Discussion: best humbuckers for going direct/reamping

[FierceFish]

Like many musicians these days, I lean more and more to recording a direct digital signal and then reamping to carve a more perfect balance between guitar tones and everything else in the mix. yes, I know, tube amps are great blah blah blah. But in the modern world there will continue to be more and more options for achieving great sounding guitars that support the emotional content of music. Loud tube amps are just one option.

What about you? Are you recording direct from Humbuckers? What's really working for you going direct? Would love Seymour's personal reflection on this topic...if it already exists elsewhere perhaps you can link to that?

Let the games begin...

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Discussion: best humbuckers for going direct/reamping

Active Pickups present more information and more signal to the preamp, and the MIc Pre presents the load to the onboard Pickup Preamp buffer instead of the pickup directly as in a passive scenario -so results are more consistent from Active pickup between multiple Pres -but Active is not necessarily a good thing unless you can EQ and proc them correctly for your sound.

That said, my active Bartolini Beasts sound unreal direct into a Pre is much more interesting and full than typical PAF, 57 490 and 500 Humbuckers doing the same -especially after some light EQ in the 5-8k range.

But it's also style dependent, my stuff may not be everyone's cup of tea either.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Discussion: best humbuckers for going direct/reamping

I think if you like the pickups in your guitar through a conventional amp system, then it should be fine for reamping. I don't think you need anything special or neutral or anything like that. After all, you are just trying whatever virtual setup sounds good.

 

[LLL]

Re: Discussion: best humbuckers for going direct/reamping

Best of both worlds: Tap the signal off your tube amp, run into DAW, apply speaker iRs, EQ, etc...