Whitestrat
New member
These components should be classified as hazardous materials or come with a warning.
I had my 2 pauls' guts replaced. This is THE one modification I felt 100% justified in spending the money to do so. I cannot believe I held out for so long to do this, and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer.
The Standard with the burstbucker pros really opened up like a new book. The guitar now has this top end response which I was aiming for from the start. EVEN WITH THE TONE KNOB ON "0"!!!!
The guitar tone will get a bit less trebly, bit it would never lose definition, regardless of whatever pickup I'm using. Now it's quite evident what the pickups can or cannot do. The general characteristic is there, but at least I know now that the fault (if any) is no longer contained within crappy electronics. (though I will eventually have to change my stock switch when it fails)
Then came my Slash with the SH55s. This one was odd. It didn't open up as much as I thought it might be, and the guitar still sounded too warm and not defined enough. But the overall tone did improve, and I was able to get a lot of funky tones with the new unrestrained controls. (more on that later). I'm now quite sure the SDs are not what I want... I'm thinking of throwing some Sheptones or Skatterbranes in there. Haven't decided yet. One thing though. The woman tone on these SH55s was so nice, that it made a friend of mine ask me to try to see if his stock R9 could do the same thing. It could not.
The thing about these pots are that they expose every nuance of your current pickups; flaws and attributes!. If they were not to your liking, then they would show you more clearly WHY you didn't like them, and what you would need to sort out about them. If you liked them, then they'd amplify what you'd like. You learn a lot about your guitar's current state with these pots.
The controls... Oh man... THIS is why I said they should have come with a warning. Now I really cant stop fiddling with the knobs. I've discovered so many ways to use the controls now, that this has made me specify to the luthier who's building my custom build to use ONLY RS kits for the build.
The volume knobs, indeed retained treble when you rolled down the knob. (no need for any more treble bleed kits!!!) They cleaned up the signal very very well preserving the actual amplitude of the volume you're producing up to a point, then it really fades off to nothing, rather than just drop suddenly. It's almost like: 10 to 6 gives you basic gain variance, and 5 to 0 gives you gain + volume variance. But that's not entirely accurate either. The volume changes from 10 to 8 are also there, but a bit more subtle, allowing you to just roll down a slight tad to get a nice rhythm crunch on one pickup, and switch to full blast on the next to solo, all without losing tone and definition. Volume swells are now a thing of controllable beauty!
The tone knobs are something I'm still getting used to. Not because they're bad, but because they're subtle. This, I attribute (I think) to the RS caps. No mud. none at all. Just rolled off treble. Woman tones are now extremely agressive. Almost fuzz-like when you're using the right stomp box (for me it was a crunchbox that sounded the best with this).
No other brand of pots behaves like this. Not CTS, not DiMarzio, not ErnieBall, not Alpha. the RS Superpot is really fantastic!
All in all, I used to say there was no such thing as a miracle pill for tone on guitars. Now, I'm happy to eat my words. It's not easy to produce a sound clip that shows how good these controls are. You really have to try them for yourselves.
BTW, for those who are about to ask, I ordered the modern kit. The clarity is astonishing.
All, and I mean ALL my guitars are going to have this mod... ALL.:twisted:
P.S. One last note: We live halfway around the world from the USA. (literally) I ordered my parts on a Friday, and I got them on my table the following Wed!!! Billy also answered all my questions promptly, and clearly, both by email, and on this forum. Paula was a bit too efficient, and sent out the order before I had a chance to even add to it. THIS is what I'd call FANTASTIC SERVICE!!!!
www.rsguitarworks.net
I had my 2 pauls' guts replaced. This is THE one modification I felt 100% justified in spending the money to do so. I cannot believe I held out for so long to do this, and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer.
The Standard with the burstbucker pros really opened up like a new book. The guitar now has this top end response which I was aiming for from the start. EVEN WITH THE TONE KNOB ON "0"!!!!
Then came my Slash with the SH55s. This one was odd. It didn't open up as much as I thought it might be, and the guitar still sounded too warm and not defined enough. But the overall tone did improve, and I was able to get a lot of funky tones with the new unrestrained controls. (more on that later). I'm now quite sure the SDs are not what I want... I'm thinking of throwing some Sheptones or Skatterbranes in there. Haven't decided yet. One thing though. The woman tone on these SH55s was so nice, that it made a friend of mine ask me to try to see if his stock R9 could do the same thing. It could not.
The thing about these pots are that they expose every nuance of your current pickups; flaws and attributes!. If they were not to your liking, then they would show you more clearly WHY you didn't like them, and what you would need to sort out about them. If you liked them, then they'd amplify what you'd like. You learn a lot about your guitar's current state with these pots.
The controls... Oh man... THIS is why I said they should have come with a warning. Now I really cant stop fiddling with the knobs. I've discovered so many ways to use the controls now, that this has made me specify to the luthier who's building my custom build to use ONLY RS kits for the build.
The volume knobs, indeed retained treble when you rolled down the knob. (no need for any more treble bleed kits!!!) They cleaned up the signal very very well preserving the actual amplitude of the volume you're producing up to a point, then it really fades off to nothing, rather than just drop suddenly. It's almost like: 10 to 6 gives you basic gain variance, and 5 to 0 gives you gain + volume variance. But that's not entirely accurate either. The volume changes from 10 to 8 are also there, but a bit more subtle, allowing you to just roll down a slight tad to get a nice rhythm crunch on one pickup, and switch to full blast on the next to solo, all without losing tone and definition. Volume swells are now a thing of controllable beauty!
The tone knobs are something I'm still getting used to. Not because they're bad, but because they're subtle. This, I attribute (I think) to the RS caps. No mud. none at all. Just rolled off treble. Woman tones are now extremely agressive. Almost fuzz-like when you're using the right stomp box (for me it was a crunchbox that sounded the best with this).
No other brand of pots behaves like this. Not CTS, not DiMarzio, not ErnieBall, not Alpha. the RS Superpot is really fantastic!
All in all, I used to say there was no such thing as a miracle pill for tone on guitars. Now, I'm happy to eat my words. It's not easy to produce a sound clip that shows how good these controls are. You really have to try them for yourselves.
BTW, for those who are about to ask, I ordered the modern kit. The clarity is astonishing.
All, and I mean ALL my guitars are going to have this mod... ALL.:twisted:
P.S. One last note: We live halfway around the world from the USA. (literally) I ordered my parts on a Friday, and I got them on my table the following Wed!!! Billy also answered all my questions promptly, and clearly, both by email, and on this forum. Paula was a bit too efficient, and sent out the order before I had a chance to even add to it. THIS is what I'd call FANTASTIC SERVICE!!!!
www.rsguitarworks.net
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