I need a new pickup...

[mikesaidthis]

Ok, I have an 88 American Tele routed for a fullsize 'bucker and an Epiphone Les Paul Custom that are desperately in need of new pickups. I used to have an Invader in the tele, that was cool I guess... not enough clarity. I put a JB in the bridge of the tele and it was too "jangley" or bright. So I want something that is like an 7 or 8 on bass... a 5 or 6 on mids and like a 7 on treble. I put the JB in my Epi... and it def sounds better than in my tele, but still is a tad bright.

A buddy of mine @ work gave me a Dimarzio DP100 Super Distortion for my tele... I haven't tried it yet. I will figure that part out... I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions or if anyone has a similar tele setup. Also, Do you think the SH5 will be a good alternative to the JB in my LP? Will it be a bit warmer?

Thanks.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: I need a new pickup...

The Custom 5 isn't going to be any warmer sounding. The Dimarzio Super Distortion will probably give you what you want.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: I need a new pickup...

Put a UOA5 magnet in the JB, or even an A2 for your LP.

You could try the Custom in the Tele. If it doesn't sound just right you could swap either an A8 or a UOA5 mag in it.

 

[Despair]

Re: I need a new pickup...

The Custom 5 isn't going to be any warmer sounding. The Dimarzio Super Distortion will probably give you what you want.

He said SH-5 Custom, not Sh-14 Custom 5...

The Custom 5 has pretty scooped mids, I'm not sure I'd use it in a tele, though that sort of scoop can be fun for some country-rock sounds.

The ceramic Custom is great in a Les Paul, especially in warmer all-mahogany or veneer-only maple "top" models. Balanced and punchy. Surprisingly open (uncompressed) and PAFlike for a ceramic pickup.

On the JB in a tele: with 250K volume it's usually not that terribly bright. The JB is all about screaming upper midrange, but shouldn't be harsh in most alder & maple guitars, if the pots are right.

Where you have the Super Distortion on hand, it's certainly worth trying before buying something else.

 

[mikesaidthis]

Re: I need a new pickup...

thanks for all the input. im gonna have the DP100 in tomorrow... and check it out. I had the SH-4 in with 250k pots... and it sounded thin-ish... IDK... if anyone knows a good place to check out sound clips... that would be killer too. No offense to SD, but the clips are a bit limited on the site

 

[tref_h]

Re: I need a new pickup...

Is it worth trying the JB with a 500k volume just to see?

If you've got a humbucker in a tele, how's it mounted, in one of those flat-edge ashtrays with a humbucker size hole? Never gone near that style of mount myself, but I'd have thought it would have impact on pickup sound. My old SG came to me with a chrome scratchplate that gave me an overbright feedback monster on my hands until i ditched it...

I kinda know what you mean about the clips, but to be fair, they're trying to be as scientific as possible; same licks, same instrument, same player, same amp, same settings so that you can see what changes. What they don't do is optimise the sound to show how great each pickup can sound, which I quite like because otherwise you're just going to have upset people who thought they were instantly going to turn their existing rig into a doppelganger of a no-expense-spared-lets-show-this-puppy-off one. Both approaches have their place I guess, but the showier one could be interpretted as misleading on a pickup mfr's homepage...

 

[Despair]

Re: I need a new pickup...

If he finds the JB thin with 250K, 500K is only going to be worse. Does rolling the tone off fix it, on the Epi?

There's a bunch of tricks you can use to tweak pickups, a lot of people who don't get along with the JB with A5 love it with A2, but where mikesaidthis wants a mid-dip but not too much of one, A2 is the opposite of that in a JB.

http://netmusicians.org is great for checking out clips of various gear, youtube searches for pickup models can be useful as well. Both can have problems with production (overcompressed, encode artifacts, atypical sound due to gear used or post-EQ...).

A PATB-1b isn't too far from the sort of sound you described, by the way. Ridiculously sweet for leads, great bright crunch for rhythms, good cleans for a high output pickup. Extremely dynamic with more usable brightness than the JB.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: I need a new pickup...

JB2 that what Seymour used in his TeleGib. Give it a try, i say.

 

[mikesaidthis]

Re: I need a new pickup...

what is a PATB-1b? and what is a JB2? As of now, the JB in the epi sounds great, a bit bright with my old amp settings, but once tweaked, a really nice sounding pickup. I have all the crunch, and none of the mud.

I just installed the Dimarzio Super Distortion that I got from a friend and ran it through my Pod Pro (home recording use only) just to see how it fared. It is definately a bit beefier than the JB in the tele, the real test will be running it through my dual rec tomorrow and seeing what I have to alter, if anything at all... and how it comes out.

I am really interested in starting to experiment with pickups because my epi is my (while its an amazing playing guitar) beater guitar that I use @ shows and such, and my Tele is one of my main players, but often takes a backseat to my Gibson, so now I have 2 guitars to switch things around and such. Anyone used these solderless pots?? Seems like it might be a good way to go if I might be switching out pickups every now and then.

Again, thanks for all the help/advice!

 

[Despair]

Re: I need a new pickup...

PATB-1b is the Parallel Axis TremBucker Original bridge. JB2 is a JB with it's A5 magnet swapped for an A2. Forum shorthand.

If the JB is tight enough with your rig, it's a killer pickup for lead. There's a reason it's all over 80s metal of all varieties.

I haven't tried a Liberator yet, but next time I swap pickups I will likely get one.

Is the problem that you have to adjust the EQ when swapping guitars? That's pretty hard to avoid, you're likely to go through a lot of pickup swaps trying to get two different guitars to work with the same amp settings without just sounding nearly identical (which seems like it would defeat the purpose of having multiple guitars).

If you need to be able to switch guitars without having to fiddle with settings, you might look at using an EQ (whether a stompbox to fix it before the preamp, or in the effects loop) to compensate, so you only have to turn the EQ on or off, instead of possibly adjusting every knob on the amp, depending on how different the pickups behave with it...