NGD - The White NF3 Gets A Brother To Play With

RickP

RickP

Established 1960, Still Not Dead
Joined
Dec 10, 2019
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Gulf Coast of Texas
Just a short new guitar day post welcoming my new-to-me 2011 Natural Korina NF3 to the guitarsenal! I did a quick play on it acoustically straight out of the case, and it really sounds open and sustains well… such a good sign. There’s some tarnish on the hardware that might not clean up completely, so I’ll call that the PRS-level relicing. Also, there is some residue from a stand/hanger here and there, which is cleaning off nicely with no discoloration. I’m really pleased with the guitar, and looking forward to an amplified test drive shortly. In my experience, a guitar that sounds good unamplified sounds great through an amp, so I’m expecting to be smiling. 100% a great deal so far.

By the way, the wiggly lines near the knobs are reflections from the window, not scratches.

More to come…

adpVBOd.jpg
 
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spawnofthesith said:
Wow those are both killer!!

How would you charactarize NF3s? Like a souped up strat on steroids sorta thing?
Click to expand...
Kinda. The Narrowfields to me inherently still have a humbucker tone, but one that is tighter, leaner and punchier.

They can get a bit more single-coil like when you back the volume down And are super versatile. They actually rip hard for rock oriented tones and in between settings yield some very cool thick-stratish tones.

The guitar itself is super comfortable to play with the infused neck finish that feels like raw maple and I prefer the switch layout to that of a typical strat. Really awesome guitars and glad to see them getting some love!
 
spawnofthesith said:
Wow those are both killer!!

How would you charactarize NF3s? Like a souped up strat on steroids sorta thing?
Click to expand...
It's really complicated to compare. I thought, going in, that the pickups would be a lot like mini-humbuckers, and in the way that they are clear and articulate, that's true, but mini-hums always sounded a bit thin and trebly to me, which these do not. In comparison to single coils, I'd say they sound more like a nice Tele bridge pickup when you're going for that sound though, again, they have more roundness and girth to them. A hum-less P90? Maybe that's closer, but then you put them into the 2 or 4 position, and somehow that Strat quackiness comes right out. Honestly, I don't know how they did it... it's essentially a 57/08 made thinner and deeper, but it's such a flexible sounding pickup, and with three of them to mix and match, it really covers some ground.

So, what they aren't: high gain. If you're looking for a screaming hot metal pickup, you're going to need an amp that has that kind of gain. They will do it, but more like a PAF would do it than a super high output pickup. It's that more middle of the range output that makes them so clear and sparkly.

Then put them into a comfortable and familiar guitar which looks Stratty but feels PRS, and you've got a winner. I actually owned several of these when it first came out. I liked them a lot, and gigged them for a bit but ended up moving back to my 513s. In a way, I think I just didn't spend the time to wrap my head around what they were because they didn't easily fit into any "pigeonhole" I was familiar using as a reference. In the end, they are their own thing and it really is something that has its own place. I could envision a day when people might say "that sounds like a Narrowfield."

I'm really digging them, and decided to add the second NF3 as I'm looking at using them for a while as my main #1 and 2.
 
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RickP said:
It's really complicated to compare. I thought, going in, that the pickups would be a lot like mini-humbuckers, and in the way that they are clear and articulate, that's true, but mini-hums always sounded a bit thin and trebly to me, which these do not. In comparison to single coils, I'd say they sound more like a nice Tele bridge pickup when you're going for that sound, though again, they have more roundness and girth to them. A hum-less P90? Maybe that's closer, but then you put them into the 2 or 4 position, and somehow that Strat quickness comes right out. Honestly, I don't know how they did it... it's essentially a 57/08 made thinner and deeper, but it's such a flexible sounding pickup, and with three of them to mix and match, it really covers some ground.

So, what they aren't: high gain. If you're looking for a screaming hot metal pickup, you're going to need an amp that has that kind of gain. They will do it, but more like a PAF would do it than a super high output pickup. It's that more middle range output that makes them so clear and sparkly.

Then put them into a comfortable and familiar guitar which looks Stratty but feels PRS, and you've got a winner. I actually owned several of these when it first came out. I liked them a lot, and gigged them for a bit but ended up moving back to my 513s. In a way, I think I just didn't spend the time to wrap my head around what they were because they didn't easily fit into any "pigeonhole" I was familiar using as a reference. In the end, they are their own thing and it really is something that has its own place. I'm really digging them, and decided to add a second as I'm looking at using them for a while as my main #1 and 2.
Click to expand...

Great description. It’s like the most comfortable Strat you’ve played with extra oomph.


@spawnofthesith The NFs were originally called NF 57/08 if that helps to what they sound like ;)
 
photos.app.goo.gl

New item by Jake Turner

photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl

I wanted to post this of my NF because I had heard they were taller bobbins and was very surprised to find this size in my SAS.

Also congrats on the new NF3.

RickP said:
Honestly, I don't know how they did it... it's essentially a 57/08 made thinner and deeper, but it's such a flexible sounding pickup, and with three of them to mix and match, it really covers some ground.
Click to expand...
 
jak3af3r said:
photos.app.goo.gl

New item by Jake Turner

photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl

I wanted to post this of my NF because I had heard they were taller bobbins and was very surprised to find this size in my SAS.

Also congrats on the new NF3.
Click to expand...
I'm going to take the pickguard off on one of my next string changes just to see, I notice that, when holding a metal object near them that they seem to exert less pull than the pickups on my home-made Gilmour Strat. It's hard to say exactly what the dimensions (and what you can wind on them) have to do with it, but it definitely does something that makes them sound different from other small/compact humbuckers (like the SD Lil' 59, for instance).

Paul likes to talk about the magic that happens within millimeters difference, and they struck on something with these. The new NF53 humbuckers are supposed to be deeper than these. I'm guessing it didn't take a lot of added depth to match the wind count on the original 57/08s to get the NF3 pickup. Total guess though!
 
RickP said:
I'm going to take the pickguard off on one of my next string changes just to see, I notice that, when holding a metal object near them that they seem to exert less pull than the pickups on my home-made Gilmour Strat. It's hard to say exactly what the dimensions (and what you can wind on them) have to do with it, but it definitely does something that makes them sound different from other small/compact humbuckers (like the SD Lil' 59, for instance).

Paul likes to talk about the magic that happens within millimeters difference, and they struck on something with these. The new NF53 humbuckers are supposed to be deeper than these. I'm guessing it didn't take a lot of added depth to match the wind count on the original 57/08s to get the NF3 pickup. Total guess though!
Click to expand...

If I had to guess, they may have been able to use the same turn count with a smaller diameter wire.

I'm also curious to see what the NF53 pickups look like out of the guitar.
 
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