mantis
New member
Hello everyone,
My old Drummers son started playing guitar a few years ago. He has a few really nice guitars and was given a Ibanez copy thing that had some Chinese Pickups in it.
The guitar is very nice I think it's around a $500.00 guitar and it looks like an Ibanez style body super strat thing.
It has a blade 3 way switch, one volume one Tone , 2 Humbuckers and a Floyd Rose Special Trem system.
The body I learned was Basswood which to me always in every single Basswood guitar I've played always had this mid range thing going on with shrill highs and muted low end.
I was asked to look this guitar over and put pickups in it that would make it would better as his son basically loves the way it looks and feels but hates the way it sounds. What a challenge I had in front of me.
So I thought long and hard about pickup choices and had a few I thought would work out well until I thought about how the Seymour Duncan JB in every single guitar I owned own and played all had a well balance sound for just about any music you wanted to play.
The Bridge pickup was selected and the JB was my choice.
The Next was the neck and what better suited to match the JB then the 59? So I got one of them and installed them in.
I reconditioned the fret board which I think was never oiled since new which is Moghany. I selected some new strings in the Ernie Ball Cobalts which should help the muted sound this guitar has. I was going to use DH strings in the TITE fit which I find to be the most balanced strings out there but I didn't find balance in this guitar so the Cobalts where called to help out.
I cleaned and re floated the Floyd rose which by the way was way off. The ass end was sticking up in the air and it would not hold tune. So I got that all leveled out and now all strings are at .002 to .003. Nice low action and plays wonderfully.
When I first plugged it into my amp ( Krank Revolution one) clean channel, I was surprised but not totally in the overall warmth this entry level guitar has now. The 59 really makes this guitar shine so much better then those cheap crap pickups it came with. the bridge pickup before sounded thin, mid rang hump and empty muted on the lows. Unplayable to me as I played it for 20 seconds and wanted to put it down like most Ibanez guitars I played but this was way worse. Not all Ibanez guitars to me sound this awful, this was a totally new level of that.
The 59 in this guitar made a remarkable difference to the point I felt I could enjoy playing this guitar. I adjusted the height a few times to get the right balance of low end vs mid to high push so now every string rings about about the same level with the low end being slightly more. The pickup sits just a tad bit higher on the low E string side.
WOW the 59 is such an impressive pickup. I suggest anyone with a basswood body guitar that is having tone issues to strongly consider this pickup. Or if you have a single coil in the neck position to check out the Lil59. It's one monster of tone pickup. WOW.
So moving on to the Bridge where the old pickup just made noise and it was so shrill it made distortion distort into fuzzy mess. When I switched the blade to this pickup and turned on the Krank channel, I was floored on the sheer power and attack this guitar now has over where it was. It was clear powerful and crunchy. it brought out all the good of the Basswood body to the point I question any builder who uses anything else other then this pickup. It was so night and day it made night and day seem less then the right words to use.
I played some 80's riff's like Wingers 17 , Dokken Mr. Scary , Ratt Lay it down and I found myself going threw all the riff's I like to play when trying out a new guitar to hear who they sound.
One thing I like about this guitar is the neck. It has a flat C shape and it's pretty comfortable. I felt at home playing it even though none of my guitars have this style of neck.
Overall what a savior for a lost sounding guitar. This really made a HUGE difference and now this guitar I know will be played instead of sitting on a stand in his room looking pretty. It's is pretty as it's a Black transparent top on it that looks killer. This is one place this guitar had no issues. It looks awesome and now it sounds as good as it looks.
Thank you Seymour Duncan for making such versatile Pickups. I've always been a fan of this combo and now I'm even more.
My old Drummers son started playing guitar a few years ago. He has a few really nice guitars and was given a Ibanez copy thing that had some Chinese Pickups in it.
The guitar is very nice I think it's around a $500.00 guitar and it looks like an Ibanez style body super strat thing.
It has a blade 3 way switch, one volume one Tone , 2 Humbuckers and a Floyd Rose Special Trem system.
The body I learned was Basswood which to me always in every single Basswood guitar I've played always had this mid range thing going on with shrill highs and muted low end.
I was asked to look this guitar over and put pickups in it that would make it would better as his son basically loves the way it looks and feels but hates the way it sounds. What a challenge I had in front of me.
So I thought long and hard about pickup choices and had a few I thought would work out well until I thought about how the Seymour Duncan JB in every single guitar I owned own and played all had a well balance sound for just about any music you wanted to play.
The Bridge pickup was selected and the JB was my choice.
The Next was the neck and what better suited to match the JB then the 59? So I got one of them and installed them in.
I reconditioned the fret board which I think was never oiled since new which is Moghany. I selected some new strings in the Ernie Ball Cobalts which should help the muted sound this guitar has. I was going to use DH strings in the TITE fit which I find to be the most balanced strings out there but I didn't find balance in this guitar so the Cobalts where called to help out.
I cleaned and re floated the Floyd rose which by the way was way off. The ass end was sticking up in the air and it would not hold tune. So I got that all leveled out and now all strings are at .002 to .003. Nice low action and plays wonderfully.
When I first plugged it into my amp ( Krank Revolution one) clean channel, I was surprised but not totally in the overall warmth this entry level guitar has now. The 59 really makes this guitar shine so much better then those cheap crap pickups it came with. the bridge pickup before sounded thin, mid rang hump and empty muted on the lows. Unplayable to me as I played it for 20 seconds and wanted to put it down like most Ibanez guitars I played but this was way worse. Not all Ibanez guitars to me sound this awful, this was a totally new level of that.
The 59 in this guitar made a remarkable difference to the point I felt I could enjoy playing this guitar. I adjusted the height a few times to get the right balance of low end vs mid to high push so now every string rings about about the same level with the low end being slightly more. The pickup sits just a tad bit higher on the low E string side.
WOW the 59 is such an impressive pickup. I suggest anyone with a basswood body guitar that is having tone issues to strongly consider this pickup. Or if you have a single coil in the neck position to check out the Lil59. It's one monster of tone pickup. WOW.
So moving on to the Bridge where the old pickup just made noise and it was so shrill it made distortion distort into fuzzy mess. When I switched the blade to this pickup and turned on the Krank channel, I was floored on the sheer power and attack this guitar now has over where it was. It was clear powerful and crunchy. it brought out all the good of the Basswood body to the point I question any builder who uses anything else other then this pickup. It was so night and day it made night and day seem less then the right words to use.
I played some 80's riff's like Wingers 17 , Dokken Mr. Scary , Ratt Lay it down and I found myself going threw all the riff's I like to play when trying out a new guitar to hear who they sound.
One thing I like about this guitar is the neck. It has a flat C shape and it's pretty comfortable. I felt at home playing it even though none of my guitars have this style of neck.
Overall what a savior for a lost sounding guitar. This really made a HUGE difference and now this guitar I know will be played instead of sitting on a stand in his room looking pretty. It's is pretty as it's a Black transparent top on it that looks killer. This is one place this guitar had no issues. It looks awesome and now it sounds as good as it looks.
Thank you Seymour Duncan for making such versatile Pickups. I've always been a fan of this combo and now I'm even more.
