today I had a friend over, and we tested 8 sets of pickups, all of them in a les paul, with a peavey valveking 112 and an Engl SE.
1: JB-Jazz set. damn, this set just rocked my world. yeah, I have it for over a year, but never really 'listened' to them. They sound so open, transparant, agressive, tight, with character and punch... wow. coiltap on the JB gives me an agressive singlecoil tone. parallel jazz gives me a superclean, transparant tone, goddamn... what a shocker!
2: rio grande tx/BBQ set. kind of a bummer. the guitar sounds unplugged AWESOME. nice mid and uppermidrange hump, singing highs, tight lows, but the pickups are the weakest link. they just don't deliver the goods. bit bland, boring, not so much character as I always thought it would be. the tx is very clear, so is the BBQ, but they just don't have a lot of character to them. Compare it with a Ford Mondeo. drives nice and smooth, but doesn't have too much character to it.
3: motherbucker set. broad, complex, LOTS of mid and supertight lows, the highs are just enough to piece through, but not enough to make it a bright pickup. really a dirty rock 'n roll sound. for the neck, is FAT. maybe a bit too fat, but for leads and clean tones, like jazz, its tight, complex, transparant and hot enough.
4: prails. well, I shovled a lot of feathers in their arse, so I wont talk about them much more. they are the best pickups, with the jb-jazz, hands down, we tried today.
5: air norton. at first, BORING. hot, gritty, LOTS of mids and highs, supertransparant, but where the heck is the character I once digged so much?! then we changed the strings, and wham bam thank you ma'am, there it was! character, and lots of it. not just agression and tightness, but smoothnes and some grit on the neckpickup, which is smooth enough for jazz, and tight enough for metal leads. the bridge pickup is clean enough for funky stuff, or dirty blues riffs, and so tight that heavy metal (slayer and beyond) are very easy to play it with. (just like the JB and jazz). the jb and jazz are a bit more transparant. the air norton also has a bit more lows and lower midrange, eventhough it also has lots of upper mids.
6. 57 classic+/57 classic. wow, boring. no character, no punch, no depth, no agression, no nothing. it just sucked big time. couldn't do anything.
7: bluesbucker. in series, nice! but kinda like the air norton, though it has a touch less output, and a bit less grit and agression. Nice, but not really so supercool and character-loaded as I thought it would be. really good for blues, bluesrock and old school rock, but not tight enough for rock, hair metal, heavy metal or glamrock, and absolutely not clear or transparant or complex enough for jazz.
8: iommi pickups. tight, but because of the excessive amount of mids and lows, its not as tight as it could've been. only good for one thing: oompf oompf oompf.
9: GFS crunchy PAT/'59 pickup. really a surprise. bit like a hotrod PAF set, with a bit more highs than usual. Not really too bad, but compared with the JB/jazz, its a bit tame, lame and dull.
pickups I want to test out some day:
screamin demon in neck, alternative 8 in bridge
duncan custom 2 in neck, custom bridge
still have to figure out though in which guitars I am going to put them, if I'm going to do that at all.
1: JB-Jazz set. damn, this set just rocked my world. yeah, I have it for over a year, but never really 'listened' to them. They sound so open, transparant, agressive, tight, with character and punch... wow. coiltap on the JB gives me an agressive singlecoil tone. parallel jazz gives me a superclean, transparant tone, goddamn... what a shocker!
2: rio grande tx/BBQ set. kind of a bummer. the guitar sounds unplugged AWESOME. nice mid and uppermidrange hump, singing highs, tight lows, but the pickups are the weakest link. they just don't deliver the goods. bit bland, boring, not so much character as I always thought it would be. the tx is very clear, so is the BBQ, but they just don't have a lot of character to them. Compare it with a Ford Mondeo. drives nice and smooth, but doesn't have too much character to it.
3: motherbucker set. broad, complex, LOTS of mid and supertight lows, the highs are just enough to piece through, but not enough to make it a bright pickup. really a dirty rock 'n roll sound. for the neck, is FAT. maybe a bit too fat, but for leads and clean tones, like jazz, its tight, complex, transparant and hot enough.
4: prails. well, I shovled a lot of feathers in their arse, so I wont talk about them much more. they are the best pickups, with the jb-jazz, hands down, we tried today.
5: air norton. at first, BORING. hot, gritty, LOTS of mids and highs, supertransparant, but where the heck is the character I once digged so much?! then we changed the strings, and wham bam thank you ma'am, there it was! character, and lots of it. not just agression and tightness, but smoothnes and some grit on the neckpickup, which is smooth enough for jazz, and tight enough for metal leads. the bridge pickup is clean enough for funky stuff, or dirty blues riffs, and so tight that heavy metal (slayer and beyond) are very easy to play it with. (just like the JB and jazz). the jb and jazz are a bit more transparant. the air norton also has a bit more lows and lower midrange, eventhough it also has lots of upper mids.
6. 57 classic+/57 classic. wow, boring. no character, no punch, no depth, no agression, no nothing. it just sucked big time. couldn't do anything.
7: bluesbucker. in series, nice! but kinda like the air norton, though it has a touch less output, and a bit less grit and agression. Nice, but not really so supercool and character-loaded as I thought it would be. really good for blues, bluesrock and old school rock, but not tight enough for rock, hair metal, heavy metal or glamrock, and absolutely not clear or transparant or complex enough for jazz.
8: iommi pickups. tight, but because of the excessive amount of mids and lows, its not as tight as it could've been. only good for one thing: oompf oompf oompf.
9: GFS crunchy PAT/'59 pickup. really a surprise. bit like a hotrod PAF set, with a bit more highs than usual. Not really too bad, but compared with the JB/jazz, its a bit tame, lame and dull.
pickups I want to test out some day:
screamin demon in neck, alternative 8 in bridge
duncan custom 2 in neck, custom bridge
still have to figure out though in which guitars I am going to put them, if I'm going to do that at all.