I have an amazing J.Custom that came with Fishman Fluences. For a while I thought they were pretty good, but A/Bing the guitar with my LP with a Custom/Pearly Gates or my AZ that has the Hyperions, I notice the fishmans are just not as alive, especially the neck. The neck's highs are really dull. I actually like the bridge (modern ceramic) for heavy tones but I have tried both the modern ceramic and classic neck and both just do not work well for melodic overdriven solos like Petrucci.
The Custom on my LP is somewhere in the ballpark of output level of what I'm looking for with my J.Custom - I like it a lot, but I would prefer alnico in a more EQ-balanced pickup (The C5 was too scooped for me).
I have a Kemper so the amp is not really an issue.
The J. Custom is African Mahogany and macassar ebony.
My favorite tones are early Dream Theater, which were Steves Special/Tone Zone and Air Nortons, mainly. While I appreciate their newer albums, I feel like ever since they went to Musicman and changed pickups, I haven't liked Petrucci's tone as much.
I would just get the TZ/AN mix but I have read so many people getting them stock and replacing them. I also am not a huge fan of the TZ videos I've seen on Youtube. It seems a bit too mushy. So far the AN seems pretty good. I have read some complaints about it sounding compressed. I'm interested in seeing if there are better pickups for me than the "standard" set, especially since the standard set is around 25 years old and there have been a lot of new pickups released since then. I also am slightly concerned about resale value, as I will need to buy new to get nickel covers, but if I end up wanting to swap if they don't work out, I may one day need to sell them.
I'm thinking of keeping it all alnico and avoiding ceramic, but I could be persuaded otherwise. The Gravity Storm neck is ceramic and I have read good things.
I'm living in Japan so makers other than Dimarzio and Duncan are hard to order from.
Thank you!
The Custom on my LP is somewhere in the ballpark of output level of what I'm looking for with my J.Custom - I like it a lot, but I would prefer alnico in a more EQ-balanced pickup (The C5 was too scooped for me).
I have a Kemper so the amp is not really an issue.
The J. Custom is African Mahogany and macassar ebony.
My favorite tones are early Dream Theater, which were Steves Special/Tone Zone and Air Nortons, mainly. While I appreciate their newer albums, I feel like ever since they went to Musicman and changed pickups, I haven't liked Petrucci's tone as much.
I would just get the TZ/AN mix but I have read so many people getting them stock and replacing them. I also am not a huge fan of the TZ videos I've seen on Youtube. It seems a bit too mushy. So far the AN seems pretty good. I have read some complaints about it sounding compressed. I'm interested in seeing if there are better pickups for me than the "standard" set, especially since the standard set is around 25 years old and there have been a lot of new pickups released since then. I also am slightly concerned about resale value, as I will need to buy new to get nickel covers, but if I end up wanting to swap if they don't work out, I may one day need to sell them.
I'm thinking of keeping it all alnico and avoiding ceramic, but I could be persuaded otherwise. The Gravity Storm neck is ceramic and I have read good things.
I'm living in Japan so makers other than Dimarzio and Duncan are hard to order from.
Thank you!
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