30th Anniversary custom 24 (core) with maple neck - how will it sound??

Wow, that Jade guitar is gorgeous (not that the yellow one isn't). I'd buy both just for the colours!!
Wait how do I know the specs for each of these?? Both hog neck and body? Jade = 57/08??
Again, different amps & settings so hard to say. Yellow inner positions definitely sound great.... both sound pretty damn good, though!

Does he use the same machine they used to make the 57/08 wire/pups (for the 85/15s)??
 
Are 85/15s "better" than 57/08s (the holy grail)?
Would love to hear them side by side.

I have 85/15s on my 30th CU24, 58/15s on my new McCarty, and 57/08s on my McCarty Singlecut; these are my current electric guitars.

The 85/15s are not better. They're different. Each pickup does a unique thing that distinguishes it from the others.

That isn't to say you might not prefer one over the others, but I don't think of any one of them as somehow better; I think of them as suited for different things. Horses for courses.

I have clips I've posted in other threads of each of the pickups in action, however, they're not on the same material, and some were done on my HXDA, some are on the DG30. Some have effects. And of course all three guitars are different, too. But maybe you can get the general idea. I think you'll agree that there's no "best" among these pickups, each is suited nicely to the guitar it is on.

Bearing that caveat in mind, here are links:

McCarty WL, maple neck, 58/15 neck pickup through DG 30 miked with ribbon mic about 2.5 feet from the cabinet: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/mic-test-medium-distant-placement-on-guitar

CU24 30th, 85/15s used on all tracks, DG30, some tracks with Fulltone Plimsoul, all tracks effected a fair amount: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/fc-instrumental

McCarty Singlecut 57/08 bridge pickup, HXDA, no pedals: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/blues-ii-hotg

McCarty Singlecut, 57/08 neck pickup, DG30: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/hammer-dg-30-custom-v2
 
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I started off writing comments for each tracks (and I appreciate you posting them) but you're right - they're just different. 85/15s do sound pretty cool, though!
 
I started off writing comments for each tracks (and I appreciate you posting them) but you're right - they're just different. 85/15s do sound pretty cool, though!

Yeah, they are cool, and I do like them on the CU24. Unfortunately the track that I posted with the 85/15s is the one with the most heavily effected parts, and it's hard to really hear what the pickups are about.

For example, I rolled off a ton of high end on the clean parts on that f/c track because the client thought the guitar was too bright. The only part that doesn't have high end rolled off was the lead part with the Plimsoul on it, but the Plimsoul itself altered the tone of the guitar quite a bit.

Yet the 85/15s are the brightest pickups I have on any of the three guitars. You can't really hear that in this track. But I figured something is better than nothing, even if it's flawed as a demo.

The tracks with the 57/08s and 58/15s are a lot closer to how the pickups sound with those amps.
 
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Wow, that Jade guitar is gorgeous (not that the yellow one isn't). I'd buy both just for the colours!!
Wait how do I know the specs for each of these?? Both hog neck and body? Jade = 57/08??
Again, different amps & settings so hard to say. Yellow inner positions definitely sound great.... both sound pretty damn good, though!

Does he use the same machine they used to make the 57/08 wire/pups (for the 85/15s)??

Sorry, should have clarified; they're both 30th anniversary guitars (and stock, I assume, so both 85/15s) - just different types of playing :)
 
"Brighter" is the standard answer to the original question. Maple necks contribute their own uniqueness to the overall tone of the guitar. However, the overall tone of the guitar is the result of all the ingredients combined. Those ingredients include often overlooked things like the pickups and especially the amp. To truly answer the question of what will my guitar sound like, one would need to know what all the rest of the ingredients are.

Real life example to illustrate: One time I had a fantastic guitar made by brand X which I was offering for sale on CL. I took it over to the interested party's house and plugged it in to the POS practice amp he was using (because his all tube half stack was in disrepair after 20 years of neglect) which in turn made the guitar sound like crap. He still bought the guitar but did so with the understanding I imparted unto him that he needed a better amp.
 
"Brighter" is the standard answer to the original question. Maple necks contribute their own uniqueness to the overall tone of the guitar. However, the overall tone of the guitar is the result of all the ingredients combined. Those ingredients include often overlooked things like the pickups and especially the amp. To truly answer the question of what will my guitar sound like, one would need to know what all the rest of the ingredients are.

Conventional wisdom, and I agree :)

What I'm wondering is whether the new 85/15 pickups lend themselves well to the maple neck - of if the combination might be too bright/thin. EQ can't always alleviate such "shortcomings" (in quotes, because it is of course context dependent).
 
Conventional wisdom, and I agree :)

What I'm wondering is whether the new 85/15 pickups lend themselves well to the maple neck - of if the combination might be too bright/thin. EQ can't always alleviate such "shortcomings" (in quotes, because it is of course context dependent).

Hmmm, well... I've got a 30th Anniversary model Custom 24 with the 85/15 pickups in it (which I love BTW) and I know I can certainly get some bright tone out of that guitar. But I suppose that if it had a Maple neck and that it were just a little bit brighter than the hog neck, I'm under the impression that I could roll down on the tone knob a bit to compensate. I know I have a tone knob, I just hardly ever use it. But theoretically, I don't think that the Maple would be a problem at all.
 
My 30th anni CU24 with maple neck is so sweet! It is a little brighter, but with the 30th anni guitars you can't go wrong.

 
My 30th anni CU24 with maple neck is so sweet! It is a little brighter, but with the 30th anni guitars you can't go wrong.

 
Wow, Raven... That top is gorgeous!! I'm not usually a fan of black gold (if that is what it is) - but this is the exception :)
 
Wow, Raven... That top is gorgeous!! I'm not usually a fan of black gold (if that is what it is) - but this is the exception :)

I agree that black gold isn't one of my favorites, but it's perfect with the maple neck and the artist grade top. I don't usually do flamed tops, I'm a quilt fan, but this one is so good that I had to buy it.
 
You guys are crazy. Black Gold is amazing. ;) Don't forget it was originally a Private Stock colour...
 
You guys are crazy. Black Gold is amazing. ;) Don't forget it was originally a Private Stock colour...

I like it, just like other colors more. I have a;
white Navarro
One off natural green burst Tremonti
Black DGT
Korina black Burst McCarty
Artist CU22 vintage Smokeburst
Purple fade 408
Faded blue burst CU24
Warring burst Waring
Copperhead private stock ME
Artists Faded blue burst SC245
Tremonti tribal
Black quilted Tremonti

So I prefer blue, purple, black and white.
 
I need to trade up my 30th anniversary for a maple-neck...and a semi-hollow -- do they have that combination? Although I'd be hard-pressed to let my 30th anniversary go, it's one of my favourites.
 
I need to trade up my 30th anniversary for a maple-neck...and a semi-hollow -- do they have that combination? Although I'd be hard-pressed to let my 30th anniversary go, it's one of my favourites.

No semis in the 30th editions but trading up to a maple neck might be fun if you can get a good deal. The neck feels so good it's definitely worth a small premium.
 
I need to trade up my 30th anniversary for a maple-neck...and a semi-hollow -- do they have that combination? Although I'd be hard-pressed to let my 30th anniversary go, it's one of my favourites.

You should be able to get a P245 Semi-Hollow with a maple neck if you go with the artist package.
 
Raven that Black Goldie is sooo not ugly...agree with that neck and board it looks amazing. Excellent score, as always sir.
 
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