Diego
New member
Some might remember my thread where I revived an old Squier with a Duncan Designed HB103 A8 pickup which absolutely floored me, and left me wondering if I should switch the pickups in my Ibanez?
Well, I did.
Before: Alnico 2 Pro HB neck, UOA5 Screamin' Demon bridge. After: UOA5 Screamin' Demon neck, DD HB103-A8 bridge. :firedevil
The A8 bridge pickup maybe lacks a tiny bit of sizzle, but it has some amazingly muscular mids that compliment the natural attack of my mahogany Ibanez SZ very, very well. Still gotta tweak those polepieces...
This guitar does have more mids and less treble than the Strat, so that was expected! Leads sound excellent and it makes me wanna riff all day long now.
What was not expected is that the UOA5 Demon in the neck would be so good!
Great definition on top (Demon qualities here that I'm missing in the bridge a bit) plenty of mids and a very big, yet controlled bass response. Doesn't sound too loose or flubby, it behaves just right.
I hit the nail on its head SO well with the Demon here! The final output is a hair lower than the bridge pickup, too. Definitely almost-hot for a neck humbucker.
Both pickups sound terrific split, way better than before IMO. The Demon gets SUPER clean and hi-fi here, and the bridge pup sounds like an impersonation of an angry Tele. Twangy, snarly and spitting still lots of output with plenty of character. The Demon would zing when split in the bridge, kinda painful. The DD cracks, instead. Love them both.
Sadly, the loser in this game is the Alnico 2 Pro neck humbucker. It is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful pickup but it's too tame for me. So I think I'll be selling it, since it's absolutely pristine and hasn't had any mods. It has some beautiful sounds my other pickups can only dream about, but it's a forced marriage so to speak.
Well, I did.
Before: Alnico 2 Pro HB neck, UOA5 Screamin' Demon bridge. After: UOA5 Screamin' Demon neck, DD HB103-A8 bridge. :firedevil
The A8 bridge pickup maybe lacks a tiny bit of sizzle, but it has some amazingly muscular mids that compliment the natural attack of my mahogany Ibanez SZ very, very well. Still gotta tweak those polepieces...
This guitar does have more mids and less treble than the Strat, so that was expected! Leads sound excellent and it makes me wanna riff all day long now.
What was not expected is that the UOA5 Demon in the neck would be so good!
Great definition on top (Demon qualities here that I'm missing in the bridge a bit) plenty of mids and a very big, yet controlled bass response. Doesn't sound too loose or flubby, it behaves just right.
I hit the nail on its head SO well with the Demon here! The final output is a hair lower than the bridge pickup, too. Definitely almost-hot for a neck humbucker.
Both pickups sound terrific split, way better than before IMO. The Demon gets SUPER clean and hi-fi here, and the bridge pup sounds like an impersonation of an angry Tele. Twangy, snarly and spitting still lots of output with plenty of character. The Demon would zing when split in the bridge, kinda painful. The DD cracks, instead. Love them both.
Sadly, the loser in this game is the Alnico 2 Pro neck humbucker. It is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful pickup but it's too tame for me. So I think I'll be selling it, since it's absolutely pristine and hasn't had any mods. It has some beautiful sounds my other pickups can only dream about, but it's a forced marriage so to speak.
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