try to screw all the way down tailpiece's screws to prevent their bending.
Buy a better tailpiece and locking kit if you want to wrap.

The whole point about top wrapping your strings over the top of the tail piece is so you can screw the tail piece all the way down on to the top of the body, without the strings touching the frame of the ABR...

On most LPs (except for the ones with very shallow neck angles) you cannot get the tail piece down onto the body without hitting the ABR frame and/or totally ruining the tone IMO.

There is virtually zero danger of bending the tail piece screws using this set up, no matter how crap they are. However, it is true that top wrapping strings in the longer term will firstly mark your aluminium tail piece, and later on make grooves in it. Steel strings are harder than aluminium so it was always gonna happen. :)
 
Well, the reason now that i dont want to do the wrapping yet is because after some research i find that it takes more effort to do vibros and i didnt like that idea much. Apparently it also makes palm muting more comfort but i dont think thats enough for compensation. They also said screw the bridge down increases the sustain but sometimes you can miss your sweet spot? something to do with the string angles being not similar to the string angle from nut to tunnning keys :-?
 
I think you are over analyzing it. Play it for awhile, wrap it for one series of strings and see what you think.... it's not going to hurt the guitar. Trust me.

Vibrato's are actually easier because wrapping the tailpiece once again, reduces the angle against the saddles. The strings actually feel slinkier and bend with ease.

Sweet spot? Alot of that comes from your hands..... it's not a golf club.
 
Okay marcus i will take your words and give it a try next time i restring it. :)

When i said it takes a lot more effort to do vibrato's i meant it will take a lot more effort to get the same vibrato effect when compare to non wrap around since the string tensions are now less? :roll: but yeah, i will try and find out.
 
warxy said:
When i said it takes a lot more effort to do vibrato's i meant it will take a lot more effort to get the same vibrato effect when compare to non wrap around since the string tensions are now less?

Not sure what you're saying here. When you top wrap it feels like you've gone down a guage so if you find vibrato harder on light strings then yes, top wrapping makes vibrato harder.

Personally I don't like top wrapping but it does feel different and the palm muting thing does make sense. If you do decide to experiment bear in mind that it will start to mark your tailpiece immediately.

I was told by a tech I respect that the 'sweet spot' is just the furthest you can screw down the tailpiece without the strings touching the bridge body. I know there are other definitions but the one you were told sounds like tone junkie snake oil (IMO natch).
 
Paladin2019 said:
warxy said:
When i said it takes a lot more effort to do vibrato's i meant it will take a lot more effort to get the same vibrato effect when compare to non wrap around since the string tensions are now less?

Not sure what you're saying here. When you top wrap it feels like you've gone down a guage so if you find vibrato harder on light strings then yes, top wrapping makes vibrato harder.

Personally I don't like top wrapping but it does feel different and the palm muting thing does make sense. If you do decide to experiment bear in mind that it will start to mark your tailpiece immediately.

I was told by a tech I respect that the 'sweet spot' is just the furthest you can screw down the tailpiece without the strings touching the bridge body. I know there are other definitions but the one you were told sounds like tone junkie snake oil (IMO natch).

That's what I meant to say..... didn't mean to be a smart *** about the sweet spot comment.
 
Paladin2019 - i dont really mind about marks if they do come up as i will be replacing the tail piece hopefully soon anyway.

I was doing some googles a while back about tail wrapping and on i think it was mylespaul forum, some folk said that the sweet spot is where you have your strings - bridge - tail piece angle roughly the same to strings - nut - tunning pole thingys. basically the angles at the point where the strings bend. Sorry if i didnt explained it good enough :p

But that really doesnt concern me much for the moment as i am not a good guitarist enough to hear those difference anyway. Some day i will..
 
warxy said:
Paladin2019 - i dont really mind about marks if they do come up as i will be replacing the tail piece hopefully soon anyway.

I was doing some googles a while back about tail wrapping and on i think it was mylespaul forum, some folk said that the sweet spot is where you have your strings - bridge - tail piece angle roughly the same to strings - nut - tunning pole thingys. basically the angles at the point where the strings bend. Sorry if i didnt explained it good enough :p

But that really doesnt concern me much for the moment as i am not a good guitarist enough to hear those difference anyway. Some day i will..

On that note, here's one more tidbit..... in order to have the proper angle from the nut to the tuning pegs, you have to have at least THREE winds around the post with the end running toward the nut is as close to the headstock as possible.
 
warxy said:
arghh.. bloody rocket science :evil:

I prefer to think of it as black magic :lol:

I only do one wrap around the tuning peg becuase I use a self-locking restringing technique so fewer turns = better tuning stability.

It's far too easy to overthink this kind of thing and there's never a definitive answer; looking for one will drive you mad, so string up however you like and just play. 8)
 
Paladin2019 said:
warxy said:
arghh.. bloody rocket science :evil:

I prefer to think of it as black magic :lol:

I only do one wrap around the tuning peg becuase I use a self-locking restringing technique so fewer turns = better tuning stability.

It's far too easy to overthink this kind of thing and there's never a definitive answer; looking for one will drive you mad, so string up however you like and just play. 8)

+1
 
PonchoGreg said:
Wow, that's a seriously gorgeous guitar. Congrats!
Thank you! :D

PonchoGreg said:
+1 on the "pickguard off, zebra pickups" thing
I just cant wait till my next pay day so i can get new pickups :roll:
I had this sudden urge the other day and screwed the pickguard back on, played around with it for about 30 seconds and uninstalled the pickguard again. It just didnt feel good to my picking hand. Right now i filled those screw holes with some UHU tac (some kind of adhesive putties), now the guitar has this cool little yellow spot at the screw hole :p
 
warxy said:
Right now i filled those screw holes with some UHU tac (some kind of adhesive putties), now the guitar has this cool little yellow spot at the screw hole :p

A lot of folks just screw the screws back in, which is reversible and looks about as neat as it can get 8)
 
Paladin2019 said:
A lot of folks just screw the screws back in, which is reversible and looks about as neat as it can get 8)
Those stuff feels kinda like fresh chewed gum from your mouth or play doll in a less sticky way :wink: and i dont think they ever dry up. So i can pick them out anytime with a toothpick or something similar :D
0016c4b_20.jpeg

Love these things, so useful 8)
EDIT: oh this is not my photo btw, just a random one came up on google. I only have one pack.. maybe two :lol:
 
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