Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

Ro Kholum

Ro Kholum

New member
I want my Ibanez RG Prestige which has a basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, DiMarzio IBZ as stock pickups with Edge Pro bridge to sound very similar with the fatness of mahogany body guitar with EMG 81 and 85. As a result, I had a mind to replace the stock pickups with DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge) and Breed (neck). Is there any better option ? Although basswood and mahogany have different tonal characteristics.:smack:
 
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Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

You could try the PATB series. They are good at making trem guitars fat. I'm not sure how hot the EMG's are, but the PATB 1 is about the same drive as a super distortion.
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

be careful to identify which IBZ pickups are in your guitar before buying anything else, as the different IBZ sets are all largely similar to production dimarzios...

but if you really want the 81 thing, i'd say buy the relevant pots and do the 81 thing
don't forget the blackout stuff
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

If your after the sound of EMG's you really need to get EMG's. For better or worse EMG's have their own sound that they lend all guitars regardless of wood.

If your after passive fat I think the Tone Zone is another option to look at.
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

The Breeds were made to get "fat tones" from those guitars, try them.....I think the EMG 85 and 89 are fatter than an 81 in standard tunings......
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

I already had the Tone Zone installed in my other Ibanez RG Prestige bridge pickup with the same tonewoods. I am inclined to passive for the fatness of the tone. Thanks anyway, dudes.:burnout:
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

I'd try the full Breed set first.
I had a Japanese RG with a Breed bridge. Warm and fat like you wouldn't believe.
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

The Breeds are a good suggestion, but if you want more the power of the Super Dist that you mentioned, check out the Super 3. It is a very thick sounding pickup and excels at metal in guitars like RG's.
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

A set of Breeds will be the fat solution. If you want high power fat with plenty harmonics, the Super 3.

I know, I'm just agreeing with the previous statements...

*EDIT* FWIW, the IBZ/DiMarzio bridge pickup is probably similar to the Super Dist, so if you want more, I'd definitely recommend the Super 3 in the bridge with a Breed in the neck.
 
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Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

Ro Kholum said:
I want my Ibanez RG Prestige which has a basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, DiMarzio IBZ as stock pickups with Edge Pro bridge to sound very similar with the fatness of mahogany body guitar with EMG 81 and 85. As a result, I had a mind to replace the stock pickups with DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge) and Breed (neck). Is there any better option ? Although basswood and mahogany have different tonal characteristics.:smack:
Click to expand...

It's entirely possible that you could go with a less invasive modification by changing the material that your picks are made out of. I use some made out of smooth Oak for my basswood body guitar and it makes the sound a lot fatter(I do use a JB in the bridge but even the MIJ strat pickup sounds better with a heftier pick).
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

This question pops up a lot. Once again, as always, I'll remind our contestants: EMG 85, DiMarzio Breed. QED.
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

To give you an idea of what he's already working with...

Per DiMarzio:

The DiMarzio®/IBZ pickups in the Ibanez RG (Prestige series) are specifically designed and manufactured by DiMarzio® for Ibanez, and they are not available separately. Both neck and bridge pickups are high-output models. The neck pickup is fairly bright-sounding, similar to a Super 2™ (DP104). The bridge pickup is a little louder and warmer-sounding, and resembles a cross between the Steve Morse Bridge Model™ (DP200) and the Super Distortion® (DP100).
 
Re: Basswood body guitar with floating bridge to sound fatter

Quite frankly, the DiMarzio Super 3, Tone Zone, Air Zone and Breed will all fatten that guitar up wonderfully.

You may also want to check out the Duncan Parallel Axis PATB-2 "Distortion" model in the bridge with a PATB-1n "Original" in the neck. This combo would give you tons of versatility and thicken it up a lot. The PATB-1 and PATB-3 bridge models are great, too. The whole Parallel Axis series was designed to warm up and expand the response of trem-equipped super-strats.

One of my favorites for true active-style tone and response in a totally passive package is the LACE Drop & Gain humbucker set. Voiced very similarly to an 81/85, with equally as much cut, but they still have their own thing going on.
 
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