How to pick a pickup answer sheet

[neosadist]

All,

I went through the How To Pick a Pickup again, and noticed some things:

I'm mainly wanting sustain, so I should pick a pickup that claims to have good sustain. As for output, probably low to medium, with medium preferred. Alnico II Pro claims to be a warmer pickup, so I'll see if there are some for my instrument. As for the woods on my guitar, I need a professional opinion. It's got a rosewood fretboard, maple top, and agathis body (a cheap mahogany substitute). Maple is bright, mahogany is warm, so therefore I should pick a pickup that's for "balanced" instruments, right? If so:
I went with the balanced theme, and found that the Jazz is probably the best for my needs for the neck pickup. However, I'm stuck on the choice of a bridge pickup for the following reasons:
JB: the notes in the description make it sound like it's a little too bright.
Custom: it mentions drop tunings, which I don't care about. It also mentions that it has a high and mid range attack, so I'm hoping it's not shrill.
Custom Five: doesn't mention sustain, which is important to me.
Stag Mag: doesn't mention sustain. Also, sound clips made it sound krappy. Am I wrong?
Screamin Demon: doesn't mention sustain.

Sorry for all the posting, I'm still confused lol :smack:

 

[jeremy]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

i think the majority of sustain comes from the instrument. a higher output pup might give you a little extra sustain since it will produce sound with less string movement.
a weaker magnet like alnico II will pull less hard on the strings letting them vibrate longer. my suggestion is to pick a pup for tone

 

[neosadist]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

Ok, but the thing I really need to know is this:
Is my guitar considered bright, balanced, or warm?
ESP LTD EC-100QM
Rosewood fingerboard
Maple top
Agathis body (cheap mahogany substitute)

 

[Zerberus]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

Well, sustain is primarily a product of the guitar itself.... the best, highest output pickups in the world will still have no sustain in a "dead" guitar. The combo you´re describing is typical of Low end Ibanez, LTD and BC Rich guitars, where that unfortunately can happen faster than one would expect.

The Maple /Rosewood / Agathis combo is relatively balanced in terms of tone.

But the BIG question is: what do you want the tone to sound like /what styles do you want to cover? if you want to sound like Slash, you probably won´t want an Invader... conversely, if you want to sound like Mark Morton, you´ll WANT that invader....

Also, what amp are you using? The tone of an amp is somethinng very overlooked in pickup selection, as the way the preamp shapesthe signal is one of the most powerful factors

If ALL that you care about is gain and output, then you´ll probably fare best with an active system such as the metal livewires or EMGs with an extra onboard preamp..... but while muchomondomega-gain is great (IMO there´s no such thing as too much gain, only players that can´t control it), it´s NOT what most are looking for

 

[neosadist]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

Well, sustain is primarily a product of the guitar itself.... the best, highest output pickups in the world will still have no sustain in a "dead" guitar. The combo you´re describing is typical of Low end Ibanez, LTD and BC Rich guitars, where that unfortunately can happen faster than one would expect.

Drat, well at least I guess I can replace the mysterious ESP pickups (they're by ESP but I have no clue what their qualities are, they sound sort of bland at times).

The Maple /Rosewood / Agathis combo is relatively balanced in terms of tone. But the BIG question is: what do you want the tone to sound like /what styles do you want to cover? if you want to sound like Slash, you probably won´t want an Invader... conversely, if you want to sound like Mark Morton, you´ll WANT that invader.... Also, what amp are you using? The tone of an amp is somethinng very overlooked in pickup selection, as the way the preamp shapes the signal is one of the most powerful factors

Ok, cool, here we go: I want to sound like someone not listed on the website lol. I'm not sure how it translates from Christian to secular at some points. See http://www.puresimplicity.net/~neosadist/temp/ and listen to some of it. I play lead here.
I don't want to directly copy anyone, really, although if I had to, I'd be more Counting Crows Live sound thick tone. Church music isn't shread or metal very often, if ever. I have a Boss ME50 multieffects for most my needs, and a 1972 Fender Twin Reverb, although when I play at church they run me into the sound system from their barely-decent amp, sort of like guitar -> ME50 -> (two lines) -> Channel 2 of amp -> Line out -> direct box -> sound board. But I like the tube amp clean sounds a LOT. I'm not into Jazz or Bass, but I'd say half the songs I play are through a chorus clean effect anyways. Similar sounds I've made in the past when playing at band battles and such are sort of similar to Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" and to almost a 60s acid rock (minus any of the psychedelic effects) / stack amp sound. Last time we played on stage through Fender Twin Reverb Reissues but I had to run a metallic MT-2 distortion to cut through (but I had to trust sound guy on this one).

 

[Zerberus]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

Drat, well at least I guess I can replace the mysterious ESP pickups (they're by ESP but I have no clue what their qualities are, they sound sort of bland at times).

Don´t get me wrong, not all of those guitars are bad by any means, it´s just the chances of picking a bad apple are better, and if it´s your only /first guitar and you have no comparison, it may be the guitar that´s the source (a probably unjust assumption on my part, sorry... but these ARE usually marketed more towards beginners..)

Ok, cool, here we go: I want to sound like someone not listed on the website lol. I'm not sure how it translates from Christian to secular at some points. See http://www.puresimplicity.net/~neosadist/temp/ and listen to some of it. I play lead here.
I don't want to directly copy anyone, really, although if I had to, I'd be more Counting Crows Live sound thick tone. Church music isn't shread or metal very often, if ever. I have a Boss ME50 multieffects for most my needs, and a 1972 Fender Twin Reverb, although when I play at church they run me into the sound system from their barely-decent amp, sort of like guitar -> ME50 -> (two lines) -> Channel 2 of amp -> Line out -> direct box -> sound board. But I like the tube amp clean sounds a LOT. I'm not into Jazz or Bass, but I'd say half the songs I play are through a chorus clean effect anyways. Similar sounds I've made in the past when playing at band battles and such are sort of similar to Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" and to almost a 60s acid rock (minus any of the psychedelic effects) / stack amp sound. Last time we played on stage through Fender Twin Reverb Reissues but I had to run a metallic MT-2 distortion to cut through (but I had to trust sound guy on this one).

Well, here I have to turn this over to someone who´s ears are more tuned to these styles, but I think you´ll get what you need out of this thread

 

[neosadist]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

Don´t get me wrong, not all of those guitars are bad by any means, it´s just the chances of picking a bad apple are better, and if it´s your only /first guitar and you have no comparison, it may be the guitar that´s the source (a probably unjust assumption on my part, sorry... but these ARE usually marketed more towards beginners..)

Or those on a budget lol

 

[J Moose]

Re: How to pick a pickup answer sheet

IME, guitars with bad (non-resonant) chunks of wood sound better with higher output pickups. The lower gain stuff like Alnico II's can be great if the guitar already sings, but if it doesn't it's kind of like waxing a car that's all beat up and rusted. If you're car is dented, you want to keep it dirty!