I bought one of these in 2018 and got the same thing: humbuckers wired in parallel, so I replaced the pots with push-pulls and wired it so I could switch each pick-up between series and parallel configuration. Sounds great.
Ah eh, so common issue. That's a classic combo with the push pulls. Likely makes more sense that way. I don't use that feature much on the bridge, but I'm a fan of parallel neck for cleans.
I have the same problem with mine. I thought it sounded a little off and opened it and looked after I saw your video. Thanks for the much needed information!
Yeah that pickup upgrade helped a lot. the fanned fret one is 170 on thomman right now so I'm gonna get it for my bday :) Keeping this video in mind. Would be fine with learning to solder for that better tone.
22:14 they did it under the guise of swapping to soapbars. These are non-soapbar pickups built to the dimension of soapbars. Putting soapbar pickups into these guitars is far better for not having the resonance issue. Our guitarist has this guitar but in black. He actually loves it now that he's modded it.
Oh that makes sense. So they could fit those types of active pickups by default, cause they are the popular upgrade for guitars like this. That said, I do think this would perform better with actives. They do tend to be good at low tunings.
@@DATT no doubt there. That is why he bought the Fanfret version of it and and an RGA8 because he wants to not have that resonance issue. It still exists with his setup just less so than your example. He said he fixed it and will be using it tonight so we'll see.
@@DATT yeah he fixed it by using rubber washers and foam to stop the resonance. You can only hear it slightly now. You gotta really be trying to hear it to actually hear it now. Last show was a success and it sounds great.
@@xburninxthexremainsx Oh THAT resonance issue. Yeah that seems like it'd do the job. Probably could of spent more time on this one padding it out. Well that's good to hear it's working for you.
Im pretty sure they pickups on the r458 fan fret version are also wired incorrectly. Got one today and the bridge feels like it has barely any output but the neck sounds fine. Cant wait to throw some fishmans in
I have the fanned fret version of this. The parallel wiring seems to be on purpose from the factory (for some reason) because they're all like that. Maybe HB thinks we're playing clean on fanned fret 8's? Who knows. I'm going to try and fix it like you did, ill update with the results.
Yeah, parallel is great for clean, esp' in the neck position. All my fav axes are modded in some way to give me parallel neck. In the bridge tho, no idea what they are thinking.
@@DATT Hey man, I've just cracked mine open and it seems to be wired in series. Only one red wire links from the bridge pup to the bridge position contact on the switch, and only one wire comes out of the bridge pup into the pot. My guess is that they fixed their wiring after a while of shipping them wired weird because this looks much different than what you had. No Green wires at all, only black white red and dark blue. is there any possibility that it could still be in parallel and the wires just fuse into one before coming out of the black wrapped wire group that leads out from the pickup?
@@CMDRkarstenvader Ah I think it's unlikely, chances are it's in series. you can kind of tell by the tone. Play in a perfect clean amp setting, if it's parallel, it will have a flat, maybe even hollow tone with even dynamic, in series, it will have an abrasive mid honk. Not sure how to better describe it. Also if you have a multi meter you could measure the impedance of those connections. I forget the numbers off hand, I think I discussed the measurements in the video.
So I just bought one of these used with a Bareknuckle Painkiller in the bridge w gold screws like this… foam underneath too. Assuming you’re Canadian? Haha maybe I got this beaut😅😅
I dare to say: wouldn't have been better and less destructive to make a couple bezel plates with a piece of wood that covers the amount of space these massive stock pickups have? Got the same guitar and I'll be doing that if 3d printing them doesn't work. Still, really entertaining video, man. Keep it up!
Ah maybe, but that pickup back plate was custom for that install. I have another video, where I changed the back plate of the pickup to get it ready. Ah, sadly, another bezel wasn't an option here, kinda.
I see all new comments, and am a small enough channel rn to respond to them. I dont' see why you could not, question is, what do you need to do to make them fit. The original pickups were pretty over sized, so certain models that aren't the blocky soap bar should fit. It's just a case of the know how to replace all the electronics that come with the kit.
@@bastian4260 Oh ok. Here is Canada we have Long & McQuade, they are pretty fierce cause they have a store in every town, even the small ones, and they have evil easy financing. Most Musicians in Canada are in dept to them, haha. Wondered if Thomann was anything like that.
Mostly ? Tonewood is pretty important, at least when considering what kind of sound you want, and what pickups to put in it. I've never been a fan of basswood, just doesn't quite work for my tastes.
@@DATT It's definitely a hot button issue, but i really don't think the wood that an electric guitar is constructed from affects the tone in a noticable way. There's some videos where the guy rips a tele up and changes the wood and all these other different things that supposedly effect the tone, and he even runs just the strings and the pup, and I can't hear the difference.
@@CMDRkarstenvader Well, in some cases the differences might not record well, not at my level, which might be Spectre's sentiment, where it doesn't matter to him, he'll still get you a solid mix. There are a lot of industry pros and luthiers who have believe it makes a difference, which is why you can find charts and what not describing the differences. I spent many years of my life studing this, different woods and pickups, there is def a difference to me. Sometimes the difference is less in the final sound, and more in how the guitar responds to your technique and works with your rig. People might choose to set up there rig a certain way, not knowing what is actually making the differences they are choosing. Some of those differences tend to get washed away the more gain and processing you use. One thing I know for sure, is when I discovered that I loved the feel of Ibanez RG's, it started a love hate relationship, where I faught with them never quite getting them to sound right, but my Yamaha, which is an identical copy of the RG, sounds perfect. The Yamaha being made of Alder, RG's made of basswood. Of all my tests, the wood is the only factor I could not change. BUt then my Mahogany S also sounds great. My Washburn, Alder has similar tonal characteristics to my Yama, and also sounds great. So that's where I'm coming from. About 20 years of messing around wit this.
Tone wood does make a difference in sound but its completely negligible once you take into account amp speakers pickups and effects its not even noticeable. In my experience only people I ever see claim that tonewood is a real thing are pretentious snobby types who just claim that they can hear to make themselves look and feel like there superior. Like peasant guitar players can't hear it you have to have a refined ear lol
I've noticed in practice a lot of the differences in any of these things barely show up in typical recordings. I recently did a pickup swap video on another guitar, where even tho I heard clear differences in person, the way the cab was mic'd didn't pick them up. As for tonewood specifically, my sentiment is based on personal experience, where I had multiple guitars made of similar woods that I noticed (in person on my rig) had similar tonal qualities. They also responded to certain pickups similar ways. This was before I even knew anything about guitar woods, and even had no idea what woods my guitars were made of. I noticed my RG's had similar tonal flaws I didn't like, and when experimenting to figure out what was going wrong, that's when I learned about wood, and that they were all made of basswood, and the guitars I liked, that sounded better to me, that I was used to, were made of Alder. Those Alder guitars also has similar tonal qualities, despite having different designs, nut also responded to similar pickups identically. Certain pickups I liked the sound of in my Alder guitars, I didn't like in my basswood guitars. So, that's where my bias comes from, I didn't go looking for differences cause I knew they had different wood, I heard differences, that stood out to me cause I didn't like them, and in trying to figure out what was going on, I learned about woods. So idk, it's def a debatable subject, so I try to stay somewhat neutral on the topic.
@@detectivemarshmellow Well that does raise some questions. I think if he can go from a proper body to a 2x4, to no body and have it sound the same, there is something wrong with the testing. That's more than a diff tone wood, that's a complete change including mass. I would need to see these tests done using a decent mid hunbucker like a Duncan Custom or Pad Pro, plugged into a Blue Voodoo, gain at 7 with C8 removed. His setup is entirely to insensitive. There is a lot of information missing.
I bought one of these in 2018 and got the same thing: humbuckers wired in parallel, so I replaced the pots with push-pulls and wired it so I could switch each pick-up between series and parallel configuration. Sounds great.
Ah eh, so common issue. That's a classic combo with the push pulls. Likely makes more sense that way. I don't use that feature much on the bridge, but I'm a fan of parallel neck for cleans.
Ohhh man I love this ! Honest review , finding an issue , figuring out the solution, all done while being entertaining. Definitely a fan
Hey thanks!
I have the same problem with mine. I thought it sounded a little off and opened it and looked after I saw your video. Thanks for the much needed information!
Oh nice, does it sound better now ?
@@DATT Yeah man it sounds way better! But I will problably change the pickups in the future
@@Anuspapper Nice. As you could see in the vid, fitment might be tricky.
Very informative! Finally someone who knows how to get job done! Cheers man!
Thanks !
Fantastic video and explains my only issue with my HB 8 string, the pickups
For the record. The guy I fixed it up for, doesn't like playing it that much.
¡¡¡¡ awesome video!!!!
that new pickup really changed the sound and I learned about the foam trick TY!
Glad you liked it !
Yeah that pickup upgrade helped a lot. the fanned fret one is 170 on thomman right now so I'm gonna get it for my bday :) Keeping this video in mind. Would be fine with learning to solder for that better tone.
Yeah, I feel pickup upgrades are a much for a guit in the price range. Funny thing is, you could pay double what the guitar is worth to do it.
22:14 they did it under the guise of swapping to soapbars. These are non-soapbar pickups built to the dimension of soapbars. Putting soapbar pickups into these guitars is far better for not having the resonance issue. Our guitarist has this guitar but in black. He actually loves it now that he's modded it.
Oh that makes sense. So they could fit those types of active pickups by default, cause they are the popular upgrade for guitars like this. That said, I do think this would perform better with actives. They do tend to be good at low tunings.
@@DATT no doubt there. That is why he bought the Fanfret version of it and and an RGA8 because he wants to not have that resonance issue. It still exists with his setup just less so than your example. He said he fixed it and will be using it tonight so we'll see.
@@xburninxthexremainsx Nice.
@@DATT yeah he fixed it by using rubber washers and foam to stop the resonance. You can only hear it slightly now. You gotta really be trying to hear it to actually hear it now. Last show was a success and it sounds great.
@@xburninxthexremainsx Oh THAT resonance issue. Yeah that seems like it'd do the job. Probably could of spent more time on this one padding it out.
Well that's good to hear it's working for you.
Im pretty sure they pickups on the r458 fan fret version are also wired incorrectly. Got one today and the bridge feels like it has barely any output but the neck sounds fine. Cant wait to throw some fishmans in
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Rewired they sound much better, but, not as good as it should with the Fishies.
I have the fanned fret version of this. The parallel wiring seems to be on purpose from the factory (for some reason) because they're all like that. Maybe HB thinks we're playing clean on fanned fret 8's? Who knows. I'm going to try and fix it like you did, ill update with the results.
Yeah, parallel is great for clean, esp' in the neck position. All my fav axes are modded in some way to give me parallel neck. In the bridge tho, no idea what they are thinking.
@@DATT Hey man, I've just cracked mine open and it seems to be wired in series. Only one red wire links from the bridge pup to the bridge position contact on the switch, and only one wire comes out of the bridge pup into the pot. My guess is that they fixed their wiring after a while of shipping them wired weird because this looks much different than what you had. No Green wires at all, only black white red and dark blue. is there any possibility that it could still be in parallel and the wires just fuse into one before coming out of the black wrapped wire group that leads out from the pickup?
@@CMDRkarstenvader Ah I think it's unlikely, chances are it's in series. you can kind of tell by the tone.
Play in a perfect clean amp setting, if it's parallel, it will have a flat, maybe even hollow tone with even dynamic, in series, it will have an abrasive mid honk. Not sure how to better describe it.
Also if you have a multi meter you could measure the impedance of those connections. I forget the numbers off hand, I think I discussed the measurements in the video.
@@DATT Definitely has a honky, Quacky quality to it. Thanks.
Is fanned fret version also badly and paralelly wired? Are its pickup same as not-fanned fret version?
So I just bought one of these used with a Bareknuckle Painkiller in the bridge w gold screws like this… foam underneath too. Assuming you’re Canadian? Haha maybe I got this beaut😅😅
Ohhh boy !
I dare to say: wouldn't have been better and less destructive to make a couple bezel plates with a piece of wood that covers the amount of space these massive stock pickups have? Got the same guitar and I'll be doing that if 3d printing them doesn't work. Still, really entertaining video, man. Keep it up!
Ah maybe, but that pickup back plate was custom for that install. I have another video, where I changed the back plate of the pickup to get it ready. Ah, sadly, another bezel wasn't an option here, kinda.
I tried to put in DiMarzio paf 8 and there pickup has very small wings... you just need to invent some adaptors to install it
I think the pickup is standard, it's the holes in this guitar that are way oversized.
If anything, I think HB should fix on that.
Brotha, I dont think youll reply this late into this vids lifecycle but do you know if its possible to put active pickups in this guitar
I see all new comments, and am a small enough channel rn to respond to them.
I dont' see why you could not, question is, what do you need to do to make them fit.
The original pickups were pretty over sized, so certain models that aren't the blocky soap bar should fit.
It's just a case of the know how to replace all the electronics that come with the kit.
chris pontius is it you?
You figure ?
dude youre very fun to watch
Thanks!
It's also got two strings too many. (Woh-hoh! - rim-shot).
Yeah, 8 is a bit much for me too I think.
Thomann is btw the like biggest music supply retailer in Europe
Have they been around a while ? Do they have like a chain of stores over there ?
@@DATT They have not many stores, only like 3 or so to my knowledge. but their online store is massively popular here
@@DATT And btw I have the exact same guitar, and I love it. It's so resonant, and the frets filing on the edges🤌
@@bastian4260 Oh ok. Here is Canada we have Long & McQuade, they are pretty fierce cause they have a store in every town, even the small ones, and they have evil easy financing. Most Musicians in Canada are in dept to them, haha. Wondered if Thomann was anything like that.
This guitar was being set up for a friend, so I have no personal experience with it other than what you see in the videos.
Instantly lost credibility when he started talking about tonewood mattering in the body... (mostly joke)
Mostly ? Tonewood is pretty important, at least when considering what kind of sound you want, and what pickups to put in it. I've never been a fan of basswood, just doesn't quite work for my tastes.
@@DATT It's definitely a hot button issue, but i really don't think the wood that an electric guitar is constructed from affects the tone in a noticable way. There's some videos where the guy rips a tele up and changes the wood and all these other different things that supposedly effect the tone, and he even runs just the strings and the pup, and I can't hear the difference.
Also, if spectre sound studios says it doesn't matter I'm inclined to listen.
Also see Jim Lill's video
@@CMDRkarstenvader Well, in some cases the differences might not record well, not at my level, which might be Spectre's sentiment, where it doesn't matter to him, he'll still get you a solid mix.
There are a lot of industry pros and luthiers who have believe it makes a difference, which is why you can find charts and what not describing the differences. I spent many years of my life studing this, different woods and pickups, there is def a difference to me. Sometimes the difference is less in the final sound, and more in how the guitar responds to your technique and works with your rig. People might choose to set up there rig a certain way, not knowing what is actually making the differences they are choosing. Some of those differences tend to get washed away the more gain and processing you use. One thing I know for sure, is when I discovered that I loved the feel of Ibanez RG's, it started a love hate relationship, where I faught with them never quite getting them to sound right, but my Yamaha, which is an identical copy of the RG, sounds perfect. The Yamaha being made of Alder, RG's made of basswood. Of all my tests, the wood is the only factor I could not change. BUt then my Mahogany S also sounds great. My Washburn, Alder has similar tonal characteristics to my Yama, and also sounds great. So that's where I'm coming from. About 20 years of messing around wit this.
Best watched at 1.5x speed.
Do I talk slow ?
Tone wood does make a difference in sound but its completely negligible once you take into account amp speakers pickups and effects its not even noticeable. In my experience only people I ever see claim that tonewood is a real thing are pretentious snobby types who just claim that they can hear to make themselves look and feel like there superior. Like peasant guitar players can't hear it you have to have a refined ear lol
I've noticed in practice a lot of the differences in any of these things barely show up in typical recordings. I recently did a pickup swap video on another guitar, where even tho I heard clear differences in person, the way the cab was mic'd didn't pick them up.
As for tonewood specifically, my sentiment is based on personal experience, where I had multiple guitars made of similar woods that I noticed (in person on my rig) had similar tonal qualities. They also responded to certain pickups similar ways. This was before I even knew anything about guitar woods, and even had no idea what woods my guitars were made of. I noticed my RG's had similar tonal flaws I didn't like, and when experimenting to figure out what was going wrong, that's when I learned about wood, and that they were all made of basswood, and the guitars I liked, that sounded better to me, that I was used to, were made of Alder. Those Alder guitars also has similar tonal qualities, despite having different designs, nut also responded to similar pickups identically. Certain pickups I liked the sound of in my Alder guitars, I didn't like in my basswood guitars. So, that's where my bias comes from, I didn't go looking for differences cause I knew they had different wood, I heard differences, that stood out to me cause I didn't like them, and in trying to figure out what was going on, I learned about woods. So idk, it's def a debatable subject, so I try to stay somewhat neutral on the topic.
"Tonewood"
What about it ?
@@DATT ua-cam.com/video/n02tImce3AE/v-deo.html
@@detectivemarshmellow Well that does raise some questions. I think if he can go from a proper body to a 2x4, to no body and have it sound the same, there is something wrong with the testing. That's more than a diff tone wood, that's a complete change including mass.
I would need to see these tests done using a decent mid hunbucker like a Duncan Custom or Pad Pro, plugged into a Blue Voodoo, gain at 7 with C8 removed.
His setup is entirely to insensitive. There is a lot of information missing.
The Stock Pickups Sound real shtt.. still won't buy one
Yeah, they are not that great.
Tbh, this guitar in general is good for getting the novelty of an 8 on the cheap to see if you'd even like an 8.
There is no R in Thomann.de and talking about tone wood....yeah, very knowledgeable.
Oh, yeah, I guess I do say it wrong, and thanks !