bridge pickup for bright guitar...

[Phlyastyle]

hello. i'm a long-time duncan user and due to various conversations on this board recently about magnet swapping, i gave it a try over the weekend in an attempt to fatten up a rather bright carvin dc127 (mahongany neck-thru). i had the c5 in the bridge and although it's great sounding pickup, there just aren't enough mids and the highs are too harsh in this axe. (great bass response, though. i love the bottom end on this pup.) so i swapped the alnico 2 mag from a pearly gates neck pup with the alnico 5 from the c5 making myself a cc hoping it would warm up the tone some. the mids on this pup are superb, but all bottom end that i really liked disappeared. basically, i'd like there to be much less of a tonal variation between this guitar and my other carvin sc90 (also all mahogany with a jb bridge and pg w/a5 in the neck). the sc90 is a pretty boomy sounding axe (i play through a mesa trem-o-verb... hard/heavy rock, by the way). and although i don't want them to sound exactly the same, i'd like the dc127 to have a similar "boom" to the tone, which it just doesn't have at the moment. this guitar is a string-thru and has a bit less wood than the sc90, which has a tune-o-matic bridge. can anybody recommend a fat and loud bridge pup with mids & highs comparable to the cc or jb (preferably with an alnico 5 mag), but with a bottom end like the c5 and retains chord clarity with relatively high gain? or do i need to call the custom shop for something like this?

thanks in advance!

 

[Robert S.]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

You might try getting a ceramic magnet and making a Custom or a Full Shred might be the ticket.

 

[ranalli]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

You might want to look into some Dimarzios.....they make some mighty fine pickups if you need the treble rolled off some....Breed, Super3, Evolution, Fred....etc..

I tend to like those Dimarzios in bright guitars, whereas a bunch from the Duncan line, Distortion, JB, Custom, etc...have this very bright top end well suited for darker guitars IMO.

 

[MattPete]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

...and my other carvin sc90 (also all mahogany with a jb bridge and pg w/a5 in the neck)....

Cool! I thought I was the only one using a PGn with an A5! How do you like it compared to the standard A2 version?

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

I Have a c5 and have the same complaints and good things to say about it. Your description is exactly what I want from my c5 as well. Maybe Seymour Duncan can make a pickup so that those of us that want a pickup like this can finally be done with the elusive tone search??????????????

 

[Dills]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

You might want to look into some Dimarzios.....they make some mighty fine pickups if you need the treble rolled off some....Breed, Super3, Evolution, Fred....etc..

I tend to like those Dimarzios in bright guitars, whereas a bunch from the Duncan line, Distortion, JB, Custom, etc...have this very bright top end well suited for darker guitars IMO.

Thats exactly what i recommend as well, Right on with that I find dimarzio's are good cause they are voiced differently. Duncans also are good in Certain guitars, thats why I like both Companies for finding the right TONE.

If you want more mids and less trebles a smooth slightly more compressed sound Dimarzio have that.

If you want a brighter more vintage raw sounding pup Id go for Duncans.

 

[hacker]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

I agree 100% with the DiMarzio idea. The Breed or Air Zone are my choices for a bright bridge position.

Duncan should explore this issue as well. I see most Duncan humbuckers as variations of the 1950s Gibson PAFs, which went into guitars like the Les Paul and the ES-335, both of which have plenty of mids and thickness to their tones no matter what pickup you put in them. What those guitars needed from a pickup was some shimmer in the top end and some sweetness in the mids without much additional "push." I happen to love the tone of these types of pups in Les Pauls, but....

Guitars like the SGs, superstrats, shredders, etc. due to thinner bodies or inferior tone woods, need a pickup with more low mids and lows than the average duncan can offer. This is where DiMarzios have the advantage.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

It looks like you might like the A3 magnet in a CC/C5. Here check it out for yourself.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=35

I'd say it is basically a CC with nice and noticable C5 features.

B

 

[StrykeBack]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

I don't want to hijack the thread but I noticed this guy is looking for pretty much what I want as well. I've got an Ibanez SZ with a string through mahogony body and i'm thinkin of swappin out the stock pups. Problem is that I want something with a fat tight tone for palm muting and chunking chords but would like maybe something warmer in the neck for cleans?
I know one of my favorite tones right now is from a band called Pillar and the guy uses Air zones in his guitars with a mesa dual rect.

What do you guys think of an Air zone and something else combo? Can the air zone go in either the neck or bridge or only bridge and else could I match it with? a SD custom? or one of dimarzios pafs?

 

[StrykeBack]

Re: bridge pickup for bright guitar...

is there anywhere that I can hear comparisons of an air zone and other pups? they don't have an audio sample at dimarzio for half their stuff :smack: