considering a bit of a pickup overhaul (thanks, xmas money)

[ex-250]

some of my guitars im not entirely satisfied with the pickups in there, be it stock or otherwise. i have some ideas for what to replace them with, but any opinions would be much appreciated....

first and foremost ill be replacing at least the bridge pickup in my little sister's squier strat that is pretty much mine now. odds are itll be a tone zone S in the bridge. im unsure about the middle and the neck. i have absolutely no clue what to put in the middle, cause i dont know how much id really use it (or what for). in the neck, i really like dave murray's lead tone on all the stuff since ****inson rejoined. i know he uses a hot rails in the neck, but wouldnt that make for some distorted cleans? id like a good clean tone too. also, with single-sized humbuckers like the dimarzio S series and the duncan ___rails, what value of pots is preferable?

second is my ltd m-10. it was my first guitar, and ive just now really started thinking about switching out the pickups. theyre kinda muddy sounding....sounds pretty good through my XXX actually, but its really obvious when im going through the PODxt (which i do a lot). its got a basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fb, HH, stringthru. im contemplating a PATB-1 in the bridge and leaving the neck pickup there till i feel like spending more money, or an EMG 81/60 setup (pretty much just cause ive never owned EMGs before and wanna give em a shot). or 85/60, i dunno. im no scholar on the tonal qualities of basswood so i dunno which would work better. to be honest, im not entirely sure what kinda tone id like to go for with this guitar. just.....ballsy metal tone without being muddy.

and last, the gunslinger. ive had a love/hate relationship with the invader in there since i installed it 3 years ago. i just came off of a really long "love" stretch, and now its not really doing anything for me. its just got too much of a radical EQ. its annoying to have to sit there and screw around with the amp settings when i switch to it from any of my other guitars. the mids are kinda grainy and scratchy sounding, and the bass is loose and thumpy. id really like something with more of a tight low end to it and a nice thick tone, but again avoiding mud. the problem here is that in order to do so, the first thought would be to go for a pickup with a ton of low end like the invader cause its got an alder body, maple neck & fretboard, and a kahler trem. i guess the invader was too much for it. im kinda considering a super distortion (its a one-bucker guitar) in it, as id like a mick mars -ish kinda tone from the early crue albums. its a really 80s looking guitar, so i might as well go for an 80s sound. i have no idea what duncans would be suitable here. this last one im a bit iffy on, cause as soon as tomorrow i could go right back into the "love" phase of the invader.


odds are im not gonna do all this at once, as thatd be a big chunk of cash. but the first 2 guitars mentioned are definately gonna get the switch sometime. so if you guys could advise me on any or all of these, thatd be great

 

[Rowan]

Re: considering a bit of a pickup overhaul (thanks, xmas money)

as for the basswood ESP I may be of some help.


I've got an m-255 and have had a couple different pickups in it. First, the dimebucker wasn't my cup of tea, not enough clarity. I've recently experimented with the jb and distortion and found that ceramic magnets don't sound as organic as alnico. I tried a 59b in the basswood but found it was too bassy, and not nearly aggressive as I wanted. A jb in the guitar turned out to be a perfect match. I'd reccomend the jb or the distortion for your LTD. Jb if you play modern music but need clarity and sweet tone. But the distortion if you need a bit more low end and don't mind a more compressed sound, that is better for breakdown type metal. The distortion does some things very well, some things so-so. The jb does everything well.

 

[BG00]

Re: considering a bit of a pickup overhaul (thanks, xmas money)

For the neck and middle positions of the strat, I had a jackson strat at one point where I put a JB in the bridge, a duncan designed scorcher in the middle, and a lil 59 in the neck. I really liked the variety available from this combo, the super high output scorcher in the middle really gave some cool tones. 500K pots are fine for the single sized buckers. You might also try a cool rails or lil screamin demon in the middle.
For the Gunslinger try a duncan distortion or even a custom if the invader isnt doin it.
Lastly, I would just throw the invader in your m-10 if you swap it out of the gunslinger. If you do go EMG's go 85/60A or even two 85's, the 81 is just too bland and overrated for me.

 

[ex-250]

Re: considering a bit of a pickup overhaul (thanks, xmas money)

thanks. as for the JB and DD reccomendations, i already have those in other guitars, and id like some variety (and the DD would be too bright in the gunslinger i think). i also already have a bunch of duncans, which is why i was entertaining the thought of dimarzios or EMGs. i dont wanna just buy from only one company, yknow?

odds are, im gonna go buy one pickup and switch it between the gunslinger and m-10 just for the hell of it and see which sounds best. then ill worry about the other one. the strat definately needs a new bridge pickup though, thats the first priority. hopefully ill get on that in the next couple weeks.