Calling experienced humbucker users

    All,


    I play Les Paul’s exclusively and all are wired in the 50’s configuration with VIP Centralab replica pots, .022 luxe Bumblebees and I use various winders for my PAF replicas but they are all either A2, A4 or A5 and none are overly hot.

    I have a powered toaster and run it through a kabinet. I have found that tone junkies profiles sound the best for me. If I play Fender or Dumble profiles it’s pure tone bliss but I really find all the vintage Marshall profiles to be lacking vs. my actual vintage Marshall heads. All the vintage Marshall profiles I have, sound very bass heavy and flat. They all seem to lack those classic Marshall mids and top end kerrang. I have tried post EQs and that’s helped but still they just don’t sound right.


    It seems like when you adjust the EQ on the toaster like a you would a normal amp it gets even worse. is there any magic humbucker settings to overcome this?

    Hum.. interesting,

    I mostly play LP but they all have different wiring or caps or pots. I've only had one old Marshall (a modified 2203 SL MkII '77) and I've recently bought his 72SL and 73SB pack. So interesting thread to me.


    Just to say.. have You already asked to HW (tone jukies) what about his humbuckers?


    Do You feel the same "sound very bass heavy and flat. They all seem to lack those classic Marshall mids and top end kerrang" Even if You run your powerd KPA through an old marshall cabinet instead of the Kabinet?

    Definitely, I'd recommend trying them through a Marshall 4x12 cab. I use a lot of Marshall profiles from different vendors, plus my own, through my favorite 4x12 from the "amp days", and I absolutely feel like I get real Marshall-like sound and response. It seems like I get more of a... diffuse sound when I run to a PA or other FR system.

    I bought and love the Tone Junkies 68 Purple Plexi set as well as some of their Vox and Fender sets, and generally, consider them to be great sounding.

    I was messing around with my blackstar ht5 combo and noticed it was quite punchy compared to my kemper through an frfr speaker, so I went into the output menu and raised the mid and treble in the global eq to +5 the kemper really started to sound close to the combo and sounded more amp in the room like, I don't know if it works for all profiles but it made a big difference and the mid control on the amp stack seemed to work better the sound didn't disappear into the mix as much. Easy to try it out tho anyway?

    Can you play with a single-coil pup to see if the sound is drastically different --It should not be. You usually get a little less gain and a brighter (or more "brittle") top end when switching from humbucker to single coil when using a moderate gain setting on the same amp. But going from a Fender amp to a Marshall amp is like night and day no matter if you are going clean or hi-gain stuff.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.