Fralin Unbucker

[thewesdavis]

As posted previously, I picked up a Fralin Unbucker for my 02 Swamp Ash Special. I'm about ready to install (isn't this when it always happens) and I have what I think is a stroke of inspiration...
Looking at a Railhammer Heavy 90 for the bridge - because I love the feel/sound/tone of a good overwound P90 in the bridge. (and the more I play it, I'm really not gelling with the stock neck pickup - which I believe is closely based on a McCarty - in the Swamp Ash)

My question is (for all you Fralin guys out there) - would the Unbucker (bridge model) work well in the neck? My multimeter reads it at 8.71k (4.81k split) so it seems fine from that vantage point...

 

[Greywolf]

Certainly ,the vintage , standard and artist bass ( neck) pickups all ran at 8.5

 

[JasonE]

I have a set of Fralin Unbuckers on my shelf right now that I had wound for my 06 SAS. I had him to either 5% or 7% overwind on them. I would have to pull them out and measure them but I think the only real difference in them is the neck pickup is wound a little lighter than the bridge. My overwound neck Unbucker may be in the range or even a little hotter than your regular wound bridge pickup so I think it would work fine.

 

[thewesdavis]

Thanks all.
Pulled the trigger - so bridge Railhammer is en route.

Considering a Sentell "DIESEL SMOKE/DANGEROUS CURVES" single coil (S18) for the middle...I don't dislike the Seymour Duncan, but I've had wildly great experiences with Sentell in the past.

 

[thewesdavis]

This thought hit me last night...would y'all mount it "normally" (ie screws down) in the neck position? Or flip it?

 

[JasonE]

This thought hit me last night...would y'all mount it "normally" (ie screws down) in the neck position? Or flip it?

Screws toward the fretboard. It would be good if you can measure the magnetic phase of both pickups. Then you would know how to wire them. If they are magnetically out of phase you will have to flip the hot and ground wires on one of them.

 

[thewesdavis]

Screws toward the fretboard. It would be good if you can measure the magnetic phase of both pickups. Then you would know how to wire them. If they are magnetically out of phase you will have to flip the hot and ground wires on one of them.

This is what I thought - but I know PRS has a few neck pickups that "look upside down" so thought I would double check with those of you more familiar with the Unbucker.

Super excited for this project.

Tangentially - have any of you ever used 'guitarelectronics.com' for schematics? You can purchase custom wiring diagrams...not sure if that's money well spent or not (as I am by no means an expert at this...my skill stops at not soldering my fingers lol)

 

[JasonE]

This is what I thought - but I know PRS has a few neck pickups that "look upside down" so thought I would double check with those of you more familiar with the Unbucker.

Super excited for this project.

Tangentially - have any of you ever used 'guitarelectronics.com' for schematics? You can purchase custom wiring diagrams...not sure if that's money well spent or not (as I am by no means an expert at this...my skill stops at not soldering my fingers lol)

The only model I know PRS mounts the neck pickup with the screws toward the bridge is on the Special. From what I have heard that is so they can get some of the tones that guitar produces. It probably gives them the ability to play with some phasey sounds.

I have never looked into wiring diagrams from those folks. It is usually fairly easy to find what you need with some internet searches. They are a good source of parts though.

 

[thewesdavis]

Hey all - a lot of forum and technical reading and YouTube watching has me itching to "just do it" and pull the middle pickup as well...
The (bridge) Railhammer Heavy 90 is 15k and the (neck) Fralin Unbucker is 8.71k - for the middle, I'm torn between a DiMarzio Dark Matter 2 (7.33k) versus a Sentell (no audio samples, but his pickups rock and I've loved all of the singlecoils he's ever sent me) is 9.99k. From an ohms standpoint, do y'all think more or less power in this combination is "better?" I know it is all subjective and more goes into the sonic mix other than just power...just curious for the educated opinions out there.

 

[JasonE]

Hey all - a lot of forum and technical reading and YouTube watching has me itching to "just do it" and pull the middle pickup as well...
The (bridge) Railhammer Heavy 90 is 15k and the (neck) Fralin Unbucker is 8.71k - for the middle, I'm torn between a DiMarzio Dark Matter 2 (7.33k) versus a Sentell (no audio samples, but his pickups rock and I've loved all of the singlecoils he's ever sent me) is 9.99k. From an ohms standpoint, do y'all think more or less power in this combination is "better?" I know it is all subjective and more goes into the sonic mix other than just power...just curious for the educated opinions out there.

I would probably keep it around the same as the neck pickup. The string is still moving a decent amount where that pickup sets. It isn't as much as where the neck pickup is but still a good bit more than where the bridge pickup is.

 

[thewesdavis]

As posted previously, I picked up a Fralin Unbucker for my 02 Swamp Ash Special. I'm about ready to install (isn't this when it always happens) and I have what I think is a stroke of inspiration...
Looking at a Railhammer Heavy 90 for the bridge - because I love the feel/sound/tone of a good overwound P90 in the bridge. (and the more I play it, I'm really not gelling with the stock neck pickup - which I believe is closely based on a McCarty - in the Swamp Ash)

My question is (for all you Fralin guys out there) - would the Unbucker (bridge model) work well in the neck? My multimeter reads it at 8.71k (4.81k split) so it seems fine from that vantage point...

Anyone have a wiring diagram for the Unbucker? Should be pretty straightforward - I have a push/pull in there currently, so the desire is that the "pull" taps the unbucker and the "push" has it full humbucking. The color code I found from Fralin says red is "split" (outside slug and screw together), white is hot (inside slug) and black is also hot (inside screw). Any guidance so I can [hopefully] knock this out one and done would be most appreciated.