Dark neck pickup to pair with SH-6

[Rex_Rocker]

The Liquifire might be worth taking a look at as well!

[IMENATOR]

Duncan distortion neck with coil split for better cleans. But I remember the in between position of the Distortion set was not bad.

Distortion set with no splits

Distortion set with coil splits. This is a 24 fret guitar but neck should sound "deeper" in a 22 fret guitar

[Ascension]

While I like the Sentient, it isn't very dark. It is right between the Full Shred and Jazz in the top of the bright category.

The Senitent is so well balanced and also articulate under gain it IMO would work very well with a DD. To dark with a DD is not going to work well if you try running both the DD and that pickup at the a same time. The Senitent fits this request by the OP very well--. I want something darker that works well with distortion for the neck pickup, but that can also work well for cleans blended with the bridge or say on a Plexi and the volume rolled back a bit. A pickup like say the Liquifier won't be a good match when run with the DD at the same time but the Sentient will! One of my favorite center position pickup combos is the Alt 8 bridge and a Sentient neck.

[Ascension]

The Liquifire might be worth taking a look at as well!

Love the Liquifier as a overwound modern PAF type bridge pickup but it's way to dark and hot for me in the neck.

[beedoola]

The Senitent is so well balanced and also articulate under gain it IMO would work very well with a DD. To dark with a DD is not going to work well if you try running both the DD and that pickup at the a same time. The Senitent fits this request by the OP very well--. I want something darker that works well with distortion for the neck pickup, but that can also work well for cleans blended with the bridge or say on a Plexi and the volume rolled back a bit. A pickup like say the Liquifier won't be a good match when run with the DD at the same time but the Sentient will! One of my favorite center position pickup combos is the Alt 8 bridge and a Sentient neck.

So are you saying the Senitent would be good on its own in the neck but not well when I’m the middle position with the DD?

[jeremy]

no, i think he is saying the sentient is a great pup to mix with the dd but might not be dark enough for you in the neck

[Rex_Rocker]

Output wise, I think a DD would overpower a Sentient neck in the middle position.

But I do believe the different output impedances have an effect on how the pickups blend in the middle position, not just the actual mV/dB ouptut, right? AFAIK, the balance tends to go towards the lowest DCR pickup, correct? Which is exactly why you usually can't get usable middle position sounds out of an acive/passive pickup set. But someone more knowledgeable might want to chime in.

[jeremy]

i think the issue with active/passive mixing is the control values as much as anything else.

[Rex_Rocker]

Love the Liquifier as a overwound modern PAF type bridge pickup but it's way to dark and hot for me in the neck.

Yeah! Which is why I thought the OP might like it!

[Rex_Rocker]

i think the issue with active/passive mixing is the control values as much as anything else.

I think I've seen people not have it work even on 2vol/2tone configurations where you can have the correct values for each type.

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

I would suggest 59, or a Gibson 490r as they should pair with a DD pretty well.

[Rex_Rocker]

I would suggest 59, or a Gibson 490r as they should pair with a DD pretty well.

I wouldn't agree about the 490R.

I didn't have it with a Duncan Distortion, but I did have a Black Winter paired with the stock 490R in my Les Paul Tribute at some point. But I didn't think it was a good combo at all.

No matter how close I got the 490R to the strings, it just would get SEVERELY overpowered by the 'Winter. And the feel and EQ was just completely off for both. JMO, of course.

But you're right, it was dark. Kinda muddy, TBH.

[beedoola]

I had an SH-5 laying around as I bought that and an Alt 8 for my baritone guitar bridge and preferred the latter in my baritone so I popped the SH-5 in the neck. Not bad. I experimented with series/parallel and have it on a push switch and think I prefer the series. It is pretty hot but may experiment more as I have some treble bleed resistors/caps on the volume pot.