Great pick ups for an SG please

[Craig]

HELP,

I've just bought an old Korean SG off Ebay, feels great, but sounds awful !!
Solid mahogany body, rosewood neck. It has now cleaned up nicely.

Having trawled through the SD humbuckers I like the 59 best for the bridge position but read that its only about half the output of most of the others 8.13k : 6Khz. Have I understood that correctly ?

I'm thinking of using a Little 59 at the neck rather than a full sized humbucker to hopefully get a bit of bounce out of the guitar at that end, I like it to sound quite pingy. The output is 9.86k : 5.8Khz which is pretty close to the 59 humbucker above.

Am I comitting suicide (musically) here or is there method to my reasoning.

I honestly don't care what this finished guitar looks like, I use my Carvin for posing !!!

Thanks for your input guys

Craig

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

I don't recommend Strat sized buckers, cause you can just get a bright bucker or a P-90, like Jazz or Pearly Gates. What style for? I'd get a Custom series bridge with Jazz, but it's hard to say, if we don't know if it's gonna be punk, death metal or jazz.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Welcome to the forum Craig.

Having trawled through the SD humbuckers I like the 59 best for the bridge position but read that its only about half the output of most of the others 8.13k : 6Khz. Have I understood that correctly ?

The '59 is a vintage (PAF) style humbucker with an alnico 5 magnet. It's not low output at all and works great for classic rock, hard rock and blues. There are hotter humbuckers in the Duncan range (e.g. Custom, Distortion, Invader). Which pickup is right for you depends on what kind of music you play and the tone you're after.

I'm thinking of using a Little 59 at the neck rather than a full sized humbucker to hopefully get a bit of bounce out of the guitar at that end, I like it to sound quite pingy. The output is 9.86k : 5.8Khz which is pretty close to the 59 humbucker above.

The Little 59 is a Strat-pickup sized humbucker designed to beef up a SSS Strat without modifying the guitar. I'm not sure why you'd want to use one in an SG, assuming your SG is standard HH configuration?

9.86k is the DC resistance, 5.8Khz is the resonant peak. DC resistance is only useful in comparing output in pickups of similar construction. The '59 and Lil '59 are quite different in their construction and I don't believe the DC resistance will be much use in comparing their outputs. The resonant peak is a value that gives an indication of the tonal focus of the pickup.

A pair of '59s would be a great choice for rock and blues in an SG. For a brighter neck position with less bass you could use a Jazz model (SH-2N) in that position.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

A pair of '59s would be a great choice for rock and blues in an SG. For a brighter neck position with less bass you could use a Jazz model (SH-2N) in that position.

that was what i was thinking too. 59 bridge and jazz neck

 

[Craig]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Thanks guys, that was fast !!

I'm playing melodic rock - sort of Foreigner / Starship style. I like a good crunch on the bridge but quite clean, pingy and not too bluesy on the neck as I use a flanger quite a lot and they get messy if too distorted

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

'59b/ Jazzn

 

[Craig]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Mr Iron Horse, you are a Gentleman !!

I've just found a bright green set of both on Ebay !!

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

thin mohogany sg like that needs something with a more pronounced mid-range i think. maybe a CC or JB.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Mr Iron Horse, you are a Gentleman !!

I've just found a bright green set of both on Ebay !!

Thanks! BTW, what do you mean by a bright green set? You're not seriously going to put green pups in your guitar:eek2: :crying:
And, I'm not the guy in the Ebay, that's for sure (or is he from Northern Finland?).

 

[blueman335]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

With that thin body, I avoid ceramics on SG's (actually on all my guitars, but especially SG's). I don't go any higher than 8,500 ohms on a neck PU, so that it's still got some brightness. Much more than that & you start to get dark & muffled. Save the hotter PU's for bridges.

A pair of '59's is good; I put an A4 on my SG's bridge '59. If you want more horsepower, A CC or C5 is good at the bridge.

Hard to beat the deal of a used import SG with Duncans, DiMarzios, or Gibsons. Great tone for several hundred dollars total.

 

[JacobTM]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

My SG has an A2Pro in the neck, and I absolutely love it. Clear, powerful, chimey, a perfect neck pickup for me.

 

[cream123]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

I think that bright green pickups would be sweet.

(yet another useless post by cream)

 

[Craig]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Hrrmmpphh !! and what is wrong with bright green pick ups ???? hahaha, I've not ordered them yet !!!

Thanks guys for all your input. I have a friend with a spare Custom Custom that I am going to try in both positions. As I understand, the CC is not really suitable with mahoganny and rosewood and is quoted as a bridge only pick up, but that slightly higher eq just might work at the neck too with either a JB, 59 or Duncan Custom at the bridge. I've nothing to lose by trying it at the weekend.

I do take Jacob's suggestion of an A2Pro in the neck, it sounds quite sweet on the SD website samples, even through my crap speakers.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

i doubt the cc would work well in the neck. hamer guitars used a custom in the neck with a custom custom in the bridge and that was pretty cool but i doubt the opposite would work well.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

Yeah, CC is very fat even in bridge, so CC neck must be unbearably fat (and Custom will sound very thin compared to CC in neck)

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

i think mohogany seems to compress the mids a bit, so the CC is probably a good choice for that because of the pronounced upper midrange that's inherent in that pickup. i have an american special mohogany strat with a CC in the brige and it's superb. i thought it sounded just a little better in my alder strat, but i'll keep it as it is.

a lot of les paul players use the CC in the bridge position and i think les pauls are typically mohogany bodies. you might want to give it a try.

 

[veryhungrycaterpilla]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

SD Jazz or, possibly better the DMZ EJ Custom should get you what you want. The A2Pro or Virtual PAF are warmer, but less defined, posibilities. Zhang could custom wind you a pup for a great price is another possibility.

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

oh yeah, paf pro sounds like a good idea. that's a great pickup. just check out anything from paul gilbert. he uses PAFs on most of his guitars

 

[Craig]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

I think I'll let my ears do the talking !!

If I remember right, Eddie Van Halen used a Custom Custom at one stage and got a lovely upper mids sound which he then flanged a lot to great effect. He got a pretty clean sound from it, which I manage to achieve very well with my Carvin guitar through Carvin amp too. I'm afraid I don't play much blues so I'm trying avoid that dirty neck sound and get something a bit more hi-fi. I want to keep that Carvin sound at the neck on this SG, just have something a lot ruder and crunchier than my Carvin at the bridge.

My thinking is that the dense mahagony wood of this SG that hopefully absorbs the fat, booming sound of the CC a bit, that would usually throb like hell in a Ibanez or Fender style guitar. This Korean SG is a bit thicker than a Gibson, though the neck is probably shallower. I did find the Carvin website very helpful in describing how different woods interact with different set ups.

I guess my favourite guitar player is Mike Slamer. He uses a 71 Gibson SG with old DiMarzio PAFs fitted, through a Carvin amp. Having used various DiMarzios myself in the past, none matched the beaty JB I had in old Yamaha guitar.

 

[baritone]

Re: Great pick ups for an SG please

I like the way a pair of 59s sound in SGs for any style of music.