Pickup for Padauk body Padauk/Ebony Neck

[t1r12003]

This is basically a Washburn N4 padauk copy I'm building. It has a padauk body, with a padauk neck and an ebony fretboard. It will have a floyd style trem bridge as well and H-H configuration. Again, basically the Padauk N4.

I've already gotten the Duncan Custom Custom suggestion for the bridge pickup from the SD forum, so I'm just asking for the Dimarzio suggestions here.

For the neck pickup I'm going to use a customized Duncan '59 or Jazz with an Alnico II mag.

I think I've narrowed it down to either a Breed or a Tone Zone for the bridge, but I've never tried either.

What do you think?

[slugman]

Can't give you a definite answer, but if you listen to the sound clips on DiMarzio's site, the Tone Zone has an over the top 'wall of sound' vibe to it, the Breed is much smoother sounding.

What does padauk sound like? My friend likes making furniture with it.

[jim777]

Padauk sounds a lot like maple.

[Demiurge]

Padauk is a beautiful wood- good luck with it and wear a respirator! How are going to finish it? I've seen incredible pix of padauk finished in Danish oil that brings out the dark streaks really well.

Because of its tonal character (like above, much like maple) you can get away with a darker-sounding sounding pickup to counteract the brightness of the woods. The D-Sonic is supposed to have a healthy low-mid chunk that will probably balance out nicely across the spectrum.

Out of left field, you could try to track down a Gibson Iommi humbucker. Very warm, very clear, huge sound, and the notes will jump right off the neck.

[jono]

I'd say that it'll depend completely on how you want the guitar to sound, do you want to emphasise the tonality of padauk or compensate or....

If you're going for a Nuno vibe, get the bill lawrence pickup he uses in the bridge (I can never remember which one that is though LOL)

I get a fairly good nuno sound out of my JS guitars with a Fred in the bridge, because it has that same crisp sound that Nuno has.

[t1r12003]

I had a Bill Lawrence L-500 in a guitar made from solid black limba with a maple/rosewood neck and a 250K volume pot, fixed bridge. I put a Custom Custom in there and it's awesome sounding now.

I guess what I'm looking for in the tone of this guitar is to tame the high end, and go for a hard classic rock tone. I've got guitars I used for Vai and Satch, so I'd say I'm looking for more like old Van Halen, that's why I had the suggestion of another Duncan Custom Custom already.

As for finishing, I'm going to do multiple coats of tung oil like this one I made for my friend (actually from the exact same piece of wood as mine). He wanted a maple/maple neck and an angled humbucker kinda like VH as well. It has a Duncan Distortion in it and it's pretty bright.