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audiomidijace

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I'm a humbucker guy in general. I've owned just about everything. It's something I've enjoyed experimenting with.
For high gain playing I'm an 80's/90's metal guy.
I have blues, country and pop influences as well.
For myself I've finally settled on vintage output Alnico pickups.
Currently I've got Motor City Black Belts, Suhr SSV, Gibson Burstbucker pro,
and Jason Lollar Imperials.
These new Railhammer Hyper Vintage pickups just blow me away.
My other pickups sound great, but my rig just comes alive with the Railhammers. You owe it to yourself to try these pickups!
They have a few other models as well.
http://www.railhammer.com
 
Hmmm....I need new pickups for one of my LPs, want something gainier than the BB Pro 2 and 57 Classic + but still in that vocal LP territory.
 
JKD said:
Hmmm....I need new pickups for one of my LPs, want something gainier than the BB Pro 2 and 57 Classic + but still in that vocal LP territory.

I've got a duncan '59 in the neck & a duncan Custom that I put an Alnico 8 magnet in, in the bridge of my LP. Absolutely awesome. I rolled through a whole bunch of PU's to get to that combo, and have zero will to change that setup. Works for everything, clean, classic, crunch, blues, metal, etc. Both are pretty low output PU's, which I've found that I prefer. And, that 'Custom8' is the best sounding bridge PU I've ever played. Big, fat, articulate, perfect... Have not tried any rail hammers, but I'd be curious to someday, though I've not found any clips on the net that I like - come off as a bit shrill, but you never know with YouTube vids.
 
Corium_AZ said:
JKD said:
Hmmm....I need new pickups for one of my LPs, want something gainier than the BB Pro 2 and 57 Classic + but still in that vocal LP territory.

I've got a duncan '59 in the neck & a duncan Custom that I put an Alnico 8 magnet in, in the bridge of my LP. Absolutely awesome. I rolled through a whole bunch of PU's to get to that combo, and have zero will to change that setup. Works for everything, clean, classic, crunch, blues, metal, etc. Both are pretty low output PU's, which I've found that I prefer. And, that 'Custom8' is the best sounding bridge PU I've ever played. Big, fat, articulate, perfect... Have not tried any rail hammers, but I'd be curious to someday, though I've not found any clips on the net that I like - come off as a bit shrill, but you never know with YouTube vids.

I can't say as I care for any of the clips I've heard of the RH either. I tried them simply on the concept. I also tried their Chisel bridge which is ceramic and had too much output for me. Didn't care for the character of that one. I replaced it with a Suhr SSV which is very nice. The Hyper Vintage set is bad *** though. Very affordable too.
 
I actually had Lollar Imperials in a 2008 LP Trad Pro that I used to own, they were great..in fact excelled at low/medium gain but too tubby sounding in the LP for high gain, especially the Neck PU.
 
Kind of surprising for the bridge Imperial, but I guess a good chunk of mahogany can do that. My guitars are basswood. That Lollar really cuts in my guitar. I went with the lo-wind in the neck on mine, so it doesn't have that problem at all. In fact I often think about changing it out to a standard Imperial neck pickup.
 
audiomidijace said:
Kind of surprising for the bridge Imperial, but I guess a good chunk of mahogany can do that. My guitars are basswood. That Lollar really cuts in my guitar. I went with the lo-wind in the neck on mine, so it doesn't have that problem at all. In fact I often think about changing it out to a standard Imperial neck pickup.

Well, I almost wrote that the Bridge pickup wasn't too bad....so we're probably in agreement on that.

I did like the Lollars, especially now I've had chance to compare with the BB Pro.
 
I generally use guitars with Duncan JB/59 sets. I do hard rock/ low level metal. They sound great to me, until I played a guitar with Bare Knuckles pickups.
They really made the Randall sound HUGE! and is was the clearest I've ever heard it. Made my Duncans sound like I was playing through a mud puddle.
 
I have a set of Duncan Seth Lover pups in my '70 LP Custom LH. I re-fretted a '58 LP for my friend Jeff Prine in the '70s and ,although that's 40 years ago,
the Seth Lovers (at least the ones that were made when he was still alive) sounded like those pups on the '58. By today's standards, they would be considered "weak, no balls," etc. but there is a clarity and fluidity in them that
gets lost when you start winding more wire on the coil. And today, with all the gain available in most amps, there is hardly any reason for a "super hot" high output pick up. When I did have high output pups in my LP including a set I made myself, it became more of a "one trick pony." It's great to have all the choices there are today.
 
I didn't want to get into the who's pups are better debate, but I want to disagree with one thing kc2eeb just said. I use some really super high gain pups in a lot of my guitars and... I also have a volume control. If the pups are too much for an amp then my volume control is wired in such a way that it reduces the gain but doesn't kill the tone of the guitar... my point is... I'm really glad I have all that gain when I want it. A high gain pup can really push the hell out of an amp and get some great sounds that you'll never get without them. If I need to cut them back a bit that's easy enough, but its hard to add more when you don't have more to add. Low output pups pretty much just piss me off LoL ;)

Edit: ...and on top of it the high output pups sound better than any low output pup I've ever heard anyways. Sometimes I play with my guitar volume at 3 tho. ;)
 
FWIW...my GoldTop LP now has a pair of MCP Afwayu in there...completely the opposite direction of what I was thinking but a pair came up used at a decent price and I already knew I liked the pickup! \m/

Sounds awesome with my Cantrell Wah and Hilly XTC :twisted:
 
I keep trying diff. stuff, all of which were good or great, but I keep going back to Gibson 57s for rock/blues/metal

The 57s were great into my old MTS rig.

Right now loose I have;

Lollar Hi Wind bridge black
Arcane Brown bridge black
Gibson 57 Classic nickel
Gibson 57 + in black
3 BC Rich BDSM in gold

Gibson V has Suhr Aldrich and a Patent stamp Gibson of some sort (still trying to find the right bridge pickup for this guitar, any suggestions would be welcome)
BC Rich Mock has a mystery highly wound Gibson, and 2 57s
Gibson Explorer has 2 57s (every pickup sounds great in this guitar, nothing really stood out tho)
Epi Explorer has a throwaway bridge and DiMarzio neck
 
Pickups are an adventure! It's been almost a year since I started this post.
I replaced my Lollars with a Bare Knuckle Mule set that I'm extremely happy with. The lollars just had too much midrange muscle. They were cool, but it was the right decision.
I also just sold off the Railhammers I started this about. Also, great pickups but I wanted to try the new Fishman Fluence Classic Humbuckers. These didn't work for me at all. They're the most passive, classic sounding active pickups I've played, but they don't have the organic tone I'm after. I have a set of the new Suhr Thornbuckers on the way. Pete and I like similar pickups so I'm excited to see what he's come up with.
As far as output level goes, when I need to drive the input of the amp hotter I use a clean boost pedal. Hot pickups tend to be too compressed and drop high frequencies. A hot pickup with the volume turned down does not equal the sound of a low output pickup. A clean boost pedal will simply increase the amplitude of the clean tone of the low output pickup.

I think that one of the hardest things we players deal with is that we can find out exactly what gear our favorite players use. And we think that if we use the same gear, we'll have the same tone! It's just not true. The other kick in the balls is that all of our ears have a different frequency?response! So we can all listen to the same sound source and all interpret that sound differently! Pickup discussion is especially hard because it's likely that even if two people own the same pickup, it's likely that EVERYTHING else would be different. Guitar, wood, amp, cable, speakers....Not to mention the ENVIRONMENT we're playing in! The space in which you play has a HUGE impact on how you perceive your tone!
Rant over!
:lol:
 
I have a LP Trad Pro with a BB3 in the bridge and find that I will back the volume knob off a tiny bit for higher gain rhythm and put it back to full for leads. Just seems to put things where I want them.

By tiny bit I am talking backing it down to 9 or less out of 10. Makes more of a difference than I would think it would. Or I am just listening too closely.
 
I'll add useless fuel to the fire...

My Temoniti PRS (American made) has me 50/50 on the humbuckers in it...i LOVE the bridge pickup, it does anything I need a bridge to do...but the neck pickup is SOO bass-heavy that i almost always use it as a mute position lol.

I've wondered if its because Tremonti plays most of his clean stuff through fender amps, and uses other amps for his distortion?
 
First off different taste for different folk. I'm an EMG fan, I them in 5 guitars. One guitar has a Dimarzio super distortion so in both spots and then are wired for single coil operation. Lately I've been playing in a doom band and have not been cutting my gain back so I've been thinking about trying some medium gain pickups. Any suggestions?
 
Charfett said:
First off different taste for different folk. I'm an EMG fan, I them in 5 guitars. One guitar has a Dimarzio super distortion so in both spots and then are wired for single coil operation. Lately I've been playing in a doom band and have not been cutting my gain back so I've been thinking about trying some medium gain pickups. Any suggestions?

I'd say, if it's an alder or ash bodied guitar, try a Duncan JB, or if it's mahogany try a Duncan custom. Custom works great in alder & ash too. All around great pup, and not all that expensive! Pop an A8 mag in either a JB or a custom, and they just come alive and destroy!
 
Speaking of pup magnets... If you are apt to tinkering and tone shaping, and most here are if imagine, then try some magnet swaps in your pups. Makes a HUGE difference in tone, response, feel, eq, etc. You can get pup magnets for about $5/ea. Just grab an Alnico 2, 3, 4, 5, UOA5, 8 and maybe a ceramic & just swap away. Plenty of info on the web on how to do it, and tons of info on the Seymour Duncan forum on which mags do what and in what pups, etc.

Careful, it's addicting...
 
isolated1523 said:
I'll add useless fuel to the fire...

My Temoniti PRS (American made) has me 50/50 on the humbuckers in it...i LOVE the bridge pickup, it does anything I need a bridge to do...but the neck pickup is SOO bass-heavy that i almost always use it as a mute position lol.

I've wondered if its because Tremonti plays most of his clean stuff through fender amps, and uses other amps for his distortion?

I've run into the same problem with every Gibson I've had (all LP's or semi hollows), no matter what pup I've run in the neck.

I have managed to make all of them sound great though. Try these:

1) Lower that neck pup. Sink it all the way down to about flush with the pup ring. That alone may do the trick. If you lose too much definition, leave the bass side sunk, and raise the treble side closer. It'll be crooked, but who cares if it works?

2) Swap in an A4 magnet. That tremonti bass pup has an A5, which is a pretty hot magnet, with a lot of bass, a lot of treble and scooped mids. An A4 will flatten the eq, and significantly lower output & bass.

3) Install a 'de-mud' mod on the neck pup volume pot. Search google for 'Artie de mud mod'. This is basically a tiny high pass filter that installs between your pup hot lead and its corresponding pot lug. Really easy install, and it works awesome! I have one in every Gibson I own, and every Gibson anyone I know owns, lol. Everyone wanted it & loves it. It's just a .01uf cap and 500k resistor in parallel. Prolly cost $1. Look it up, you won't be disappointed!
 
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