HELP choosing a neck pickup!

N

nick.b

New member
Hi All,

I'm new to the SD community forum and looking to get as much help as possible :)

I have a HSS custom made strat from warmoth with black korina body, pau ferro fretboard on goncalo alves neck (pretty dark woods).
It has a JB in the bridge, a vintage rails in the middle and a cool rails in the neck. I found the cool rails to be too muddy and I'm looking into swapping them.

1. I first tried a parallel axis stack, which unfortunately didn't fit (as my pups are wood mounted, and the cavity was not deep enough to fit this pup)
2. I just finished installing a Duckbucker, and while it cleared up the mud, I feel that I lost some beef in the tone.

What I play is mostly blues, classic rock, some shred: joe bonamassa, SRV, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie, etc. and while no single pickup is gonna give me all these tones, I want something that has a nice attack and does not get muddy on distortion. I have a Kemper, so my I'm pretty flexible with the rig options. I once played an Alnico II pro humbucker, and loved the sound; so anything similar to the Aii pro might make sense to me (I dunno if it's because of the Alnico II magnet, compared to ceramic magnets in the pups I'm using). Finally, i'd really prefer noiseless pups, unless there's absolutely no way of getting the sound I'm looking for without singe coils. I also don't want to lose TOO MUCH output when switching from the bridge JB to whatever neck pickup I end up with.

My current contenders are:

a. JB Jr
b. Lil 59
c. Lil screamin demon
d. Maybe a Pearly Gates for Strat from the custom shop?
e. Anything else?

Thank you all in advance!!!
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

Scooped pickup in a dark guitar, not too surprising.

JB Jr. is also somewhat scooped with powerful lows in the neck position (like for the Cool Rails, ignore the bogus BMT figures for this one!).
Lil 59 will also be muddy.
Lil Screamin Demon should work.

I would look into a DiMarzio Satch Track. It will be the best match for the JB on terms of output out of anything either of us have listed. It was designed to remain tight. Failing that, look into the Fast Track 1.
 
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Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

gregory said:
Scooped pickup in a dark guitar, not too surprising.

JB Jr. is also somewhat scooped with powerful lows in the neck position (like for the Cool Rails, ignore the bogus BMT figures for this one!).
Lil 59 will also be muddy.
Lil Screamin Demon should work.

I would look into a DiMarzio Satch Track. It will be the best match for the JB on terms of output out of anything either of us have listed. It was designed to remain tight. Failing that, look into the Fast Track 1.
Click to expand...

Thanks will look into the Dimarzio, it's just that there are so many out there that one gets lost :D
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

The Lil Screamin Demon bridge model should also be tight and bright and have a fair amount of output. I was thinking about the neck model earlier. I have a feeling it might be a bit weaker and a bit more scooped/less vocal than the Satch Track, but I haven't tried it. Depending on what you're going for it might be the better choice. I would probably consider it before the Fast Track 1.

To recap, for *me* it would be Satch Track first, Lil SD Bridge, then Fast Track 1. I prefer a more powerful voice in the neck spot. Most guys here seem to prefer weak and scooped.
 
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Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

gregory said:
The Lil Screamin Demon bridge model should also be tight and bright with and have a fair amount of output. I was thinking about the neck model earlier. I have a feeling it might be a bit weaker and a bit more scooped/less vocal than the Satch Track, but I haven't tried it. Depending on what you're going for it might be the better choice. I would probably consider it before the Fast Track 1.
Click to expand...
I guess I'll try the screamin demon first. Anyone else?

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

I've found HSS with single coil size humbuckers to be a good beast for a rock guitar. It covers the blues and strat tones pretty well, but also is noiseless, and has nice grit in every position for clean or distortion. I'd listen to Greg's advice on the Lil Screamin Demon. Here's mine, I have a Lil 59 in the neck and JB Jr in the middle with a 500k volume pot and no tone. I like it a lot.

HSS Strat.jpg
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

To the OP:

If you have a Kemper, IME, you should not be concerned with the p'ups output at all. The less, the better.

Never heard about the expression "less is more"? Truer words have not been spoken, specially in you case.

I'd go with the Duncan Classic Stacks for neck and middle, sell the JB and get a '59/Custom Hybrid with an UOA5 magnet. That'll give you an outstanding tone-footprint to work with your Kemper. And while I'm at it, I'd look for Michael Britt profiles for the Kemper. A friend of mine has several of them and I find'em completely worth the asking price and the some.

/Peter
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

I like the idea of the Classic Stacks and the 59/Custom Hybrid- I have a similar setup in my Warmoth, and I use it into a Fractal AX8. You get a lot of versatility, and the Stacks have a lot more beef than a Duckbucker.
If you found the Cool Rails to be too muddy (it is sort of the single coil sized version of the Jazz), then you will need clearer neck & middle pickups, so the Stacks do that. The Hybrid is more 'open' and dynamic than a JB, too, and it also splits really well.
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

Discharged said:
To the OP:

If you have a Kemper, IME, you should not be concerned with the p'ups output at all. The less, the better.

Never heard about the expression "less is more"? Truer words have not been spoken, specially in you case.

I'd go with the Duncan Classic Stacks for neck and middle, sell the JB and get a '59/Custom Hybrid with an UOA5 magnet. That'll give you an outstanding tone-footprint to work with your Kemper. And while I'm at it, I'd look for Michael Britt profiles for the Kemper. A friend of mine has several of them and I find'em completely worth the asking price and the some.

/Peter
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input Peter! I will first focus on finding a good neck pickup that fits my taste. I'll look into the Classic Stacks for neck.
And yes I already have tons of MBritt's profiles, they are truly amazing!!
Any idea about the pickups discussed above?
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

I tried the Dimarzio, the SD duckbucker, lil 59, and lil screamin demon. The screamin demon is my top choice followed by lil 59. I still need to try the classic stacks.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

Discharged said:
Personally, not a fan of any of your choices, I'm afraid. But I've had personal experience with the ones I suggested, so I know'em to work well.

/Peter
Click to expand...
What about the output difference between the 59/c and the classic stacks?

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

From your original post I thought you were interested in single-spaced side-by-side humbuckers. Stacked single coils sound like single coils.
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

nick.b said:
What about the output difference between the 59/c and the classic stacks?

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

There is a difference, but these pickups complement each other really well. You get a really good combo of vintage & modern. It is my favorite set of pickups in an HSS guitar.
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

You said you like A2Pro, so why not? It's indeed an excellent low output humbucker in the bridge. Or PG. Classic Stack's vintage output delivers that Strat chime in the middle position and contributes to distinctive quack in notch positions. For neck position, personally I like meatier and smokier sounding pickup. I'd go with Vintage Hot Stack, considerably hotter than Classic Stack. If you still keep JB in the bridge, I'd say go with Vintage Hot Stacks for middle and neck.
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

gregory said:
From your original post I thought you were interested in single-spaced side-by-side humbuckers. Stacked single coils sound like single coils.
Click to expand...
Well, I was looking into these humbuckers but then Peter suggested the noiseless single coils. I'm open for suggestions, not necessarily humbuckers.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

elelpe said:
You said you like A2Pro, so why not? It's indeed an excellent low output humbucker in the bridge. Or PG. Classic Stack's vintage output delivers that Strat chime in the middle position and contributes to distinctive quack in notch positions. For neck position, personally I like meatier and smokier sounding pickup. I'd go with Vintage Hot Stack, considerably hotter than Classic Stack. If you still keep JB in the bridge, I'd say go with Vintage Hot Stacks for middle and neck.
Click to expand...
Yeah but the A2pro I tried was a full sized humbucker in the neck position. So for now I'm trying to find a suitable neck pup. I will look into the hot stack. I'm looking for something with a good attack and a clear snappy sound. My guitar sounds pretty warm, so anything that has too much mids or bass will be muddy. For now the screamin demon and lil 59 are not bad. The dimarzio area 61 was sweet but there was lots of mismatch between neck, middle, and bridge. So i think I'll stick with duncans, maybe the stacks that you mentioned will do the job!

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
Re: HELP choosing a neck pickup!

Sure, go to a 1 meg volume and more attack should open up. If you don't need more high end on the bridge pickup, put a resister from the hot wire of the bridge pickup to ground.

I'm happy with a 500k volume and no tone for my lil 59 in the neck, although the bite I get from my JB Jr in the middle is my favorite.
 
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