HELP! Need Neck Pickup Suggestion

[minions]

If I wanted a neck pickup that will give me a nice balanced, clean tone, but will still overdrive nicely, what should I go for? I would put it in a poplar Strat.

Thanks.

 

[chrisg]

check ourt the seymour duncan website - they have some good descriptions on the characteristics of their pups

 

[dmraco]

single coil or humbucker???

If humbucker...I LOVE the diMarzio Evo neck.  good cleans and does not get muddy at all.  I have it on 2 of my builds.

Like chris said...go to some websites.  DiMarzio has a good one too with may samples for each PU.

 

[rockskate4x]

What's wrong with a good old PAF?

 

[minions]

I was looking at a Seymour Duncan Five-Two, what do you guys think?

 

[tmpstrat9]

i dont really know a whole lot about other brands of pickups besides dimarzios and SDs which a lot my friends have and are great but i just recently got a set of Reed James pickups for my strat and they rock. really accomidating to different play style. really fat and clear sounding. bottom end is really round and defined. mids have a really nice voice to em compared to my vintage noiseless fender pickups it used to have, a little fuzzy and warm when pushed. highs are clear as a bell and not harsh at all. the best part is that you can call him up and tell him exactly how you want it to sound and he will nail it. its a one man shop out of cali and hes a super cool dude.

 

[blue313]

It sounds like you're looking for a single coil size, but what kind of music are you playing with it?  Who do you want it to sound like?

 

[minions]

Well a single coil would be fine, but it doesn't much to me, since I ordering this guitar custom from Warmoth, as long as it gives me the proper tone. The main thing I'm looking for is a balanced tone, which the Seymour Duncan Five-Two claims to give.

I want a nice balanced clean tone that will sound clear through a Blackface. Something that's not too crisp or not too crunchy. As for who I want to sound like, well, think of Jimmy Page's clean tones, although I know a lot of these are done on an acoustic. As I told someone else, I'm looking for my own sound. In the bridge of this guitar I'm putting a Duncan P-Rails and in the middle I'm putting a DiMarzio Area '67.

 

[rockskate4x]

Well a single coil would be fine, but it doesn't much to me, since I ordering this guitar custom from Warmoth, as long as it gives me the proper tone. The main thing I'm looking for is a balanced tone, which the Seymour Duncan Five-Two claims to give.

I want a nice balanced clean tone that will sound clear through a Blackface. Something that's not too crisp or not too crunchy. As for who I want to sound like, well, think of Jimmy Page's clean tones, although I know a lot of these are done on an acoustic. As I told someone else, I'm looking for my own sound. In the bridge of this guitar I'm putting a Duncan P-Rails and in the middle I'm putting a DiMarzio Area '67.

Why not another Area or another p-rail then, just for consistency? I'm sure one of the four p-rail options will have what you might call a "balanced" tone. Those area's are great pickups too. Your talking blackfaces, so single coil type sound works real well there. I often find humbers a bit boomy in the bass end when plugging into that sorta amp so another area may be what fills the bill...

 

[dmraco]

Well a single coil would be fine, but it doesn't much to me, since I ordering this guitar custom from Warmoth, as long as it gives me the proper tone. The main thing I'm looking for is a balanced tone, which the Seymour Duncan Five-Two claims to give.

I want a nice balanced clean tone that will sound clear through a Blackface. Something that's not too crisp or not too crunchy. As for who I want to sound like, well, think of Jimmy Page's clean tones, although I know a lot of these are done on an acoustic. As I told someone else, I'm looking for my own sound. In the bridge of this guitar I'm putting a Duncan P-Rails and in the middle I'm putting a DiMarzio Area '67.

Why not another Area or another p-rail then, just for consistency? I'm sure one of the four p-rail options will have what you might call a "balanced" tone. Those area's are great pickups too. Your talking blackfaces, so single coil type sound works real well there. I often find humbers a bit boomy in the bass end when plugging into that sorta amp so another area may be what fills the bill...

+2 on the p-pails.  Have it routed H_X_H and go with two rails.  The tone sound is almost infinate.  I just putthem in mine.  The only setting I found a little weak was the single coil set up.  The Humbucker, p-90, series, parellel, phase setting all work great!  The 9-90 neck I think is my fav tone. 

I play everyting from Led Zep to Alice in chains and floyd...this baby does it all.

 

[Mor Paul]

I often find humbers a bit boomy in the bass end when plugging into that sorta amp so another area may be what fills the bill...

On my amp, I turn the bass down a ton to get the sound right.

Ha, it's what the knobs are for.

 

[rockskate4x]

I often find humbers a bit boomy in the bass end when plugging into that sorta amp so another area may be what fills the bill...

On my amp, I turn the bass down a ton to get the sound right.

Ha, it's what the knobs are for.

I was waiting for that... even so, to a certain extent there is an amount of equing that you can't always do. If I want a nice round bottom to the tone turning up the bass might do that... or it might make the guitar sound boomy. If I want nice bell like highs, turning up the treble might do that, or it might make it thin and hissy sounding. If you know that it is a good amplifier but you are still not getting the sound you like even with your eq changes, you find pickups that do the job better. In my experience, fender type amps sing better with single coil or other low output pickups. I do not mean to say, however, that you should only use single coil pickups in fender amps. Because as we all know there are many many musicians who get the sound that they like by breaking the rule that our friend Jerry tried to establish earlier.

Even tone does not equal turning all the eq to 5 or all to 10 or all to 11 or whatever. Even tone is seeing what your amp is lacking or having too much of as far as eq, and matching it to the right pickups. Not everybody wants an even tone, so this is not for everybody. I am merely answering this guy's question in the best way that I can.

 

[Rouse]

Lollar, everyone raves about how balanced and perfect they are.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=strat-pickups


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