Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

[Blueboy77]

Okay, I have an RG-450 with EVOs in it. I'm not crazy about the tone of the front two pickups, and the bridge pickup does not sustain like the JB in my HSS Strat.

We are a classic rock, blues cover band. Like most, we cover some country and pop as well. Just so you know where I am aiming.

I use a strat and a tele on stage, (both with Texas Specials in the neck position), JB in the bridge on the strat, and Hot Rails for the tele bridge. VERY Satisfied. For the more wild, (whammy bar), songs, I use the RG because of the Floyd Rose.

Cut to the chase: I want this RG to sound like these guitars, but with as close to an LP in the bridge as possible. (Let's approach this with the obvious knowledge that they are different woods and so on. I'm just trying to get in the ballpark with the best guesses here...).

BTW, I'm already changing it to HSS like my strat........GO!

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

The Air Zone has great sustain in an RG450, and sounds great too. The Virtual Vintage 54 Pro, or the Virtual Vintage Blues, or Cruiser Bridge sounds good with it, but they do best with a resistor wired from their hot lug to ground so they "see" a 250k pot while the Air Zone sees 500k.

 

[Diego]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

I'd say a Dimarzio Breed since they're built to make shredsticks sound beefy and warm, but they're no longer listed on their webpage, so screw them.

So, for something with a broad midrange, and hopefully not too fast or tight sounding... I'd say a JB.
If you'll use a 250k volume pot, even more so. It should sound mean and proud I think.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

If its an older RG450 with a basswood body, I never thought the Breed worked very well in those, although it sounds great in my alder bodied Jackson. It does remind me of the JB somewhat. For Basswood bodied RG's, I like the Tone Zone, Air Zone, Fred, and Evo2. All those sound great in RG450's.

 

[Despair]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

Parallel Axis pickups are designed to fatten up a Floyd Rose shredstick and make them sound like a Les Paul. I'd go for a PATB-3 Blues Saraceno if you want a hot PAF that somehow didn't lose the high end, or a PATB-1b Original Parallel Axis Trembucker if you want something hotter.

I used to have a JB in my RG570, I MUCH prefer the PATB-1b. JB I swapped magnets to A3 and am using as a neck pickup (with 0.75" hex screws under wound strings, pickup screwed down under low strings and with screw poles way out on that side to compensate. Keeps it tight in neck, sounds much like a bridge A2 JB does... Which amusingly is not all that different from the bridge PATB-1b with the tone rolled off slightly).

I'd probably go with STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus for the middle & neck, or maybe an STK-S7 Vintage Hot Stack Plus in the neck if you like a hotter, fatter neck strat sound for that guitar. (Vintage Hot is supposed to be instant SRV with thinner strings, but give up a bit of the N+M quack of a pair of Classics. Classics of course being noiseless version of SSL-2.)

 

[Blueboy77]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

Thanks for the input. It's good to have some people who have been at this for a while to chime in some real results based upon experience!

 

[chadd]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

I had a PATB3 in my Banshee (firebird), that is pretty much the last thing you want if your goal is to sound like a Les Paul in the same range as your other guitars. It's going to sound weak compared to the bridge pickups in the other two. I'd suggest a custom or custom custom for a hotter, fatter tone.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

When I think "blues and rock combo", I think the '59 neck and Custom bridge. That's what I have in my Les Paul, and it does that perfectly.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Blues and Rock combo for Ibanez RG-450 - Suggetions?

Go for a Little 59 in the neck, a Classic Strat Stack in the middle, and a 59 in the bridge. You get your blues with some rock in there, too.