Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

K

Kelsey

New member
I picked up a Fender Custom Shop Showmaster with single bridge HB at the local GC Memorial Day sale. It's a very cool guitar with a single bridge HB, single volume control (no tone control), mahogany body with carved lacewood top, mahogany neck with ebony fretboard, locking tuners and Techtonic wraparound bridge. The stock HB is pretty hot, with a DC resistance reading over 20K, and two sets of allen head polepiece screws.

I'm thinking about replacing the pickup with something a little less hot. I'm afraid that a PAF-style pickup might be too thin or bright sounding, but I'm not sure. I wondered whether a Custom 5 or Custom Custom would work better, especially since there is no tone control. The SD pickup descriptions favor an alnico 2 HB with ebony fretboard, but the SD Tone Wizard suggests the C5 or 59 for the most part. Although this guitar might look like a heavy metal model, my music is more in line with blues and blues-based rock. I'd like something that sounds big and open, the way this guitar seems to sound acoustically.

What would you recommend?
 
Re: Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

That sounds like a really cool guitar. I recommend posting several pics. The Fender CS Showmasters were so cool.

As far as a pickup, I had a Custom 5 in my Jackson PC-2 which is also a mahogany body Strat style guitar. It sounded great! I almost wish I'd just left that pickup in the guitar instead of selling it.
What I have in that guitar now is a Dimarzio PAF Pro. That's also a great choice. Open sounding, not real hot but a little hotter and more rock n' roll than a PAF.
 
Re: Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

You should look into the A5 pickups.
I would suggest a Screaming Demon which is a hell of blues pickup for things like ZZ Top, Free and Led Zep. If you want more vintage, i would sugged a Jazz Bridge or a Gibson 498T. The lower wound paf like the 59 sometimes sound too scooped.
 
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Re: Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

I too dig the Screamin Demon, though, if you want a bit more girth in the mids, the PATB-3 would kill in that guitar.
 
Re: Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

Thanks for the comments, everyone. After playing the Showmaster some more over the weekend, I can say that it definitely sounds like a Fender, even with the hot HB bridge pickup -- which appears to be a Dimarzio of some sort. The stock pickup sounds good and cleans up better than I would have imagined, but I'd like to try something a little tamer with stronger lows. That sounds like it might favor the C5 over the CC, but I've never used either one. I'll have to check out the PATB-3. The clips of the Screamin' Demon sounded brighter than I'd like in this guitar, but clips sometimes are deceiving.

I have a nickel covered Gibson 498T that I pulled out of my ES-137 Classic in favor of Seths. I would like to try it, but it has the long legs. Is there a way to replace the long leg base plate with a short leg version?
 
Re: Bridge Humbucker for Fender CS Showmaster?

You can snip off the mounting tabs, re-bend the legs, and drill and tap the new mounting tabs.
 
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