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  #1  
Old 03-13-2022, 09:59 AM
buzzardwhiskey buzzardwhiskey is offline
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Default Mcpherson Sable pickups?

My Sable has the non-adjustable Anthem SL. A bit weird. The mixture is fixed.

Has anyone selected a pickup they like for this guitar?

Thanks!
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  #2  
Old 03-13-2022, 12:04 PM
JackDaniel JackDaniel is offline
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Same here. I read that it was especially tuned specifically for McPherson for the sable though. To be honest, haven't plugged mine in yet to hear. Would love to hear other's thoughts on the pickups too.
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  #3  
Old 03-13-2022, 12:25 PM
buzzardwhiskey buzzardwhiskey is offline
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What I learned is that the pickup sounds very good in loud situations - body and balance. But at dining room levels it's not as "realistic" as I'd like.

Frankly, I'm planning on sidestepping this altogether by dual sourcing with a mic in lower volume settings. But I thought I might ask...
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:17 PM
jdinco jdinco is offline
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As discussed in another thread, my Sable had a rubber like gasket shim under the saddle. I ask McPherson why, it is suppose to help balance the UST pickup. I only mention it because you may want to remove it if you change pickups?? I removed mine just to lower the action since I don't plug in.
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  #5  
Old 03-14-2022, 08:41 AM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Other than lowering the action on one of my Sables, I really have not messed with it beyond changing strings and playing it. For some reason, I never got into that tone chasing thing and for me, it sounds good enough.

I am always interested in reading here about other folks' experiments though.

Back in the MacNichol CF forums, I did deep into designing and modifying means of amplifying my Cargos with the K & K pickups I had installed. That was a real rabbit hole that sucked up a lot of time. The best solutions turned out to be my modified EHX Knockout pedal, my modified Boss GE-7 graphic EQ pedal, or the Empress Para-EQ that came along later. Any of the three worked quite well.

However, the Sable sounds good enough amplified right out of the box, so to speak and my eyes are no longer good enough, nor my hands steady enough to be digging into pedals with a soldering iron. I gave away my scope and associated tools, though I did keep my DVM for testing batteries and such, and have been happily just playing my guitars.

Tony
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  #6  
Old 03-14-2022, 09:24 AM
jdinco jdinco is offline
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I agree with you Tony, I like a good setup, but other than that, I don't mess with my guitars much. I prefer NO pickup. Now someone that plays out, their goal will likely be different than ours. Play on...
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  #7  
Old 03-14-2022, 10:18 AM
BlueStarfish BlueStarfish is offline
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Buzzard, If I recall, Tony is primarily a finger style player. That’s probably why he’s happy with the stock pickup and finds it good enough. I’m not meaning to say anything unkind about Tony (I expect his musical taste is exquisite and have no doubt that his ears are on par with the finest bats and dogs!) but rather to observe that most pickups will sound “good enough” played with fingers. From the perspective of a fingerstyle player, all the tone chasing and pickup talk is just so much cork-sniffing.

Sadly, those of us that mostly play with picks don’t have it so easy. It isn’t a matter of cork chasing … UST’s played with a flatpick just sound like c**p. There is a reason that the demo videos from the pickup companies almost always use fingerstyle players instead of flatpickers …

Anyways back to your original question. I’m not a pro player. My use case is low-to-moderate volume living room playing. I use pickups so I can do things like looping (put down a rhythm track and then practicing playing a melody). Not high volume bar gigs. For my use, I have had the best luck so far with the Schatten HFN. It sounds good enough at living room volume, certainly much better than the stock Baggs Element that came with the guitar. It makes playing over a rhythm loop fun instead of painful. So for now the Schatten HFN is my choice. The caveat is that I don’t do high volume bar gigs, and that’s a completely different situation than low-volume playing at home. So I can’t say how well the Schatten would perform in that environment (if that’s what you do).

For the Schatten installation, I found I got the best sound on the Sable using a putty install instead of the tape. Also I only used putty on the two outside feet of the pickup, no putty on the inner floor. Also I left the rubber piece on the Sable under the saddle (and actually shimmed the saddle to get the action back where I wanted it after I took out the UST). I have the active VT version of the Schatten. I set the pickup gain (on the endpin jack) at about 40% or so (I got distortion and quack if I turned it up too high). Then I leave the volume and tone wheels at 100% and do any further EQ and gain adjustments from my board.

Other pickups that I tried from my collection of frustrations:

Seymour Duncan Wavelength. Better than the stock Element — not so much quack. But still not great. Treble strings actually sounded OK if I didn’t play too hard. But it had that over-hyped UST bass which really sounds unnatural to my ears. And I just couldn’t get a combination of gain and EQ and compression to make the bass sound more natural. The Wavelength has the same pickup wire as the Element, so I wonder if it’s the unnatural bass that you don’t like about the Anthem?

Baggs Lyric. Sounded OK, definitely better than the Element. I took it out primarily because my living room has track lighting on a dimmer and that caused some weird RF interference with the Lyric. I could eliminate the interference by using a wireless guitar transmitter instead of a cable. But the transmitter is finicky, and the batteries always need to be charged and have a short life. And the Lyric wasn’t compelling enough to make me put up with that much nuisance.

I don’t have an Anthem in my collection so can’t report on that one.
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  #8  
Old 03-14-2022, 10:34 AM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueStarfish View Post
Buzzard, If I recall, Tony is primarily a finger style player. That’s probably why he’s happy with the stock pickup and finds it good enough. I’m not meaning to say anything unkind about Tony (I expect his musical taste is exquisite and have no doubt that his ears are on par with the finest bats and dogs!) but rather to observe that most pickups will sound “good enough” played with fingers. From the perspective of a fingerstyle player, all the tone chasing and pickup talk is just so much cork-sniffing.

Sadly, those of us that mostly play with picks don’t have it so easy. It isn’t a matter of cork chasing … UST’s played with a flatpick just sound like c**p. There is a reason that the demo videos from the pickup companies almost always use fingerstyle players instead of flatpickers …

Anyways back to your original question. I’m not a pro player. My use case is low-to-moderate volume living room playing. I use pickups so I can do things like looping (put down a rhythm track and then practicing playing a melody). Not high volume bar gigs. For my use, I have had the best luck so far with the Schatten HFN. It sounds good enough at living room volume, certainly much better than the stock Baggs Element that came with the guitar. It makes playing over a rhythm loop fun instead of painful. So for now the Schatten HFN is my choice. The caveat is that I don’t do high volume bar gigs, and that’s a completely different situation than low-volume playing at home. So I can’t say how well the Schatten would perform in that environment (if that’s what you do).

For the Schatten installation, I found I got the best sound on the Sable using a putty install instead of the tape. Also I only used putty on the two outside feet of the pickup, no putty on the inner floor. Also I left the rubber piece on the Sable under the saddle (and actually shimmed the saddle to get the action back where I wanted it after I took out the UST). I have the active VT version of the Schatten. I set the pickup gain (on the endpin jack) at about 40% or so (I got distortion and quack if I turned it up too high). Then I leave the volume and tone wheels at 100% and do any further EQ and gain adjustments from my board.

Other pickups that I tried from my collection of frustrations:

Seymour Duncan Wavelength. Better than the stock Element — not so much quack. But still not great. Treble strings actually sounded OK if I didn’t play too hard. But it had that over-hyped UST bass which really sounds unnatural to my ears. And I just couldn’t get a combination of gain and EQ and compression to make the bass sound more natural. The Wavelength has the same pickup wire as the Element, so I wonder if it’s the unnatural bass that you don’t like about the Anthem?

Baggs Lyric. Sounded OK, definitely better than the Element. I took it out primarily because my living room has track lighting on a dimmer and that caused some weird RF interference with the Lyric. I could eliminate the interference by using a wireless guitar transmitter instead of a cable. But the transmitter is finicky, and the batteries always need to be charged and have a short life. And the Lyric wasn’t compelling enough to make me put up with that much nuisance.

I don’t have an Anthem in my collection so can’t report on that one.
Nice post and thanks for the kind words.

Your post is a perfect example of why a forum can be a great place to get information. Various perspectives are important. Since I rarely play with a pick, I wouldn't have thought of it from your perspective, so I am glad you chimed in to help the OP.

Tony
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  #9  
Old 03-18-2022, 09:04 AM
slimey slimey is offline
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I put a Trance Amulet M in my sable. Works very well gigging in a 5 piece band.
Great tone, no feedback even without the soundhole cover, reliable.
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  #10  
Old 03-28-2022, 08:10 AM
JungWoo JungWoo is offline
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My Sable came with their Element, but I replaced it with an Anthem SL.

I wonder what is different about the one they offer.

The pickup in the Sable was very difficult to find the sweet spot of mic gain. Too low, I would lose all the high end clarity. Too high, I would have excessive body noise. The rough back/sides didn't help.
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  #11  
Old 05-01-2022, 10:28 AM
guitarxan guitarxan is offline
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I too have the Sable with the SL pickup. I find it to be balanced, until you drive it. Mine is very sensitive to the gain settings on DI/preamp. Flat and finger picking are fine but strumming tends to get minor crunch/distort. I have had to back off the gain on my Play Acoustic when I use the Sable, which is most of the time. I tweaked the body res settings and have managed to dial in a great acoustic tone that I get lots of compliments on.

I have also noticed the battery life is shorter than other pickups- anyone else notice this?
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  #12  
Old 05-01-2022, 03:58 PM
DavidE DavidE is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey View Post
My Sable has the non-adjustable Anthem SL. A bit weird. The mixture is fixed.

Has anyone selected a pickup they like for this guitar?

Thanks!
Isn't it just the UST? No mic? So no balance.

One of my Sables came with an active shatten, but the output was so low it wasn't useful for me. I put the original back in and it works great for the guitar.
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