NGD: Ibanez SZ520QM

[Chistopher]

I've heard Super 77 bridge Fat 55 neck is a good combo. If you can find them individually that is, I'm not sure you can buy them outside a set

[donaldr]

They come together in the Hot 70 set.

[hamerfan]

Just for giggles: Wire the Demon in parallel. This might be a tad too scooped for you, but shows if we are on the right track.
I use a Demon (and before that a CC) with a Bill Lawrence Q-Filter on the Tone pot. With that Tone pot I can dial out the mids until it sound like something in between a series and a parallel wired humbucker.

https://www.wildepickups.com/products/filter

Btw The bass filter is better suited the higher wound humbuckers. The guitar filter is better for low inductance pickups.

[Chistopher]

They come together in the Hot 70 set.

Wow that's some horrible advertising on their part. They don't mention that anywhere in the product description, but if you look up the humbucker codes, it's true.

[jeremy]

if the demon is too bright in series, parallel wont suit you.

the 59n is pretty scooped, and those ibz guitars arent naturally very thick sounding in my experience. other than less output from the bridge, what do you want out of the guitar? to me, single coils usually have more "personality" than buckers, even though the stack+ models are humbuckers, they still have some of that personality. if the 59n is too thin, a mag swap might help a lot. id go a4 first, little more balanced eq, but a2 in a 59n can be great too.

i dont hear the pgn as brighter than the 59n. the 59 has a good bottom and strong clear top end. the pgn is softer on the bottom but has strong upper mids which some people hear as bright. the actual high end of the pgn, i hear as softer than the 59n. i dont think the pg set would suit this guitar, but wanted to throw that out there

[donaldr]

This guitar sounds very balanced acoustically, I would say like a good Gibson LP, maybe a tad less big.
I want that guitar to be a good take on a "hot-vintage" LP, a bit of what the STK-S7 is doing as a "hot-vintage" pickup (omg do I love that LTD strat copy!!!), the right low/mid/high for me.

I clearly don't see a PG set working on this one, it would have too much highs and not enough mids.

rankly, I think SD offering on humbucker department is not working for me after the 3 models I tried. Since they are expensive in Canada (and no 21-days exchange policy), don't be offended but I'm looking for other options. One of this option currently is a DMZ AT-1/36th combo and a second one is the EMG Fat 55 set (seems to have the low/mid/high I'm looking for and medium output with nice cleanup with volume knob).

[Aceman]

Cool axe. Not your everyday Ibby!

[Fender_Punk]

Congrats! I hope it sounds and plays as good as it looks.

[donaldr]

Cool axe. Not your everyday Ibby!

It's an incredible guitar, I don't know why they discontinued that model. It plays as good as any LP I tried.

[donaldr]

I received and installed my EMG Fat 55 set. First impression is very positive. This set sounds and feel like passive pickups IMO. They are really balanced, with the neck pickup being a bit higher "perceived" volume. I can't lower it more as the sound is getting too woody. It's now V/T/T so maybe I'll try V/V/T (easy thanks to EMG quick connectors). They clean well using the volume knob.

I like them better than the '59 neck/Distortion bridge combo that was in the guitar and also the stock/A8 modified Screamin Demon I tried.

Looking good also with black tuning buttons.


This guitar is killing my PRS gas and my LP will have a lot less playtime!!!

[GuitarDoc]

Beautiful guitar.