I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

FuelGTRX

FuelGTRX

Member
I recently picked up a limited run of a Balaguer guitar. It's an offset body (Jazzmaster-esque) that's all mahogany with an ebony fret board and a Fender style hardtail bridge. Right now I have a set of Pearly Gates in the guitar. I love the way the bridge pickup sounds, but I'm not really gelling with the neck position Pearly Gates. It's too smooth and a touch too warm/dark. What neck pickup would be brighter and more lively that would balance well with the Pearl Gates in the bridge?
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

swap an alnico 4 magnet into the neck. or maybe a jazz neck
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

FuelGTRX said:
What neck pickup would be brighter and more lively that would balance well with the Pearl Gates in the bridge?
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Putting an Alnico 3 magnet bar in that PGn will do what you're asking for.

/Peter
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

A Full shred might be a great choice, as it is designed to provide exceptional clarity and brightness in darker sounding guitars

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/full-shred-neck


You might also try wiring the neck pearly gates in parallel to change the tone and make it a bit lower output, less full, and a bit brighter and more single coil like.

Similarly you could switch to a no load tone and volume pot for the neck pickup and that would open up the frequency spectrum. As an experiment to see if that pearly gates might be bright enough without the 500k load from the pots affecting the sound you could try wiring the pickup straight to a jack, bypassing the pots and switch, it definitely should have more bite and high end this way, and using a no load set of pots for that pickup would make it so the knobs up to '10' deliver that same sound
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

Discharged said:
Putting an Alnico 3 magnet bar in that PGn will do what you're asking for.

/Peter
Click to expand...

i was originally thinking a3 but not sure that would be enough change. it will have less bass/low mids but will still have a warm high end. the a4 has a little more zing to the top which i would equate to lively
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

Either a Jazz or the Sentient will get you a little more clarity. The Sentient is advertised as a metal pickup, but it does many things well.
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

FuelGTRX said:
I'm not really gelling with the neck position Pearly Gates. It's too smooth and a touch too warm/dark.
Click to expand...


My experience with PGN's too. A mag swap would be the cheapest alternative, A4 or A5. If that doesn't do it, a JazzN will give more clarity & treble.
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

jeremy said:
i was originally thinking a3 but not sure that would be enough change. it will have less bass/low mids but will still have a warm high end. the a4 has a little more zing to the top which i would equate to lively
Click to expand...
In itself it does what you say, however IME it won't pair that well with the stock PG b. An A3 PGn is simply a thing of beauty, if you ask me.

/Peter
 
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Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

Before you toss a great pickup, you might want to experiment with the pickup height first. I had the same issue on my Gibson Nighthawk, the neck was really dark, I wired a .047 cap in series from the output wire and it brightened it up perfectly. It is one of the easiest and quickest mods I've ever done.
 
Re: I need advice on a neck humbucker in an all mahogany guitar...

Sure, height and screw adjustment certainly makes a huge difference. I hope everyone tries this first before switching magnets or pickups.
 
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