Wildkat purrs....

[Gashole]

Hey folks, been awhile since I posted. Been lurking about though. Hope most of you are well, and the rest are ok.

 

When last we spoke I was wanting to change out my Kat's stock P90's for some Gibson P90's and redo the wiring, 'cos I was dissatisfied w/ the tonal break up in OD. (feedback not much of an issue for me)

 

I haven't touched it. (except to play the hell out of it) And won't. Well, maybe the wiring and pots.

 

 

I finally figured out how to use it right about 2 months ago. The break up into OD that I didn't like was really my OD pedals fault, not the PuPs. The OD channel on my BC30 w/ the Kat sounds sweet as hot sauce with brown sugar and butter. Same with my Vox ad15. I don't have a great solution for my Ampegs, as there is no OD channel or onboard gain, so I have to use a stompbox....but for that, I use a Marshall Bluesbreaker II w/ boost instead gain, and it's not so bad. Not as good as the onboard gain options w/ the Epi and Vox amps though. But whatever, the BC30 is the go to amp anyway.

 

Anyway, wanted to rah rah rah the stock Wildkat here again as I've been enjoying it so much. It 's still top of my herd.

[TWANG]

I messed with my sheris p90s several times.. for pup height and pole height before I found the spot that made me happy..

 

I think that when you do you're wiring it's going to pay you to give special attention to the caps..

and I recommend using some cheap radio shack polys in different values.. and don't assume the same cap for both pickups..

 

I'm going into my lp and doing just that, soon.

 

I also think moving up to CTS or Alphas is going to put the whipped cream on that baby for sure.

 

There are a lot of us pretty happy with our p90s in here, lately.

And I notice more and more that the stock epi p90s are making people pretty satisfied.

 

congrats!

TWANG

[Gashole]

Hey, thanks for the input Twang. CTS was what I was thinking. Do you think 500k is best for P90's? Is the cap issue really that random? Or is there a rule of thumb to go by?

 

The stockers always sounded great clean to my ear...just took me some time to figure out a good method of OD. Been using stomp boxes so long...took me a while to check things out more simply...which being simple, you'd think I might get to that place first. Oh well.

 

The stockers have a nice tone...perhaps a little less output then the soaps on my SG Classic, but a very nice tone just the same. I dig the whole guitar. I don't even have tuning issues really-not out of the oridinary ones anyway, considering the bigsby and my abuse of it. A little graphite on the nut, good string stretch, and the "lift up the bar" trick when I first notice de-tuning occuring keeps the guitar playable w/o tuning for several songs. I actually want another wildkat for back up, now that the ES 295 has been discontinued...I wanted one of those badly.

 

Later, Twang, thanks.

[BENT E]

Hey Guyz,

 

Just wanted to touch on a few things.

 

Gas, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Unless of course you can't help tinkering with this stuff, which I am completely guilty of. The caps are a great idea though, but in reality, the WildKat has a tone all it's own that takes some getting used to.

 

In regards to the VOX, man thats a study of it's own as well. My AD30 has been through the mill Mod wise. I think I've posted pics a few times. Anyway, that amp never ceases to amaze me. Mine is about three years old now, and every time I pull out the manual out, I learn something new. Big hint, get it off the ground by tilting or elevating it some way or another. That makes all the difference in the world.

 

I've swapped speakers out four times, and now the original is back in. Swapped speakers, tubes, even opened the back up too. But to me, it's the best modeling amp out there!

 

Back to tinkering, if you must. GFS pickups, StewMac for pots and switches, Radio shack for caps. They are cheap and good quality. I've rewired my MIM Strat mor time than I can recall. Also, as well as refretting, the cap mod is the most effective IMO...

 

Thats my 2 cents