The Steel Guitar Forum

Disclaimer: I have never been much of a gear hound or experimenter. I played the same D-10 Carter from 1999 until 3 years ago.

I got the black Mullen about three years ago from my friend Tommy Dodd. (Ser.#071). It had Alumitones and I thought it sounded just fine. I am definitely the weak link, not the guitar! I got the red one about a year and a half ago from Bobby Boggs. (Ser.#154). It has stock Mullen single coils. It is a warmer tone, a little better to my taste. I recently changed the Alumitones for BL705's on the black one. Last night I put new strings of the kind I have used for years (George L stainless) on both and tried them through the same amp, same settings. The black one is still brighter. I am now going to try a Mullen single coil on the black one just to see what happens.

Don't get me wrong. Both are excellent instruments and sound great. The red one just has an edge in my ears. I am just curious. I will report back in a few weeks. In the mean time, comments or thoughts are welcomed.

I will likely have some used pickups for sale soon.

Bill, try tying the red/green wires to ground on the 705s. It'll be a bit brighter and clearer in single coil mode (if you like it, you can mount a switch somewhere to kick them from humbucker to single coil at will), but slightly lower output.

Bill,
It is a simple truth... RED Guitars sound better!

Bill, my pair of G2's are only about 4 months apart. They both have the original 705's and GHS strings. They're identical in every way, but they're not the same guitar. They're as close as any two can be though and I feel like the G2's are some of the most consistent guitars I've ever played. Even though I can still hear a tonal difference between mine, I think I'm the only one that hears it. In my experience the 705's are brighter than the Mullen single coils, but they really balance the string separation beautifully. That being said, I loved the way my guitars sounded with the Mullen pickups too.

You've got two beautiful guitars there.

I put a 705 p/u on both of my Mullen's and love the sound.
To me the Red one does sound better, but I think it's because
the Red one has a G2 top with a wide p/u and the Blue one is
a standard RP with the narrow p/u, but I love both of them.
Also the Red one is full height and the Blue one is 1 inch lower.

Thanks guys. Lane, I am lookiing to get for less highs than the 705. The Mullen p/u is warmer. Maybe iit's more just differences in the weed in each guitar. We shall see. Both of mine are 1" lower. And maybe red does just sound better. Both are great and maybe it is justmy ears, too Tyler.

I've been told that weed makes a big difference in how a steel sounds.

That's likely to give more highs.

Well, Larry J is right IMO, red guitars do sound better. I put an Alumitone in my blue lacquer Mullen and it hepped to get it sounding more like the Red one. Both Mullen are great sounding. No complaints.

So 4.5 years later, I actually got around to retesting this. Like I said in the original post, I'm not much of a gear hound.

I put a Mullen single coil in the E9 neck of the black guitar a while back. This week I cleaned, oiled, and put new strings on both of them. Yesterday my friends Bill Nicholson, Tommy Dodd, and myself did an A/B with the same amp and volume pedal. We all agreed that the red one still has the edge but both sound great!

I think we measured 5 cents cabinet drop, too. Not bad! Nicholson's D-12 G2 was about the same.

Howard Palmer wrote:I've been told that weed makes a big difference in how a steel sounds.

Haha. Typo...WOOD!

I have a wood neck G2 D-108+5 and I have Telonics 206 pickups on both necks,For my tastes they are excellent.Bare in mind that I prefer a midrange type wooden sound.