Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Crunchberries_McGlyn

Crunchberries_McGlyn

New member
...I've heard it's not recommended, doesn't sound good, etc. Any truth to those statements?

Looking at new pickups for my J5 Tele. It needs them, along with a lot of other fixes. Not sure what direction to go in.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

The Custom was designed for a bolt-on SuperStrat. 'Nuff said!

What are you looking for in a pickup? What rig are you playing through? What styles of music? Anything you have experience with that you like/don't like?
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Nah I don't see any sensible reason why anyone would say a pickup would sound different in a bolt-on guitar. A custom sounds awesome in pretty much any guitar, when tried in my bolt - on Ibanez I really liked it. Sounded just as good as in my neck thru guitar that I had it in. Good distorted and clean.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

I’m sure this is debatable, but the neck joint is pretty far down the list of things to consider when choosing a pickup.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

People say a lot of dumb ****. Some dude in a music store told me you couldn’t mix Strat and Tele pickups, or active and passive.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

active and passive gets messy to do it well, but strat and tele pups... what the heck? people been doing that since the 50's
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

I had a Strat with Lace Sensors in the neck and middle, Livewire in the bridge. There was a resistor on the LW to lower the output, and it sounded pretty awesome.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Crunchberries_McGlyn said:
...I've heard it's not recommended, doesn't sound good, etc. Any truth to those statements?
Click to expand...

I have to ask...exactly where or who have you heard this from? I ask, because I'd like to explain to them, in person, what sort of a special idiot jack@$$ they are and suggest they close their trap when they know not that of which they speak.

I can think of reasons why you might not like it given your rig, styles of music you prefer, or perhaps style of playing. But the very simple equation of Custom + J5 Tele (even a Squire) should rock balls.

John 5 plays DiMarzio D-Activiators I believe. Or did. Those are about as hot as a SuperDistortion, meaning a little more chill than a Custom. But they are 11k pups. A little interwebz research also shows pretty flat eq. The Custom likely has less mids. Or more bass and treble, than those.

Tell us more about what you are doing? Feel free to PM me with the name and web location of "Them" who says "This" which you have "Heard."
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Aceman said:
John 5 plays DiMarzio D-Activiators I believe. Or did. Those are about as hot as a SuperDistortion, meaning a little more chill than a Custom. But they are 11k pups. A little interwebz research also shows pretty flat eq.
Click to expand...

D Actovators are hotter than the Super D, and way hotter than a Custom. Go check out the specs on the DiMarzio site. They list output in mV, and you’ll see it has zero correspondence with DC resistance. The DC resistance = output thing really should be put to bed.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Aceman said:
I have to ask...exactly where or who have you heard this from? I ask, because I'd like to explain to them, in person, what sort of a special idiot jack@$$ they are and suggest they close their trap when they know not that of which they speak.

I can think of reasons why you might not like it given your rig, styles of music you prefer, or perhaps style of playing. But the very simple equation of Custom + J5 Tele (even a Squire) should rock balls.

John 5 plays DiMarzio D-Activiators I believe. Or did. Those are about as hot as a SuperDistortion, meaning a little more chill than a Custom. But they are 11k pups. A little interwebz research also shows pretty flat eq. The Custom likely has less mids. Or more bass and treble, than those.

Tell us more about what you are doing? Feel free to PM me with the name and web location of "Them" who says "This" which you have "Heard."
Click to expand...
*puts it in Stratocaster*
*Doesn't like it*

*"Hmmmm.. must be because it's a bolt-on. That's gotta be it"*

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Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

I don't think you can make flat statements like that about any type of pickup. It always should be evaluated on a guitar-by-guitar basis.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

JB_From_Hell said:
D Actovators are hotter than the Super D, and way hotter than a Custom. Go check out the specs on the DiMarzio site. They list output in mV, and you’ll see it has zero correspondence with DC resistance. The DC resistance = output thing really should be put to bed.
Click to expand...

Again - I'm not a D-Activator guy. I was going based purely on the MV rating and my personal knowledge of Distortion vs Custom. 470 is not that much more than the 425 of a Distortion. I believe a Custom to be louder than a Distortion, because I have one of each right here and have owned both for like forever...or 15 years or so. And because of that, I mentioned the Res Peak since it IS an obvious example of the difference between peak & heat.

Just in case Res peak matters in this guitar. Or a bolt on. Which I don't think it does.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Crunchberries_McGlyn said:
...I've heard it's not recommended, doesn't sound good, etc. Any truth to those statements?

Looking at new pickups for my J5 Tele. It needs them, along with a lot of other fixes. Not sure what direction to go in.
Click to expand...

Used them in Teles (with modified bridge pickup cavity) and Strats. To my ears, they sound phenomenal; like a "Super PAF".
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

I'd much prefer the Custom Custom in a strat/tele/prs, the Custom to me sounds best in a lp :outahere:
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Hank- said:
I'd much prefer the Custom Custom in a strat/tele/prs, the Custom to me sounds best in a lp :outahere:
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The CC is the one for me, too. But I have heard others do just fine with a regular Custom in a Strat, just not me.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Aceman said:
Again - I'm not a D-Activator guy. I was going based purely on the MV rating and my personal knowledge of Distortion vs Custom. 470 is not that much more than the 425 of a Distortion. I believe a Custom to be louder than a Distortion, because I have one of each right here and have owned both for like forever...or 15 years or so. And because of that, I mentioned the Res Peak since it IS an obvious example of the difference between peak & heat.

Just in case Res peak matters in this guitar. Or a bolt on. Which I don't think it does.
Click to expand...

The D Activator if definitely the hottest of the 3. Some of that may be the perceived volume, since it has a more cutting tone than the other two.

Regardless, I completely agree that the guitar's construction method is a poor method of choosing a pickup. I think some of this may be due to marketing, like they'll say a certain pickup is good for set-neck style guitars. That statement is probably aimed more at the general populace, who think of a set-neck guitar as sounding dark and fat.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

As others have said, while it will sure as hell work, I consider it to be better suited to a Les Paul

But a PAF is also a better suited to a Les Paul but does that mean it's bad in a Strat?
Absolutely not.

The custom is a monster no matter what guitar it's in.
 
Re: Duncan Custom In A Bolt-On Guitar

Aceman said:
I have to ask...exactly where or who have you heard this from? I ask, because I'd like to explain to them, in person, what sort of a special idiot jack@$$ they are and suggest they close their trap when they know not that of which they speak.

I can think of reasons why you might not like it given your rig, styles of music you prefer, or perhaps style of playing. But the very simple equation of Custom + J5 Tele (even a Squire) should rock balls.

John 5 plays DiMarzio D-Activiators I believe. Or did. Those are about as hot as a SuperDistortion, meaning a little more chill than a Custom. But they are 11k pups. A little interwebz research also shows pretty flat eq. The Custom likely has less mids. Or more bass and treble, than those.

Tell us more about what you are doing? Feel free to PM me with the name and web location of "Them" who says "This" which you have "Heard."
Click to expand...


Thanks, Ace! I don't remember exactly where I saw the comment, but it was a user review. The reviewer said he had the Custom in a LP and another pickup in a Strat-type guitar. He decided to swap them to see how it would sound. The Custom ended up sounding too bright in the Strat and the other pickup (Screamin' Demon, I think) was too muddy in the LP so he swapped them back where they came from. I wish I could find the review but it was years ago that I saw it.

I play rock, mostly. A lot of Kiss, some Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, and some of the slower Megadeth and Metallica stuff. Rhythm playing through a Boss Katana 100, just for fun. No gigging. A long time ago I learned that Paul Stanley once used the sh-5 and so began a fascination. For whatever reason, I never put one in any of my Gibsons. The Gibsons are gone now and ever since reading the review I just mentioned, I figured there were better choices for my bolt-on guitars.
 
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