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Just dropped a pair of OX4s into my CC#6

Maxmc

Active member
Joined
Mar 15, 2015
Messages
652
For some time I'd not been totally happy with the pickups in my Collector's Choice #6. I mean they sounded great but I'd heard better. Acoustically the guitar was loud and resonant but this did not come through to the amp. After a lot of questions and research I decided to order a set of OX4 pickups from Mark Stowe in the UK. I specked them: Low wind, A4 magnets with double white bobbins & covers, unpotted. They arrived, after a short wait of a couple of weeks, but before I fitted them I sat down and played the guitar for about an hour. Then I set to, removed the Custombuckers and installed the OX4s. I didn't change the strings, which were still in good shape, because I wanted to get an exact comparison. There was no comparison. The OX4s turned the guitar into an animal. Suddenly there was vastly more sustain and tone. I could hit a note, bend it up, back down and then up again without any loss. With the custombuckers I'd had real difficulty tuning the guitar using the harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets. With the OX4s these harmonics returned with a vengeance. I am now also convinced that unpotted is the way to go to get the real sound of the wood in your guitar. I am one happy puppy and couldn't recommend Mark Stowe and OX4 pickups more highly. There you have it, my shameless plug!
 

Stow

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 14, 2002
Messages
1,857
Glad you like the tones!!!

Any pics of the LP?
 

RocknRollShakeUp

Active member
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
766
For some time I'd not been totally happy with the pickups in my Collector's Choice #6. I mean they sounded great but I'd heard better. Acoustically the guitar was loud and resonant but this did not come through to the amp. After a lot of questions and research I decided to order a set of OX4 pickups from Mark Stowe in the UK. I specked them: Low wind, A4 magnets with double white bobbins & covers, unpotted. They arrived, after a short wait of a couple of weeks, but before I fitted them I sat down and played the guitar for about an hour. Then I set to, removed the Custombuckers and installed the OX4s. I didn't change the strings, which were still in good shape, because I wanted to get an exact comparison. There was no comparison. The OX4s turned the guitar into an animal. Suddenly there was vastly more sustain and tone. I could hit a note, bend it up, back down and then up again without any loss. With the custombuckers I'd had real difficulty tuning the guitar using the harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets. With the OX4s these harmonics returned with a vengeance. I am now also convinced that unpotted is the way to go to get the real sound of the wood in your guitar. I am one happy puppy and couldn't recommend Mark Stowe and OX4 pickups more highly. There you have it, my shameless plug!

Very Cool!

What pickups (bridge, neck, etc.) did you mainly use, what guitar volume and tone settings, playing setting/room size, and what amp, amp volume and gain, and did you try any higher gain pedals or fuzz, especially with a loud amp?

I have a Wildwood Featherweight R7 that I adore, and dig the tones of the low wind potted AIII Custombuckers it came with. But...sometimes I wonder what a good unpotted set would do for me.

I used to play on small stages with high gain and especially when I’d kick a monster fuzz on, I most definitely needed a potted pickup.
Now I just do home recording and often record direct, using retro style edge of break up tones, with a variety of fuzz for riffs and leads, and I am not worried about pickup squeal as much.... although I may start doing some gigs again, again small stages.

But yeah, your report got me interested again, in the low wind unpotted PAF thang, with either A4 or A3’s.
 
Last edited:

CK6

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Messages
449
For some time I'd not been totally happy with the pickups in my Collector's Choice #6. I mean they sounded great but I'd heard better. Acoustically the guitar was loud and resonant but this did not come through to the amp. After a lot of questions and research I decided to order a set of OX4 pickups from Mark Stowe in the UK. I specked them: Low wind, A4 magnets with double white bobbins & covers, unpotted. They arrived, after a short wait of a couple of weeks, but before I fitted them I sat down and played the guitar for about an hour. Then I set to, removed the Custombuckers and installed the OX4s. I didn't change the strings, which were still in good shape, because I wanted to get an exact comparison. There was no comparison. The OX4s turned the guitar into an animal. Suddenly there was vastly more sustain and tone. I could hit a note, bend it up, back down and then up again without any loss. With the custombuckers I'd had real difficulty tuning the guitar using the harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets. With the OX4s these harmonics returned with a vengeance. I am now also convinced that unpotted is the way to go to get the real sound of the wood in your guitar. I am one happy puppy and couldn't recommend Mark Stowe and OX4 pickups more highly. There you have it, my shameless plug!
Did you change the stock pots?
 

Maxmc

Active member
Joined
Mar 15, 2015
Messages
652
Glad you like the tones!!!

Any pics of the LP?

20210210_155736.jpg

FWIW This is not the guitar in my avatar. Thank you Mark for getting this guitar closer in sound to that.
 
Last edited:

Maxmc

Active member
Joined
Mar 15, 2015
Messages
652
Did you change the stock pots?
No, that thought didn't cross my mind. I'm happy with the way things have turned out so I wont be changing pots anytime soon if at all. For what it's worth, about a year ago, I did install a pair of paper in oil caps just to see if they made a difference. To my ears I could not determine any difference between these and the original caps, which apparently were made to look like original bumblebees but weren't paper in oil at all.
 
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