The Electra Forums

Would A mmk53 neck and A mmk45 on the bridge work?

That would work well I think as each has it's own distinct sound and both are powerfull pups.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

After two years, I'm still not certain what the difference between the MMK45 and MMK53 is. On the Westone forum (I think) someone claims that it is the type of magnet used, I would love to see some literature to back that up. To my (abused) ears they sound pretty similar, the 53 possibly being a little louder.

Strictly speaking, you can use any pickup you want, lord knows there are enough pickup manufacturers out there. For the Bridge pickup make sure it has four conductors so that you can use the coilcut/phase switches on the Endorser.

The other thing you should keep in mind is that the strings vibrate a lot more (read as louder) over the neck pickup than the bridge pickup... so the bridge pickup is usually stronger to compensate for that bit of physics. This is why you'll see a set of balanced Strat pickups where the weakest is the neck, the bridge would be the hottest and the middle pickup is somewhere in between strength wise. This helps balance the pickups when you use the pickups together, and also doesn't completely change the volume when you toggle to another pickup.

I usually all but bury the neck pickup (to get it as far away from the strings as possible) and keep the bridge pickup pretty high personally. This allows me to go from Jimi sounds on the neck pickup (clean) to raunchy on the bridge pickup.

If you do go with Japanese pickups, take the time to wax them before installing them, especially if you plan to use at stage volumes, as they will tend to squeal at high gain settings because the vast majority of Japanese pickups haven't been sealed. Good luck.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

A local bee farmer died. his son gave my brother enough bee's wax to do every guitar in the state of WI. so Im set there. thanks everyone for all the help! I will let you know how it turns out.

Check here for extensivve discussions of MMK's. http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewto ... =26&t=3762

There is some real testing not just opinion.

If I am not wrong Vantage used the 53/45 combo on at least one model. I will search for the info.

Also, don't use JUST beeswax, but blend it with more common canning or candle type wax. I believe the beeswax is added to soften the regular wax. Regular beeswax is VERY soft - too soft by itself. Use a double boiler. No open flames or direct heat as it is extremely flamable! Make it just hot enough for the wax to fully melt, no hotter. Be VERY careful.

I wrote up some procedures that were posted on the Guitar Nuts site a long time ago, and it is good information. Read it before attempting it.

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Thorny

Thorny, I did not know the guitar nuts info came from you. Thanks that is where I learned how. Your instructions are very clear.

Yes, I sent the information to him and asked that he post it since I kept getting questions and I liked what he was doing with his site. It was posted so I would not have to keep replying to emails telling people how to do it and people would have a reference to go to. He took what I sent and improved it and added some "cautionary language" and warnings (an excellent thing - we don't need someone hurt).

The original credit goes to Dan Erlewine as I recall. I originally learned it from an old column he did for guitar player (or one of those magazines) likely in the late 70s. Back then I was just a kid and had a few microphonic japanese guitar pcikups and my buddy had some microphonic dimarzios and gibsons. Almost none of the pickups were potted back then. We could not afford new pickups so I tried what Dan suggested in a magazine and it worked! I originally used my sister's candle making (or canning) wax. I have been doing it ever since.

Most of the time there is very little difference in tone afterwards - sometimes I would say NO difference, other times very slightly less bright or "ringing." Generally, if my experience says the pickup is OK without potting I don't just blindly do it. But if it squeals or I am concerned about it getting corrosion inside it I do it. I have had maybe a couple instances where the tone darkened - and a couple instances where it did not seem to totally solve the problem. But the VAST majority of times it completely solves the problems with no ill effects. I have NEVER had a problem potting an MMK pickup - they have all sounded great. And most of them really need it, especially if you use an amp with a master volume. I have seen too many squeal and too many of them go bad from inner coil corrosion - and potting helps to eliminate both of those problems.

I think they would have done that if they knew better at the time - most people didn't do that back then (they didn't know any better). But Electra/Westone really had their act together hot rodding their standard guitars to make them better than the competing products of their day. They had better pickups than most, better/more advanced features, and were really innovative.

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Thorny

thanx Tim.