Nighthawk - Saddle upgrade

[Dub-T-123]

I think the saddle, bridge, and tailpiece can all make audible differences. 
 

The stock saddles on my Gibson with Nashville bridge are brass. So replacing brass saddles with brass saddles might not yield a big result! 
 

My advice is pretty much this - The way you bought the same saddles that you already had and didn’t benefit at all.. The same thing applies to pickups big time. 
 

You can make a mod or upgrade that makes a noticeable change. You just want to know what to change, why you want to change it, and if the difference is worth the money you are spending.

The Nighthawk is kind of an unusual model so pickup replacement options will be limited. The design of the stock pickup with the coil split is really a big compromise. You can overwind the humbucker so the single coil mode sounds good or make a normal humbucker with a weak single coil mode. Getting an “ideal” humbucker and an “ideal” single coil out of one pickup is sort of a technical free lunch. It physically isn’t really going to happen. 
 

With the original complaint being that the humbucker sounds muddy (makes sense given the fact that it’s overwound for the single coil mode), the remedy is generally increasing the value of the volume and or tone pots. 500K would be a standard value for humbuckers. With higher value pots you could still turn them down and get approximately the same behavior as the lower value pots with single coils

[Nightscientist]

13 minutes ago, Dub-T-123 said:

So replacing brass saddles with brass saddles might not yield a big result!

 

Thanks Dub-T-123 for your input!

The standard saddles on NH are golden plated steel, not brass. And for the sake of straightforwardness, I didn't to mention I also tried switching to vintage saddles that weight 3 times less. I can concede changing the whole bridge, or a few small parts at the same time will make a noticeable difference. Alas it won't if changing the saddles only. At least on my NH.

 

18 minutes ago, Dub-T-123 said:

(makes sense given the fact that it’s overwound for the single coil mode), the remedy is generally increasing the value of the volume and or tone pots. 500K would be a standard value for humbuckers. With higher value pots you could still turn them down and get approximately the same behavior as the lower value pots with single coils

 

That's very interesting. Do you know by fact that the humbuckers are overwound for single coil? When I mesure DCR, the single coil is exactly half on the humbucker.

I could swap the 250K pot with a 500K one, but will it make any difference?

[Dub-T-123]

Geez don’t mind me here I forgot the Nighthawk doesn’t have an ABR-1 or Nashville. My bad! 
 

Regarding the pickups your readings at 14K suggest that they are “overwound” at least by vintage humbucker standards. But yes the basic science of pickup design dictates that these splittable humbuckers are inherently compromised in one or both configurations (humbucker or single coil). 
 

A Gibson humbucker is not two strat single coils slapped together. When you split a classic PAF type humbucker you will probably get a thin and weak single coil. Manufacturers want the single coil option to sound usable, so they make the pickup more similar to “two strat pickups. The single coil mode now sounds better, but the humbucker mode suffers

 

The pot value has a definite effect on muddiness. The lower value pots with a humbucker are similar to 500K pots turned down (not necessarily to half because of log taper etc)

[NighthawkChris]

To me the HB in the bridge works well for hard rock. You want a hot pickup for this. Remember this was a 90s guitar. About 14k is par for the course regarding a stock PU. I’ve tried the Seymour Duncan 59 bridge and it is ok, but IMHO sucks once you split it. This PU is around 7-8k - half the stock.

SD also makes a nice JB too which is even hotter slightly than the stock PU. 

When you split the HBs you definitely get this straty sound when you split the coils and select positions 2 and 4 of the 5-way switch. But again this refers to the 3 pickup model. Oddly enough not familiar so much with the 2 pickup model which I always thought of as a Gibson Telecaster. 

As I said, I have the 3 pickup versions on all 3 of mine. You get 10 possible sounds. It utilizes a 4P5T “super switch” and when you add the pull switch on the tone pot, you multiply the 5 by 2 and there you go, 10 tonal possibilities. I don’t particularly like all 10 but it works for quite a few things. 

Overall it’s a thing of its own sort of. Criticism of it is that it doesn’t do the Gibson thing completely and doesn’t do the Fender thing completely so why bother... This is why I just use it for what it is and roll with it. I like it because it’s smaller and lighter type of guitar. nice belly cut, and adornments typical of a Gibson. You either love it or hate it I guess. I have had one for over 20 years and I have grown on them ever since. It has served for me as a versatile guitar growing up playing anything from hard rock to funk to blues and even more.

My avatar features the CST3 model in Fireburst and it is sort of rare to find these today. I haven’t seen one for sale anywhere for quite some time and their value has gone up a bit once a good one comes along. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by NighthawkChris

[Nightscientist]

I share most of you positive feeling about the Nighthawk @NighthawkChris, and actually I don't even care if it sounds like a Fender or a Gibson. I just want that it sounds right 🙂

So based on your insights guys, I am actually in conversation with a pickup maker to have a lower output sets of mics that has an unbalanced split position, so there is not such a big difference between the two sounds.

If I decide to have those pickups installed, I'll keep you updated on how it changes the sound!

 

[merciful-evans]

12 hours ago, Nightscientist said:

I share most of you positive feeling about the Nighthawk @NighthawkChris, and actually I don't even care if it sounds like a Fender or a Gibson. I just want that it sounds right 🙂

So based on your insights guys, I am actually in conversation with a pickup maker to have a lower output sets of mics that has an unbalanced split position, so there is not such a big difference between the two sounds.

If I decide to have those pickups installed, I'll keep you updated on how it changes the sound!

 

 

I'm certainly interested if you do. I reckon it'll make a difference alright.