Installed Skatterbrane Earthbranes

[Torren61]

I installed Skatterbrane Earthbranes tonight. I was gonna do it tomorrow morning but I just couldn't wait.

I wired them 50's style with CTS pots and Sprague VQs .022 and .015. I bought them secondhand so I had to extend the wiring a bit.

It's late so I could only play through Guitar Rig and GarageBand but I gotta say that they sound really good.

I'm gonna open them up tomorrow on my amps and I'll get some clips posted.

Here's a pic of my wiring job.

[Hawk]

What did you put them in?

[5F6-A]

keep us posted... that looks great

[Torren61]

Originally Posted by Hawk

What did you put them in?

I put them in my '77 Les Paul. I'll get some clips this afternoon.

[vmjoe]

Originally Posted by Torren61

I installed Skatterbrane Earthbranes tonight. I was gonna do it tomorrow morning but I just couldn't wait.

I wired them 50's style with CTS pots and Sprague VQs .022 and .015. I bought them secondhand so I had to extend the wiring a bit.

It's late so I could only play through Guitar Rig and GarageBand but I gotta say that they sound really good.

I'm gonna open them up tomorrow on my amps and I'll get some clips posted.

Here's a pic of my wiring job.

You are going to love them. They are so versatile and you can litterally use the tone knobs from 0 to 10. I have never played actual PAF's, but from the way people describe them, the Earthbrane's are the closest I have heard.

They are just so articulate and balanced. You hear every string. I also own a set of his Firebrane's (P90 Soapbar) and these are equally as good. I also just purchased a set of Metalbrane's that will go into a Peavey Wolfgang.

Along with the Skatterbrane's, I also love WCR pups. They have a little different tone, but they are equally dynamic.

[MrRhoads]

We wan´t soundclips, We wan´t sound clips...
Please

[Torren61]

I've got to trace down a bad solder joint....crap. Like getting sand in your sunscreen.

[Torren61]

Ok, I uploaded a clip. I haven't found the bad solder joint so there is a tiny bit of something in the sound that's driving me nuts. I've gotta get some braided wire.

This is done on my '77 LP, SB Earthbranes neck pup, into Alesis i/o26 into Guitar Rig 3 into GarageBand. It's processed. I'll get more clips of these pups with no processing when I get the chance.

Just go to my Soundclick page to hear it.

[Torren61]

What a crap job I did soldering in those Earthbranes. No wonder I had at least one bad solder joint! Well. I bought some military spec wire and rewired this axe from top to bottom.

I took my time this go around and everything cleaned up nicely. I don't hear that sonic "sand" that I heard before from contaminated solder joints and everything is shielded as far as I could get it. It made a big difference.

I'll get some clips when I can. But here's a couple of pics of my work.




Also, here's a link to my wire source:

Johnswireshop.com

Silver Teflon Wire $9.50

"This is great wire to use for re-wiring most guitar pickups. It matches most guitar pickup wires in size, threads easily through the wire cutout routes inside a guitar, and the shielding provides great noise rejection. This is 15 feet of three 26 AWG wires twisted together with teflon outside insulation. The wires are silver plated copper stranded with 7 strands. The colors are white, red, and black. This is well shielded with a silver plated copper braid. This is very high quality mil. spec. wire. The outside insulation is a white teflon wrap. The OD of this wire is aprox. 0.1185 inch (3.00mm)."

[FF_Pedals]

How do you like the independent volumes?

[Jason]

Wow, nice chewy tone there. That's just through guitar rig?

[Torren61]

I like them very much. You can dial in the volume better this way. I don't know if any of you guys missed this thread but I highly recommend reading this by MLP member 5F6-A.

Woman Tone... why it happens.. cap info


I've always run my tone controls wide open but I've completely turned around after reading this thread and experimenting. I now run my tones on about 2.5 or 3 and my sound is much better.

I'm backing down the volumes as well and tweaking the amp volume up a bit. This saves that extra volume on your guitar for a boost. I'm sure most of you guys already know that but it's still news if you haven't heard it. My guitar volumes are running around 8. There is a sharp volume drop from 10 to 7 even though I'm using RS superpots.

[Torren61]

Originally Posted by Jason

Wow, nice chewy tone there. That's just through guitar rig?

Thanks. Yep. You're unbanned now?

What did you do? 'Cause I wanna do it, too.

[Torren61]

Oh, btw, I still have a SD Alnico Pro II neck pup and a SH-15 (Custom 5) pup for sale. The Alnico II has a really good PAF sound to it and comes in at 7.34K. Get 'em while they're gettable.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Torren61

Thanks. Yep. You're unbanned now?

What did you do? 'Cause I wanna do it, too.

Yeah, I actually got banned twice in a week. No comment from me on why, but I won't do it again.... for awhile.

[Torren61]

That's Rock 'N Roll....

[Torren61]

I finally completed another Earthbrane demo. This one is a clean one. It's my 1977 Les Paul with the Earthbranes into my Obscene amp and out two 1X12 cabs close miked on one cab and three feet away on the other. Then into my Alesis i/o 26 and into GarageBand. No effects or processing.

The rhythm guitar is finger pick/strummed and played with both pups. The melody is played on the neck pup. The second rhythm guitar bit is the bridge pup.

Look, I'm not a particularly talented guitar player and I'm probably not doing justice to these pickups but this is the best I got.

[mrpesca]

Originally Posted by Torren61

Look, I'm not a particularly talented guitar player and I'm probably not doing justice to these pickups but this is the best I got.

Why? Because you're not playing 10 notes per second? I think you're pretty good myself and I know Jack Shit.

Nice clips, nice wiring job too.

[Torren61]

Originally Posted by mrpesca

Why? Because you're not playing 10 notes per second? I think you're pretty good myself and I know Jack Shit.

Nice clips, nice wiring job too.

Hey thanks.

I finished one more. Earthbranes Demo 2.

1977 Les Paul with Skatterbranes Earthbranes pickups. 1977 LP into Alesis i/o 26 into GarageBand into Guitar Rig 3.

Drum loop track, rhythm guitar is the bridge pickup into Guitar Rig 3 using the Mesa Boogie amp model. The lead guitar is the neck pickup into Guitar Rig 3 using the Ultrasonic amp model and then post processed using noise gate, compression, echo and reverb.

[mrpesca]

So the lead guitar sound is fairly dry when you play it and you add the effects after? Do you do this in your DAW? Which DAW are you using? Do you picture the effects while playing the lead part?

By the way, I'm copping your chord progression/lead licks on the clean demo. It's very nice. Something I might come up with but you already did so I'm borrowing it if you don't mind. Purely for educational purposes.

Originally Posted by Torren61

Hey thanks.

I finished one more. Earthbranes Demo 2.

1977 Les Paul with Skatterbranes Earthbranes pickups. 1977 LP into Alesis i/o 26 into GarageBand into Guitar Rig 3.

Drum loop track, rhythm guitar is the bridge pickup into Guitar Rig 3 using the Mesa Boogie amp model. The lead guitar is the neck pickup into Guitar Rig 3 using the Ultrasonic amp model and then post processed using noise gate, compression, echo and reverb.

[Torren61]

No, I have to hear the effects in there when I'm playing it. It starts out in the general area of what I hear in my head and then I have to move it closer and closer as I go by tweaking the effects.

What's DAW? GarageBand came on my iMac. I bought Guitar Rig3 and I think I also have Amplitube Live.

Thanks for the compliments on the third demo. I stumbled upon that chord progression after a fattie about 10 or 15 years ago. There's lyrics but I didn't want to open THAT can of worms by singing, lol.

[will c]

DAW is short for Digital Audio Workstation. In essence, Garageband IS your DAW. Guitar Rig is (I'm assuming) used as a plug-in from Garageband. If that's the case, then you can lay down a lead you like, and then come back later and change the processing on it. Can't really do that with analog and tape....

Digital audio workstation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Will

[Torren61]

Yep. That's it. I often change the effects after I get the playing part down the best that I can. Thanks, I learned something. We didn't have DAW when I was a kid and we were walking to school uphill in the snow both ways.

[mrpesca]

Originally Posted by Torren61

Yep. That's it. I often change the effects after I get the playing part down the best that I can. Thanks, I learned something. We didn't have DAW when I was a kid and we were walking to school uphill in the snow both ways.

Yep, back in my day sonny, we had to use scotch tape on our 8-tracks to keep em going.

[Torren61]

Uh...I actually HAVE done that, lol!

[Splattle101]

Originally Posted by Torren61

I installed Skatterbrane Earthbranes tonight. I was gonna do it tomorrow morning but I just couldn't wait.

I wired them 50's style with CTS pots and Sprague VQs .022 and .015.

That's very similar to the setup in my 1978 Les Paul Standard. It's got the 500 k pots, Spraque PIO caps, 0.022 and 0.015 uF bridge and neck respectively, and Waterbranes. These are the budget Earthbranes (i.e., no vintage correct covers or stickers, etc., but otherwise similar...I run them without covers so it's immaterial to me).

How are you finding them?

[Torren61]

I like them very much. Also run without covers. I use the .022 on the neck and the .015 on the bridge, though. I wanted a clear definition between the neck and bridge pups and thought that if I did it the other way it would bring the two pups too close to a more singular tone.

My playing aside, did the tone stand out? (I think I take constructive criticism well so please be honest.) If not, what suggestions do you have for tonal improvement?

[FF_Pedals]

The clean clip sounds great. Good job!

[Torren61]

Thanks.