Pickups for my RG

guitarman13 · #1 05-04-2007, 09:54 PM

As some of you may already know, the volume pot on my 3 month old RG1570MRB decided to seize up yesterday, and I don't feel like dealing with Ibanez to have them send me a new volume pot. So, I've decided to have a new pot installed as well as some new pickups. I'm planning on buying an Evo2 for the bridge, an evolution single, and an evolution neck. Do you guys think that this combo will sound good? And I need to buy and F-spaced bridge pickup right? One more question for you guys: do you think that silver pole pieces will look better in my guitar or should I stick with the black ones that come stock on the Evo Neck and Evo 2 bridge?

guitarman13 · #2 05-06-2007, 01:25 PM

Can anyone answer my questions? I should have put this thread in the Pickups and Wiring section, sorry.

Dee · #3 05-06-2007, 01:57 PM

OK, this is only an opinon, but I will post it anyway.

All pickups are hard to recommend. It depends on what the individual considers "good tone". Some people like Zakk Wylde's tone, so they recommend EMG's, for example. If you like a Vai-ish tone, then maybe you'll like the Evo's. Some people don't recommend putting Evo's in a basswood body. Others love the sound of their Evo's in basswood. I was never convinced that pickups have a huge dependency on the body wood, I think for most music where a distorted tone is used 90% of the time it makes far less difference than we're led to believe, and it's not like I have bad ears and cannot differentiate between such nuances in sound. To hear the difference in body woods, you need a cleaner sound and lower output pickups.

Evo's can be revealing, bright and loud. I'm not sure about Evo II's because I don't remember hearing them, but regular Evo's are quite nice pickups and they are good in the way that they could force you to clean up sloppy playing technique. They are just a little too in-your-face for my taste. I think Evo II is not so in-your-face, though.

Personally, I like the Humbucker From Hell in the neck, and I like PAF Pro in the bridge. That's just personal taste because I like a souped up single coil sound in the neck rather than a humbucker, and the HFH is just a beautiful neck pickup. Always clean and articulate, yet it has balls. The PAF Pro in the bridge position is a great, fairly neutral all-rounder that can cover a lot of styles and never imparts it's own flavour too much.

Yes, you should get an F-spaced pickup for the bridge position only. The neck position pickup on an RG is not F-spaced, as far as I know.

And personally I like contrasting poles -- black with silver, or a lighter bobbin with black poles. If I had your guitar I'd put in white pickups with black poles. Again, it's just my preference. I think it'd look good in the blue RG, along with white Strat knobs.

guitarman13 · #4 05-06-2007, 02:03 PM

I think contrasting looks nice too. I've seen an RG1570MRB with white pickups and it looked pretty unique and cool, but I don't really want to go that overboard. I was thinking black pickups with silver pole pieces, but I'm going to have to special order them in order to do that. What does everyone else think? Black pole pieces or silver ones?

guitarman13 · #5 05-06-2007, 11:56 PM

Anybody?? I just need some opinions, cause I'm ordering them pretty soon and can't decide on what color pole pieces to get.

Dee · #6 05-07-2007, 12:04 AM

Just get what YOU want man, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks! Most people have bad taste anyway.

guitarman13 · #7 05-07-2007, 12:11 AM

Haha, yeah you're somewhat right about that. I think I'm gonna go with the chrome pole pieces.

Dee · #8 05-07-2007, 03:07 AM

Smart man.

guitarman13 · #9 05-07-2007, 10:32 AM

So I only need to buy an F-spaced bridge pickup, not an f-spaced neck pickup correct?

guitar425 · #10 05-07-2007, 10:41 AM

Yes, bridge only.

**jaxadam** · #11 05-07-2007, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarman13

So I only need to buy an F-spaced bridge pickup, not an f-spaced neck pickup correct?

Well, you could get F-spaced for neck as well.

Either way, it's not going to hurt anything whether any of them are F-spaced or not.

eg · #12 05-14-2007, 02:42 AM

Why won't you need an F-spaced pickup for the neck? Are neck pickups usually F-spaced?

Dee · #13 05-21-2007, 04:04 PM

Not on Ibanez RG's, etc. I think they come with F-spaced at the bridge and regular at the neck. It's not vital, but I'd stick to this general rule of thumb.