Halp! Bridge hum in a Pine body - What to choose?

[Thrashman]

So I'm routing my tele to fit a humbucker in the bridge and have problems choosing a pickup to fit in there.

The body is made out of pine, which is the root to all my problems. I'm unsure as to what tonal qualities it has - all I've been told is that it SUPPOSEDLY sounds like a less midrangey, rounder version of ash.

If this is true or not I don't know, so don't quote me on that.

HOWEVER, i play thrash/death metal and most often use boosted Rectifiers/6505's when playing and want a pickup that is aggressive and bitey but still fat and full, since pine isn't a bass-rich wood.

I was thinking SD Custom 5 perhaps? but I'm not sure how it handles my kind of music

Any suggestions?

 

[Despair]

Re: Halp! Bridge hum in a Pine body - What to choose?

For thrash, usual suspects tend towards ceramic pickups. Or Full Shred, but that might be too thin in your guitar. Full Shred is impressively tight when tuning down heavily.

Might look at a Custom 8 (fat, chunky but surprisingly tight despite a more open, less compressed feel. Unusual combination of modern & vintage tones) or PATB-2 Parallel Axis Distortion (insane output, crazy mids, awesome harmonics. Lots of bass/low mid grunt, without being uncontrolled. Unusually sweet for solos for a ceramic. Great for riffs much like an Invader, but with broader frequency response, and less mud with bassy high gain preamps).

If you want more bite, you'll probably have to trade a bit of bass punch off. TB-6 Distortion is a great option, but can be harsher for leads.

Pine's a very variable wood, a lot depends on how it was cured. If it's still resin-heavy, it's very different from a thoroughly dry antique pine. Can vary a lot from piece to piece.

Does the guitar have a fixed bridge? Or rather, will it when you are done modifying it?

 

[Thrashman]

Re: Halp! Bridge hum in a Pine body - What to choose?

Thanks for the answer! A lot of interesting tips there.

Yeah, the guitar will still have a fixed bridge when I'm done with it!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Halp! Bridge hum in a Pine body - What to choose?

Not sure I'd use a pine body to do metal with...pine has a funky hump in the mids a soft low end and a rather odd texture to the top end more often han not however since you already have the guitar make it work!

I'd start with either a Duncan Distortion or a maybe a straight Custom.