Best Pickups For Basswood?

[treyhaislip]

I have a Charvel HSS Strat with a basswood body. I currently have Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the neck and mid with a JB-4 in the Bridge (I replaced the original pickups in the guitar because they were having problems.) The Hotrails sound amazing in the basswood. My problem is the JB is just too bright.

I play Contemporary Christian Music and lean towards more of a rock sound. I run my guitar through either a Mesa Boogie DC-5 or a Line 6 POD. Does anyone have any suggestions on a a bridge pickup that sounds great in basswood? Thanks!

[Hank-]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

Custom Custom might work

Does is have 2Tone,1Vol or 2Vol,1Tone? If the bridge has independent tone control then you could turn it down & have the brightness more manageable with the neck & middle. I have a basswood godin session, tried a Custom5, no luck. The bridge position on mine seems to be unusually trebly, i mean I have a SuperD in there now & it's much brighter than compared to when it was in my PRS SE Cu24, mahogany body. Overall I'd say basswood is neutral sounding but the placement of the pickups seem to affect the EQ more than I expected in my case.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

Custom Custom might work

Does is have 2Tone,1Vol or 2Vol,1Tone? If the bridge has independent tone control then you could turn it down & have the brightness more manageable with the neck & middle. I have a basswood godin session, tried a Custom5, no luck. The bridge position on mine seems to be unusually trebly, i mean I have a SuperD in there now & it's much brighter than compared to when it was in my PRS SE Cu24, mahogany body. Overall I'd say basswood is neutral sounding but the placement of the pickups seem to affect the EQ more than I expected in my case.

It has 2Tone and 1Vol--I believe they have 250k vintage cts pots. I've tried turning down the tone control but it makes it more "muddy" sounding instead of darker. The neck and middle sound perfect--I wouldn't change anything about those. And I agree, the basswood is a more neutral sounding wood. I had a Jackson with the excact same pickups only it was an Alder body with a flamed maple top--the JB sounded perfect in that guitar.

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

I have a Charvel HSS Strat with a basswood body. I currently have Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the neck and mid with a JB-4 in the Bridge (I replaced the original pickups in the guitar because they were having problems.) The Hotrails sound amazing in the basswood. My problem is the JB is just too bright.

I play Contemporary Christian Music and lean towards more of a rock sound. I run my guitar through either a Mesa Boogie DC-5 or a Line 6 POD. Does anyone have any suggestions on a a bridge pickup that sounds great in basswood? Thanks![ATTACH=CONFIG]46025[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]46026[/ATTACH]

That's a handsome looking guitar, mate.

Try lowering the JB a little bit before you start taking the guitar to pieces. If the JB sounds good enough but, a little bright, I have a Line 6 Variax that I've put a P-90 into - now the tech wired a capacitor to the pickup and that takes the edge off the brightness but, doesn't effect the tone so much. Could be an idea there.

I'll look up the value when I get home.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

That's a handsome looking guitar, mate.

Try lowering the JB a little bit before you start taking the guitar to pieces. If the JB sounds good enough but, a little bright, I have a Line 6 Variax that I've put a P-90 into - now the tech wired a capacitor to the pickup and that takes the edge off the brightness but, doesn't effect the tone so much. Could be an idea there.

I'll look up the value when I get home.

Thank you very much! I love the looks of this guitar but love the way it plays and sounds in the neck and middle even more!

Thank you for the suggestion, I will try lowering that JB and seeing how it sounds. I custom ordered this loaded pickguard after my Jackson SL3 with the same pickups was broken (someone at Church bumped it and broke the neck--it was a neck thru) because the tone was so versatile. I've never played with a P-90 before, I will check for some samples on how that sounds.

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

Thank you very much! I love the looks of this guitar but love the way it plays and sounds in the neck and middle even more!

Thank you for the suggestion, I will try lowering that JB and seeing how it sounds. I custom ordered this loaded pickguard after my Jackson SL3 with the same pickups was broken (someone at Church bumped it and broke the neck--it was a neck thru) because the tone was so versatile. I've never played with a P-90 before, I will check for some samples on how that sounds.

No worries, mate.

No, I'd never used a P-90 either - I've got a Phat Cat and it's good. The tech wired it through a three way switch (not your regular toggle) P1. Volume only, P2. Volume and Tone, P3 Capacitor wired.

Most of the YouTube videos I looked at didn't convinve me but, then I got to use it myself and realized how much cameras take out of the sound quality.

It's great for slightly more restrained riffs, cleans are phenomenal and I'm pretty keen to get an 8 string Phat Cat made for the same reason.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

No worries, mate.

No, I'd never used a P-90 either - I've got a Phat Cat and it's good. The tech wired it through a three way switch (not your regular toggle) P1. Volume only, P2. Volume and Tone, P3 Capacitor wired.

Most of the YouTube videos I looked at didn't convinve me but, then I got to use it myself and realized how much cameras take out of the sound quality.

It's great for slightly more restrained riffs, cleans are phenomenal and I'm pretty keen to get an 8 string Phat Cat made for the same reason.

The Phat Cat sounds like what I may need. I use a fair bit of distortion but I also need crystal clear cleans. And very few YouTube videos give any sound proper justice. I have an HD Zoom recorder than records video and sound really good--but its still not quite like hearing it live.

Thanks again for the suggestions! You've definitely given me somethings to think about--I will lower than JB when I get home today.

[uOpt]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

I like mine with 2x Antiquity 1 for Strat and 1x Pearly Gates.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

I got this e-mail from a Seymour Duncan employee concerning the SH-10 and the SH-12:

"Hi Trey,

I think that either of those pickups would be a great choice in this case.

The Demon has a bit more vocal quality when playing lead. The Full Shred is great for lead too though.

Both make it real easy to do pinch harmonics and things like that, due to their accentuated upper midrange.

The Screamin Demon seems to have a bit of a bass bump, where the Full Shred has a bit less bass.

If the guitar is already bassy, the Full Shred should be OK. If you're looking to fatten it up a bit, the Demon will be great for that.

But the differences are not insanely drastic. Either would work well for you.


Regards,

Keith Merrow | Seymour Duncan"

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

The Phat Cat sounds like what I may need. I use a fair bit of distortion but I also need crystal clear cleans. And very few YouTube videos give any sound proper justice. I have an HD Zoom recorder than records video and sound really good--but its still not quite like hearing it live.

Thanks again for the suggestions! You've definitely given me somethings to think about--I will lower than JB when I get home today.

The capacitor is a 332K, a small beige/ochre coloured model. For some reason I can't upload the picture though, if you want me to email it to you, I'm sure we can arrange something there.

[devastone]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

The Demon is as bright as the JB, at least that's been my experience, that's the "accentuated upper midrange".

If you want to stick with Duncans, I would suggest the Custom Custom, or even cheaper to try, get an A2 magnet for the JB, that's one of my favorite pickups. I have (or have had) basswood, ash, maple, alder, and padauk guitars. I tend to like DMZs more in basswood, although I will admit that it could be partially psychological, I tend to associate Ibanez and DMZ (probably Vai's fault). Although that reminds me, Satriani has used Pearly Gates pups in one of his sig Ibanezes, so... I do like Duncans with A2 magnets in bright guitars.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Best Pickups For Basswood?

The Demon is as bright as the JB, at least that's been my experience, that's the "accentuated upper midrange".

If you want to stick with Duncans, I would suggest the Custom Custom, or even cheaper to try, get an A2 magnet for the JB, that's one of my favorite pickups. I have (or have had) basswood, ash, maple, alder, and padauk guitars. I tend to like DMZs more in basswood, although I will admit that it could be partially psychological, I tend to associate Ibanez and DMZ (probably Vai's fault). Although that reminds me, Satriani has used Pearly Gates pups in one of his sig Ibanezes, so... I do like Duncans with A2 magnets in bright guitars.

My dad has an old Charvel with the SH-12--by the weight of the guitar it feels like basswood but I don't know for sure (only one pickup with only a volume knob.) His guitar sounds perfect through my Mesa while the JB in mine is way too bright. I'll look into the other options.

I feel the same way--Joe Satriani and Steve Vai definitely come to mind when I think of basswood. I had a Jackson that had John Petrucci's Liquid Fire and Crunch Lab in it--the Liquid Fire was one of the best pickups I've ever used for cleans but the Crunch Lab was just not for me. I prefer the Seymour Duncans for leads/any amount of gain.