[Pharoah]

Hi guys

Picked up a 2nd hand RG 350MYE and need to replace the stock INF pickups. I've read the sticky and have tried to give proper responses:

1. What type of music do you like? Satriani, Petrucci, Vai, Dream Theatre, Iron Maiden, RHCP, Dire Straits, Muse, Van Halen, etc. I like a good heavy distortion sound, but also a nice clean sound (I don't like the clean sound that Vai has for some reason)
2. What type of equipment are you going to be playing through? Line 6 Spider III amp
3. What are the specifics of your guitar? Ibanez RG 350 MYE - stock pickups currently, Edge III tremolo, maple bridge, 5 tone selector.
A. Is it a trem or hardtail? Trem
B. maple or rosewood board? Maple
C. how many frets? 24
D. what controls are on it? 5 way switch, 1 tone, 1 volume
E. What type of wood is you body made from? Maple (I think)
F. Are your pickups direct mounted, ring mounted or in a pickguard? direct mounted I believe. You can find RG350MYE specs on the net.
Other questions:
1. Why are you changing your pickups? Because the guitar is 2nd hand and the pickups have had better days.

2. Are you looking for any particular brand, and if so...Why? DiMarzio - Petrucci uses them and I like his sound, plus its used by some of the greats (Vai, Petrucci,

I'll be getting a guitar technician to replace it for me...and will probably purchase it off eBay or something, but there's so many to choose from.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[jono]

Vintage Petrucci - Tone Zone and Humbucker from Hell
Classic Petrucci - Steve's Special and Air Norton
New Petrucci - Crunchlab and Liquifire.

 

[Pharoah]

sweet, thanks mate. I'm leaning towards Tone Zone and Air Norton...just need to find a mid pup.

 

[Tony~]

blue velvet or ISCV2, those are AMAZING as true single coils

 

[Tony~]

I have exactly the same problem right now, i have a rg770 with oem ewwie pickups and i want to change them.

I will put a ISCV2 in the middle, a Evo Neck in the neck and i still need a bridge humbucker.

Both humbuckers will be coil tappable from volume (for the neck) and tone (for the bridge) with a Push/pull Pot.

I have almost the same taste for sounds. any advices for Bridge? I was thinking about D-Activator

 

[mi2tom]

Vintage Petrucci - Tone Zone and Humbucker from Hell
Classic Petrucci - Steve's Special and Air Norton
New Petrucci - Crunchlab and Liquifire.

+1 I love his tone while he still uses tone zone back then.

 

[sebastian]

The Tone Zone is not a classic sounding pickup at all.
The PAF Pro is the most classic sound pickup Dimarzio has.

Do what I did with my RG350MYE.

 

[mi2tom]

Who says tone zone is classic sounding

 

[MatiasTolkki]

I have exactly the same problem right now, i have a rg770 with oem ewwie pickups and i want to change them.

I will put a ISCV2 in the middle, a Evo Neck in the neck and i still need a bridge humbucker.

Both humbuckers will be coil tappable from volume (for the neck) and tone (for the bridge) with a Push/pull Pot.

I have almost the same taste for sounds. any advices for Bridge? I was thinking about D-Activator

Evo 2. If you're going the evo route, the Evo 2 is absolutely amazing. I also recommend the gravity storm bridge. That thing isn't overpowering and easily manipulated due to its lower output from the Evos (1 and 2).

 

[mi2tom]

I'm a big fan of evo2, I'll second that. But evos aren't for everybody even the sequel of evo

 

[jono]

I defintely prefer the original Evo bridge over the Evo2.

The Evo 2 is like they took everything about the original Evo and then dialled it back a notch and said "careful guys, not too much, you might hurt yourselves". I think because of this, the Evo 2 is perhaps a more versatile pickup, but it doesn't do the "Evo thing" as well as the original Evo does, so I definitely see it as a compromise.

 

[mi2tom]

I defintely prefer the original Evo bridge over the Evo2.

The Evo 2 is like they took everything about the original Evo and then dialled it back a notch and said "careful guys, not too much, you might hurt yourselves". I think because of this, the Evo 2 is perhaps a more versatile pickup, but it doesn't do the "Evo thing" as well as the original Evo does, so I definitely see it as a compromise.

I agree actually, but still if you A/B between original and the sequel evo you will notice the nasally mids aren't there anymore but still the evo2 do sound a bit in terms of characteristic is there but less nasally. IMO the evo and sequel evo are totally two different beast. Still I prefer the evo2 when the volume roll down and sounded somewhat cleaner compared to the original evo. But still when compared to the likes of breed, tone zone, At1, paf pro, or some other dimarzio line the original evo and evo2 is still edgy compared to the rest.

 

[Sean777]

Breeds and an HS-2... I have this in 4 RGs....killer combo.....

 

[mi2tom]

Breeds and an HS-2... I have this in 4 RGs....killer combo.....

I have a breed bridge with yjm now a HS4, the volume level between yjm and breed just terribly suck. How do you cope with the volume dropout between the two?

 

[Sean777]

I have a breed bridge with yjm now a HS4, the volume level between yjm and breed just terribly suck. How do you cope with the volume dropout between the two?

Yeah your right, there is a big volume difference,..... To be honest, when I play live, I dont use the single in any position due to this..... I only use it for recording..... Anyone know of a way to boost the single coil sound?

 

[MatiasTolkki]

I agree actually, but still if you A/B between original and the sequel evo you will notice the nasally mids aren't there anymore but still the evo2 do sound a bit in terms of characteristic is there but less nasally. IMO the evo and sequel evo are totally two different beast. Still I prefer the evo2 when the volume roll down and sounded somewhat cleaner compared to the original evo. But still when compared to the likes of breed, tone zone, At1, paf pro, or some other dimarzio line the original evo and evo2 is still edgy compared to the rest.

Totally agree. I like the original evo for what it is, a kick your butt high power pickup, but personally I still have trouble trying to find the right EQ on my amp to get the sound I want out of it. That's where the Evo 2 and even moreso Gravity storm work better for me.

 

[mi2tom]

Yeah your right, there is a big volume difference,..... To be honest, when I play live, I dont use the single in any position due to this..... I only use it for recording..... Anyone know of a way to boost the single coil sound?

Change pickup? I'm going to change mine soon.

 

[mi2tom]

Totally agree. I like the original evo for what it is, a kick your butt high power pickup, but personally I still have trouble trying to find the right EQ on my amp to get the sound I want out of it. That's where the Evo 2 and even moreso Gravity storm work better for me.

If lets say you have an original evo and evo neck, when you EQ your amp to lets say add the lows to smooth out the original evo and when you're playing half way and switches to the neck, the evo neck will sound somewhat too bassy. But with evo2 if your tweak the sound you wanted and then switches to the neck it will sound as if the transition is smooth.

How's the gravity storm, I've heard review that it super warm.

 

[satch_jr]

Vintage Petrucci - Tone Zone and Humbucker from Hell
Classic Petrucci - Steve's Special and Air Norton
New Petrucci - Crunchlab and Liquifire.

I'm always interested in how people have discovered these data, I remember havin' searched the whole web back in 2001 to know the pup config of Michael Romeo... (was seeking for the X2N back in that time)...

 

[jono]

It's nothing to do with the web, just memory. I remember reading interviews and spec sheets in the early 90s, mid 90s and more recent times.