Wolfetone Pickups: Marshallhead/Dr. Vintage and Meaner/Mean P90

I recently bought two sets of pickups from Wolfetone Pickups during their 25% off sale.

Marshallhead/Dr. Vintage

The humbucker set is an Alnico 5 Marshallhead bridge pickup (9.3k DCR) and Alnico 2 Dr. Vintage neck pickup (7.8k DCR), both in reverse zebra. The pickups were wound on the same day that I put the order in, and arrived in 6 days. I went with the 4-conductor lead option to wire these pickups for series/parallel switching. I am installing these pickups in my 2003 Ibanez SZ520QM. I previously had GFS Mean 90 pickups in this guitar. The guitar will be set up to be tuned down to D Standard.

Both pickups mounted.

Control cavity shielded with conductive copper tape.

I am using 500K CTS push/pull pots to perform the series/parallel switching. The diagrams that I have encountered (Stew-Mac) seem to have the humbucker wired in parallel when the pot is pushed in, which is the opposite function that I want. I will attempt to wire the pickups as shown below:

Series/Parallel Wiring of Humbuckers

 

8/11/20 - I found time to complete the wiring of the humbuckers. I only had about a minute to try out the guitar through my Pro Junior to make sure all was working properly. The CTS pot switching worked as expected: pushed in for series, pulled out for parallel. I left many of the wires long for future troubleshooting/experimenting. The tone pot is a CTS 500KA with a 0.022uF orange drop capacitor. I don’t like to solder onto backs of pots, since I always burn the flux trying to get enough heat on the pot casing. I found these solder lug washers from GuitarElectronics.com, which allowed me to get a soldered connection onto a pot.

I still have D'Addario 12-52 Chromes installed from the previous configuration of the guitar. I will be trying Elixir 12-52 Nanowebs on this guitar to see how much string life I can get out of them.

Completed wiring of control cavity.

Reinstalling the knobs and switch tip right after completing the re-wiring.

A full shot.

11/5/20 - I have been acclimating with the new pickups for a little while. The guitar is tuned to Drop C with Elixir Nanoweb 12-52 strings. This set has a wound G string, which I did not pick up on.

The Marshallhead is lower output than my initial expectations, but sounds great clean and with gain. The Dr. Vintage neck is clear, not flubby despite the thick strings. The output of these pickups is very low when set in parallel, but I can find uses for the sounds.

The previous combination of thick flat wound strings and P90 pickups had given me a thick sound that was fun for clean and fuzz, but limited for distorted rocksounds. The brighter nature of the current configuration allows me to fool around with downtuned heavy music without flubbing out.

Update. Marshallhead bridge pickup through Helix Native.

Marshallhead and Dr. Vintage into a Fender Pro Junior IV.

Marshallhead bridge pickup through more Helix Native amps.

Meaner P90/Mean P90

The Alnico 2 P90 soap bar set is made up of a Meaner P90 (9.3k DCR) for the bridge position and a Mean P90 (8.3K DCR) for the neck position. I will be putting the pickups in an SX Hawk, and changing out the pots from 250K to 500K, with a 0.022uF orange drop capacitor. The control cavity and pickguard will be shielded with conductive copper tape.

SX Hawk pickup route under pickguard with Wolfetone P90s mounted.

8/13/20 - I wired up the guitar with audio taper pots. The guitar originally had linear taper volume pot, which I have gotten used to. My first observations are that the Meaner P90 bridge position is much brighter than with the stock pickups/electronics. The new pickup definitely has more output than the stock ceramic bridge pickup. The change to 500k pots could be adding the extra high end that I am not used to with this guitar. The Mean P90 in the neck position is comparable to the stock pickup from my memory. 

Wolfetone Meaner P90 and Mean P90 through my Plexi-circuit 50W amp.

Edit - 12/5/23 - I bought another Meaner/Mean P90 set just as the Wolfetone sale was ending for good. These pickups went into a Squier Cabronita Baritone Telecaster. The guitar , since the sound wasn’t all that inspiring. The stock pickups sounded like P90s, but I wanted the upper midrange that the Wolfetones provided in the SX guitar.

I think the guitar sounds great now, and I keep coming back to it. The pickups sound great with gain.

While swapping the pickups out, I also shielded the pickup/control cavities with leftover copper tape to minimize noise. The guitar was rather noisy without any shielding in the cavities, and hard to tolerate with distortion. The guitar is now quiet enough to play with Plexi crunch-levels of distortion when I position of guitar in just the right magnetic position.

Click for Links to Cabinet IRs/NAM Captures

Link to NAM captures on TONE3000:

https://www.tone3000.com/outmodedelectronics

• Vox AC15C1
• Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Multi-Watt
• Peavey 6505 1992 Original
• Plexi Amp Build
• Tweed Deluxe Build
• Tweed Champ Build
• Fender Pro Junior IV
• MXR Fat Sugar
• Way Huge Saucy Box
• BBE Green Screamer
• Naga Viper Clone
• Madbean Mudbunny Build
• Tomsline AGF-3 Fuzz
• JRR Pedals GESI Face Fuzz
• DOD Carcosa Fuzz
• Way Huge Havalina Fuzz
• Fuzz Factory Clone
• CAPI VP28 Mic Preamp
• Chameleon Labs 7603 Mic Preamp

Download links to my guitar speaker cab impulse responses:

Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12 Cabinet

• G12M25 Greenback in Jet City 24SVe 2x12
• G12H75 Creamback in Jet City 24SVe 2x12
• Vintage 30 in Jet City 24SVe 2x12
• G12T-75 in Jet City 24SVe 2x12
• Classic Lead 80 in Jet City 24SVe 2x12
• V-Type in Jet City 24SVe 2x12

Eminence XTC212-BT 2x12 Cabinet

• Vintage 30 in Eminence XTC212-BT 2x12
• Classic Lead 80 in Eminence XTC212-BT 2x12

Eminence XTC112-BT 1x12 Cabinet

• Weber Ceramic Blue Dog in Eminence XTC112-BT 1x12
• Weber Ceramic Silver Bell in Eminence XTC112-BT 1x12

Tech 21 Trademark 60 1x12 Cabinet

• Weber 12A125A in Tech 21 Trademark 60 1x12

Roland Cube 60 12" to 10" Conversion

• Weber 10A125A in Roland Cube 60

Fender Pro Junior IV LTD 1x10 Cabinet

• Jensen P10R in Fender Pro Junior IV LTD 1x10

Squier Champ 15 PR-408 1x8 Cabinet

• Warehouse Guitar Speakers G8C in Squier PR-408 1x8

The following chain was used to capture the impulse responses:

Steinberg UR824 Line Out → ART DTI → 

Behringer A800 Power Amp → Guitar Cab →

Microphone → Chameleon Labs 7603 Mic Pre → Steinberg UR824 Line In

Eminence XTC212-BT Guitar Cabinet

New Eminence 2x12

I bought an Eminence XTC212-BT cabinet to house a Celestion Vintage 30 and a Mojotone BV-30H speaker. It looks and feels like a well made Baltic birch plywood cabinet. It is an adjustable back, front-loaded cabinet. The cabinet is wired to be as an 8 ohm cabinet.

All of its dimensions are a bit smaller than some of the more popular 2x12 cabinets: 27.5"L x 11.4"W x 18.1"H. Some of the larger 2x12 cabinets are about 30” wide, 12-14” deep, and 20” tall. The Eminence cab probably does not sound as big as some other 2x12 cabinets.

The cabinet was $199 + shipping + no sales tax from Kentucky to NY. I had originally thought about purchasing a Harley Benton 2x12 or Palmer 2x12 cabinet from Thomann, but the increased shipping costs due to the pandemic no longer made it an economical solution.

Front view.

Front grill removed.

Rear of the cabinet with removable back panel.

The workmanship around the joints inside the cabinet is neatly done inside the Eminence cabinet. The speaker bolts come with lock washers, which get mounted onto T-Nuts. The leather handle has a nice feel. I couldn't spot any indications about where it was made.

Cabinet jack options.

The cabinet comes with 16AWG wire to hook up to speakers.

The cabinet did not come with a manual to define the jack functions. A copy of the directions from Eminence was eventually posted on The Gear Page.

Celestion Vintage 30 purchased in early 2020.

T3904A code for 16 ohm Vintage 30.

The Vintage 30 needs to be broken in. I will try running 30Hz and 60Hz tones when I get the time. I will take IRs of the speaker as it ages to see how breaking affects frequency response. This cabinet setup doesn't have the big low end resonance of a 4x12 cabinet. I have to turn up the bass or resonance controls of my amps or modelers to get where I want to with the Vintage 30 in this cabinet.

Quick Edit - 12/9/24 - looks like my Vintage 30 was manufactured on August 10, 2012 from the 10HX code. The T3904A code refers to a 25th anniversary of the speaker.

Mojotone BV-30H from 2018.

Specs for the BV-30H.

I am more on the fence with the BV-30H speaker. I like how the speaker sounds in person, but it is more finicky with microphone position than my other speakers. I may end up swapping in a differently voiced speaker in the future. I don't think I've found the sweet spot yet, so I will experiment with more mics and off axis captures.

Both V30 and BV-30H speakers installed.

Edit - 1/14/22 - I finally installed the CL80 in place of the BV-30H. I gave up on using the BV-30H in this cabinet. It sounded too different from all other recorded examples of a G12H30 that I’ve encountered.

 

2021 Celestion Classic Lead 80

The dust cap of the CL80 is much bigger than on any of my other 12” speakers. The sound of the speaker is definitely in the Celestion family. It’s not a voice that is as commonly demonstrated like the V30 or Greenback, but still somewhat familiar.

V30 on the left, CL80 on the right.

Edit - 4/27/24 - The latest IRs of the Celestion Vintage 30 in the Eminence XTC212-BT are here:

Link to IRs of V30 in Eminence XTC212-BT 2x12

CL80 IRs are here:

Link to IRs of CL80 in Eminence XTC212-BT 2x12

And a video to demonstrate some of the sounds:

Jet City Vertical 2x12

Jet City 24SVe 2x12.

My Jet City JCA24SVe Vertical 2x12 cabinet is now loaded with a Celestion G12M25 Greenback and a V-Type, as their sensitivity ratings are similar. For a while , I shelved the V-Type to try mixing the BV-30H with the Greenback in the Jet City cab. The V-Type is now loaded in the top position. These two cabinets are different enough that I expect to have a variety of tones between them.  

Celestion Greenback G12M25 from 2017

The bottom half of the 24SVe cabinet is deeper than the slanted upper half. I think I get a little more low end out of the Greenback in this position. The Greenback is my favorite out of all the speakers that I own. I generally like to place a microphone close to where the dustcap meets the cone.

IRs of the Greenback can be found here: 

Link to IRs of Greenback in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Celestion G12V70 V-Type from 2017

The V-Type does remind me of a mix between the Greenback and the Vintage 30.  The sweet spot for mic'ing the V-Type is closer to the middle of the cone, further away from the dustcap edge than a Greenback. In isolation, I prefer the V-Type for higher gain tones, and the Greenback for Plexi-type tones.

IRs of the V-Type can be found here:

Link to IRs of V-Type in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Edit - 8/24/22 - I swapped out the V-Type for a Creamback H75. I still wanted to get a feel for the H-style speaker and was able to get the Creamback for a good price. I immediately gravitated towards its voicing upon making the change. The speaker doesn’t have the high end that pushed me away from the Mojotone BV30H. I wanted the opposite of an ice-picky speaker, and this speaker fits me well. It does overpower the Greenback in the same cab, but this is fine for recording.

2022 Celestion Creamback H75

Link to IRs of Creamback H75 in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Edit - 9/10/24 - I moved the Vintage 30 from the Eminence 2x12 to the bottom of the Jet City cab. The sound filled out quite a bit. The 14" depth of the Jet City provided some more thickness, which works better with high gain. The Jet City cab also mellowed out the high end under a microphone.

I will be rotating speakers in and out of the Jet City cab. The Eminence 2x12 will be repurposed as an open back 2x12 for my Greenback and Creamback H75 combination to emulate a Matchless-style cabinet.

Eminence 2x12 with GB/CB H and back removed.

This cabinet experimentation has naturally led me to think about purchasing a big cabinet such as a Bogner OS212, Mesa 2x12, or a Splawn 2x12 to see what I am missing with the higher end cabinets.

One of the speakers I will put into the Jet City cab will be a G12T-75 that I found on eBay. It has a checkered reputation online, but I am curious to hear it myself.

G12T-75 of unknown purchase/manufacture date.

Edit - 12/3/24 - I finished working on the V30, CL80, and G12T-75 IRs. They don't sound quite as big as the commercial 4x12 libraries, but I am very happy with the sound. I am certainly much more satisfied in general with how the Celestions have sounded in my Jet City Cabinet versus the Eminence Cabinet. 

Link to IRs of V30 in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Link to IRs of G12T-75 in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Link to IRs of Classic Lead 80 in Jet City 24SVe Vertical 2x12

Edit - 2/28/25 - I had a backordered G12-65 Heritage speaker finally arrive. I will be putting the speaker in this cab along with the Classic Lead 80 to experiment for the time being.

G12-65 Heritage

At this time, the musical chairs of Celestion speakers is as follows:

-Eminence 2x12 - Greenback, Creamback H75

-Jet City 2x12 - G12-65, Classic Lead 80

-Line 6 4x12 - V30, Creamback M65, G12T75, V-Type

To be continued.

Alvarez ABT610E Baritone Acoustic Electric

Alvarez ABT610E Acoustic-Electric Guitar.

I bought an Alvarez ABT610E off of Musician’s Friend in 2017 as a cheaper alternative to the Alvarez ABT60 baritone acoustic guitar. It is a Musician's Friend special from Alvarez that occasionally gets sold as the Stupid Deal of the Day.

I have left the guitar in the factory B-standard tuning. The guitar handles single notes and arpeggios better than chords in the lower register. I had to adjust the truss rod a bit, as I was fretting out on the higher strings. The onboard pickup isn't particularly inspiring to play, but I don't mind having it.

I used a Little Blondie microphone to record the guitar. I intend to try some LDC mics to record the guitar to see if the low end can be captured better. My tests with omni microphones do not capture the low end on chords as well as I would like.

Sescom SM-1A Direct Box

I bought 2 Sescom SM-1A direct boxes for about $30 in 2013 and 2014 to record direct guitar and bass. I couldn’t find the specifications for my particular units from the 70’s/80’s. By 1990, the SM-1A was on its mkii model and had an input impedance of 60k. This is rather low for guitar DI purposes by modern conventions, but I was happy to play through it at the time with early guitar amp sims (LePou, Ignite Amps, TSE, Nick Crow, etc.). I used a Korg DT10 (1 MOhm input Z) to split/buffer my input occasionally, so I got around the low impedance issue without knowing it. I still like using the SM-1A for bass guitar and synths.

I dug these direct boxes out again and took a peek at the innards.  The transformers look like they are in MuMetal cans.

Different finishes during its production run.

The guts of one SM-1A.

The guts of a second SM-1A.

Edit - 8/9/24 - I pulled out my SM-1A to do some informal comparisons to my typical DI rig in 2024. I typically use a Waves/PRS Guitar Interface into my Steinberg UR824 Audio Interface when I am not using my HX Stomp or Fractal FM3. With these 3 options, my guitar or bass is loaded by a 1Mohm input impedance in all cases.

My first test was to compare how the two chains handled a buffered bass guitar signal. I used my Ibanez Mikro Bass set on the P-pickup (6.27kohm DC resistance). I split my signal using a old Korg DT10 tuner, so the takes would be identical.

One output went to the Waves/PRS Guitar Interface, while the other went to the Sescom DI into a CAPI VP28 preamp. Both chains were within 0.3dB of my usual 11.5dBu DI chain. Once the gain difference was taken care of, the two signals were very similar. The Sescom/VP28 chain is going through a total of four transformers and two 2520-style discrete op-amps, while the Waves/PRS Guitar Interface amplifies the signal with none of these mojo parts.

Ibanez Mikro Bass - Korg DT10 - Sescom SM-1A - CAPI VP28 - Steinberg UR824 Line In

Ibanez Mikro Bass - Korg DT10 - Waves/PRS Guitar Interface - Steinberg UR824 Line In

I then tried the bass directly into each input chain. I had to record separate takes, making it a very flawed comparison. I did recorded multiple passes because I didn't trust my playing to be consistent. Several key differences kept showing up:

• The signal through the Sescom/VP28 was suddenly 1.7dB louder than through the Waves DI.
• Even with this gain difference balanced out, there was a frequency response difference. The Sescom chain captured more harmonics differently in the 1-2k range.
• The direct sound of the bass into the Waves DIs were comparable in level and sound to the buffered examples.
• The direct sound of the bass into the Sescom chain consistently had more mid-range.

Ibanez Mikro Bass - Sescom SM-1A - CAPI VP28 - Steinberg UR824 Line In

Ibanez Mikro Bass - Waves/PRS Guitar Interface - Steinberg UR824 Line In

Ibanez Mikro Bass - Sescom SM-1A - CAPI VP28 - Steinberg UR824 Line In - 1.7dB trim in DAW

Sescom (-1.7dB) and Waves/PRS different takes compared. 

These observed differences are likely due to the impedance loading presented by the Sescom transformer. The buffered output of the Korg DT10 had likely converted the signal to low impedance, for which both chains interfaced in a similar manner.

The direct bass into the Sescom DI demonstrated weaker impedance matching (6k to 60k), which likely contributed to the change in frequency response. This coloration is probably welcome on bass, but probably detrimental for electric guitar DIs to be processed by amp modeling.

Fuzz Pedalboard Build

I decided to put my fuzzes all on one board to have as many fuzz textures available at once when recording.

I have so far populated the top row, which will be the A path.

Buzzaround Clone —> Fuzz Factory Clone —>DOD Carcosa —> Woolly Mammoth Clone —> Way Huge Havalina —> Fuzzrite Clone — Green Ringer Clone

Fuzz demo of A path on YouTube

An A/B switch box will have a B path connected to it as well.

The plan for the B path is: Fuzz Face Clone —> Harmonic Percolator Clone —> Companion Fuzz Clone —> Meathead Clone —> Behringer SF300 —> Boss HM-2

The pedals secured using Velcro to a 12”x24” acrylic sheet. An Electro Harmonix pedal bag will house the board.

The Buzzaround is the lone positive ground effect. Two Snark power supplies will be used for the board when needed.

I moved the Havalina and Carcosa off of another pedalboard.

8-12-20 - I finally got an Electro Harmonix pedal bag. The bag holds my pedals and the acrylic sheet fairly snuggly.

I will be housing the PedalPCB Fuzz Face, Companion Fuzz, and Harmonic Percolator clones in a single 1590DD enclosure from Love My Switches. The A/B switch will be built in a 1590BB enclosure with a switchable pickup simulator circuit. 

Almost completed with 2 more pedals to go.

PCBs for Fuzz Face, Harmonic Percolator, Companion Fuzz.

9/8/20 - Drilled pickup simulator enclosure.

11/12/20 - A/B Switch and Pickup Simulator wiring planning.

11/12/20 - An unused twin-blade pickup from EY Guitar Parts will be used to for the pickup simulation box. I will wire the pickup onto an On-On DPDT switch for series-parallel wiring of the pickup. The pickup will be wired to a 500K volume/500K tone control circuit.

I have decided to build a straight PNP Fuzz Face in the 1590DD enclosure, and will save the PedalPCB PCB for a standalone build. I don’t want to take a chance with mixing a charge pump with 12 other fuzzes.

11/20/20 - The A/B switch and in-line pickup simulator was completed today. 

Completed build of in-line pickup simulator and A/B selector.

12/13/20 - The prepping of the Fuzz Face/Companion Fuzz/Harmonic Percolator enclosure has begun. I am hoping that this will be the catalyst for the build to actually get done. The Companion Fuzz and Harmonic Percolator circuits will be powered off the pedalboard daisy chain. I will add a second DC jack to provide an external 9V battery connection via a Voodoo Lab Battery Snap to 2.1mm connector to the Fuzz Face circuit. 

Drill template for the 1590DD enclosure.

.

GGG Fuzzrite Build

I recently ordered a Fuzzrite kit from General Guitar Gadgets. I was originally going to build the pedal on vero board as part of a 3-in-1 fuzz pedal.

I used the included 2N3904 transistors, but socketed the Q1 and Q2 positions for when Smallbear reopens their online shop.

The kit came with 2 red Wima 0.0022uF capacitors, which were not great fits on the PCB.

7/15/20 - I received some 2N649 transistors from Smallbear and will do an A/B comparison one day.

Shure M67 Preamp Mod

I purchased a Shure M67 a few years ago with the idea of performing the individual direct out mod. I likely gave up after being overwhelmed by the messy stock wire layout.

I want to give the RodC M67 mods a try, to relocate the gain knob to use the preamp for louder sources. His website was now gone, with a few other sites preserving the information.

• Channel 1: gain control to be relocated; switchable unbalanced direct out to headphone jack chassis hole.
• Channel 2: gain control to be relocated; switchable unbalanced direct out to “2” banana jack chassis hole.
• Channel 3: stock gain; switchable unbalanced direct out to ”3” banana jack chassis hole.
• Channel 4: stock gain; stock mix bus connection intact.
• Line Output will be rewired to the Microphone Out XLR jack, with 600 ohms resistance across pins 2 and 3 if possible

I hastily yanked out the headphone jack before I started taking pictures to document the stock wiring.

Stock wiring on switches.

Headphone circuit removed. Balanced output remaining to be removed. 

Edit 6/2/20. I started to make the changes to the output section of the preamp. I spliced the line level tap of the output transformer to the Microphone Out jack. 

I have so far rewired the gain pot of channel 1 to come before the transistor stage. Next will be the wiring of the direct outs.

Edit 6/18/20. I completed performing the modifications to the M67.

The repurposed mix bus output has an 820 ohm and 2.2kohm resistor pair in parallel on pins 2 and 3 for an equivalent load of 597.35 ohms. I can directly connect the mix bus output to a balanced line input and load the preamp properly.

The direct outputs are lower in gain as expected, as the taps are before the final amplification stage. I can understand how relocating the gain pot to attenuate the signal into the transistors is useful for louder sources like drums. 

I currently have the new unbalanced direct outputs of the M67 hooked up to my the RCA inputs of the Roland VSR880 recorder as a few extra channels of mic preamps.

Rear panel with 3 Switchcraft 112BX connectors for channels 1-3 direct outs.

Overall view of chassis.

Direct out jack wiring (black & white twisted wires). 

Lo-cut switches rewired as switchable direct outputs.

Markup of schematic depicting my M67 modifications.