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MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

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  • MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

    Finally found a pickup combination that suits my sound on my Ibanez AZ!!

    A bit of a backstory. I love my Ibanez AZ 2204 HSS for its playability, its looks, its modern components and the general feel of it. The sound is amazing too, perfect for fusion, jazz, rock and hard blues. It has a naturally modern and bright sound with the compressed pickups, the stainless steel frets and the titanium saddles. When it comes to sound, I personally prefer it warmer, more vintage, mellow and dynamic. Especially the neck pickup which I use 80% of the time.

    I tried the SD Alnico II pro strat in the neck but it was too bright. I then put a resistor in parallel to the neck pickup to warm it up but it sounded just like the stock pickup to me. I tried a Dimarzio Transition Bridge since Lukather is my favourite player and I love his heavy sounds, but it was too high output (naturally).

    But I think I have now found the perfect setup for me. I modern build with a vintage sound. Powerful and trustworthy components but with a mellow tone.

    Neck - Fat 50
    Middle - Fat 50
    Bridge - Pearly Gates

    I put a 470K resistor to both 500K pots to decrease their value to around 250K so all three pickups 'see' 125K. Naturally this is perfect for the Fat 50s which deliver exactly the sound I expected. The are warm and glassy. Dynamic, mellow but also spanky. Really, I think this is the best single coil I have ever played. Especially the Neck! Very reminiscent of Gilmour.

    The humbucker sounds fantastic too. With the natural brightness of the guitar and the spikey highs of the pearly gates, the bridge pickup really suits the '250K' pots. Its warm and tame but still screams when the OD is engaged or when I increase my pick attack.

    For a quick sound demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNpHeUOPGY

    In this video I am using the standard strat 4th position. Be aware that I am plugged straight into my interface using just the Ableton stock reverb and delay, nothing else.Click image for larger version

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  • #2
    Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

    Sounds good man.

    I went the opposite direction with mine and did gravity storm bridge and injector neck. Now it's a proper shred machine. BTW the injector mixes with the hyperion middle really well to give fat humbuckery lead tones up high. Down low it's muddy in series like that though.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

      Great demo. I very much enjoyed listening, and I can understand why you like the pickups!

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

        Sounds like a lot of effort, but it sounds like you totally found what you were looking for! Well done!!!
        Originally posted by Bad City
        He's got the crowd on his side and the blue jean lights in his eyes...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

          Originally posted by contiContiCONTI View Post
          Finally found a pickup combination that suits my sound on my Ibanez AZ!!

          A bit of a backstory. I love my Ibanez AZ 2204 HSS for its playability, its looks, its modern components and the general feel of it. The sound is amazing too, perfect for fusion, jazz, rock and hard blues. It has a naturally modern and bright sound with the compressed pickups, the stainless steel frets and the titanium saddles. When it comes to sound, I personally prefer it warmer, more vintage, mellow and dynamic. Especially the neck pickup which I use 80% of the time.

          I tried the SD Alnico II pro strat in the neck but it was too bright. I then put a resistor in parallel to the neck pickup to warm it up but it sounded just like the stock pickup to me. I tried a Dimarzio Transition Bridge since Lukather is my favourite player and I love his heavy sounds, but it was too high output (naturally).

          But I think I have now found the perfect setup for me. I modern build with a vintage sound. Powerful and trustworthy components but with a mellow tone.

          Neck - Fat 50
          Middle - Fat 50
          Bridge - Pearly Gates

          I put a 470K resistor to both 500K pots to decrease their value to around 250K so all three pickups 'see' 125K. Naturally this is perfect for the Fat 50s which deliver exactly the sound I expected. The are warm and glassy. Dynamic, mellow but also spanky. Really, I think this is the best single coil I have ever played. Especially the Neck! Very reminiscent of Gilmour.

          The humbucker sounds fantastic too. With the natural brightness of the guitar and the spikey highs of the pearly gates, the bridge pickup really suits the '250K' pots. Its warm and tame but still screams when the OD is engaged or when I increase my pick attack.

          For a quick sound demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNpHeUOPGY

          In this video I am using the standard strat 4th position. Be aware that I am plugged straight into my interface using just the Ableton stock reverb and delay, nothing else.[ATTACH=CONFIG]105319[/ATTACH]
          Wow, that was a great tone from that 4th position setting. Congrats
          Sanford: "The hardest part about tone chasing is losing the expectations associated with the hardware."

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

            Sounds awesome.

            Usually I just use 250k pots with a no load tone pot for the bridge pickup, but seeing as this is a Vol/Tone setup, I guess that resistor trick would do it!
            Originally posted by Myaccount876
            Attenuators are for pussies. Neighbors calling the cops isn't a problem - if the cops can actually still decipher the neighbor's complaint on the phone with the Marshall in the background, you're doing it wrong and it needs to be louder.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

              Do you know if the Ibanez AZ with HSS pickups includes a treble bleed capacitor?

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

                The nickel cover clashes IMO.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

                  Beautiful tone and gorgeous guitar, too.
                  Administrator of the SDUGF

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

                    Nickel covered humbucker looks very classy and may help to warm the top end brightness of the pearly gates.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

                      Originally posted by Teleplayer View Post
                      Do you know if the Ibanez AZ with HSS pickups includes a treble bleed capacitor?
                      Yes it does!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: MY IBANEZ AZ WITH NEW PICKUPS!!! (Including sound sample

                        Thanks for the reply. IMO its a good idea when using 500k controls.

                        Comment

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