Hot Pickups.

[ironeddie]

Hey Everyone... This is what I'm thinkin', what do you think?

Chambered Les Paul (all mahogany) Maple Neck, Rosewood Fingeboard, Dimarzio X2N in the bridge (figured that the brightness and punch would fatten a little due to the nature of the body)  and a Dimarzio d-activiator in the neck.  I figured that the D-activiator would nicely offset the raw kaboom of the X2N but would still deliver the sing song solo tones that I'm after.  Opinions?

 

[MUYFUE]

Howdy!
Sorry, man I'm no good on DiMarzios!
For passive high output, I'd check out the Tom Anderson H3. That's a real hot puppy with a great lead voice. Or, for more money check out Lundgren. I'd put that one in the bridge, as it's a bit more brittle. Man, with a setup like that, that LP would be screaming!

 

[Death by Uberschall]

EMG 81/85 pups. Mahogany Les Pauls and EMGs are a match made in heaven!!  :headbang1:

 

[ironeddie]

EMG's and anything are a match made in heaven.  EMG's are great but it doesn't really matter what they are in...  They will always just sound like EMG's

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Bareknuckles, I personally like the Nailbombs, but the Cold Sweats are pretty darn nice as well.  For major looney high output, you can dial in the madness with a set of War Pigs.
Patrick

 

[Death by Uberschall]

EMG's and anything are a match made in heaven.  EMG's are great but it doesn't really matter what they are in...  They will always just sound like EMG's

:doh:

 

[JaySwear]

EMG's and anything are a match made in heaven.  EMG's are great but it doesn't really matter what they are in...  They will always just sound like EMG's

i agree. seems to me EMGs are awesome, but most of your unique sound will come from the amp when you're using them. unlike passives which differ greatly from one model to the next. my experiences, anyway.

and i'm definitely NOT saying EMGs sound bad. not at all.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

unlike passives which differ greatly from one model to the next. my experiences, anyway.

Well, EMG only has a few designs of each type, such as 81/85/60 or SV/SA. So yes, any EMG 81 will sound like an EMG 81, etc. But EMGs have such a full range response that they don't need 20 versions of a humbucker, but basically minor wind/preamp changes and different magnets.

What I'm trying to say is that if SD basically made only the JB and Jazz pups, then most guitars with SD pups would sound like they have the JB/Jazz pups, and basically all have the same character.

Where I find EMGs are better is that they are not made to shoot for just one point in the sonic spectrum, but balance them all with slight differences (brighter, warmer, softer, harder) from the magnets, etc. But keeping a wide range response. Yet they still transmit though the guitar's woods, build, etc.

 

[JaySwear]

thats extremely true. i've never heard a thin sounding EMG! they definitely cover the spectrum (treble, mid, and bass) extremely well. i've heard people say they don't sound good clean, but they've always sounded great clean in my experience. probably because they really do fill out the range very well.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

If your amp is capable of high gain, you shouldn't need high output pickups.  My experience with the X2n is mud city at high gain.  If you're playing a 70's Marshall or even a JCM 800, yeah it can push the front end, but if you're playing through a Boogie Dual Recto, you won't need near that high of an output in a pickup.

I'm considering some GFS pickups for my Alder or Ash bodied Bari-Tele project. I've used some GFS pickups before with very nice results, and the price is right too. They are very well made pickups.  I currently have Crunchy Rails that is similar in output and appearance to an X2n, & I have had to lower the height of it considerably.  I no longer use it because with the amount of gain I already have available to me, the output compensates by reducing clarity, & I'd rather have clarity than just dirt.  There are many well made medium-to-medium high output pickups that you may consider such as GFS's VEH pickup, Vintage Extra Hot, boasting the brown sound. 

I'm going for something a lil more quirky rather than some traditional styled humbuckers. I'm going for a TV Jones or a Filtertron approach in the bridge position. I mostly play prog based metal from a Native American approach, I call it Red Metal or Alter-Native, (think of Dream Theater & Metallica visiting a Pow-Wow & never being the same since) but I wanted to make an instrument that would inspire a different style of playing by tone alone. This will be a completely different animal than my 7 string shred-stik.

I'm considering the NEO-VIN tele pickups in the neck position, noise cancelling and available in Pure Vintage (7k) or Hard Vintage (9k)
http://store.guitarfetish.com/nenepi.html

For the bridge, I'm wrestling between:
The BigMouth @ 9.5k: http://store.guitarfetish.com/bibrpiwivito.html

or

a couple of choices from the Retrotron series:
Memphis Alnico2; http://store.guitarfetish.com/meal2ritovij.html
or
Nashville Vintage; http://store.guitarfetish.com/navifihuch.html
or, if I really want to push the output to a higher level,
the Liverpool, http://store.guitarfetish.com/livialhuch.html
or Hot Liverpool, http://store.guitarfetish.com/hotliovalhu.html

 

[MUYFUE]

If your amp is capable of high gain, you shouldn't need high output pickups.  My experience with the X2n is mud city at high gain.  If you're playing a 70's Marshall or even a JCM 800, yeah it can push the front end, but if you're playing through a Boogie Dual Recto, you won't need near that high of an output in a pickup.

REALLY good point.  :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I had a D-Activator in the neck of my 7 string.  It had plenty of output, but it was completely lifeless in character.  The Blaze neck has more organic quality to it, ala "quack" which  you'll never find in a DA.

Medium-to-medium high output at best will yield you the widest range of dynamics & individuality in a pickup because so many nuances are not going to get overshadowed by high output. 

Most high output pickups have such a wide "Q" in bandwidth at each respective range, ala lows, mids, highs.

Medium-to-medium high output pickups usually have a much narrower "Q" in the frequencis that are represented in the response, so the overall boost in let's just say the upper mids, for example, are more distinct as the boost represented is more specific.

Think of it like having a 10 band eq.
Call sliders 1-3 the lows, call 4-6 the lower mids, call 7 & 8 the upper mids, & call 9 & 10 the highs.
In Extremely High output pickups, it's like moving 3 or 4 sliders to represent, let's say, the bass.
In Medium-to-Medium high output, rather than moving 3 or 4 sliders to represent the frequency range, you only move 1 or 2.

 

[Superlizard]

Hot pickups suck...








...tone.