Semi OT: Consider pickup type before writing off a circuit..

[Jim Jones]

Hey guys,

It's probably obvious to most of us but it wasn't to me...  I've been a  Les Paul guy for years; I love humbuckers and heavy-ass body woods and thru-neck construction.

I've built a number of circuits over the last few years which I ended up loathing - thinking the fault was in the effect, when (I'm thinking now) the problem was probably in a bad match between guitar and effect.  The circuits I've disliked the most have been the fabelled germanium fuzztones like the FF and various Tonebenders.  I finally dug out my Japanese RI '62 Custom Telecaster and plugged in my MKII Pro knockoff and low and behold - it sounds awesome!  

Keep in mind I've replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan vertical stack humbucker...but I think the lighter body weight and bolt-on neck contruction make this pedal sound fantastic - not over-the-top wooly and farty like it sounds with my Les Paul.  And it's not just the matter of swapping out an input cap value - even with a small input cap I still don't like the MKII with the LP.

Probably nothing new here, but just thought I'd throw the concept out.  If  a circuit really sounds crap to you - maybe give it a chance with a different guitar before taking a hammer to it.

Jim

[Fret Wire]

No doubt. A Range Master with a LP/Marshall will definately sound different than a Strat/Twing Reverb. Depends on the amp and guitar.... big time. It happens all the time. People dump their guitars, or switch pickups when all they needed was to set the pu height and balance their output. Amps getting dumped when all they needed was a cap job, or, and it's happened, just new tubes!

Sometimes, it ends up being our good fortune.

[petemoore]

and Yupp.
 Amp or Guitar, even string type changes to a lesser degree definitely affect the effect,  voicing or gain of SC's to HB's can be alot different.
 My Washburns middle SC keeps falling, it won'r stay up..

[Nasse]

Add the speaker cabinet to the list

[RDV]

My Washburns middle SC keeps falling, it won'r stay up..

Stronger or longer spring on PU will hold in place better.

RDV

[Mark Hammer]

Had a TS-808 clone for a few years and hated it, hated it, hated it.  Finally started using a guitar that did NOT have overwound pickups and an on-board preamp and found a reason to love it....finally.

EVERY pedal, and most especially gain-related devices, behave differently depending on what you feed them.  When it comes to pedals, they are what they eat.