Audhumla
New member
First of.. I’m new to the forums when it comes to posting. But you guys helped me a lot in the last years in a couple of things, so … yeah. Thanks a lot. 
For this particular problem, I tried to find something fitting, but every search so far came up empty, because it kinda didn’t fit my problem.
So.. Here it goes.
I did it: I managed to make the SH 5 sound bad. I’ve got an Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul (Mahagony, maybe a cap of some sorts, bought it 2007). Switched from stock passive EMGs to SH1n and SH5b and tried for a very long time to get some good tones out of it. I really do love the SH1n. Warm, fat - and it can sing. It’s the perfect fit for the Les Paul, because I really want it to sound like the guitar feels. Fat, heavy, dark (but not muddy).
But then there’s the SH5b. Whatever I’m trying, it seems to be lacking mids and base end. It’s shrill, thin and when you add OD/DS, searing. So instead of a fat, low growl, I get the complete opposite. A thrashy buzz saw.
I’m using a modified Blackstar HT1 and a Yamaha THR10X. Both of those amps make it really easy for me to find a decent tone for the neck pup in my LP. Also, my other guitar, an Ibanez Swamp Ash RG721 with SH2n/SH6b sounds awesome through both amps. Just the SH5 seems to lack everything except very strong highs.
So what am I looking for? I don’t want to „just put a JB in and be done with it“. Instead, I’m thinking about adding one of the newer additions to the Seymour Duncan Catalog to my collection. Just to add a little variety to the sound, I wanted to go for Alnico magnets (just to have something different to the tight SH6 ceramic bar of my Ibanez). Two pups seem to be very interesting. The 6string Pegasus and the Jason Becker Perpetual Burn pup. Both are Alnico, and at least from the descriptions both seem to have „more balls“. Or maybe some pup that I completely overlooked so far?
It would be nice to have some kind of usable clean tone, but I tend to use the neck pup (or my Ibanez) for cleans. So I’m not looking for the pup that can do „any style ever“. Instead, I want something, that can go from decent Blues Rock tones to Metal. The Metal sound I tend to like is an Opeth..ish fat, saturated distortion. So it’s more of a moderate, maybe even „warm“, full metal tone, not an all out christ f*sting searing blackened death grind shriek of doom. Styles I like are, for the most part, as stated above, Rock and Prog Rock/Metal.
Sorry for the long read and thank you for your help.
For this particular problem, I tried to find something fitting, but every search so far came up empty, because it kinda didn’t fit my problem. So.. Here it goes.
I did it: I managed to make the SH 5 sound bad. I’ve got an Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul (Mahagony, maybe a cap of some sorts, bought it 2007). Switched from stock passive EMGs to SH1n and SH5b and tried for a very long time to get some good tones out of it. I really do love the SH1n. Warm, fat - and it can sing. It’s the perfect fit for the Les Paul, because I really want it to sound like the guitar feels. Fat, heavy, dark (but not muddy).
But then there’s the SH5b. Whatever I’m trying, it seems to be lacking mids and base end. It’s shrill, thin and when you add OD/DS, searing. So instead of a fat, low growl, I get the complete opposite. A thrashy buzz saw.
I’m using a modified Blackstar HT1 and a Yamaha THR10X. Both of those amps make it really easy for me to find a decent tone for the neck pup in my LP. Also, my other guitar, an Ibanez Swamp Ash RG721 with SH2n/SH6b sounds awesome through both amps. Just the SH5 seems to lack everything except very strong highs.
So what am I looking for? I don’t want to „just put a JB in and be done with it“. Instead, I’m thinking about adding one of the newer additions to the Seymour Duncan Catalog to my collection. Just to add a little variety to the sound, I wanted to go for Alnico magnets (just to have something different to the tight SH6 ceramic bar of my Ibanez). Two pups seem to be very interesting. The 6string Pegasus and the Jason Becker Perpetual Burn pup. Both are Alnico, and at least from the descriptions both seem to have „more balls“. Or maybe some pup that I completely overlooked so far?
It would be nice to have some kind of usable clean tone, but I tend to use the neck pup (or my Ibanez) for cleans. So I’m not looking for the pup that can do „any style ever“. Instead, I want something, that can go from decent Blues Rock tones to Metal. The Metal sound I tend to like is an Opeth..ish fat, saturated distortion. So it’s more of a moderate, maybe even „warm“, full metal tone, not an all out christ f*sting searing blackened death grind shriek of doom. Styles I like are, for the most part, as stated above, Rock and Prog Rock/Metal.
Sorry for the long read and thank you for your help.
