My SBV just turned 18. It can’t even (legally) drink yet.
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Ooh! I looked at those when replacing my Cort’s pups. Very nice.
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so, here is my LTD M-200 (Japan, 1999), back to life with a set of Seymour Duncan Nazgûl & Sentient :
the Floyd Rose is locked in “dive-only” mode with a little piece that I made out of ash :
otherwise it’s mostly stock.
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Cool! Those inlays are very nice too. How do the new pickups sound?
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the Sentient is impressive : very clear and articulate, even in very high gain, which is uncommon for a neck pickup.
the Nazgûl is agressive with a lot of midrange, very articulate too. it works well in high gain but sounds kinda cold and impersonal when the gain is lowered.
my first impression is that I could have prefered a Sentient + SH-5 , but I have to play more with those things before I decide anything !
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The Nazgûl responds exceptionnaly well to the volume knob. on a guitar pickup, lowering the volume knob darkens the tone a lot (unless there is a special circuit called a treble bleed). this makes the Nazgûl way more warm, and there is enough output level to lower the volume down to a darker/warmer sound thats quite reminiscent of a PAF. the Nazgûl remains tighter than a PAF but it can go to this lower output, warmer tone. that’s very interesting.
Also the split-coil tones are interesting. The Nazgûl, splited, can sound pretty much in the spirit of an agressive big single coil (think P90 and this kind of stuff). it does not work well in clean tone, but it’s very useable when cranking up the gain a bit.
The split-coil is kinda less convincing on the Sentient, but I wired the splits as Seymour Duncan suggests it which leaves the inner coils ON and the outer coils OFF. that’s good for the Nazgûl but I’m wondering if the Sentient could sound better when the other coil is splitted, because the inner coil seems to me like it’s too far from the 24th fret harmonic node. I’ll try this sooner or later.
Anyway, the Sentient + Nazgûl combinations offers a way larger useable tonal range than I would have expected.
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I really like the SH-14 Custom 5 and SH-1 (very PAF-like) combo you helped me settle on.
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Nice guitar Terb! Seems your collection is growing steady. I have been eyeballing a strat again. Must. Resist.
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I bought an armrest for my mandolin and it came in today.
Beautiful peace of dyed flamed maple finished in Nitro. Made in Texas. Feels pretty comfortable.
@RuknRole
What mandolin did you choose and why?
How are you learning to play it?
I keep feeling like these are calling me and I don’t want them to.
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I bought a The Loar LM-600 mandolin. It is marketed as a professional F-style mandolin that is still relatively affordable (around 1k) and something I shouldn’t have to upgrade anytime soon. I chose this one because it’s supposed to be a copy of a golden era 1920 Loyd Loar mandolin, is handcrafted using real tonewoods, and had good reviews on https://www.mandolincafe.com/. That forum is a great source of info if you are interested in mandolins.
Another recommended economic brand is Eastman mandolins. After that the popular instruments from US or Canadian builders will set you in the $3500 -$8500 range.
I got into mandolins after a few years of watching master builder Jerry Rosa’s YouTube channel. It kept calling me and I just caved in and bought one.
Be forewarned, quality Mandolins are not cheap!
I’m currently learning to play it using Jerry’s system. The course cost me $45. It’s definitely different that anything else I’ve ever tried. Challenging but rewarding so far. I can’t put it down and I keep coming back for more daily.
This video gives you a good preview of his course.
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just for fun, a little bit of noodling this afternoon with a riff I found last friday. LTD M-200 with the SD Nazgul into a Boss Metal Zone, into the power stage of a Marshall Valvestate 8080 (with a Celestion Classic Lead 80 speaker). recorded in a very relative hifi quality with my phone. it’s very far from perfect, but again, it’s just for fun !
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nice riff! Killer gear too. Boss Metal Zone is a must have for sludge/doom metal?
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You recorded this with your phone?
Wow, sounds GREAT!
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not at all ! the iconic Boss pedal for sludge/doom is the FZ-2, which is a kinda extreme fuzz. That’s what Electric Wizard uses. Behringer sells an exact copy.
the MT-2 (Metal Zone) is more a little preamp intended for emerging metal styles in the early 90’s. it’s very famous for being the worst distorsion pedal ever … but it can be really wool when used as a preamp, rather than a distorsion pedal before another preamp !
yes, a 6 year old low cost chinese smartphone 
and this is the first take with absolutly no setting of any sort.
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I’m so intrigued by the metal zone. It’s used a lot in Swedish death metal. 
The Waza one is supposed to be kind of good.
Also thanks for the Behringer tip!
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it’s more the HM-2 that has become the trademark of swedish death metal 
the MT-2 came after the HM-2.
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