Anyone have a pickup recommendation similar to the cheap Ibanez Art Core pickups?

[ianmgull]

This is probably heresy, but hear me out.

I have a cheap Ibanez semi hollow body that I'm in love with. It has the stock Ibanez pickups, which I absolutely love.

I also have a PRS Marc Holcomb 7 string with the fancy Seymour Duncan Alpha/Omega pickups, and I absolutely hate them. Specifically, there's way too much high frequency action in the Alpha/Omega for my taste.

If they made a 7 string version of the cheapo ibanez pickups, I'd put them in my PRS in a second, but since that's not the case...

Can anyone give me some info on the generic Ibanez artcore pickups? Are they PAF knock offs? Slightly hotter than PAFs? They're definitely not as hot, and much warmer. Looking for something close to that.

Thanks!

 

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum!

I've used these Ibanez pickups, and I agree, they are well-suited to the guitar. More mids than highs and lows, my guess is that they are alnico II. If you wanted a different EQ than your A/O pickups, you might look at the Black Winter.

 

[ianmgull]

Thanks for the tip.

So the way the PRS came (with the Alpha/Omega set) definitely feels like a guitar that is voiced primarily for a modern metal sound.

I'm leaning towards something a little less aggressive, a little lower output presumably. More of a traditional sound.

I'm wondering if a Duncan Custom in the Bridge, and a '59 in the neck is what I'm after?

I'm not familiar with the Black winter, so I'll give that a look.

 

[ICTGoober]

Why not just buy some cheap 7 string units online?

 

[ianmgull]

Why not just buy some cheap 7 string units online?

I'm not aware of them being sold anywhere. I think those pickups are specific to the Ibanez ArtCore line, and I don't know of a 7 string Art Core.

 

[alex1fly]

It's probably some kind of low/medium output PAF voiced pickup in the Artcore.

Kind of apples and oranges though to compare a classically voiced semi-hollow jazz box to the Holcomb which is pretty clearly a rock-oriented guitar. I'm thinking that "can I get my PRS to sound like my Artcore" is not the right approach. But "can I warm up my PRS and make it sound jazzier" is definitely a solveable problem. Dunno exactly what's available in 7 string format, but jazziness takes you down a PAF road - Seth Lover, Alnico II magnets... even P90-voiced humbuckers could do the trick.

 

[EC Strat]

This is left of what you’ve asked but I have an Artcore AS 73 and found their stock pickups to be lacking. I put in a Seth lover set and man I’m telling you that guitar just sings now. Awesome pickups in semihollows vintage output YMMV

 

[Mincer]

Thanks for the tip.

So the way the PRS came (with the Alpha/Omega set) definitely feels like a guitar that is voiced primarily for a modern metal sound.

I'm leaning towards something a little less aggressive, a little lower output presumably. More of a traditional sound.

I'm wondering if a Duncan Custom in the Bridge, and a '59 in the neck is what I'm after?

I'm not familiar with the Black winter, so I'll give that a look.

Both the Custom and the 59 have a lot of bass and treble, with not a ton of mids. If the Alnico II Pro could be ordered in a 7 string, I can see it working.

 

[freefrog]

This is probably heresy, but hear me out.

Can anyone give me some info on the generic Ibanez artcore pickups? Are they PAF knock offs? Slightly hotter than PAFs? They're definitely not as hot, and much warmer. Looking for something close to that.

Thanks!

if and only if the ACH1 and ACH2 in your AS83 are the same than those in AS73's from a few years ago...

Both are "P.A.F. parts" pickups with slugs/ screws/ keeper bars + polysol coils, ceramic mags and brass baseplates, similar to those mounted in so many Asian guitars (Epiphone and others) and probably built in the same factory.

Bridge PU measures 15,45k and 7.8H of inductance.

Neck PU, 8;4k and 4.1H.

These specs are close to those of a SH4 (JB) + a bridge Duncan P.A.F. clone mounted in neck position.

What makes the Ibanez PU's apparently not as hot and warmer are the factors contributing to "eddy currents": brass BP and pretty thick covers made of not so magnetically transparent materials. I guess that transplanting such BP's and covers + the stock ceramic mags on a set of Duncan's would have the same effect on their sound.

For the record, there is an explanation about "the influence of eddy currents" in this page : http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/

And as a final comment: Eddy currents are usually considered as a flaw due to bad designs and cheap materials. But seasoned pickups makers know how to take advantage of it for a pleasing warm tone.

EDIT - Eddy currents can be mimiced to some extent by lowering tone controls @ 6/10 or mounting low resistance pots. But the best way to emulate them is to use materials generating them. Brass is "good" for that as a material for PU covers.
If you put a pair of "bad" thick cheap brass covers on your Alpha/Omega 7 strings PU's, it should already soften noticeably the high frequencies.
There's tons of such crappy covers sold for peanuts on Chinese websites.
If it's not enough, there's other ways to tame high frequencies from passive PU's, based not only on resistive loads but also on capacitive loads. I pass my time to "tune" guitars thx to these parms: it's easy and inexpensive for anybody knowing what to do.

FWIW: my 2 cents.

 

[ICTGoober]

I'm not aware of them being sold anywhere. I think those pickups are specific to the Ibanez ArtCore line, and I don't know of a 7 string Art Core.

I didn't mean Ibanez brand - I meant like Artec or other Asian brand.