I have a few GM pickups, and like them all. I'd be interested to learn what is is about them that make them sound better than the Firefly PUs. A couple were very close in both DC resistance, magnet type and henries, so it would seem contruction does play a part. But what exactly? I also purchased this same guitar with the intent on refinishing the top. However I found I don't see the green/blue while playing it, and it looks really nice hanging on the wall backwards :0) The back on mine is a beautiful redish cherry. Maybe I'll eventually go for the top refinish based on your results. Looking foward to seeing what you do with yours.
Construction. The Epiphone Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros post 2013 are built as premium production pickups, maple spacers, high carbon stud and screw poles, nickel silver backplates and covers. Potted but not super-vacuum potted like the Epi "wax-buckers" of the past. I suspect they're wound with poly insulated magnet wire which separates them from US Gibson Burstbuckers and 57 Classics which are wound with plain enamel wire. Sound differences between enamel, poly and Formvar wire are real, not cork-sniffer fictions. I'll make a Firefly humbucker autopsy video this week and compare to a good pickup. All the FF pickups I've pulled, these, bridge pup from a Strat and a set from an HH Tele are all the same pickups. Wax potting these will never fix the microphonics. The magnet, steel keeper, bobbins, spacers and backplate all need to fit together tightly, air gaps in these parts cause microphonics, not just the gap between the cover and the bobbin tops. The FF ones are junk, keep them for parts. They can't cost FF $5 a set. I'll get a FF LP next month to check out and then I'm done, back to Epiphones and Squiers. The hype doesn't add up and I don't get a sense FF has any sort of feeling for their customers one way or another, it's just old school anon Chibson factory stuff that happens to have a brand name.
Thanks, can't wait. For me, Firefly + GM pickups + setup time = guitars that look and play great, with the pickup color/types I want, and all for a fraction of the cost of the name brands. Also, an affordable way to try new body styles and have multiples with different pickup types We'll see if they pass the test of time.
@@maorienteg Stick to the steel backplates GMs, they'll be a notch or so above the brass plate ones. Steel plates raise inductance and so signal strength and increase the magnetic field size. I grind a little swipe of plating off any cover to see if it's brass, if it is off the cover comes. Brass will both darken your tone but also squelch dynamics, note definition, string separation and so on. A good pickup will respond to changes on amp gain as well as guitar volume control in a tonal and dynamic way, a so-so pickup will just get louder or quieter.
@@maorientegSanded a patch of the green off, there is a healthy coat of sanding sealer under the color. By hand, 100 grit, made a small block out of poly packing foam, 2" x 3", no power sander, definitely no heat gun!! Scraped back paint in the pickup route to investigate, the 3 maple layers of the lam top are very thin, the 2 (poplar?) layers between them are far thicker. When sanding you can tell when you've cut through the clear: the color layer brightens a bit. The color comes off quicker than the poly, slow down when you hit the color coat, slight traces left should come off with the next grit, you could jump right to 320. Light touch, go slow, save the elbow grease. If you cut through the sanding sealer you can always apply a fresh couple coats, I'd suggest it even if you don't get down to wood. Tint your poly clear. I'm leaving the dark back and sides, will tint clear with powdered analine dyes in mineral spirits for a ruddy/dirty amber, no burst, just a basic Lazarus top. May go easy on myself and do hand rubbed poly. Takes more coats than spraying but is way more forgiving. Satin, then buff with the $10 Amazon hand drill buffing pad kit and Resto furniture polish. Will probably wet sand the gloss off the back and sides with 1500 grit and buff it all at once to a softer sheen.
Thank you! and sounds like a good plan. I'd be doing a hand poly too, any tips afterwards would be appreciated. I was originally thinking of a wine red top myself, but after seeing the back and sides not sure now. Looking forward to seeing your ruddy amber
I have a few GM pickups, and like them all. I'd be interested to learn what is is about them that make them sound better than the Firefly PUs. A couple were very close in both DC resistance, magnet type and henries, so it would seem contruction does play a part. But what exactly?
I also purchased this same guitar with the intent on refinishing the top. However I found I don't see the green/blue while playing it, and it looks really nice hanging on the wall backwards :0) The back on mine is a beautiful redish cherry. Maybe I'll eventually go for the top refinish based on your results. Looking foward to seeing what you do with yours.
Construction.
The Epiphone Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros post 2013 are built as premium production pickups, maple spacers, high carbon stud and screw poles, nickel silver backplates and covers. Potted but not super-vacuum potted like the Epi "wax-buckers" of the past. I suspect they're wound with poly insulated magnet wire which separates them from US Gibson Burstbuckers and 57 Classics which are wound with plain enamel wire.
Sound differences between enamel, poly and Formvar wire are real, not cork-sniffer fictions.
I'll make a Firefly humbucker autopsy video this week and compare to a good pickup. All the FF pickups I've pulled, these, bridge pup from a Strat and a set from an HH Tele are all the same pickups.
Wax potting these will never fix the microphonics. The magnet, steel keeper, bobbins, spacers and backplate all need to fit together tightly, air gaps in these parts cause microphonics, not just the gap between the cover and the bobbin tops. The FF ones are junk, keep them for parts. They can't cost FF $5 a set.
I'll get a FF LP next month to check out and then I'm done, back to Epiphones and Squiers. The hype doesn't add up and I don't get a sense FF has any sort of feeling for their customers one way or another, it's just old school anon Chibson factory stuff that happens to have a brand name.
Thanks, can't wait.
For me, Firefly + GM pickups + setup time = guitars that look and play great, with the pickup color/types I want, and all for a fraction of the cost of the name brands.
Also, an affordable way to try new body styles and have multiples with different pickup types
We'll see if they pass the test of time.
@@maorienteg Stick to the steel backplates GMs, they'll be a notch or so above the brass plate ones. Steel plates raise inductance and so signal strength and increase the magnetic field size.
I grind a little swipe of plating off any
cover to see if it's brass, if it is off the cover comes. Brass will both darken your tone but also squelch dynamics, note definition, string separation and so on. A good pickup will respond to changes on amp gain as well as guitar volume control in a tonal and dynamic way, a so-so pickup will just get louder or quieter.
@@maorientegSanded a patch of the green off, there is a healthy coat of sanding sealer under the color. By hand, 100 grit, made a small block out of poly packing foam, 2" x 3", no power sander, definitely no heat gun!!
Scraped back paint in the pickup route to investigate, the 3 maple layers of the lam top are very thin, the 2 (poplar?) layers between them are far thicker. When sanding you can tell when you've cut through the clear: the color layer brightens a bit.
The color comes off quicker than the poly, slow down when you hit the color coat, slight traces left should come off with the next grit, you could jump right to 320. Light touch, go slow, save the elbow grease.
If you cut through the sanding sealer you can always apply a fresh couple coats, I'd suggest it even if you don't get down to wood.
Tint your poly clear. I'm leaving the dark back and sides, will tint clear with powdered analine dyes in mineral spirits for a ruddy/dirty amber, no burst, just a basic Lazarus top.
May go easy on myself and do hand rubbed poly. Takes more coats than spraying but is way more forgiving. Satin, then buff with the $10 Amazon hand drill buffing pad kit and Resto furniture polish. Will probably wet sand the gloss off the back and sides with 1500 grit and buff it all at once to a softer sheen.
Thank you! and sounds like a good plan. I'd be doing a hand poly too, any tips afterwards would be appreciated.
I was originally thinking of a wine red top myself, but after seeing the back and sides not sure now.
Looking forward to seeing your ruddy amber