this is the best demo of the Fatboy on youtube. Thanks so much for sharing the 250k pot idea. I spoke with Rick at Canton guitars-he makes instruments for Holdsworth, Tim Miller and Dan Acramore. All of their guitars are humbucking equipped with 250k pots. It is too bad the Carvin doesn't come stock with those pots since that is what Holdsworth actually uses. Anyway, thanks for the great demo!
I just recently replaced the 500k tone and volume pots with 250k pots, which many people recommended (and Holdsworth himself has done). It really warmed up the tone and made the tone knob more usable. My one complaint about the guitar in its stock configuration was how honky it was in the midrange and how the tone knob seemed to do nothing to tame that. The new pots totally fixed it and I'm even happier with the guitar now.
hello poparad, I've had an HF2 for maybe 6 months or so now, and I was thinking about tinkering with the electronics at this point, and I'm interested in checking out this 250k pot idea. is there a particular pot/pot brand or something that you would recommend? I'm not so knowledgeable in the gear/electronics department. btw, I'm also looking into the holdsworth seymour duncans!
@Timotheedle I just bought the standard CTS stuff from allparts.com. Be careful, though, because Carvin uses mini-pots and the full size pots are just a little too big to fit through the holes without drilling. I only realized this after buying the new pots and had to do a little work to make them fit. With the original 500k pots, I found the guitar to have a harsh spike in the midrange, and the 250k evened this out a lot. It does sound noticeably different now.
@Poparad oh cool thanks--and I'm going to get a pro to put them in since my last attempt at electronics stuff with an older guitar didn't go too well, haha
oh, and do you think you have mini pots because you have the synth model? when I took the knobs off a while ago, they looked not very small. oh wait, that's not a synth model is it--it just has coil tap stuff or something? I have the standard electronics configuration
@Timotheedle Yeah, I don't have the synth one. The switches are coil taps and a phase switch, but that doesn't effect how the volume and tone pots are set up.
@Poparad sorry to ask another question, but I'm looking at the pots online and there are mini pots available like you mentioned before about the mini pots that are already in there. would you recommend the mini pots--I'm not too keen on drilling to make the whole bigger.
@Timotheedle The mini pots will be (should be) a direct replacement, so definitely go with them for ease and convenience. From what I gather, there's no difference in sound between mini and full size.
@FreeByrd007 It makes total sense on this guitar. Along with the flat fingerboard, it makes fast, legato playing much easier. I have noticed that at first I had to build up a little more endurance for barre chords, but after a couple weeks of practicing it's totally natural to me.
I've heard that because the neck pickup is pushed toward the bridge so far due to the 24 frets, a really mellow classic jazz tone is impossible on it. Do you find that on the neck pup w/the tone down, it can sound dark and punchy enough to emulate the 175/early metheney sound, or is it just not that kind of a guitar?
@earlgrey626 You can get plenty of darkness out of the guitar. I've never bought into the 24 fret/neck pickup argument, because as soon as you fret a note, you're changing the relationship of the harmonics to the pickups anyway. There might be a point if you only ever played open strings. The one thing about the HF's is that the volume knob has a treble bleed cap on it, which makes the tone knob sound different than on typical guitars. You can easily remove it, though, to darken things up.
@Poparad People's observations about the neck pickup location I think have less to do with the "nodes" or the harmonics, and more to do with just how car away from the bridge the string is. Like, if you pick right near the bridge, it sounds different than if you pick near the neck, no matter where you fret. I might be wrong, but at least I can see that being plausible.
@earlgrey626 For what it's worth, the tone of this guitar and my ES-135 sitting in the background of the video are extremely similar. In fact, multiple people who've heard me play on the ES for years and then heard this guitar have commented on that, as well.
@earlgrey626 I have the Elixer 10's that were shipped with the Carvin on there now. First time I've used those and I really, really like them. It's been almost a month and they still sound the same. For the Gibson, because it has a slightly smaller 24.75" scale, I settled on using 11's so the tension feels the same as on my 25.5" scale guitars. 10's seemed a bit thin under my fingers on it.
@earlgrey626 Just the standard maple neck/alder body without any fancy top upgrade. I have two LB76's with that configuration and I really liked the sound of that, so I stuck with it for the Fatboy.
I tried to contact you though HCentral but couldn´t. Do you still have it. Reply to elbuzonderoberto@yahoo.com. Thanks!
Major7Sharp5 1 month ago
Hi, can you please tell us what woods your Carvin is made of? Is it the standard Alder body/neck & ebony fretboard?
doughboy777 5 months ago
@doughboy777 All standard woods. Alder body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard.
Poparad 5 months ago
this is the best demo of the Fatboy on youtube. Thanks so much for sharing the 250k pot idea. I spoke with Rick at Canton guitars-he makes instruments for Holdsworth, Tim Miller and Dan Acramore. All of their guitars are humbucking equipped with 250k pots. It is too bad the Carvin doesn't come stock with those pots since that is what Holdsworth actually uses. Anyway, thanks for the great demo!
heidegger101 6 months ago
Just bought one of these. Lovin it. Did AH play an HF2 on None Too Soon ?
Sounds like he might have.
pobinr 7 months ago
I just recently replaced the 500k tone and volume pots with 250k pots, which many people recommended (and Holdsworth himself has done). It really warmed up the tone and made the tone knob more usable. My one complaint about the guitar in its stock configuration was how honky it was in the midrange and how the tone knob seemed to do nothing to tame that. The new pots totally fixed it and I'm even happier with the guitar now.
Poparad 9 months ago
@Poparad
hello poparad, I've had an HF2 for maybe 6 months or so now, and I was thinking about tinkering with the electronics at this point, and I'm interested in checking out this 250k pot idea. is there a particular pot/pot brand or something that you would recommend? I'm not so knowledgeable in the gear/electronics department. btw, I'm also looking into the holdsworth seymour duncans!
Timotheedle 8 months ago
@Timotheedle I just bought the standard CTS stuff from allparts.com. Be careful, though, because Carvin uses mini-pots and the full size pots are just a little too big to fit through the holes without drilling. I only realized this after buying the new pots and had to do a little work to make them fit. With the original 500k pots, I found the guitar to have a harsh spike in the midrange, and the 250k evened this out a lot. It does sound noticeably different now.
Poparad 8 months ago
@Poparad oh cool thanks--and I'm going to get a pro to put them in since my last attempt at electronics stuff with an older guitar didn't go too well, haha
oh, and do you think you have mini pots because you have the synth model? when I took the knobs off a while ago, they looked not very small. oh wait, that's not a synth model is it--it just has coil tap stuff or something? I have the standard electronics configuration
Timotheedle 8 months ago
@Timotheedle Yeah, I don't have the synth one. The switches are coil taps and a phase switch, but that doesn't effect how the volume and tone pots are set up.
Poparad 8 months ago
@Poparad sorry to ask another question, but I'm looking at the pots online and there are mini pots available like you mentioned before about the mini pots that are already in there. would you recommend the mini pots--I'm not too keen on drilling to make the whole bigger.
Timotheedle 8 months ago
@Timotheedle The mini pots will be (should be) a direct replacement, so definitely go with them for ease and convenience. From what I gather, there's no difference in sound between mini and full size.
Poparad 8 months ago
@Poparad thanks I really appreciate it!!
Timotheedle 8 months ago
@Poparad
btw, that finish is really classy!!
Timotheedle 8 months ago
I had an HF2 and loved it....but, like a fool, I sold it.
Hypnus9 9 months ago
your soloing doesn't need a backing track to sound great. well done! and thanks for demonstrating the phase switches. getting my first carvin soon!
camer138 9 months ago
@FreeByrd007 It makes total sense on this guitar. Along with the flat fingerboard, it makes fast, legato playing much easier. I have noticed that at first I had to build up a little more endurance for barre chords, but after a couple weeks of practicing it's totally natural to me.
Poparad 10 months ago
@FreeByrd007 The neck is very fat, and very comfortable. If you've ever played an old Les Paul with the really fat profile neck, it's like that.
Poparad 10 months ago
I've heard that because the neck pickup is pushed toward the bridge so far due to the 24 frets, a really mellow classic jazz tone is impossible on it. Do you find that on the neck pup w/the tone down, it can sound dark and punchy enough to emulate the 175/early metheney sound, or is it just not that kind of a guitar?
earlgrey626 1 year ago
@earlgrey626 You can get plenty of darkness out of the guitar. I've never bought into the 24 fret/neck pickup argument, because as soon as you fret a note, you're changing the relationship of the harmonics to the pickups anyway. There might be a point if you only ever played open strings. The one thing about the HF's is that the volume knob has a treble bleed cap on it, which makes the tone knob sound different than on typical guitars. You can easily remove it, though, to darken things up.
Poparad 1 year ago
@Poparad People's observations about the neck pickup location I think have less to do with the "nodes" or the harmonics, and more to do with just how car away from the bridge the string is. Like, if you pick right near the bridge, it sounds different than if you pick near the neck, no matter where you fret. I might be wrong, but at least I can see that being plausible.
necrojoe 1 year ago
@earlgrey626 For what it's worth, the tone of this guitar and my ES-135 sitting in the background of the video are extremely similar. In fact, multiple people who've heard me play on the ES for years and then heard this guitar have commented on that, as well.
Poparad 1 year ago
@Poparad Do you use the same gauge strings on both the Carvin and Gibson?
earlgrey626 1 year ago
@earlgrey626 I have the Elixer 10's that were shipped with the Carvin on there now. First time I've used those and I really, really like them. It's been almost a month and they still sound the same. For the Gibson, because it has a slightly smaller 24.75" scale, I settled on using 11's so the tension feels the same as on my 25.5" scale guitars. 10's seemed a bit thin under my fingers on it.
Poparad 1 year ago
@Poparad which wood configuration is this one?
earlgrey626 9 months ago
@earlgrey626 Just the standard maple neck/alder body without any fancy top upgrade. I have two LB76's with that configuration and I really liked the sound of that, so I stuck with it for the Fatboy.
Poparad 9 months ago
Lovely, mellow, warm tone, great!
aliensporebomb 1 year ago
Some nice playing their partner!
shredmeister777 1 year ago
sounds nice!
mistersaxguy 1 year ago