Full Shred bridge pup question

[Lou22]

Hello, I’m kind of a newbie to pickups and wiring them up into guitars in general but have learned a ton from the forum here already! I’m getting decent on the actual wiring part, so this is more of a pickup question;

I bought a Full Shred bridge pup a few months ago/but didn’t end up needing it for the guitar I originally bought it for.
I now have a new HH project going that needs a new neck pickup, so I was just thinking to stick that pup in there.
I know they have the Full Shred neck pup, but the guitar shop is a pretty far hike from me- So if it’s not going to make a super huge difference or sound terrible, I’d rather just put this one in. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just haven’t been able to find a solid answer about this elsewhere.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice on this!

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

it will make a big difference. 7k of 42 wire vs 14k of 43 wire. im not saying it wont work, but the bridge pup will be thick and loud in the neck if wired in series. you could try it wired in parallel which might sound very good. what bridge pup are you planning on using with it?

[Lou22]

welcome to the forum!

…what bridge pup are you planning on using with it?

Thank you, this is a great forum! And thank you so much for the help and tips on this stuff!

I just got the guitar last week, and it still has its original Seymour Duncan JB (slanted) in it. The original neck pickup on these guitars was a Seymour Duncan Jazz (SH2),, but for some reason the previous owner took the JN out and put in a Duncan APS-1 (Vintage Staggered Single). That single pickup in there has the guitar lookin a smidge bit on the wonky side lol, but I think there’s also something wrong with the pickup itself.


It’s for a 1986 Kramer Pacer Imperial (but it’s the less common version Imperial because the bridge pup is slanted/whereas most Imperials out there have the standard two straight hums going on.

Funny sidenote about this slanted version is that the majority of diehard Kramer fanatics out there have a pretty strong dislike for this particular one because of ‘how ugly it looks’ with the slanted bridge pup lol…
I myself am a lifelong Kramer guy and it never really bothered me at all, And Now that I actually have one of them, I think I love ‘em even more now lol!


Scoring this guitar was kind of a happy accident for me though because it really looked to be in pretty bad shape and kinda beat up in the pics the shop posted up online, and they’d been trying to sell it for almost a year with no takers.
Truthfully, I really only bought this one for the sole purpose of snagging parts off it to use on a 1986 Baretta that I’m currently fixing up because the parts for these 80’s Kramers are pretty pricey! But I must have popped in with my fair little offer at just the right time, because I got a pretty good deal on it ha
But after it got here last week, I was/and still am pretty shocked at what great shape the guitar is actually in! If that shop woulda taken even just a super quick 10 minutes to somewhat wipe it down, clean it up just a pinch, (and definitely taken better pics of it in proper lighting,, They prob woulda sold it pretty quick last year for a lot closer to what they were originally asking for it ughh lol


Guess it’s back to the drawing board for finding parts for that Baretta, But totally worth the delay imo… Plus I can’t wait to post up pics of my ‘ugly slantFaced Imperial’ beauty to irritate all my Kramer buddies with! Lol




Thanks again man, truly appreciate it!

[Mincer]

I am curious...I wanna see it nowwwww.

[Lou22]

I am curious...I wanna see it nowwwww.

Here she is, I stuck a few black strips above/below the neck pickup just to temporarily block off having to look at the hollow space ha - And you can’t really tell from the pic, but the finish is actually the Flip Flop White finish that Kramer did back in the day

[jeremy]

if you have the full shred, wire it for parallel and put it in the neck and see what ya think. might sound great!

[hamerfan]

I support Jeremy suggestion: At one time i had 2 JBs in a Les Paul. The neck JB was vastly overpowering the bridge and i was not able to tame it. At least i wired the neck in parallel: great, sounded much like a 4th position of a strat.

[Lou22]

Awesome, thank you guys,, will definitely give it a shot- And if it doesn’t sound good I’ll just use this Full Shred in something else

I bought the Full Shred because I had read somewhere that it was a good pup for a nice fat/chunky sound. I’m definitely not a ‘shredder’ by any stretch of the imagination lol, and I really don’t even play very much lead stuff. I play a few different styles of music, (everything from rock to metal to even a little country here and there- But I primarily play a lot of punk rock stuff, and my aim is always for a really nice, thick, and punchy guitar sound for the rhythm and riffs.

Is the Full Shred really good for that type of stuff- And/or are there any other good pickups I should be checking out?

Thanks again so much for all the help on this!

[AdrianSD]

Think and punchy in the bridge, sounds like you might like swapping out the A5 magnet for an A8 in that Full Shred. Two of my favourite bridge pickups are JB and Custom with A8 magnet. Or you can try an Alternative 8. Pickup swapping is a fun rabbit hole to dive into, in moderation

[Mincer]

if you have the full shred, wire it for parallel and put it in the neck and see what ya think. might sound great!

Here is another vote for this. I say, start with what you have before you have to spend money. But a neck humbucker in parallel isn't a bad sound at all.

[GuitarDoc]

+1 on parallel.

[IMENATOR]

Full shred bridge is tight. IMHO using it with a tube screamer or a anoter pedal that ctus low frequencies form the guitar is a mistake. It is already very thigh pickup with gives it a lot of clarity and string definityi already which I think is very convinient for high gain amps.