Re: Budget Pickup Suggestions
Spent a few hours with the tonerider ac2 neck and rock song bridge and last week I installed an ac4 neck alongside a custom/59 hybrid bridge. Also in these guitars I've had 59, jazz, 59/jazz hybrid, and EMG 60 neck pickups and jb, whole lotta humbucker, custom, hybrid, and EMG 81 bridge pickups. I've also used jb and jazz several times and dimarzio 36th set several times.
The tonerider pickups are as favorable to my ears as the bigger names. They are likely going to sound as good depending on the guitar they are going into and the application.
The 59 neck had a bright top end but boomy lows so I replaced with a jazz. That sounded hollow and flat. The hybrid I made of those two sounded have flat and half boomy. The ac4 was very mid forward like a PAF version of a jb. An a5 magnet is much brighter and scooped and not too boomy in the bass. Not quite as extreme as the 59 maybe a bit more mids and less bass and high end treble. The ac2 is a little more mellow with a bit more mids. With the pickup lowered its more of a mellow single coil tone. Not far off from the dimarzio 36th but not as snappy.
The rock song on paper is like an underwound custom custom as a 12k a2 pickup. I haven't used the CC but it's a little stronger than the custom 59 hybrid and not quite as loud and overdriven sounding as the custom. It's not as bright as the hybrid and has a more vocal sound to it probably because of the a2 magnet. I really like this one for rock music and will probably play around with some different magnets to maybe even out the tone.
Bottom line so far I like these pickups and think they are a good value. I tend to know pretty quickly if a pickup will work and didn't like the WLH or Custom straight away. It all has to do with your guitar though and the sound you want. I don't know if the rock song would be the best choice for jazz or if they ac2 would be the best for a really dark guitar. Just like any other pickup choice.
Spent a few hours with the tonerider ac2 neck and rock song bridge and last week I installed an ac4 neck alongside a custom/59 hybrid bridge. Also in these guitars I've had 59, jazz, 59/jazz hybrid, and EMG 60 neck pickups and jb, whole lotta humbucker, custom, hybrid, and EMG 81 bridge pickups. I've also used jb and jazz several times and dimarzio 36th set several times.
The tonerider pickups are as favorable to my ears as the bigger names. They are likely going to sound as good depending on the guitar they are going into and the application.
The 59 neck had a bright top end but boomy lows so I replaced with a jazz. That sounded hollow and flat. The hybrid I made of those two sounded have flat and half boomy. The ac4 was very mid forward like a PAF version of a jb. An a5 magnet is much brighter and scooped and not too boomy in the bass. Not quite as extreme as the 59 maybe a bit more mids and less bass and high end treble. The ac2 is a little more mellow with a bit more mids. With the pickup lowered its more of a mellow single coil tone. Not far off from the dimarzio 36th but not as snappy.
The rock song on paper is like an underwound custom custom as a 12k a2 pickup. I haven't used the CC but it's a little stronger than the custom 59 hybrid and not quite as loud and overdriven sounding as the custom. It's not as bright as the hybrid and has a more vocal sound to it probably because of the a2 magnet. I really like this one for rock music and will probably play around with some different magnets to maybe even out the tone.
Bottom line so far I like these pickups and think they are a good value. I tend to know pretty quickly if a pickup will work and didn't like the WLH or Custom straight away. It all has to do with your guitar though and the sound you want. I don't know if the rock song would be the best choice for jazz or if they ac2 would be the best for a really dark guitar. Just like any other pickup choice.
