Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

All righty, after hearing the term, I finally figured out what the annoying honk is in my '62 AVRI Strat's pickups after owning it for what will be 5 years...the term most commonly known as ice-pick. The ice pick is most annoying with the bridge pickup soloed. The middle and neck pickups are no problem because I can back off tone if I want...not the case with the bridge, so I'm finding myself having to engage it with the middle pickup, and that has tone rolled off a little, resulting a more pleasing sound. So my question to you tech-wizards out there, how can I dial out the ice-pick for just the bridge or for all the pickups? Are there pickups that aren't as "ice-picky"?

Side note: my Telecaster bridge pickup has ice-pick, too, but it isn't a problem as I can roll the tone off that one. And my hollow bodies aren't ice picky at all.

If you're using your Fender Deluxe, try dialing the treble back to about 3 or so, and bumping up the mid to about 6 or 7, with the bass at 4 or more.

IIRC, I usually only use that pickup by itself for soloing with distortion and OD.

paologregorio wrote:If you're using your Fender Deluxe, try dialing the treble back to about 3 or so, and bumping up the mid to about 6 or 7, with the bass at 4 or more.

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IIRC, I usually only use that pickup by itself for soloing with distortion and OD.

Easy one!
Just hook up a wire from the treble pickup to one of the other tone controls. I have mine set so that the neck and bridge use a common tone and the middle has the other one.
If you take the scratchplate off (with all of the bits mounted on it) Have a good look at the switch and you should be able to work out where the jumper wire has to go.

Once set up you pickup will have lost a bit of high end straight away (as a 250 kohm pot will bleed a bit of highs even on 10) and from that point it is up to you!

emac.

Never had to worry about that tone again after I dropped one of these in...

http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/h ... stortion-s

paologregorio wrote: IIRC, I usually only use that pickup by itself for soloing with distortion and OD.

That's a great point Paul. It's usually the same way for me.

When you're dealing with bridge pickups, they are typically not gonna come alive without a little bit of grit. They'll never have the sweetness of a neck pickup. I don't find the sound of a Strat bridge pickup (clean) to be pleasant in the least. In fact, quite the opposite.

Dropping in a hot-rails type pickup like I linked to above will really round off the sound, eliminate all that is harsh, and make your Strat a ton more versatile by giving you a lot of extra power that the stock setup wouldn't. The Super Distortion I have in my Rocky bridge position practically drives my amps without the help of any pedals.

I like to find old Squier pickups for the bridge position on my daily players. They can tend to be a bit hotter on average strangely enough and like John says when the pickup is a bit hotter you don't need any pedals at all. I also rarely use the bridge position on it's own. No matter what you drop in the bridge position (except possibly a humbucker) they always seem a little underwhelming as far as tone goes. At least to my ears.

I'll have to try the solution posed by Eden at some point. That seems to be a good one. although I wonder how much of a trade off it might be for overall tone when using the bridge pickup in conjunction with the middle pickup. It might be worth experimenting with that solution on one of my Strats that I don't play much.

There is an aversion by a lot of players (certainly including me) to drop a humbucker (even a hot rails) into the bridge position of a Strat because of the 80's SuperStrat/shredder connection. I'm glad I got over it because now I have a Strat with all totally useful sounds and none I need to avoid.

Agreed John. I really like the clean look of three single coils too. But that's just me I suppose.

winston wrote:Agreed John. I really like the clean look of three single coils too. But that's just me I suppose.

I'm with ya - wish there was a good roaring humbucker that looked like a single coil!

a few options here - http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... php?page=2

the hot stack apparently keeps the look of a single coil, havent tried it myself though

Lotsa good suggestions so far... but...

....I really like the "ice pick" tone on a strat. Even clean it gives that nasty feel that some songs need. Dial in a healthy dose of reverb and/or some palm-muting and you've got a very cool retro-sound going. The other pickups are there for more orthodox and/or "tasteful" tones...

Maybe I'm just weird...

My kids certainly think so!

Of course, turning the volume down a tad on your strat will soften the tone on the bridge pup. Your need to set up your rig with a volume pedal to compensate though....takes a bit of calibration to work nicely.

Obsessive trivia time: Leo was a big fan of ultra-trebly pickups - they were his "ideal". The bite on the bridge pickups of the start and tele is there by design, with the caveat that round-wound strings weren't available back in the early '50s. Maybe flats are the go?

Personally I like the way a Strat quacks...............but that is a whole other discussion.

sloop_john_b wrote:

winston wrote:Agreed John. I really like the clean look of three single coils too. But that's just me I suppose.

I'm with ya - wish there was a good roaring humbucker that looked like a single coil!

Get Novak to build you one... I know he recently put a Firebird humbucker inside a P-90 shell with dummy screws for appearances sake.

egosheep wrote:Get Novak to build you one... I know he recently put a Firebird humbucker inside a P-90 shell with dummy screws for appearances sake.

Ooooh...good call! I have his pickups in my Jazzmaster (the JM-180 at the bridge) and it sounds absolutely humongous - and looks the part too.