RG550 Reissue Pickup Choice

quiksilverdew · #1 03-20-2007, 10:47 PM

Hello all,

I should be getting my Desert Yellow RG550 in a few days, and I was thinking of changing out the pickups for some that would more match my tastes.

I was thinking of Evolution Bridge, HS-2 in Middle, and a Evolution Neck
(Pink, Green, Pink)

The problem I have is with F-Spacing. Which pickups would need to be F-Spaced, or non at all? (Original Edge Trem).

If you have any suggestions for other pickups that would better suit lead playing on a Basswood guitar, I'm all for it!

I was also thinking of an Air Norton instead of Evo Neck, but I really love Evo Necks so I'm not sure...

Tones wanted: Cooler high gain sound with very smooth trem picking tone (John Petrucci style), and a more Yngwieish than Laiho sweeping tone, (more blended notes than singular).

I have an Evo Neck in my SG, but I dont know about how one would sound in a Basswood guitar, so I'll try out a Jem again tonight at guitar center just to recall...The new Jems ARE Basswood, correct?

_FR0D0 · #2 03-21-2007, 12:10 AM

for what you are telling I'll go with Steve's Special + HS-2 + Air Norton

**Ayrton** · #3 03-21-2007, 01:04 AM

F spaced in both bridge and neck.

Dee · #4 03-21-2007, 06:21 AM

To answer the last question: yes, the RG's are basswood.

RG550BW · #5 03-21-2007, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee

To answer the last question: yes, the RG's are basswood.

To answer the question you must understand it first. He asked for Jems not RGs. Anyway,to answer..Jems are made of alder and basswood,depending on the model. You can try Jem555 to hear how(bad in my opinion) Evo sound in basswood,or try Jem7v(I think) for sound of Breed in basswood. Others are Evos in alder wood.

Dee · #6 03-21-2007, 10:51 AM

Yes, thank you. Somehow I read it as RG's, not JEM's. That's what you get for answering posts as soon as you get out of bed.

rgr · #7 03-21-2007, 03:10 PM

You don't need F-spaced in the neck position, the strings get closer together as they get farther from the bridge. Either will work in that position.

**jaxadam** · #8 03-21-2007, 03:55 PM

Tell me how you like that HS-2 after you throw it in.

quiksilverdew · #9 03-22-2007, 01:24 AM

Thanks guys, would the Steve's Special be hot enough to pull off clean pinch harmonics / natural harmonics without fading out immediately?

BTW Thanks for the info on F-Spacing!

I guess I'll stray from the Basswood + Evos, last night I tried a Jem7v through a JSX Peavey, sounded good, but not perfect. I really just love all of Petrucci's tones so from the start I had been looking at the Steve's Special / Air Norton combo, but I wasn't sure if the Steve's Special was going to be hot enough for my tastes.

EDIT: 10:35

I've been searching the net all night for a Steve's Special that is Pink and F-spaced and I couldnt find one anywhere, then I thought, I would check DiMarzio's site just to see if they even make it F-Spaced. I came across the Super 3 and to me it looks like a pickup that I myself would really enjoy. It is described as a pickup that wont peak out on the high end and destroy your hearing, and I must say, the thing I hate most is when I hear a guitarist playing something higher than the 12th fret on a bridge pickup and having it squeek and just make nasty peaking noises! This looks like a solid pickup, and is readily available in the specs I need! Does anyone have any background / info that I should know on it?

RG550BW · #10 03-22-2007, 05:25 AM

quicksilverdew -- Jem7v is alder body and Evolution pickups. So it is NOT basswood! You say it sounded good but not perfect..that's interesting. It's a model Vai uses most of the time and I think most will agree that when you hear Steve Vai with it ->sounds perfect! Lot of people make mistake of buying pickups cause of how their idols sound using those pu..cause they don't get it that how they sound is 1) their tehnique(I have a friend that really plays good and every time he gets my guitar it sounds twice as good) 2) their amp(amp has much more impact on tone than whole guitar including pickups) 3) other equipement(if you ever tried to get Pettruci Images And Words tone with Tone Zone pickup you'll hear how bad you need a good noise gate). I had Breed in basswood RG and didn't get Vai tone,had TZ and didn't get Petrucci,Evo and it sounded just awful,nothing to do with Vai tone. One more thing to know, usually high output pu make little more power at expence of lot more noise..with really great other equipment(noise gates,amps,effects) like Vai and Petrucci have that's no problem,so they use it to squise a that little bit more power..but for us others..it's better to choose pu that would suit our equipement better..and sacrifice little power for a lot better quality sound..just my opinion and experience though..and I am sure that's why Vai used something like Paf Pro in early days..I tried Paf Pros and Air Zone in my basswood RG and I get much closer to Vai and Petrucci sound on my budget amp(1000 $ worth) than with high out pu that Vai and Petrucci use(tried Breed,Evo,TZ...don't know about SS). To have a quality sound with high out pu you must have very good(read expensive) equipement to cope with the excesive noise. With medium output you can have quality sound on just a decent amp(read 500-1000$) and nothing more,and when you lack that little more "power" it's just a matter of a good overdrive pedal(100$ maybe) and there you go, it's not really Petrucci but it can sound very good. If you are to copy Petrucci sound his way start with Mesa Boogie TriAxis rack (10000$ something), noise gates, expensive effects and stuff and then put some high output SS,Evo or TZ like a final touch. You can get much closer to Petrucci sound on a RG370 with stock pu played through a MB TriAxis than with Petrucci signature guitar on some Marshall AVT(or any other < 2000$ amp), otherwise high out pu through cheap amp without good noise gate give you just more noise. It's like puting Ferrari tyres on little Toyota Yaris..would it drive like Ferrari?..it would drive worse than Yaris

Scali · #11 03-22-2007, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by quiksilverdew

I guess I'll stray from the Basswood + Evos, last night I tried a Jem7v through a JSX Peavey, sounded good, but not perfect. I really just love all of Petrucci's tones so from the start I had been looking at the Steve's Special / Air Norton combo, but I wasn't sure if the Steve's Special was going to be hot enough for my tastes.

A Jem7v is alder, not basswood (not sure if you knew this, not clear from your post)... I don't think any basswood Jems use Evo-pickups?
Alder has a much brighter sound than basswood anyway.
Petrucci does use basswood. Can't say I like his tone though. Too fuzzy, too muddy.

RG550BW · #12 03-22-2007, 10:36 AM

There is one Jem that uses Evo in basswood..Jem555. About Petrucci tone..his tone is amazing but I think that his equipement is not so responsibile for that. He is just amazing player. He could play a korean RG plugged into some budget amp(cheap hybrid amp like Marshall AVT) and have better "TONE" than 90% of us here on any equipement. Yeah,he has good equipement for sure,especially amp(TriAxis is just WOW!!!),though his guitar is nice it's nothing special. Look at it this way..he is a rich guy..he sells millions of records and get money from signature models..and he is a guitarist. So he would probably spend 100 000 $ dollars for some Amazing God Of Guitar..but that kinda guitar could not be signature model that thousands of people would buy(would be too expensive)..so he plays a relatively affordable guitar that still cost twice as much as it should cause it's his signature..and he gets money for making people buy it

There is only one way to get Petrucci tone..same thing that he did 1)practise 2)practise 3)practise 4)just get a decent amp and guitar that sounds and feels best to YOU in YOUR hands and don't worry about coping someones tone by buying "his" pickups,amp,guitar,effect..

Dee · #13 03-22-2007, 11:53 AM

I don't agree. Sure, some of the tone is in the hands of the player, but comments like "He could play a korean RG plugged into some budget amp (cheap hybrid amp like Marshall AVT) and have better "TONE" than 90% of us here on any equipement" is just nonsense. Bad gear is bad gear, sometimes even the greatest player can't make it sound good. You know what? I think it's the opposite -- those of us who are used to playing pieces of crap generally know how to get the best out of them. These high-profile players would be in tears and sound like sh*t if they had to play Korean budget guitars and puny transistor amps.