Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Air Norton

The LiquiFire is a refinement on that pickup and the Illuminator a refinement on the LiquiFire.

From what I gather from a few conversations with DiMarzio, there was significant improvement in low-end articulation in the LiquiFire over the Air Norton.
 
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Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

I can't remember where I read that. Maybe it was on DT's first album.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

You've definitely got a better idea than I do. I did little more than research dates. ;)
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Thought about trying the HFH in my Les Paul, but now I'm thinking that might be the opposite of what I would want.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Air zone, air Norton, PG neck, maybe even a black winter neck can all do the job. But this lace lifer is really the bees knees lol.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

iamthesuck said:
Air zone, air Norton, PG neck, maybe even a black winter neck can all do the job. But this lace lifer is really the bees knees lol.
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I listened to a demo earlier, and while YouTube does no justice to gear demos, I think I could tell it sounded pretty decent. I actually liked the bridge model a lot more though. Sounded killer. The neck pickup sounded a little too much like what I already have, honestly. There's just something I can't quite put my finger on that bothers me about the sound of some neck pickups. Plus I think it would be funny looking in my Les Paul. Matter of taste, I guess. I just don't like how any of the Lace humbuckers look.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

jrbowen81 said:
Kinda random, but would anybody happen to know what neck pickup John Petrucci might have been using around the time that he released his "Rock Discipline" video? I'm pretty sure he used the Tone Zone & Humbucker From Hell on Images and Words. Whatever this one is, he has it with the screw coil toward the bridge.
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John had a Steve's Special in the bridge and an Air Norton in the neck.

John was my teacher back then. He got his first Ibanez while they were writing Images & Words and it was originally leopard print. He later changed it to the Picasso design.
 
Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

LazNovak said:
John had a Steve's Special in the bridge and an Air Norton in the neck.

John was my teacher back then. He got his first Ibanez while they were writing Images & Words and it was originally leopard print. He later changed it to the Picasso design.
Click to expand...

Oh, wow. Cool! Steve Blucher originally came up with the Steve's Special just for John, right? So would that technically be his first sig. pickup?

Also, any idea why he had the Air Norton flipped around?
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

jrbowen81 said:
Oh, wow. Cool! Steve Blucher originally came up with the Steve's Special just for John, right? So would that technically be his first sig. pickup?

Also, any idea why he had the Air Norton flipped around?
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Blucher made that pickup for his own guitar but Petrucci liked it.

He flipped the norton so the adjustable poles are closer to the neck to fine tune. That's why the Liquifire has both coils with adjustable poles. John is always thinking of things he can do to his gear. How to make things better.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

LazNovak said:
Blucher made that pickup for his own guitar but Petrucci liked it.

He flipped the norton so the adjustable poles are closer to the neck to fine tune. That's why the Liquifire has both coils with adjustable poles. John is always thinking of things he can do to his gear. How to make things better.
Click to expand...

Oh, that makes sense.

This demo right here shows me that I'd probably pretty happy with the Air Norton in my LP. Heck, I wouldn't mind trying the Steve's Special in the bridge too!

Since the LiquiFire and Illuminator are basically John's refinements on the original Air Norton design, I doubt I'd be unhappy with any of the 3.
http://youtu.be/TAG2S5KD41Q
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

How is the Air Norton for playing power chords through various levels of gain?
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

A slight detour, but I wanted to mention.. I am a HUGE fan of the Custom 8. you mentioned the 59 in your opening, but worried about the boominess. Im not sure if this would tame it enough with you running the 6505 and low tunings, but in my explorer I run a Custom 8, 59/4 combo. The alnico 4 keeps much of the same tone and character of the 59, but trims some of the lowest and highest end off. Again, much the same character, just keeps it from getting flubby. Just thought Id toss that in there. If you have a 59 and you like the pup itself try an a4 in it.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

BloodRose said:
A slight detour, but I wanted to mention.. I am a HUGE fan of the Custom 8. you mentioned the 59 in your opening, but worried about the boominess. Im not sure if this would tame it enough with you running the 6505 and low tunings, but in my explorer I run a Custom 8, 59/4 combo. The alnico 4 keeps much of the same tone and character of the 59, but trims some of the lowest and highest end off. Again, much the same character, just keeps it from getting flubby. Just thought Id toss that in there. If you have a 59 and you like the pup itself try an a4 in it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that suggestion! I actually had that exact combo in another guitar before. I liked it, but unfortunately I don't have that guitar anymore. I also didn't know what I was looking to get from a neck pickup back then. All I knew was that I didn't like the '59 in my setup, even after the magnet swap. It was "better" but still not 100%.

I even tried some mag swaps last night with my Gibson pickup, which gave me a few different tones (some of them very interesting!) but still not that "Air Norton" type of smoothness. I don't have any other pickups, so it will be a matter of getting another one to replace what I've got.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

jrbowen81 said:
How is the Air Norton for playing power chords through various levels of gain?
Click to expand...

I have an Air Zone and Air Norton in my Jackson soloist. It's Mahogany body and neck, neck-thru, ebony board.

Both pickups are excellent and work very well for all types of chords with any level of gain.

I have a JP6 with the Crunch Lab/Liquifire and I tried a Majesty with the Illuminators. If I had to chose, I'd get a set of Illuminators.

If Petrucci with making upgrades to his gear it's definitely going to be better than the previous version.
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

LazNovak said:
If Petrucci with making upgrades to his gear it's definitely going to be better than the previous version.
Click to expand...

That goes along with my logic as well. Although I think I'd be happy with the Air Norton or LiquiFire, I'm shooting for the Illuminator.

With that said, I sense a trade thread appearing in the near future for my Gibson pickup. Lol
 
Re: Les Paul neck pickup for "fluid" tone?

The petrucci flipped neck pickup is an air Norton. He did that because the air Norton is a "hybrid" with a 5k and a 7k coil. With it being a bridge pickup originally, I believe the 7k coil is the screw coil and the 5k the slug. So flipping it would put the brighter coil closer to the neck for more articulation.

The air Norton is brighter and more articulate than the liquifire, which is more creamy.

My favorite neck pickups have all been mentioned in this thread. The full shred, air Norton, and lace humbuckers.

Lace pickups always seem to give some single coil snap to the tone, but get really fluid under gain....with clarity. I currently use a hemibucker set in my parts start, but they sounded great in every guitar I tried them in

The full shred set is cool as hell. The neck version is a low wind fairly bright pickup. I find it can get very air norton-esque with the tone knob rolled down. Not exactly, but in a similar vein.

The air Norton (and air Norton s, which is a great pickup as well), sounds great for fattening up strat types, but I find that they get somewhat muddy sounding on the low strings past the twelfth fret.

My perfect neck pickup would be a cross between the full shred and the air Norton.
 
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