help with pickups

[thereveilleroot]

I dont know to much about pickups and i was hoping you guys could help me decide which pickups i should get. I have a jackson slsmg soloist with 2 emg-hz on it (1 near the bridge and the other by the neck). Can you tell me which kind of pickups i can get for this guitar and which are the best ones. I'll be playing metal and harder rock. I've heard good things about the hot rails. Let me know which are the best for me. Thanks

 

[jeremy]

Re: help with pickups

so you have two humbuckers, right?

i think a 59n and tb6 would be a killer combo, great cleans and smooth overdrives from the neck and killer crunch from the bridge

 

[beandip]

Re: help with pickups

Hey, welcome to the forum. It seems like your guitar has two humbuckers, and while the Hotrails is a humbucker, its not a full sized. If you want the sound of the Hotrails, check out the Invader, since thats what full sized pickup Duncan has that most resembles the Hotrails. For the neck, I would recomend maybe the Jazz, or the Pearly Gates or 59. They can all get hard rock tones.

 

[Travis]

Re: help with pickups

Distortion in the bridge, best metal riffing pickup ever! If you want all out metal, you might try another Distoriton in the neck. It should give you some searing lead tones. If you want something a little more versatile, I would say a Jazz or 59 in the neck might be the ticket. Either one of those will give you some nice cleans and vintage humbucking tone. My preference is to have a hot pickup in the neck, though. I've played the SLSMGs and I think that I would put a Distortion pair in there.

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: help with pickups

thanks for the advice. Question about the hotrail. Since it is a humbucker could it still fit? or maybe could i put two in there? thanks.

 

[beandip]

Re: help with pickups

yeah, you can fit one in there, it'll look kinda funny, but it'll work. If you put two in there, it depends on what you're going for, but you can wire them in series or in parallel.

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: help with pickups

which way would give the best sound and would two hot rails be too much output?

 

[beandip]

Re: help with pickups

thats what I'm thinking, two hotrails would be too much. Maybe wire them in series, you'd still have a high output rock tone, but not so much as it overpowers your neck pickup.

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: help with pickups

could i possibly go with a hot rail and another of the same size to maybe even them both out?

 

[beandip]

Re: help with pickups

actually, yeah you could. Maybe a hotrails and a Vintage rails together, that'd be one kick ass combo.

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: help with pickups

how would a hot rail and cool rail sound together for the neck and a distortion in the bridge. Do you think that would work well and sound good for metal music?

 

[beandip]

Re: help with pickups

too high output, now a coolrail and a coolrail wired togther in parallel would be pretty cool sounding

 

[Guitarist]

Re: help with pickups

In case you turn back on the SH-6, the Duncan Custom SH-5 is a great chugger for Hard Rock/Metal and is also very versatile for a Ceramic. Not sterile sounding at all! Give a peek into it for your tone's sake!

 

[Travis]

Re: help with pickups

As far as two single coil sized humbuckers in one full humbucker route, I don't think that is a very good idea. The Hot Rails and Vintage Rails come with that little triangular lip that would prevent fitting two into the route, Of course you can order them from Duncan without the lip but that takes an additional 6 weeks (as told to me by a Duncan rep). The only way I would think it might be a decent option would be to wire the three humbuckers to their respective position on the 3 way switch (a la 3 pickup Les Paul Custom). I just think that would be overkill. You would be much better off with two full sized humbuckers. If you're deadset on a Hot Rails (which is a great pickup, don't get me wrong) I would either put it in the humbucker route by itself and have it look a little odd, or get another guitar that has the appropriate routing for the Hot Rails. In the end, you can do whatever you want to do. These are just my opinions.