Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

PipeRain

PipeRain

New member
I have two guitars I am going to be swapping stock pickups out of in the next few days and could use some advice on one of them. For reference, the first is an LTD MH-100M that is getting a set of Dave Mustiane Live Wires LW-MUST. The second guitar is where my question comes. It is a Korean Ibanez S520EX with a mahogany body, maple & rosewood neck and ZR bridge. I am looking for a set of pickups to complement, and somewhat contrast, the Mustaines that are going the LTD. I already have a guitar with the JB/Jazz combo and yes, I know they are VERY close to the LW-MUST set. What I am looking for is something a tad "Crisper" and "Sparkling" than the other pups I have. I am an old-school thrash fan, think Rust In Peace, but I am not a fan of the overly compressed, excessively scooped tones that you get with EMG's even though they tend to be a "Go-to" for that. I am likewise not a fan of excessive distortion, too many thrashers seem to think that gain needs to be added at every point in the signal chain by the bucketful. I like my "Chug" but I like clarity equally. There's something to be said for having a crushing open E power cord as well as being able to hear all the strings playing an Emin7 at the 10th fret. The idea of a cross between the tone that Mustaine got in the 90's through now and Jake E Lee's tone when he recorded "Bark At The Moon" with Ozzy I think would be right in the ball-park for this guitar. I watched and listened to Keith Merrow's excellent YouTube video on metal rhythm pickups and I really like the 59/Custom hybrid but am led to believe that it may not really have the punch under gain I am looking for. So, this has led me to look at PATB-2 for the bridge and a PATB-1 for the neck or possibly the Pegasus / Sentient six-string combo. Unfortunately there isn't room in the control cavity for a battery for actives, nor room for a battery box in the body as it's just too thin. I play through a Marshall AVT150H half-stack and use either a Satchurator or Boss Xtortion for "Sauce".

So, what recommendations does this august body have, either of the two combos I listed, or something better?
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

PipeRain said:
I have two guitars I am going to be swapping stock pickups out of in the next few days and could use some advice on one of them. For reference, the first is an LTD MH-100M that is getting a set of Dave Mustiane Live Wires LW-MUST. The second guitar is where my question comes. It is a Korean Ibanez S520EX with a mahogany body, maple & rosewood neck and ZR bridge. I am looking for a set of pickups to complement, and somewhat contrast, the Mustaines that are going the LTD. I already have a guitar with the JB/Jazz combo and yes, I know they are VERY close to the LW-MUST set. What I am looking for is something a tad "Crisper" and "Sparkling" than the other pups I have. I am an old-school thrash fan, think Rust In Peace, but I am not a fan of the overly compressed, excessively scooped tones that you get with EMG's even though they tend to be a "Go-to" for that. I am likewise not a fan of excessive distortion, too many thrashers seem to think that gain needs to be added at every point in the signal chain by the bucketful. I like my "Chug" but I like clarity equally. There's something to be said for having a crushing open E power cord as well as being able to hear all the strings playing an Emin7 at the 10th fret. The idea of a cross between the tone that Mustaine got in the 90's through now and Jake E Lee's tone when he recorded "Bark At The Moon" with Ozzy I think would be right in the ball-park for this guitar. I watched and listened to Keith Merrow's excellent YouTube video on metal rhythm pickups and I really like the 59/Custom hybrid but am led to believe that it may not really have the punch under gain I am looking for. So, this has led me to look at PATB-2 for the bridge and a PATB-1 for the neck or possibly the Pegasus / Sentient six-string combo. Unfortunately there isn't room in the control cavity for a battery for actives, nor room for a battery box in the body as it's just too thin. I play through a Marshall AVT150H half-stack and use either a Satchurator or Boss Xtortion for "Sauce".

So, what recommendations does this august body have, either of the two combos I listed, or something better?
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I had an old S series several years ago. It had a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck and a PAF Pro in the bridge. I liked it fine! But I don't think it's quite what you're after.

FWIW, think about upgrading that AVT150H if you're after clarity under gain. That amp sadly doesn't do it too well.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

Just my opinion, but you could go Crunchlab in the bridge, Air Norton in the neck. I have that in my pickup experimenter (PRS SE) and the note definition on big chords is better than the Duncan Distortion that I had in it previously.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

Take that JB/Jazz set and swap a UOA5 into the JB and an A4 into the Jazz. Maybe even go so far as to swap the fillister screws for hex screws, at least for the three wound strings.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

Sounds like you want a Screamin Demon. It has gobs o' clarity, and is not as compressed as a JB.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

dotsdad said:
Sounds like you want a Screamin Demon. It has gobs o' clarity, and is not as compressed as a JB.
Click to expand...

I was thinking Screamin Demon as well (for the bridge.) The Dimarzio PAF 36th Ann. pickup is a good neck pickup for glassy cleans. It's got a little more power than the S.D. Jazz and overdrives easier. If I am understanding what you are looking for, I think those would be good pickups for you.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

The problem got sorta "Solved" for me. I saw mention of the Crazy 8 here and thought I would look into it. A Google search took me to EvilBay where one of the originals was for sale at a reasonable price, so I grabbed it. We'll see.

Thanks to everyone for your input, if it goes well, I'll report the results back here. If it doesn't, I'll look further into some of the suggestions.
 
Re: Interesting (To me anyway) Pickup Selection Question

EMGs aren't compressed in 2 conditions:18v or X-series and DON'T scoop the mids too much. If you want to nail the RIP tone, JB bridge and whatever neck, because all you're gonna use is the JB, but a Custom 5 neck will do. Then, get a Marshall JCM800 and turn up the preamp volume to about 7.5-9. Then, Bass similar to gain, treble just a tad lower than bass and mids at 5-6. if you use a Vintage 30 loaded cab, mids at 4-5 and you'll get sued by Capitol records cuz you sound too much like Dave
 
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