humbucker pickups?

[thereveilleroot]

I'm about to get some seymour duncan pickups for my jackson slsmg and i had a couple questions. I am thinking about getting a livewire metal in the bridge and a hot rail in the neck. does that sound like a good combination for playing metal? also i know that the hot rail is a single coil and i was going to fit it into my humbucker pickup. Do you think im going to lose anything overall. I have the emg's that came with the guitar but they sound alittle to muddy for my tastes. does anyone have a suggestions for me as well? thanks.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: humbucker pickups?

If you want the Live Wire metal in the bridge, I'd just go with a Live Wire Classic in the neck.

 

[Travis]

Re: humbucker pickups?

Well, the EMG HZs that are in the SLSMG are passive. So, if you're going to go with actives you'll probably need to replace the pots and input jack as well (at least you have to with EMG actives, actually not sure on the Live Wires). If that's the case, you're going to run into some problems mixing active and passive pickups like the Live Wire and Hot Rails. If I were you, I'd pick one or the other. Also, there are plenty of full size humbuckers that would perform very nicely in that guitar without having to fit a Hot Rails in the neck. For passives in that guitar, my choice would be a DD/DD setup. If you want something a little less hot in the neck, then maybe something like a 59 or other PAF type pickup. The only active pickups I have any experience with are EMG 89s and I swapped those out for a DD/Full Shred combo.

What kind of amp are you playing through and what kind of sound are you looking for?

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: humbucker pickups?

I'm playing out of a peavey 5150 II half stack. I'm mostly playing metal. How much work would it be to swap those things out you mentioned?

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: humbucker pickups?

i want a sound that really cuts through. my emgs make my guitar sound kinda muddy so I'm going with something that has lots of output and high mids.

 

[joelap]

Re: humbucker pickups?

Distortion/Distortion or Distortion/Full Shred are good choice. (being bridge/neck)

 

[mongrollo]

Re: humbucker pickups?

If your amp it is a high gain one I don't think you should go that far to get a metal tone.

Just think, if you have a low output pickup you will need to push the gain to make it overdrive. If you use a (very) high output pickup your amp will be in overdrive even in low gain settings. Guitarrists ussually use much less distortion that we think because you have to let space in the mix for the other instruments.

If you want something that really cuts through check the JB. Its spike in the upper mids makes it behave like a knife. I have tried this pickup in my ENGL screamer (all tube, 50 watts) and with the gain pushed up it is distorted enought to hide the rest of the intruments of my band.

And for the neck check the Jazz or 59. I know it is a common configuration but there is reason for that, I is a good one.

 

[thereveilleroot]

Re: humbucker pickups?

since the pickups in my guitar are passive which would be the best pickups for a metal tone with high mids that has more of a new age sound (as opposed to a classic tone). Also if I was going to go with active pickups which ones would be good for that and what would i have to do to my guitar for them to work. thanks.