best pickups!

shredgod · #1 06-29-2004, 01:38 AM

what would you say are the best pickups?
like for shred or prog or metal or blues or whatever (ex Emg 81 in bridge 85 in neck)
or air norton 7 neck and evo bridge
what do you guys think?

dex · #2 06-29-2004, 07:00 AM

No such thing - it's all ice cream.
My favorite flavour is 81 in the bridge and 89 in the neck, mean or straty at the switch of a button........well a coil splitable volume pot but you get what I mean.

ilia

Sunrise · #3 06-29-2004, 08:11 AM

Active all the way. 81's

I'd have em in the bridge in all me axes but they'd need routing for the extra width.

bammbamm · #4 06-29-2004, 10:08 AM

I like my Tone Zone Bridge and either Fred or Stock V1 in the neck slot.

Bamm

Ferrous Lepidoptera · #5 06-29-2004, 10:49 AM

I don't have a lot of experience with pickups, I've only changed pickups in 1 guitar, but I do have 13 electric guitars, and some of them are nearly identical, and share the same pickups. From this admittedly limited experience, I've concluded that it's very very hard to know how a particular pickup is going to sound in a particular guitar, unless you've got tons of experience switching pickups into myriad guitars all day long for years. E.g. My 520QS with stock pickups sounds very different from a basswood RG with the same pickups. My Jackson RR1 with Tonezone in bridge sounds very different from my 3120 with TZ in bridge. The TZ in the RR1 at the bridge still sounds too much like a neck pickup to me, not "mean" enough for my taste. I've concluded that that's just how that guitar sounds.

BTW, shredgod, I think "mean" is a pretty good word to use to describe the sound of what I'd consider a "good" bridge pickup sound, I feel like I know the sound you mean. But I still don't know that I know what you mean, I could be thinking of a completely different sound. It's doubly hard to talk about the sounds of pickups, because even the most well chosen words are hopelessly inadequate. So even if you do have years of experience and are actuallly able to predict how a pickup is going to sound in a particular guitar, that knowledge is not transferable to another human in any kind of precise way without resorting to recordings, and even that may prove too imprecise.

Reminds me, once I overheard a guy who worked at a music store complaining about a customer who came in wanting pickups for a great "clean" sound, and tried bunches of different, all unsatisfactory pickups. Turns out that what he meant by "clean" was, "like Santana." Heh.

shredgod · #6 06-29-2004, 11:34 AM

think Zakk Wylde on Ozzy's Live and Loud album mixed with Petruccis metroplis pt2 tone mixed with Vais For the love of god tone
thats what Im lookn for!

RCB · #7 06-29-2004, 03:29 PM

I once installed a Super 3 in a mahogany bodied guitar. Great sound.

I guess my favorite combinations are:

Super 3 with mahogany body
Evolutions with alder or basswood
Tone Zone with mahogany

Then again, I love the tone that the 1994 Gibson Les Paul Standard I owned had.

muddeone · #8 08-07-2004, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex

No such thing - it's all ice cream.
My favorite flavour is 81 in the bridge and 89 in the neck, mean or straty at the switch of a button........well a coil splitable volume pot but you get what I mean.

ilia

how are the clean tones and what amp is being used? Thanks

pinto79 · #9 08-08-2004, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muddeone

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex

No such thing - it's all ice cream.
My favorite flavour is 81 in the bridge and 89 in the neck, mean or straty at the switch of a button........well a coil splitable volume pot but you get what I mean.

ilia

how are the clean tones and what amp is being used? Thanks

Do you honestly care what the cleans are like when you claim to need a face-melting (my words, not yours) tone?

I find you need to set a guitar up to be good for dirt or good for clean. Either doing an "OK" job for the other, but not ideal. If you get what I'm saying.

My Tele with EMG's (81 bridge, 85 Neck) sounds stellar for dirty of all kinds. always tight. Always brutal. Cleans are ok, but not great.
My Kramer with singles sounds amazing for clean, but the dirt lacks. It's ok, but not the greatest. That's the beauty of having several guitars.

EnigmaUV7 · #10 08-09-2004, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shredgod

think Zakk Wylde on Ozzy's Live and Loud album mixed with Petruccis metroplis pt2 tone mixed with Vais For the love of god tone
thats what Im lookn for!

As far as a neck position sound, I don't think you can top the original neck Blaze IIs for 7 strings. It's just the smoothest, most beautiful tone. I really like the Blaze bridge too, although there are a few hotter bridge pups that are better for some things.

Praetorian · #11 08-11-2004, 04:19 AM

I have EMG's and I like them for some things, I really do...but I do need something that will get both clean and dirty. I'm finally giving Evo's a try to my Schecter hardtail...but I must say, the best sounding pups I've played at this point have got to be PAF Pros. I tired Breeds in an RG and they're horrible...cold signal and really mild sounding. I hope the Evo's can cover some good ground. I have two guitars and I'm getting rid of one of them, so I need a jack of all trades. I also REALLY like the sound of the Seymour D Pearly Gates in the bridge. Much, much more than the JB. The JB has more midrange than the average neck pickup...horrible. So I guess for me at this point it's got to be a set of PAF Pro's or a Pearly Gates/59' Duncan set. I'm looking forward to trying out the Evo's though.

toshiro · #12 08-11-2004, 04:46 AM

It's all ice cream.

Case in point, having owned tons of Dimarzio pickups, I like the Breeds the best, while other hate them. People love EMGs, you couldn't pay me to put them in one of my guitars.

There is no best. There's only what you like.

muddeone · #13 08-11-2004, 10:25 AM

The best of my liking (lol) so far have been TOM ANDERSON (http://www.andersonguitars.com/tonelibpickup.cfm) p'ups...the hotter one's...H3's and UP!

...now I have a Evolution in an RG550 (bridge) and am liking it....what is an OPINIONated GOOD neck p'up to go along with the evo in the bridge?

Thanks

mrvertigo · #14 08-11-2004, 11:56 AM

i'm thinking of replacing the stock pickups in my rg 1570 with dimarzios.i'm thinking of putting a fred instead of the v7 ,a vintage blues instead of the s1 and a tone zone.i play instrumental rock and blues mostly.

Praetorian · #15 08-15-2004, 03:42 AM

dude, a Fred in the neck? I guess that would be OK, but I don't think I'd do that. To be honest, I don't know what the best blues pickup would be, but I'd consider going for a bit less output than a Tone Zone in the bridge and a Fred in the neck. I'd say go more for the satriani combination and go Fred in the bridge and PAF Pro (or PAF Joe) in the neck. You just can't beat the PAF Pros...my favorite DiMarzios...but really. The Tone Zone is like Seymour Duncan's JB, they both have an absurd amount of midrange. I'm currently using a Tone Zone in the neck, and it has a good sound for a neck pup, but way too much midrange for the bridge in my opinion. Remember that all the blues greats used hollowbody guitars with vintage PAFs or they used strats, not super high output monster pickups that would drive their old Fender amps into the ground. I'd go for the smoother pickups, and as far as instrumental rock goes...well...it doesn't get much more instrumental than satriani. And as for the middle pup, if you're going with less output I'd go more for the blue velvet, if you do choose something with a high output, do get the stacked singles because the volume levels will balance out more equally.