Alnico pro 2

[SF audio]

I've got a project strat build I've put together - Alder body routed for humbuckers and a mahagony neck with rosewood fingerboard. Pickups are cheap, muddy chinese made pickups, just awful...

Want to install an alnico pro 2 set I've got lying around, but before I do that, I'm wondering if the sound might be too soft and warm, given the nature of the alnico's and the mahogany/rosewood neck.

Opinions?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alnico pro 2

Well if you have them, and you hate the stock pickups, I say, take a chance! Some people like the slightly softer high end (I wouldn't say warm) of the APS set. They are not really warm pickups...they just don't have the high end of an SSL-1 set.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Alnico pro 2

For years I had a CC/APH set in my double fat strat. To this day I don't know why I took them out and dismantled that guitar. Back to pickups, the CC to me is like a beefed up APH. The APH in the neck was never too warm, unless the tone was rolled all the way down. It was clear and sweet and perfect in the neck. Awesome clean tones with nice articulation and it retains that good clarity under gain as well. The APH bridge is a real sleeper of a bridge pickup. Slash used the APH set in GnR for all of their records. His pickups came straight off the production floor, just like yours or mine, which is pretty darn cool I think.

The APH sounded great in the bridge of my strat too. At that time in my life I thought I needed a hot bridge humbucker to play the music I liked. I later realized that lower output HB's give you that great clarity without compression. I should have used the APH bridge a lot more. At one time I had the APH in the neck of every humbucking guitar that I owned.... about 7 at that time. I still have 2 complete sets of APH's waiting for another guitar.

I think you are going to love them.

 

[blind1]

Re: Alnico pro 2

I think the Alnico 2 with Alder is likely a good combination. I've not tried it myself but I have an Alnico 2 Pro neck in a mahogany body PRS and have a good idea of how that pickup would translate to alder.

 

[Diego]

Re: Alnico pro 2

I doubt it will be too soft.

Why? Because it's a low output pickup. So a lot of the Strat nuances will come up easily through your amp, so it will have that spank in the attack and it's gonna be amazing.
If it was a warm hot humbucker, I'd agree it could be trouble because it would compress too much and it would muffle things up.
But that A2 Pro is gonna sound clear and punchy, I'll bet on it.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Alnico pro 2

The OP says the body is routed for Humbuckers. The APH-1 neck will probably work well. I think the mahogany neck will help counteract the brightness from the 25.5" scale length. I wouldn't worry about it being too soft.
I do have some doubts about the APH-1 bridge, as it may still be bright. Please try it first before jumping to any conclusion.

 

[Nagisa]

Re: Alnico pro 2

I think the Alnico 2 with Alder is likely a good combination. I've not tried it myself but I have an Alnico 2 Pro neck in a mahogany body PRS and have a good idea of how that pickup would translate to alder.

Small aside: what ISN’T good in alder? I guess you could say an ultra trebly pickup..but even that could be changed through caps or pots.

I say pop er in.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Alnico pro 2

Alder may be quite mid-focussed with some high output pickups, but I don't see much risk of that with the APH-1 set.