HELP 335 PICKUPS?

Re: HELP 335 PICKUPS?

You can't go wrong with any Duncan P.A.F. style pickup. They are all just various flavors of the same general recipe. They can all go from clean to dirty with control of your right hand, and/or your amp/effects.

That's the thing about "vintage output" pickups. You can get them as dirty as you want using a variety of techniques and equipment. But with a high output pickup, that's the realm you are forced to inhabit all the time. Pulling them down into P.A.F. territory is far more challenging (and not even fully possible, really, IME) than taking a P.A.F. and manipulating it into high output territory.

I would say the weakest of the Duncan P.A.F.s is the Antiquity neck, followed by the Seth Lover neck. The strongest is probably the '59 bridge.

As stock old 335s came, there was a lot of difference in tone between neck and bridge pickups. Necks were warm, thick, syrupy, and loud, while bridges were thinner, brighter, crunchier, and quieter. You need to decide whether you want that sort of vintage style large gap in tone between the pickups, or whether you want to do the more modern thing, which is to narrow the tonal gap between them. The modern thing is done by overwinding and/or overmagnetizing the bridge, underwinding or undermagnetizing the neck, or some combination of the two.

If you want vintage style tonal gap between the pickups, then you don't want an overpowered bridge pickup. It would be best to go with two neck models (for an over all lighter sounding set) or two bridge models (for an over all heavier sounding set).

If you want a modern-style balance, then you can go with a factory neck/bridge set, or you can mix 'n' match models. For example, Seth neck with a '59 bridge.

The Whole Lotta Humbucker set is outstanding, and versatile. It is basically a recreation of the way Gibson pickups were modified into "balanced" sets in the old days, before aftermarket pickups existed: take a '60s style Gibson pickup set, but overwind the bridge pickup and install a stronger magnet. I put a set of these in my bandmate's SG, and they kill, and are very balanced, while still having a classic '70s flavor to them.

When it comes to Duncan, I think of the following standard production pickups as "flavors of stock-style P.A.F.": Antiquity, Seth, Jazz, '59, A2P, Pearly Gates. I am not talking every spec being P.A.F.-like, but speaking in terms of general flavor and output.
 
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Re: HELP 335 PICKUPS?

real P.A.F.s commonly went over 9k yet were spanky... that's the 335 sound i like. Marshallhead by Wolfetone is my ultimate for that. (i have no association.) The cleans are as sculpted as can be. They can do Seth's clean but Seths can get nowhere near the howl once the the amp gets hot. Believe me.
& please excuse the pun but my 335 is a wolf in lambs clothing. people see a polite classy looking guitar doing woody, quasi-acoustic folk but when Midnight Rambler blows them against the wall during encore, it's the same guitar! No pedals.
 
Re: HELP 335 PICKUPS?

I vote for a brighter set of PAFs or possibly Dimarzio EJs.


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Re: HELP 335 PICKUPS?

I wonder how a set of DiMarzio D-activators would sound in there?

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Re: HELP 335 PICKUPS?

real P.A.F.s commonly went over 9k

WAT? no they didnt. not sure where you heard/read/saw that but its just not true. are there a few 9k paf's out there? sure. but its more like finding a unicorn than common. a set of seths would be great in a 335 as would a set of 59s
 
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