Members ENdtime Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I recently purchased the EVH Wolfgang pup, because I am a pickup aficionado. Way moreso than amps.. And truthfully I really didnt have a guitar that needed a swap but I really like the Frankenstein pickup so I was hoping the Wolfgang would offer something different without straying to far from the Frank.. SHort answer.. they are WAY different! lol The Frankenstein Ive had for awhile now in my 87 Fender HM strat, which is Basswood.. I run it with no tone pot and I think it is an astounding sounding pickup. Easily one of, if not, my favorite pickup Ive ever used. And just a note, Im not chasing EVH's tone or trying to sound like him. I do use a 5150 and XXX and both those amps deliver a similar style of gain. And truthfully I think EVH has put his name on some really good products. So I like it more for the sound rather than his name or style. But if you do want some of his tone. This pickup sits right at Fair Warning style tone.. Its fat, chunky, got tons of mids and just sounds great.. I'll emphasize the chunk, because it handles Drop Dflat better than any pickup Ive tried. It doesnt like lower tunings than that, but it can handle Drop D flat perfect.. Its not low output either.. Its definitely a medium output pickup reading 14kohm DC resistance.. Im pretty sure its a degaussed Alnico 2 magnet so its very dynamic which works great for me since I'm very expressive with my pick hand going from hard playing to more controlled. So when I want the chunk and power it responds to my harder attack.. I really cant compare it to any other pickup.. Some say its like a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom and I disagree. I have that and its just not that much like it besides the Alnico 2 magnet and 14kohm reading.. I have also heard the Dimarzio Air Zone mentioned and it kinda resembles that, but the Air Zone has more bass.. The Frankenstein does have a fair amount of bass and its kinda loose sounding but with the mid range attack I think this really balances out the tone and provides the great chunk. Plus I like a little sag to my sound.. If you want modern tight, this isnt, but its more modern than the Wolfgang.... Which is definitely a more vintage sounding pickup. Again it reads 14k dc resistance but it doesnt have the mids of the Franky which leads it to feel less powerful. Its also got a very BRIGHT high end. No wonder Eddie's guitars now use a 250kohm tone pot. Even with my 500k pot it was too bright.. And rolling it down wasnt quite getting the tone I like. So I swapped a 250k pot and it improved a bunch.. Still I had to turn the highs on my amp down a touch. Also its certainly lacking in the mids by comparison to the Frankenstein.. Again upping the mids on my amp helped but I found to really get into the tone I wanted I had to use an eq pedal in front to boost some mids and cut some lows.. Which are very loose in this pickup. The guitar I tried it in has a Rosewood fretboard which I dont think is a good match. I think a maple board would help with tightening the lows and adding some attack.. Also I use somewhat heavy gauge strings 50 on the low Eb, and Im guessing some lighter gauges might help.. So taking into account his new EVH Wolfgang guitars either have an ebony or maple fretboard and stainless steel frets( which sound a bit brighter on the attack to me) I think for this pickup to shine the guitar needs to have a bright attack to help the low end from being to muffled and loose sounding.. Overall, Im hoping I can find a home for it in one of my builds, but I pulled it out of the guitar I had it in as its just not what I was looking for.. For me the Frankenstein is the better pickup overall for sure and I can see it working in a lot of guitars to be honest. I got it for $119 which is a bit much to spend on a pickup, but I would easily buy another one because its that good! The Wolfgang seems picky with what guitars it will like.. Its not near as modern sounding as I was expecting. Almost reminded me of my Gibson Burstbucker Pro, which I like but I think the Wolfgang has even more lows than that which makes it a little more hit or miss in certain guitars.. Honestly, I wish they offered an exchange because I would easily swap the Wolfgang for another Frankenstein.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheRymanChu Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Great review Endtime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Thanks man.. I should add a couple things.. The Fankenstein can do metal, blues and sounds pretty good clean.. So, IMO, its very versatile.. The Wolfgang can do metal too.. But not as well.. Its a softer sound.. Of course the amp settings and other things factor in to ANY style.. Honestly I could make a single coil do death metal if I had too.. So take what styles it does best with a grain of salt.... The Wolfgang is a little weird in that while it has a bright tone its pretty smooth sounding.. Leads dont sound thin.. Dimarzio has being saying similar things in their literature about certain pickups. Saying they have brightened the lows while warming up the highs.. I think that fits the case with the Wolfgang. Also the Frankenstein is made by Seymour Duncan and the Wolfgang is made by Fender.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peavey_impact Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Cool review man. Not sure how It compared to the new Wolfgang pickups but the old Peavey ones seemed to be super hot. I always thought they were killer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goop Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Nice review, much more informative/useful than the guitar magazine "reviews". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Originally Posted by peavey_impact Cool review man. Not sure how It compared to the new Wolfgang pickups but the old Peavey ones seemed to be super hot. I always thought they were killer honestly, I was expecting hotter. In fact even though the box looked to be new and labeled"bridge" I'm not entirely certain this isn't the neck model. Lol and there are no markings on the pickup to identify. And even the zebra pattern on both pickups is the same. but I think it just want what I was expecting. And also the wolfgang seems to respond a little hotter with the 5150 than the xxx. So whatever that means. Also the Wolfgang's clean is really Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Old thread bump/UPDATE, because clearly by the number of responses this got, people need to know.. ! Haha So I had this Wolfgang pup sitting around now for a couple months in it's box as the one guitar I had it in wasn't the right fit, or perhaps I didn't really tweak it right.. But I put it in my Explorer that I made.. I got the blueprints of a real explorer so it's pretty much a total copy, except I went with ebony for the fretboard.. On a whim about a week ago I swapped in the Wolfgang.. Again it was pretty bassy with a scooped feel. I played with heights, raising the screws way up to add bite, since it doesn't have that much when it's set a"normal" distance from the strings .And when I raised it up a little it got Bassier, but did get more bite. I figured it would just be a bass monster if I kept raising it... Overall, it was my same impression the first time.. It just doesn't have that drive that the Frankenstein does so well.. Anyway, I decided to really get it up under the strings.. Similar to how I set my EMGs.. It measures just under a 1/16th from bottom of string to the pickup screws while fretting the 22 fret.. And I wouldn't be exaggerating when I say this pickup feels completely different.. Thinking it would be a bass monster, it turned into this hard driving mid push with awesome clarity still.. The bass is balanced but full, the highs cut like crazy a it does clean to overdrive equally great.. It really does everything.. I know, I know, I'm a pickup junkie.. But I have stopped buying and trying them all on a whim and I'm more into tweaking what I have, because if there is one thing I've learned with pickup whoring, it's that most are good and can be tweaked by heights, magnet swaps, etc. to get the sound you are looking for. For this past week I haven't been able to put this guitar down.. It's got more clarity, drive and tone than any other of my guitars and my Franky equipped Hm strat and Les Paul with EMGs were at the top of that list for awhile.. Also gets me thinking about the Wolfgang guitar, because the pickups are hard mounted a fair distance from the strings.. And I when I play those guitars there are times you want a little extra power and drive. I can say with them raised up (they have a real low magnetic field btw) they take on a whole new level. Maybe the biggest surprise I've gotten and most sensitive to pickup heights out of any pickup I've tried. It's balls out, but it never sacrifices clarity... It does take on a bit of that Tone Zone flavor now, but it's not as bassy and the clarity is much better. Really they are nothing alike, but the Tone Zone does have a very full response with good pick attack.. This now has that, but tone wise it's on a different level.. Finally, i play a lot of styles but generally stick with metal and these two pickups can do the heaviest of {censored} as well as rock and dirty blues.. The Wolfgang has a better clean than the Franky, but lower the volume on the guitar helps on both.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JesusCrisp Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 The Wolfgang pickup is pretty much a Dimarzio Air Zone tonewise from what I've heard and read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Originally Posted by JesusCrisp The Wolfgang pickup is pretty much a Dimarzio Air Zone tonewise from what I've heard and read. I have the Air Zone and have used it in this guitar and I wouldn't make that comparison.. Like I said, its got Tone Zone/ Air Zone qualities, but the highs on the Wolfgang are way different.. DC resistance isn't the same either. I'll also dispel a myth that the Franky is just a Custom Custom.. Again, both the Evh pickups do have something more than I've found in near every other pickup. The mids on the Franky are insane.. And the low end is the chunkiest on any pickup I've used.. These may have started as certain comparable models but they feel and sound completely new to my ears.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HELSTRUME Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Good review. I had heard the wolf uses a small ceramic mag, and was like a half aired tonezone. I was gonna try one once, but everybody said the Frank was tons better. I figured the Wolf would be more modern sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Originally Posted by HELSTRUME Good review. I had heard the wolf uses a small ceramic mag, and was like a half aired tonezone. I was gonna try one once, but everybody said the Frank was tons better. I figured the Wolf would be more modern sounding. I agreed completely initially.. The Franky its something special.. But now, with the Wolfgang set up like I have it, its a close call. I have them in completely different guitars, but I might just make a clip or two with a comparison...Here was the last clip I did with my Frankenstein equipped guitar. http://www.tonefinder.com/files/71-R...imal%205-5.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members telephant Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 So the Frankenstein is the pickup they were putting in the Charvel Art guitars, and the Wolfgang pickups come stock in the new Wolfies, right? Sounds like I would dig the Frankie since it has all those mids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flyingskull Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Great review! I have an old Charvel model 1A that I am thinking of putting in dual hums as it has a bathtub route under the singles. In your opinion would the Frankenstien pup work with that (not sure body wood)/maple neck combo in the bridge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Originally Posted by telephant So the Frankenstein is the pickup they were putting in the Charvel Art guitars, and the Wolfgang pickups come stock in the new Wolfies, right?Sounds like I would dig the Frankie since it has all those mids. The Frankenstein is in a league of its own.. Soon as I put that in I was blown away.. I run that one pretty close to the strings and with only a volume pot, no tone.. Its an de-gaussed alnico 2, so its got great clarity.. But yeah, its got some legitimate fucking mids going on.. Also its pretty hot.. Not what is consider a real hot pickup, but it sits right in that perfect zone of say a "hot-medium" output. Lol.. For lead playing its got so much going on.. Its like each note has some extra harmonics going on... And the chunk lends itself to be a great metal pickup too!. It doesn't handle low tunings that great, but I'm in E flat or D standard nowadays and its fine with those.. Once I went to D flat standard, it started sounding a little too bassy.. But drop tunings in either E flat or D works fine. I also like it with regular gauge strings.. I used to use heavy gauges but 10-46 in e flat is the best sound with it, IMO.Edit, not sure if this is in the Charvel guitars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members telephant Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 It sounds pretty awesome. I've always wanted to try that Seymur Duncan '78 Custom and I'm wondering how these compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Originally Posted by telephant It sounds pretty awesome. I've always wanted to try that Seymur Duncan '78 Custom and I'm wondering how these compare. Totally different spec-wise.. The Franky isn't what was first in that guitar.. Its the pickup that ended up in there.. One of the guys from Seymour Duncan who was in on the build of these Evh leaked some details (the Franky is made by Seymour. The wolfgang apparently was designed mostly by Seymour, then Fender decided to do it in-house. Supposedly they tweaked the Seymour design a touch).Anyway, the 78 is definitely in a Paf style, as far as output and tone.. I haven't tried it, but reviews seem mixed.. The Franky was the pickup that ended up in Franky during the early to mid 80's. Apparently Seymour wound that pickup back then. Its significantly hotter than the 78. Like I mentioned, its like a slightly hotter than"medium output". hard to compare it to something else, but the Custom Custom would be a fair comparison as far as output, I guess. And while I'm not after Eddies tone, you can definitelyhear the Fair Warning era tone in the Frankenstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members telephant Posted May 9, 2012 Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 Originally Posted by ENdtime Totally different spec-wise.. The Franky isn't what was first in that guitar.. Its the pickup that ended up in there.. One of the guys from Seymour Duncan who was in on the build of these Evh leaked some details (the Franky is made by Seymour. The wolfgang apparently was designed mostly by Seymour, then Fender decided to do it in-house. Supposedly they tweaked the Seymour design a touch).Anyway, the 78 is definitely in a Paf style, as far as output and tone.. I haven't tried it, but reviews seem mixed.. The Franky was the pickup that ended up in Franky during the early to mid 80's. Apparently Seymour wound that pickup back then. Its significantly hotter than the 78. Like I mentioned, its like a slightly hotter than"medium output". hard to compare it to something else, but the Custom Custom would be a fair comparison as far as output, I guess. And while I'm not after Eddies tone, you can definitelyhear the Fair Warning era tone in the Frankenstein Aaah thank you for clearing that. The humbucker I have in my Strat right now is only 9.5k, and I've got single coil in the mid and neck so I'm worried about balance. Also from my experience fuzz faces start sounding less than steller once you get past 13k. But of course not all pickups are equal, and I've noticed some can still handle fuzz pretty well. Then again sometimes its just nice to have a great sounding Pickup driving the front end of your amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2012 The strat I have the Frankenstein in is hum bridge-single coil in the neck setup.. The Frankenstein definitely creates more distortion than the neck single but volume wise its pretty close.. The neck single is a Dimarzio Heavy blues 2.. Which also rules, btw. And isn't too hot.. I'd guess its a little more powerful than a fender standard single coil, but not by much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HELSTRUME Posted May 10, 2012 Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 How all does it differ from the Custom custom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members missingastring Posted May 10, 2012 Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 You are giving me some serious GAS for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members madryan Posted May 10, 2012 Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 Have you ever played a guitar loaded with a BKP Rebel Yell? That's my current favorite pickup of all time and it's very PAF'ish but still hotter and more rock-n-roll. Just wondered if either of these was anything like one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 10, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 Haven't tried the Rebel Yell.. Only tried the Painkiller set and each of these Evh pups smoke the painkiller.. Virtuous about his vhii model.. I don't like the clip on his site.. Its much too controlled and the high end isn't near as complex and alive as the Frankenstein. Granted one clip doesn't really define a pickup, I know.. But it doesn't make me want to try it that much.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HELSTRUME Posted May 10, 2012 Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 Ever try a dean Michael schrenker? "misspell" I've heard good things about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ENdtime Posted May 10, 2012 Author Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 Originally Posted by HELSTRUME Ever try a dean Michael schrenker? "misspell" I've heard good things about it. I just noticed your other question about the custom custom..But yeah, these Dean pickups certainly have me curious.. Maybe I'll try one in one of my builds, becausE if I were to try one it would replace a pickup in a guitar I'm satisfied with.. I really can't fault any of my guitars, ATM. They all sound really good while all being a little different. In the bridge position of my guitarsI have the Evh Frankenstein and wolfgang, Seymour.Duncan custom 5, emg81, Gibson Dirty Fingers, dimarzio blaze, Dimarzio blaze neck (in the bridge).. They all have their own thing going on and were chosen for each guitar after pretty extensive try outs! LolAs far as the custom custom and Frankenstein, the cc doesn't have quite the mid push, and the low end isn't as chunky, and the highs aren't as open.. They are kinda similar, but its like the evh is much more organic and reacts to your playing more. I had the cc in this guitar and it sounded muffled and muddy by comparison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members madryan Posted May 10, 2012 Members Share Posted May 10, 2012 Originally Posted by ENdtime Haven't tried the Rebel Yell.. Only tried the Painkiller set and each of these Evh pups smoke the painkiller..Virtuous about his vhii model.. I don't like the clip on his site.. Its much too controlled and the high end isn't near as complex and alive as the Frankenstein. Granted one clip doesn't really define a pickup, I know.. But it doesn't make me want to try it that much.. I've got a Painkiller in my superstrat and it's great for that guitar but the thing I've found with BKP stuff is it's very guitar-centric. The Rebel Yell seems to work well in about anything but the Painkiller doesn't. It's horrid in my Les Paul or my strat but in my Korina superstrat it's epic. The korina guitar is really middle of the road. Very vanilla. Sweet tone but nothing sticks out. It's just a blank slate kind of guitar and the PK works well in it. This is that guitar BTW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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