Cavalier Nashville Lion and Lion King Tele Pickups

Cavalier Nashville Lion and Lion King pickups.

I bought a set of Cavalier pickups to install into my Squier Classic Vibe 50s Tele. I selected the Nashville Lion for the bridge position as it appeared to sit in the middle of all offerings. I picked the Lion King because it seemed like the most popular neck mode.

Squier stock CV Tele pickups.

The DC resistances of the Nashville Lion and Lion King were 8.14k and 8.13k respectively. The stock bridge and neck pickups measured 7.30k and 7.61k respectively. At the similar typical Tele pickup heights, the Cavalier pickups are less hot and not as harsh sounding. At the same time, the Cavalier pickups are fuller sounding. It was a bit difficult to get the outputs to be the same with the difference in frequency response. 1/8th turns on the pickup mounting screws brought the output from a little low to a little to high. The differences in frequency response are most apparent in the middle position, with the Squier set sounding more hi-fi and the Cavalier set sounding more colored.

My video comparison.

The Squier pickups are not unique to the model. Older iterations of the Squier Classic Vibe 50s guitars in the 2010s had different pickups than the 60s models. However, these stock pickups have the same sticker codes as the pickups that I pulled out of my Squier Classic Vibe Baritone Tele Custom, a guitar with more 60s appointments.

Prior to the pickup swap, I shielded the Tele’s control cavity. This reduced a significant amount of noise that  be I was experiencing before. There are still angles where the hum becomes annoying, but there is a wider range of directions I can face without the noise becoming too much of a problem.

Peavey 6505 Original 1992 Amp

 

I’ve been wanting a Peavey 5150 on and off for years, and finally jumped at the new Peavey 6505 Original 1992 model. The 5150 is a classic amp in hard rock and metal, and I wanted to experience the real thing after playing through the various digital models of it over the years.

A quick clip of my Epiphone Les Paul through the Lead Channel, first through a V30, then a CL80:

I’ve been focusing my time on the Rhythm Channel, with Crunch and Bright settings engaged, to dial in rock rhythm sounds. The most useful sounds to me  on this channel are with the Pre-Gain at 6-7, EQ at moderate settings, Resonance 5-8, and Presence around 8. From reading various forums, a popular way of running the amp is boosting the Rhythm channel with the Pre-Gain around 6.

The Lead Channel is much higher gain. Setting the Pre-Gain at 3-4 is where I top out at. It is a tighter and thinner sound compared to the Rhythm channel. 

As I dug deeper into the 6505, I wanted to try the ubiquitous Fredman mic technique. I initially thought I would just set up 2 mic stands, but I was too lazy. I ended up buying a mic clip from Fredman Digital to do it the right way. The intended angle of the off-axis mic is apparently 55 degrees. I didn’t have a second SM57, so I used a Shure 545SD instead. I can see why it was such a popular way to record the Peavey 5150.

Fredman mic clip.

I ended up capturing the amp for NAM with settings I would typically use. I set the amp up at 4 gain levels on each of the channels, boosted and straight in. A few sound samples are below.

Although the 5150 is typically paired with Vintage 30s, I am enjoying the recorded tone more with my CL80 and V-Type speakers.