Help me choose some humbuckers for my hollowbody

[seagulc]

Hey guys, I'm building an L5 hollowbody pretty soon and I could use some help choosing the pickups. The body is routed for 2 humbuckers (neck and bridge position).

I'm looking for a mellow, but not muddy, sound. I would also like a good amount of "punch" and attack in my sound (almost "honky") without being overly trebly. The pickups also need to be responsive to dynamics. Here's some examples of the kind of sound I like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQfjm1m9MEI - Joe Pass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkyIqYYBX-4 - Charlie Christian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=QATIHWbN-sM - Django Reinhardt (electric)

The guitar is maple body and neck with rosewood laminate top, fretboard, and peghead veneer. I'll be using flatwound gauge 12 strings.

So anyone have reccommendations? I'm considering the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickups or possibly a Charlie Christian humbucker sized pickup.

Thanks for any tips guys!

 

[greywolf]

Benedetto PAF ... Bob is a master Jazz bulider and this is a masterpiece pickup.  I've had mine for 10 years and love it.

It's pricey but worth every penny

http://benedetto-guitars.com/

http://www.benedettoguitars.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=A6PU&keywords=all&template=PDGCommTemplates/Header_Footer/SearchResultMenu.html

 

[Caisa]

In my oppinion it is not easy to get a mellow jazzy tone with a very bright sounding config like maple body+neck without turning the tone pot down.


But check out the Leosounds "Cream Gen" they are going in he right direction. I have herad them and in my tele is a set of Leosounds P-94ers. Great hadwound guitar pickups

http://www.leosounds.de/index_en.html

 

[Superlizard]

I'm looking for a mellow, but not muddy, sound. I would also like a good amount of "punch" and attack in my sound (almost "honky") without being overly trebly. The pickups also need to be responsive to dynamics. Here's some examples of the kind of sound I like:

..............

I'm considering the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickups

Cha-ching!   :icon_thumright:

Work great for jazz and vintage rock n roll... fits all the descriptors you mentioned.

EDIT:  One item to consider is that SL's are not wax potted.  Since hollowbodies are more prone to feedback, this is something to consider; however I'd assume you're not going to be playing that geetar using a Bossmeister Deathblasting Metallica ultra-distortion box thru some crappy angry-bees-in-a-bottle-toned amp.   :icon_biggrin:

 

[seagulc]

In my oppinion it is not easy to get a mellow jazzy tone with a very bright sounding config like maple body+neck without turning the tone pot down.


But check out the Leosounds "Cream Gen" they are going in he right direction. I have herad them and in my tele is a set of Leosounds P-94ers. Great hadwound guitar pickups

http://www.leosounds.de/index_en.html

I figured the 1/4'' rosewood top, fretboard, and headstock along with the fact that it's hollow, flatwounds and high gauge strings would make up for the brightness of the maple. I don't want my tone AS mellow as some jazz guitarists, I hate a muddy sound and would take a slight boost in treble in exchange for articulation if need be - hence the maple. However you're right maple is very bright so I'm going to keep this in mind when choosing the pickups.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone else, i'll look into the pickups you reccomended.

 

[bpmorton777]

Id say SD 59's or a combo 59 bridge and jazz neck.

Brian

 

[seagulc]

From what I've read the SD jazz pickup is very trebly so i'm not too sure about that, especially in bridge position (my gibson alnico II bridge pickup is far too trebly for anything but country and i'm playing an all mahogany les paul)

The benedetto a6 sounds very nice.

 

[moldymealworm]

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/windows/hum_bladeWin.html

I'm putting one of these in my Warmoth Strat. Sounds like it's just what you need.

 

[l5project]

I'm looking for something similar for my upcoming L5 hollowbody build (Joe Pass = God).  Right now, I'm going back and forth between the Benedetto PAFs and Gibson 57 Classics.

 

[tfarny]

Go check out the sound samples for Jason Lollar's Imperial "Low Wind" humbuckers. Expensive, but the pickups I've bought from him (p90 and tele bridge) are my favorites of all time. He goes for a real pure, clear tone - I can hear every string clearly even on the tele bridge pup with the gain way up.