S-70D and S-100 pickups

BreederCreature

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I'm just wondering what the original pickups were for an S-100. I don't like the tone of the pickups that came with mine when I bought it, so I want to buy the ones that came with them originally.

I understand that this was over 30 years ago, so they may not be available. If they're not, would I be able to get something that sounds like the 2 pickups in my S70D :
s70d.jpg

(the 2 original ones, not the seymour duncan, I barely ever use that apparently haha)

Thanks!

-Adam
 

Default

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They might be Dimarzios, no clue as to the model though. :(

BTW, did you get the feedback problem straightened out?
 

danerectal

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the original S-100 pickups are referred to as the Guild HB-1. Awesome pickups if you can get them. The original S-70D pickups (the single coils) were DiMarzio HS-3. If you wanted something like that I might suggest the DiMarzio Super Distortion or the Super Distortion II, the Super II being my pick. If you want to get even closer you could perform some coil tapping so they have a single coil type sound.
 

BreederCreature

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Default said:
They might be Dimarzios, no clue as to the model though. :(

BTW, did you get the feedback problem straightened out?

Nope :( a friend of mine said that the power tube in the amp may be burning out, which could easily be the case since I bought it over 5 years ago and have never had it looked at. I asked the guys at my local music shop and they said it could be causing the feedback by the power tube becoming microphonic.

The thing is I just played my s70D through my fender jazzmaster ultralight head/cab and it got feedback as well.

How could all my equipment just go nuts at the same time!? It's super frustrating. The only good thing I guess is that it happened now since my new band is still looking for members, so I still have time to figure it out.

I'm gonna get my amp fixed regardless (cause the output is slowly diminishing), but should I have both guitars checked out too? I could understand the s-100 needing work cause I got it off ebay, but I've had my s70d for around a year now, so why would it act up all of a sudden?

Dane - Thanks! I'll probably check into the Super Distortion II while scouring around for the HB-1s haha.
 

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Yeah, you want to get that Marshall checked out, cause you don't know how long those tubes have been in there. The way to check for a microphonic tube is to take the metal shield off, turn up the amp without anything plugged into the input jacks and gently tap the tubes with a pencil.
You should get FOMP, that's normal.

If you get a PIIINNNNNGGGG, then that's the microphonic one.

You don't have to do that with the output tubes, the el34's. They're the ones that are wearing out and you're going to eventually replace them, since the volumes dropping. danerectal's got the right idea on replacement pups. The originals have been out of production since dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
 

BreederCreature

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I've been thinking of getting a super distortion dp100 for the neck pickup (I found one on ebay that was made in the 70s, but the auction ended) and a virtual paf bridge DP197 for the bridge (for more jammy parts). Is this a good idea? Or is it better to have 2 of the same pickups?

Also, at a local music store, I bumped into my friend's dad who repairs/builds guitars. I happened to have my s-100 with me cause I was gonna send it out to have it repaired/checked out. I showed him the s-100 and he noticed that the body of the guitar has thin holes around the top and bottom of the pickups, as if the current pickups installed in the guitar (70s gibson pickups is what the seller said they were) were bigger than the original ones or the guitar had been modified in some way. He also explained to me that the reason my low E string keeps slipping out of the bridge thing it sits in (don't know what it's called) is because it looks like someone switched the low and high E things they sit in.

Either way, he said not to bother sending it our through a music store, cause they'd charge me a lot and he'd repair it for free and install any pickups I wanted :D
 

danerectal

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Sweet deal to find such a helpful hand. As far as the bridge saddle problem, just switch it around the other direction and reset the intonation. As for the pickups, the Gibson mounting rings would be significantly smaller than the Guild rings. Good luck finding these rings these days, but they will be something of a necessity if you decide to use the HB-1s. If you go with DiMarzio pickups, you'll be just fine with the Gibrings. Having two of the same pickups is not necessarily a good idea. On the other hand, you want to make sure the pickups you do select have matched output or else your tone can end up pretty lopsided. The 100/103 combination is what I seem to recall being used by Guild in the S-300D, but in the opposite configuration. Check out DiMarzio's website to match output.
 

BreederCreature

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danerectal said:
Sweet deal to find such a helpful hand. As far as the bridge saddle problem, just switch it around the other direction and reset the intonation. As for the pickups, the Gibson mounting rings would be significantly smaller than the Guild rings. Good luck finding these rings these days, but they will be something of a necessity if you decide to use the HB-1s. If you go with DiMarzio pickups, you'll be just fine with the Gibrings. Having two of the same pickups is not necessarily a good idea. On the other hand, you want to make sure the pickups you do select have matched output or else your tone can end up pretty lopsided. The 100/103 combination is what I seem to recall being used by Guild in the S-300D, but in the opposite configuration. Check out DiMarzio's website to match output.

I just looked and the Super Distortion has an an output of 425 while the virtual paf has 230 :/ so I'm guessing that's no good haha. There's one called Tone Zone which actually seems like a better choice cause I'm just looking for a pickups with a little more low end and this one seems like it'd be the guy. It's output is 375, so that's not too far off from the Super Distortion's 425. How close should they be?

Thanks!
 

danerectal

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That's probably within reason. If I'm not mistaken though, the bridge pickup should be of slightly higher output than the neck pickup. I know the Gibson Standard SG (blasphemy, I know) has the 490R and 498T. The T (or treble, or bridge) is supposedly higher output. I think you naturally have more signal nearer the fretboard, which is why one would want more output in the bridge. I hope I'm not sending you on a wild goose chase, as I see you already have an S-300D.
 
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