Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

[dreamist]

I've asked for the opinions here for my bridge pickup before, and Custom and Custom 5 are recommended. I play rock/pop and metal sometimes.

My guitar is Godin Exit 22. It has mahogany body, rock maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard, the neck is bolt-on. Fixed bridge. Pickup configuration is HSS. With the stock pickups, I would describe its sound as warm, a bit mid-rangey, and not much sparkle.

What I'm thinking about now is to change to whole set of pickups. The bridge would be either Custom or Custom 5. I would also like to have that Strat-ish sound, so I'm thinking about putting APS-1 in the middle and SSL-1 in the neck.

Can I have fat clean sounds from this configuration? I heard that Custom 5 has better clean than Custom. Is it true in your opinion?

As for mid/neck pups, my guitar has a very different characteristics from a Strat. Do you think I can get the bell-like/glassy tone and the twang (is it the right word?) from combining those 2 single coils -- with my guitar, which is supposedly warm sounding?

Or, perhaps, do you have better pups ideas for this guitar?

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

My guitar is Godin Exit 22. It has mahogany body, rock maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard, the neck is bolt-on. Fixed bridge. Pickup configuration is HSS. With the stock pickups, I would describe its sound as warm, a bit mid-rangey, and not much sparkle.

Gotcha...

What I'm thinking about now is to change to whole set of pickups. The bridge would be either Custom or Custom 5. I would also like to have that Strat-ish sound, so I'm thinking about putting APS-1 in the middle and SSL-1 in the neck.

I'd go with two APS-1's because you need some treble and Alnico 5 has more bite than Alnico 2.

Can I have fat clean sounds from this configuration?

I think you would get them naturally from all that mahogany.

I heard that Custom 5 has better clean than Custom. Is it true in your opinion?

I'd go with a "Custom 3" (any of the three Duncan Customs but with an Alnico 3 magnet). You can't buy a Custom 3 but magnet swaps are easy so you just need an Alnico 3 magnet.

As for mid/neck pups, my guitar has a very different characteristics from a Strat. Do you think I can get the bell-like/glassy tone and the twang (is it the right word?) from combining those 2 single coils -- with my guitar, which is supposedly warm sounding?

It should work okay. From there it's up to your playing technique.

 

[Artie]

Re: Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

I agree with Zhang, but would add that I'd go with either a C5 or a CC rather than a Custom. I'd probably do a CC with SSL-1/APS-1's and the C5 with SSL-3 or 6. That kind of thing.

I doubt you'ld go wrong with any of those combo's.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

I still vote for the C3.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

I would think that the custom 5 would be a pretty good match for the ssl-5 & ssl-6.

 

[dreamist]

Re: Custom vs Custom 5 -- and a pair of single coils

Thanks for all the opinions here.

I think perhaps Custom 5 would be a good start. I've never changed pickups before, so perhaps changing magnets is a bit beyond me, maybe after I gained some experience though.

As for suggestions for SSL-3/5/6 instead of SSL-1/APS-1 to go with Custom 5, is that because Custom 5 is a high-output pup? Now that's a problem, because from audio samples I prefer the sound of SSL-1 and APS-1 to those high-output single coils. I think SSL-1 and APS-1 have more sparkle than those, and also not too warm. The description also states that SSL-3/5/6 are for brighter sounding instruments, which does not match my guitar.

That leads me to a lot of questions here:

Are the SSL-1 or APS-1 a poor match for Custom 5? From the chart, their impedance is only about half that of Custom 5. Will this be a problem?

Do you think staggered or flat is better?

What do you think about combining something like SSL-1 and APS-1 for sound variety? Or is it better to use the same type? I mean, is using the same type giving better sound (in this case, a twangy sound) in combined position?

Sorry for asking so much. I'm really very new to this stuff.

Poonna