What guitar pickups should i buy for my guitar

[peterson]

Hi guys, i have an ibanez with H-S-H configuration. My style is kinda sporadic and up until now i've been dealing with the stock INF pickups. I don't hate them or anything but i want a more personal sound. Do you guitar guys know any pickups that would fit the style of a player who plays metal, rock, blues, jazz and likes a good clean tone sounding pickup

 

[swarfrat]

I'm a gear hound like the rest of em, but ... If you don't hate them, and you don't have a clearer idea of just what you want out of them, I'd be inclined to play em until I DID have a clearer idea of what I wanted to change. Your stylistic palette you mentioned pretty much covers the spectrum, and you did mention good clean tone - which makes me think you want a good basic lower output set - which sounds suspiciously like "Stock Pickups".

 

[Strat Avenger]

I agree with what has already been stated, and I'd also like to add that it depends on what kind of amplifier you're using as well. Modern high-gain (lots of preamp overdrive) amps don't need high-output pickups, while high-output pickups would give an amp like an old Marshall more grunt and sizzling sustain.  In the old days, :hot" pickups were all the rage, because amps produced such little overdrive distortion. TO me, high-output pickups sound bassy, middy, and muddy.

Since I don't know what your ears like to hear, I can't tell you which pickup you should get, but you could read descriptions on Dimarzio's and Seymour Duncan's websites.

Your pickups also need to be voiced to respond well to the type of wood your guitar is made of, as well as what type of bridge it has.

I know what pickups I like, but since everyone has their own personal taste, recommending my favorite pickups to you would be like flipping a coin. You could like them, or absolutely hate them.

 

[Jusatele]

Pickups are funny, what I like others do not
I like my tone up front and the distortion in the background, I prefer tube amps so my guitar messes with the tubes and gets them to distort giving me a clear up front presence, others like the sound of the distortion over the sound of the tone of the pickup, relying on electronic pedals and pickups designed to distort.
What you want is part of your personal path you are taking musically. There is no Holy Grail here, and with taste as wide as yours, you may need more than 1 axe to get all the sounds you want. Plus you need to find an amp you like, so much of the sound is that amp and how you can adjust it. You will hear people argue amps as much as pickups, I suggest that you narrow down a bit in taste of music and learn one style at a time, once you can voice one, you will find it easy to tweak to another, Trying to learn it all at once will only confuse you. :rock-on:

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

I'm supporting the replies above. Find out what you want to sound like. Do you want a tighter sound? Or perhaps you think you sound too bright?

 

[jimh]

Are there any particular artists that or songs that you are aiming to emulate?

 

[rockskate4x]

Since you are new to the pickup game, and you like to play a variety of musical styles, the seymour duncan JB/Jazz set is a great place to start as far as the buckers are concerned. If you use a stewmac mega switch you can get noiseless combinations of the middle single and tapped buckers.

 

[dNA]

Since you are new to the pickup game, and you like to play a variety of musical styles, the seymour duncan JB/Jazz set is a great place to start as far as the buckers are concerned. If you use a stewmac mega switch you can get noiseless combinations of the middle single and tapped buckers.

I'm not a duncan user myself, but i've seriously never met anyone who didn't like that pickup set.

having owned many ibanezes over the years, I think the stock pickups in everything they put out (short of a few that come with stock DiMarzio's) are junk. But it took me years of changing pickups and buying different guitars and trying a million things to realize that all the electronics in the world won't do anything if you're not running into a good amp AND you know how to set it up.


what kind of amp are you using?

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

Couldn't agree more. The amp makes the difference. You would pretty much fail with any pickup combination if you use f.ex a marshall MG.

I'd reccomend the SD Jazz/JB and if you want a hotter bridge pickup, I'd suggest the Sh-5 instead of the JB. I'm running a Jazz/Sh-5 setup, and love it. But if you want to go the safe way - Jazz/JB is the way to go.

 

[Jusatele]

I was about to go off on one of my famous long rants but decided to just say
A good Amp, a good guitar, years of practice and ear training.

The SD set recommended here are a nice set of pups

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

A good amp, a good guitar.
Steve morse said something similar when I was at a guitar clinic where he and Dave LaRue played.
I agree with that statement to a certain point. I still believe that you have to be equipped with a decent guitar. I tried my friend's morgan strat through my diezel herbert once, and it didn't quite satisfy me. It sounded too thin and lifeless.

 

[dNA]

A good amp, a good guitar.
Steve morse said something similar when I was at a guitar clinic where he and Dave LaRue played.
I agree with that statement to a certain point. I still believe that you have to be equipped with a decent guitar. I tried my friend's morgan strat through my diezel herbert once, and it didn't quite satisfy me. It sounded too thin and lifeless.

it's not to discount the guitar at all. It's just to same

cheap guitar into a nice amp > nice guitar into a cheap amp

so that having a solid amp preempts investing in a fancier/upgraded guitar

 

[Justinginn]

Every time somebody puts a JB in a guitar, I kill an innocent little kitty cat. Apparently on this forum that should get some people mad.  :evil4:

I love the Jazz but I've never liked the JB.

 

[Jeremiah]

It's interesting that a lot of people on here recommend the JB/Jazz set, while on the Seymour Duncan forum it's possibly the most complained-about set... (not that everyone dislikes it, but there are a fair few.)

I haven't tried the Jazz myself, but I do have a JB, and have to say I agree with the complainers. I find it sounds bland and sterile clean, and dull and muddy when overdriven, in a way that can't be fixed by a typical amp's 3-band EQ. It is possible to get a good sound from it using graphic EQ etc, but it's more work than it should be.

Strangely, the most likeable thing about it comes when I pull that push-pull knob to split the coils; kind of ironic that (in my opinion) the 'worlds favorite humbucker' sounds best as a single coil.

 

[Jusatele]

that's because single coils rule

 

[Superlizard]

I haven't tried the Jazz myself, but I do have a JB, and have to say I agree with the complainers. I find it sounds bland and sterile clean, and dull and muddy when overdriven, in a way that can't be fixed by a typical amp's 3-band EQ. It is possible to get a good sound from it using graphic EQ etc, but it's more work than it should be.

IIRC, the JB was originally made for Jeff Beck's ("JB") tele and thus was mated to a 250k pot.

The JB sounds great in the right guitar... typically a brighter guitar.

The JB was also very popular during the hair-metal days (typcially mated to hard maple super-strats).

It gets muddy and dull because it is a high output pickup - if you're using dark-toned woods in your guitar, then there you have it.

 

[ORCRiST]

that's because single coils rule

Yeah, sorry, I call complete and utter BS on that statement.

I hope you're kidding.  :icon_scratch:

ORC

 

[swarfrat]

Last I checked P90's were single coils Not kidding.

 

[ORCRiST]

Last I checked P90's were single coils Not kidding.

I saw that too, but the OP is new (first post even), and sarcasm doesn't translate all that well
via internet forums - that being said - I've seen my share of DumbAss statements around the
interwebs and Jusatele seems like he knows 'what up'.

ORC

 

[Jusatele]

that's because single coils rule

Yeah, sorry, I call complete and utter BS on that statement.

I hope you're kidding.  :icon_scratch:

ORC

Dry humor, you have to read a lot o my post and decide if I am being sarcastic or not. it is just me