Pickups in a Basswood body (yes I need help with pickups)

[Van-Hannam]

OK soooo after reading like a bajillion pages on pickups, and stuff I realized I still havent gotten what im looking for out of it, so hopefully someone out there can help me.
I have an Ibanez 350DX basswood body and I was thinking about putting an evo set in there. so main question
Evo's+Basswood= good or bad?
oh should of mentioned, i want to get a Petrucci/vai/gilbert tone, really clear/vocal, really good for all their solo stuff becuase I just love their toness.
and is there another pickup combo that would work good for this type of music remember I need a H-S-H set up.
SO yeah I would really appreciate some suggestions/opinions, whatever you got.
Thanks a bunch
Steve.

[LuredMaul]

Go with Evo2 in the bridge it seems alil fuller than EVO not so in yer face.
I have the Evo2/Evo setup in my 1570....no complaints

[Dee]

Originally Posted by Van-Hannam

Evo's+Basswood= good or bad?

Well, I know some people will disagree and say my ears are bad or something, but the body wood is far less important than people claim, especially once it's distorted. With lower-output pickups and a clean sound, maybe it's a little more noticeable, but a high-output pickup and a highly overdriven amp? Nope.

I bet if we had two RG's, one made of basswood and one made of something else, and we did a blind test using identical electronics, no one could tell which one was which. If you like the pickups, buy them. You'll find too many different opinions around here to make a clear decision. However, I would go with a less "harsh" pickup than the Evo, something with a little more subtlety. I like a PAF Pro bridge and Humbucker From Hell in the neck.

[neptoess]

Evos + Basswood should work fine. I mean alot of JEMs are basswood right? lol

[Dee]

They are, but I think most of those have PAF Pro's. The JEM 7V is alder and has Evo's.

[Eco]

I dont think many basswood jems had Evos?

VWH was alder, before then they used paf pros now they use breeds.

Personally i love the sound of the Paf pro in the neck, especially coil tapped.

But i the Evo would be good in the bridge.

[mi2tom]

Go for paf pro and tone zone

[barbarelaxe]

It's funny when you say you want to get Petrucci/vai/gilbert tone. each one of them has very different tone from the other. They use completely different pickups, they use different amps and effects. Petrucci doesn't endorse Ibanez anymore at all. even if you only check vai tone. He is using PAF's , Breeds, Evo and Evo2. so you have a problem my friend.

[screamndemon69]

I'm in the process of wiring in a Parrallel Axis Original Duncan in a basswood RG. I had an EvoII in it which sounded very nice to me but when wiring up the PATB-1, I noticed the push-pull pot is a 250k pot so that will need to get changed to a 500k version.

The guitar is set up similar to the RG2610 with only a bridge pup so the push pull pot, hopefully, will give me a little more options.

Dimarzio's get closer to the Vai-esque tones than Duncans but Duncans seem to be more versatile and full while the Evo's are a bit more "nasally" to my ears.

I do have an Evo in my 777VBK (basswood) that sounds very nice but I plan to open that one up and check the pots and see if they are 250k or 500k pots in there as well. I would almost guess they are 250k since the Evo actually sounds a little more smooth in that guitar than my 7VWH. Evo's almost require caps or 250k pots IMHO since they are so harsh on the high end and thin on clean tones.

[_FR0D0]

Van is not easy get a H-S-H combo that gives you Petrucci/vai/gilbert tone.

But I recomend you to go with the following combination:
Evolution Neck in the neck
Blue Velvet Neck in the middle
Norton in the Bridge.

[rty13ibz98]

youch, asking alot out of your pickups, huh? to meet the versatility your looking for: fred in the neck, and super distortion in the bridge. another alternative would be a paf pro in the neck and evo2 in the bridge. yet another would be a pair of breeds. just to try and get all 3 players setups...that is a feat!
my own personal setup for basswood is a fred in the neck and super3 in the bridge.

rich