Greetings All,
First I'd just like to thank everyone for all the info I have pulled from this forum over the years. I didn't post, but I have certainly read through the threads for hours whenever I considered a new pickup or guitar configuration. The most amazing thing has always been the welcome opinions on ALL pickups regardless of the name on the package. Truly a rare and remarkable site (pun intended) on the web. Thanks to the host, Mods, and posters.
Second, I've been itching to make a change on my MIA Charvel So-Cal for a while. I'm afraid that explaining what I am looking for will threaten to be become a lengthy biography of that guitar. I will try to keep it down to a thumb-nail origin story, but I can't make any promises. Several years ago, I was on a major Adrian Smith kick and suddenly "needed" an HSS Super Strat. I picked up a hardly used candy tangerine So-Cal and started swapping out pickups. It was a pretty frustrating and slow process with my amateur wiring skills, the Floyd, and having to loosen the neck every time to get the pickguard back in there. In the end I was forced to abandon the HSS idea and just threw in a set of Blackouts. That has served me OK for the last two years, but now I want to go with a passive HSH setup and I do not want to try 8 bridge pickups again!
The problem, I eventually realized, is that this particular guitar is really quite bassy/woofiyboomy. I know it's a bolt-on with a maple neck/fretboard, and a Floyd, but to my ears it was always just so bass heavy that palm mutes never sounded tight and crisp, just boomy and muddy. So, "traditional" common sense didn't help me much with this guitar and it took me a while to get it. Here's a run-down of what I tried in it:
Dmz Tone Zone (stock) - Horrid, muddy, absolute worst pickup for this guitar with the added bonus of that hyper-nasally (in)famous Dimarzio vowelly "aww" lead tone. Can't state how bad this pickup sounded. If the neck hadn't been so heavenly, I probably would have never kept the guitar.
Dmz Super Distortion - Again Adrian Smith mania had taken over. This pickup was also muddy with absolutely no treble bite. I thought I would love this pickup and was really disappointed.
Dmz Crunch Lab - OK, still a little too subdued on the high end for crisp p.m. Some hope there, so I saved this pickup for my next Charvel!
Carvin M22SD - The first pickup I installed after the Tone Zone. Decent for lead, but just too thin and shrill for my tastes. Pinch harmonics were crazy good.
SD Custom - Loved the Custom in my Carvin CT6 (mahogany set neck with maple cap). I was hoping to get the same compressed, powerful chunk from this pickup in the Charvel. Not to be, muddy, not sharp.
SD Distortion - Pretty decent, stayed in there for about 3-4 months, but it was just too aggressive and noisy, went to the Blackouts.
SD Blackouts - Blackouts were kind of my last act of desperation. I had installed them in my all-walnut Carvin Ultra V and they transformed that guitar into something quite ferocious. In my mind they made that thin, trebly guitar thick and beefy, I didn't really expect them to do the exact opposite and tame the hairy bass side of the Charvel, but they did! Gave that guitar bite and focus. I just have two problems with the Blackouts and neither has to with the bridge pickup. One, I like my neck pickup sweet, mellow,but thick and smooth, not abrasive. Two, I like the 2 and 4 positions of a three pickup guitar (especially with the humbuckers split). So I am back searching for a bridge pickup.
I am considering the following pickups, but welcome all suggestions and advice. I am currently leaning toward Dimarzios, just because I prefer not to mix my metaphors and I love the Cruiser in the middle and prefer something from the Air Norton/Liquifire/Illuminator family in neck position. I haven't absolutely ruled out other brands, but I'm just saying.... Also, I am not interested in spending $150 per pickup at this time, so please no BKP recommendations.
DMZ:
D Activator
Norton
Evo 2
Super 3
Illuminator
SD:
Custom 5
Invader
Alternative 8
Full Shred
Custom Custom
Screamin' Demon
Finally, if you stayed through and read through all of that... wow. thank you. Here's a pic of my two Charvels. Orange Crush on the right would be the woofy one!
First I'd just like to thank everyone for all the info I have pulled from this forum over the years. I didn't post, but I have certainly read through the threads for hours whenever I considered a new pickup or guitar configuration. The most amazing thing has always been the welcome opinions on ALL pickups regardless of the name on the package. Truly a rare and remarkable site (pun intended) on the web. Thanks to the host, Mods, and posters.
Second, I've been itching to make a change on my MIA Charvel So-Cal for a while. I'm afraid that explaining what I am looking for will threaten to be become a lengthy biography of that guitar. I will try to keep it down to a thumb-nail origin story, but I can't make any promises. Several years ago, I was on a major Adrian Smith kick and suddenly "needed" an HSS Super Strat. I picked up a hardly used candy tangerine So-Cal and started swapping out pickups. It was a pretty frustrating and slow process with my amateur wiring skills, the Floyd, and having to loosen the neck every time to get the pickguard back in there. In the end I was forced to abandon the HSS idea and just threw in a set of Blackouts. That has served me OK for the last two years, but now I want to go with a passive HSH setup and I do not want to try 8 bridge pickups again!
The problem, I eventually realized, is that this particular guitar is really quite bassy/woofiyboomy. I know it's a bolt-on with a maple neck/fretboard, and a Floyd, but to my ears it was always just so bass heavy that palm mutes never sounded tight and crisp, just boomy and muddy. So, "traditional" common sense didn't help me much with this guitar and it took me a while to get it. Here's a run-down of what I tried in it:
Dmz Tone Zone (stock) - Horrid, muddy, absolute worst pickup for this guitar with the added bonus of that hyper-nasally (in)famous Dimarzio vowelly "aww" lead tone. Can't state how bad this pickup sounded. If the neck hadn't been so heavenly, I probably would have never kept the guitar.
Dmz Super Distortion - Again Adrian Smith mania had taken over. This pickup was also muddy with absolutely no treble bite. I thought I would love this pickup and was really disappointed.
Dmz Crunch Lab - OK, still a little too subdued on the high end for crisp p.m. Some hope there, so I saved this pickup for my next Charvel!
Carvin M22SD - The first pickup I installed after the Tone Zone. Decent for lead, but just too thin and shrill for my tastes. Pinch harmonics were crazy good.
SD Custom - Loved the Custom in my Carvin CT6 (mahogany set neck with maple cap). I was hoping to get the same compressed, powerful chunk from this pickup in the Charvel. Not to be, muddy, not sharp.
SD Distortion - Pretty decent, stayed in there for about 3-4 months, but it was just too aggressive and noisy, went to the Blackouts.
SD Blackouts - Blackouts were kind of my last act of desperation. I had installed them in my all-walnut Carvin Ultra V and they transformed that guitar into something quite ferocious. In my mind they made that thin, trebly guitar thick and beefy, I didn't really expect them to do the exact opposite and tame the hairy bass side of the Charvel, but they did! Gave that guitar bite and focus. I just have two problems with the Blackouts and neither has to with the bridge pickup. One, I like my neck pickup sweet, mellow,but thick and smooth, not abrasive. Two, I like the 2 and 4 positions of a three pickup guitar (especially with the humbuckers split). So I am back searching for a bridge pickup.
I am considering the following pickups, but welcome all suggestions and advice. I am currently leaning toward Dimarzios, just because I prefer not to mix my metaphors and I love the Cruiser in the middle and prefer something from the Air Norton/Liquifire/Illuminator family in neck position. I haven't absolutely ruled out other brands, but I'm just saying.... Also, I am not interested in spending $150 per pickup at this time, so please no BKP recommendations.
DMZ:
D Activator
Norton
Evo 2
Super 3
Illuminator
SD:
Custom 5
Invader
Alternative 8
Full Shred
Custom Custom
Screamin' Demon
Finally, if you stayed through and read through all of that... wow. thank you. Here's a pic of my two Charvels. Orange Crush on the right would be the woofy one!
