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I have a homemade mahogany with ebony fingerboard and a 25.5 scale. This guitar has gone thru many pickups configurations and it seems that it will never reach the end. From now it had have:
2 Dimarzio Paf classic
59 neck, JB brige
Jb neck (parallel), 59 bridge
2 StagMags (with a split/series switch on the bridge)
With the SM I have reached a tone that i really like, the main problems is that i miss the fat of a humbucker like the 59 on the neck spot. So i decided It could be a nice combination to have the 59 on the neck and the SM on the bridge. Yesterday I had swap the SM neck for a 59.
It is true that you have best of both worlds. It is a axe that handles clean and distorted tones perfectly but i don't think it will please everybody. The 59 it is an amazing pickup: clean and articulated for jazz cords for fingerpicking and handles distortion perfectly without being muddy. The SM it is a pretty amazing pickup too. On full humbucker mode it is a powerfull humbucker that has a very trebly tone that cuts thru the mix. It reminds to a strat on telecaster type of tone but without all that "string sensitivity" that make single coil so enjoyable (if this make sense).
On split mode is where this pickup rocks, the single coil has this vintage tone that it is very reconizable. You can do whatever you like: country, fingerpicing, pop melodies on clean or move to distortion for texas blues, deep purple... etc. It has all the power that single coils have that doesn't have to do with output but with tone. This is an alnico II pickup and you can feel it in the touch sensivity, I guess It has to do with the string pull.
But there are two problems with this configuration. I'll use the SM maily in split mode and in this configuration it is very difficull to balace the output because the 59 easily overpowers the SM split. The other problem it is that SM has a more trebly tone than the 59 (if this is possible). This makes very difficult to find a eq setting where you can get nice tones from both pickups. I find two problems very important to play live or with your band so I think I am moving back the SM neck back to where it was.
2 Dimarzio Paf classic
59 neck, JB brige
Jb neck (parallel), 59 bridge
2 StagMags (with a split/series switch on the bridge)
With the SM I have reached a tone that i really like, the main problems is that i miss the fat of a humbucker like the 59 on the neck spot. So i decided It could be a nice combination to have the 59 on the neck and the SM on the bridge. Yesterday I had swap the SM neck for a 59.
It is true that you have best of both worlds. It is a axe that handles clean and distorted tones perfectly but i don't think it will please everybody. The 59 it is an amazing pickup: clean and articulated for jazz cords for fingerpicking and handles distortion perfectly without being muddy. The SM it is a pretty amazing pickup too. On full humbucker mode it is a powerfull humbucker that has a very trebly tone that cuts thru the mix. It reminds to a strat on telecaster type of tone but without all that "string sensitivity" that make single coil so enjoyable (if this make sense).
On split mode is where this pickup rocks, the single coil has this vintage tone that it is very reconizable. You can do whatever you like: country, fingerpicing, pop melodies on clean or move to distortion for texas blues, deep purple... etc. It has all the power that single coils have that doesn't have to do with output but with tone. This is an alnico II pickup and you can feel it in the touch sensivity, I guess It has to do with the string pull.
But there are two problems with this configuration. I'll use the SM maily in split mode and in this configuration it is very difficull to balace the output because the 59 easily overpowers the SM split. The other problem it is that SM has a more trebly tone than the 59 (if this is possible). This makes very difficult to find a eq setting where you can get nice tones from both pickups. I find two problems very important to play live or with your band so I think I am moving back the SM neck back to where it was.
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