Paul's Guitar pickup question(s)

[markintime]

Before I bought this guitar, I had been trying to learn as much as possible about it. I was really sold on hearing that switching from humbucking to single coil and vice versa, that there was no noticeable loss of volume. Now I am not all that knowledgeable about this, but I did actually notice a fair amount of volume drop going to single coil. I'll digress a little here and also mention that I had to do some tweaking with string height, pickup height, and intonation, but all that seems to be pretty much as I want it right now. I may need to do a bit more with the pickup height, but I'm willing to wait with that for now. But I guess my question is: which part of the pickup is the single coil? Is it the one with the adjustable pole pieces? And somewhere I remember seeing that the bridge pickup is reverse wound to aid in hum cancelling, is this correct? I've attempted to adjust the pole heights and I think I've gotten them better, but I am just not sure. There is still a noticeable difference in volume going back and forth from humbucking to single coil. I would really appreciate hearing opinions from anyone with experience in this area. I have done some research but I don't think I've found the answer I'm looking for just yet. I am shooting for the most balanced tone I can get.

And, oh yes, I am very much still in love with this guitar, it has great tone and just feels perfect. Hope I'm not being too picky.

Anyone?

 

[markintime]

Well, talk about making the most of opportunities. Today, November 1, 2014, my wife woke me at 6:00 am and said, "Honey, get up and come quick. Look!"

"Huh?"

"Just look out the window!"

It was snowing. And sticking. Here. In South Carolina. The odds of this are on a par with winning the Lottery. And I'd much rather do that. Then I could start planning a PS. OH YEAH!!!

So after cleaning off the deck so daughter-in-law and three grandkids could come over and have breakfast with us (they were without power for 4 hours), we entertained, built a snow man full of leaves. And things melted pretty fast, they went home, and I got to mess around with my Paul's Guitar.

Long story short, I raised the adjustable pole pieces, lowered the pickup heights, and now things are sounding more like I think they should. Played around with some amp settings on my Studio Pro 112 and discovered that this lovely PG has one hell of an awesome woman tone. It is so warm and inviting, like a beautiful contralto. Ahhhh, man! Go to single coil on the bridge and she can live in soprano heaven as well. Then, go lower, add some gain and a touch of distortion, and you get one authorative baritone sound. What's wild is that I found that the sustain can take off riding on one or more other strings' harmonics as well. This is a lot of fun. More practice is definitely in order. Get some time on your hands and good things can happen.

Woo hoo! :rock:

 

[László]

Nice story!

 

[markintime]

Thanks, Les.