Help me fine tune my pickup choice

[INJUNTOM]

Long story short, I have a few Gibson SGs and a couple Epi SGs. I recently got a different amp (Peavey Valve King VK100 half stck with Yellow Jackets) and it's looking like a pickup change is in order now.

Backstory: I've always had a Full Shred Humbucker in a very heavy '86 Washburn G5V with Wonderbar and loved it. Put one in my '11 SG Melody Maker and it rocked through a small Crate and a small Marshall amps that I have, and of course both have great distortion and the Full Shred sounds great through that. I Had another Gibson, an '04 SG Special with the JB in it. Sounded muddy, and for some reason not as good of a sound as the Full Shred when going from one SG to the other, so I ended up going Full Shred in it and all was good....until I started trying to dial in the sound of the new amp.

The Peavey isn't nearly as crunchy as the other small amps I have (of course), but through research on the net on settings and the biggest improvement was going with a Tube Screamer first (set with distortion almost all the way off), then got even more boost by using an EQ pedal, which gives another little boost, so that setup along with using the built in distortion of the amp all the way up got it sounding pretty close to what I was getting out of the smaller amps, but still lacking a little bottom end especially using power chords, etc.

....Then I plugged in a little Epi SG Special that I had dropped the JB into and instantly got back what I was losing on the bottom end, and still had the good mids and highs I was getting out of the Full Shred. So it looks like the new amp likes the JB better where the other amps didn't like it (with the settings I had that worked with the other guitar anyways) and a swp back is in order.

The question is this: Since I have a 3rd Gibson SG and I want the 2 best ones to sound approximately the same, I will either need to pick up another JB for the other guitar OR would the Custom or Distortion models take me just a little closer to where I want to be? I'm thinking I may be leaning more toward a slightly more aggressive one, but not sure.

Types of music played would be somewhere along the lines of Audioslave, Seether, Stone Sour, Shinedown, etc.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

Either JB or Distortion would be best, you already narrowed it down pretty well. MAYBE consider a Black Winter too.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

If the JB is working, work it.

Distortion might work. I think the missing crunch is due to missing mids. People underestimate the crunch factor of the mids.

You don't want a Custom. Great pup, but not what you need.

 

[INJUNTOM]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

Thanks for the advice guys. Probably stick with JB since I already have one and won't have to worry about amp setting differences going from one axe to the other.

I do have a used Invader I plan to drop in my MM just to try it out. Any ideas on how much different that will sound compared to the JB?

 

[Aceman]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

JB = mids, highs, medium hot

Invader = Bass, Mids, very hot

 

[INJUNTOM]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

JB = mids, highs, medium hot

Invader = Bass, Mids, very hot

That may work out well then. Something extra hot if I need it. Currently have a Full Shred in there and sounds a little hotter than the other to me most likely due to single volume and no tone. Also my SG Special has some caps, etc wired into it.

 

[Gibson 1964]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

That may work out well then. Something extra hot if I need it. Currently have a Full Shred in there and sounds a little hotter than the other to me most likely due to single volume and no tone. Also my SG Special has some caps, etc wired into it.

Invader can be muddy. My experience with it was too muddy for my taste. Something extra hot more in line with the distortion would be the BW. Black winter has more mids and heat than a distortion, but is in the same sonic camp.

With your SG special you mentioned as being muddy, have you considered a set of 500k pots? IMO that is a better starting point for sound changes than pickups. $20 or so to do and then you can hear the pickups better.

 

[INJUNTOM]

Re: Help me fine tune my pickup choice

Hadn't played with the pots, but the muddiness I believe was due to getting the sound I want with the Full shred into the very crunchy Crate 15w practice amp. Probably could have adjusted it out, then the other SG would have lost some crunch.

Now with the tube amp, the JB isn't too crunchy, seems as crunchy as the Full shred, but has a fuller sound.

As far as the invader goes in the MM, I can take some out by not using the Tube Screamer, or EQ pedal. My setup is definitely more adjustable at the click of a pedal now because the VK amp has built in distortion plus a boost button on the foot pedal I really don't use unless I were to need more for a solor or something. Then I have the TS pedal along with another Ibanez pedal called the Powerlead, which seems to be just a slightly hotter OD, then I also get a boost from the EQ pedal as well. Starting to be happy with the sounds I'm getting now, just needs a little fine tuning...and some pickup swaps.

Also have a couple semi-hollowbodies I'm trying to get sounding close to each other as well. One has Gibson Burstbucker 2 & Pro in it and sounds awesome. The other is going to get the '61 Zebras out of my '14 SGJ that I customized. They seem to sound close to the Burstbuckers.