What pickups in my SG/Strat? Not liking what I put in there.

[AprioriMark]

I've got a Duncan '59 in the Bridge and a GFS Mean 90 in the neck.  I was hoping for some fairly warm tones, but the GFS sounds like a weak single coil, and the Duncan is treble-y.  Now, I'm guessing that some of that is not running a tone pot, so I'm going to drop a cap in there to simulate a tone knob turned all the way up.  So, maybe the '59 is a keeper. 

I really want the sound I used to get out of my '61 reissue SG; something warm and fat with a fair amount of "jangle."  I'm considering just grabbing a set of Gibson Classic 57s.  Any other ideas?  I wish the P90 would have worked, but I'd rather have a humbucker sound in this one anyway, I think.

-Mark

 

[Superlizard]

What amp and speaker you using with that?

I've always been a whore for SD's Seth Lovers.  

Vintage output PAF (that's where the jangle comes in) with AlNiCo-2 mags (fat, squishy, blurry, "note bloom" if you will).

And yeah, no tone pot = more treble... perhaps too much in your case.

 

[AprioriMark]

I'm playing it through a silverface Super with 2 greenback Celestions and 2 Jensens and a 50w JCM 800 2x12 combo.

I thought seriously about the Seth Lover Duncans.  Maybe I should have gone with that.  What's your opinion on the '59?  Any experience?

-Mark

 

[Superlizard]

I'm playing it through a silverface Super with 2 greenback Celestions and 2 Jensens and a 50w JCM 800 2x12 combo.

I thought seriously about the Seth Lover Duncans.  Maybe I should have gone with that.  What's your opinion on the '59?  Any experience?

-Mark

Nada on the '59... never appealed to me for whatever reason... prolly cuz of the AlNiCo-5 mag.

To my ears, AlNiCo-5 mags in humbuckers lend a "hardness" to the tone... sometimes "metal-ish" (scooped mids), even.

Hard to beat AlNiCo-2 in a bucker if'n you want a dynamic (as in pick-sensitive) pickup with a chimey top end.

 

[Kostas]

I'm not familiar with the GFS Mean 90 but I have a Phat Cat (bridge position) in my strat with 250k vol/tone knobs and the treble is just right. I had also a JB (in another guitar) with 300k vol/250k tone and it sounded balanced, the cleans were surprisingly good with coil split.
A few suggestions:
JB/GFS Mean 90 or Phat Cat (w 300k or 250k pots)
SD Alnico II's
SD Seth Lovers
SD original trembucker for bridge position. Gives a FAT clear tone to Fender type guitars.
Suhr DSV's

Don't change pickups until you try different pots with the existing pickups you have, it's cheaper.

 

[AprioriMark]

I'm playing it through a silverface Super with 2 greenback Celestions and 2 Jensens and a 50w JCM 800 2x12 combo.

I thought seriously about the Seth Lover Duncans.  Maybe I should have gone with that.  What's your opinion on the '59?  Any experience?

-Mark

Nada on the '59... never appealed to me for whatever reason... prolly cuz of the AlNiCo-5 mag.

To my ears, AlNiCo-5 mags in humbuckers lend a "hardness" to the tone... sometimes "metal-ish" (scooped mids), even.

Hard to beat AlNiCo-2 in a bucker if'n you want a dynamic (as in pick-sensitive) pickup with a chimey top end.

That makes sense.  I've always loved Alnico 2 humbuckers in general.  I think I'll drop in the 250k tone cap/load dealy-thing and try a Seth Lover in the neck (since I just found one locally for 60 bucks), and if I still hate the 59, I'll go from there.

Thanks for the help.

-Mark

 

[AprioriMark]

I'm not familiar with the GFS Mean 90 but I have a Phat Cat (bridge position) in my strat with 250k vol/tone knobs and the treble is just right. I had also a JB (in another guitar) with 300k vol/250k tone and it sounded balanced, the cleans were surprisingly good with coil split.
A few suggestions:
JB/GFS Mean 90 or Phat Cat (w 300k or 250k pots)
SD Alnico II's
SD Seth Lovers
SD original trembucker for bridge position. Gives a FAT clear tone to Fender type guitars.
Suhr DSV's

Don't change pickups until you try different pots with the existing pickups you have, it's cheaper.

I'm looking for a set of SD Alnico II's, since I want a pair to try in a few guitars.  I'm going to try to hunt down a trembucker on the cheap too, since you're not the first person to suggest that.  Thanks for the ideas!

-Mark

 

[Strat Avenger]

Nice-looking guitar.

I have never known the '59 to be to treble-y. Perhaps you should back off the high-end on your amp. Personally, I would not install a high-freq cut cap (OR a tone knob).

 

[-CB-]

Most of the closer copies of the "PAF" design - the 59, the 57 Classics, the Seth Lover... etc... are perhaps a bit trebly in some ways.  Thats because they have (differing amounts of) fairly low level mids, also known as "scooped" mids... you get some low end, and high, and the mids are repressed a bit.  Given that, they can sound trebly.

In some amps, like a Super Reverb - which are bright to start with - I'd try bright switch off, treble about 4 , mid about 10, and bass about 5... just to see how it works.  Low volumes and "bright" switch are a problem on some Fender amps, as they really were over brightened.  That is, instead of a 250pf "bright" cap, they could have used half that value.