What is the difference in sound in a 350v63 w/the
12k+ ohms vintage style toaster p/ups and the more recent 7.4k ohms vin/toaster/p/ups in a 350v63?
Mine is a 1999 350/V63 w/what I assume to be the 12+k ohms toasters, yeah?
Oh, by the way, my 350v63 was made in late april of 1999 (according to the serial # decoder) does anybody know which p/ups are in mine... the 7.4k's or the 12k+'s?
In the website it says the 12k+'s were before 1999, but it seems to me I read somewhere else that they changed 'em to 12k+ at a later date.
thanks

Your guitar has the more powerful pickups. There is a difference in sound. One is not better than the other. To me, the 7.4K pickups are clearer. Certainly, the 12+K pickups are louder.

I have a fireglo 2002 660/6 which according to your chronology should be fitted with 7.4k's yet they are louder than my 57 Vintage Strat pups, and with an OD-1 or TS9 produce a very nice ballsy 'humbucker' type sound. Of course clean sounds are impeccable!

If these are the softer sounding pups than I can't wait to get my mapleglo 1997 350V63 that is hopefully being shipped to me at this moment from the USA. If 7.4k's sound great overdriven the 12.k's should be able to really kick @$$!

Cheers, Kez

I've always wondered about the Hi-Gain pickups too... why the bridge one is 7K and the neck one is 12K. Surely you want the bridge pickup hotter to compensate for the lesser string vibration near the bridge...

I also found the neck pickup muddy and overpowering, and although the mixer knob could set a balance (volume-wise) for the neck position, it then made the middle setting "all bridge". Plus, the sweep of it was very fussy and hard to dial just right.

So... I swapped them. It's easiest to do it at the pickup end as the cables aren't the same lengths.

Several good things happened... the bridge pickup got a bit more powerful (although admittedly thicker and less 'vintage' sounding); the neck pickup got clearer, more vintage-sounding and much closer to a volume balance with the bridge; and best of all in the middle setting (which changed the least) the mixer knob became much more useful, with a range of good sounds instead of a tricky balance to get just right.

And it's free! Just be careful with the pickups and not to pull on the little wire that comes out of the coil.

Hey John, Matt Hill just told me all about you . . . ! Long live The Dagmars.

Uh oh, if you know Matt then there'll be trouble. :)

Hey... haven't been here a week and my cover's blown already!

Yeah, the Dagmars were cool... I probably should have used my 360 - Matt thought it was great to have another Ric player in the band - but for some reason I had this thing about short-scale Fenders at the time. I think I was going through my Kurt phase.

I'll drop him a line... ;-)

He just moved into downtown Edinburgh. Let me know if you need his number.

Matt just wrote "My American pal Chris (Long Beach, been here 25 years) is really good pals with him as well, say that the band is kinda on hiatus right now but Johnny and the singer still write a lot."

Thanks! I just hooked up wirth him via email.

Cool how these things turn out - my band is just getting going again (a bit of a change of direction and instrumentation, though not for me) and I thought I'd get the Ric out and use it for some stuff... and wondered about switching the pickups... which is where we came in!

Normal service will now be resumed :-)

The reason for the pickup configuration is because the 7k pickup works better with the inline cap to make the signature bright jangle. I tried switching them, and all I got was midrange mud. Instead, I unwound the neck pickup to @8kohms to match the bridge better. Much better sound, and on a 24 fret neck indistinguishable from toasters on tape.