Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

[Mr.Stratocaster]

Hello everyone!

I would like to buy active pickups, but first I'd like to understand which ones will give me the sound I need. Could please anyone help me to make a selection ? Thanks in advance...

My guitar is strat-style with poplar body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard, kahler tremolo. Pickups I would like to replace are neck and bridge single-coil sized pickups. I do not use middle one at all, but if it will be in the set which I'll buy - no problem.

I play different kinds of metal, from hard rock to doom metal, and also high-gain shred stuff. But I like to play clean too! I dislike full sized humbuckers so please don't suggest them to me.

What I want from new pickups is maximum clarity, attack and punch. I want it to cut through the mix easily. Well, Malmsteen's sound is the one I like. Plus I want the sound to be good for chucky riffs and for playing clean.

I've looked through the Internet and found pickups which I think will be fine for me: EMG-SA, EMG-S, SD LiveWire Classic, SD LiveWire Hot.
As far as I know, these 4 are all stacked humcancellers - that's is what I want! I don't want true single coils or side-by-side humbuckers in a single coil space.

Could someone please help me to choose pickups for bridge and neck positions from these 4 models ? I would like to go completely EMG or completely SD, I don't want to mix brands.

Thank you all very much in advance!!!!

P.S. Does Seymour Duncan have calibrated sets of Classic and Hot LiveWires or should I buy 2-3 pickups separately ? I can't find any complete sets in the Internet shops. Will individual SD LiveWire pickups come with pots, jack, wire etc. or only sets of three do contain that ?

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

First, welcome to the board!

The SD live wires all come in calibrated sets.

The classics give you the regular SC tone when clean. They really rock hard when fed into hot amps and distortion/OD pedals. I heard a song recorded by Evan Skopp, marketing manager for Duncan, who played them clean and dirty. Clean they were vintage strat. Dirty, they were awesome.

More people here on the board have experience with the Hot Live Wires, including Robert_S and Lew. Maybe they will be around to post on their experience. Lew is also a Duncan dealer....

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

Thanks for the mention!

I do have a Strat with the Livewires Hots and they're probably what you're after. With my guitar's volume control on full, they push my amp about as hard as a humbucker and get a great overdriven and sustainful tone. When I back the guitar's volume down to 5 or 6 they clean up very nicely and do so without losing highs. Great set of pickups...I like the tone alot. Lew

 

[Mr.Stratocaster]

Re: Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

Thanks for help!!

I'm a bit afraid of huge output of Hot LiveWire. Is it possible to get crystal clean from it ? How it's output is compared to regular passive humbucker ?

Maybe anybody knows....when LiveWire actives were introduced for the first time ? In which year ?
I know this question seems useless, but as far as I know EMG active stacked humbucker (SA,S) were released it the first half of 80's. If Duncan's LiveWires were released much later - maybe they use better technology, and sound better because of that ? Please let me know if anyone knows something about it.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

I'm pretty sure Duncan LiveWires were introduced in the 80's. I have a Duncan catalog from around '86 that has them in it.

I thought the EMG singles had been around longer. Maybe not.

The EMG singles aren't pickups I typically would pick to play the styles of music you've listed, however you could use the EMG presence control with them to get a fatter, chunkier tone for the music you play. You could turn it off or roll it back for a cleaner, single coil tone when playing clean.

On the other hand, if as you say, attack and punch are important, then EMG's may not be a good choice, because they tend to compress your dynamic range, which can make them sound flat, lacking dynamics.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Live Wires - Classic or Hot ?

Thanks for the mention!

I do have a Strat with the Livewires Hots and they're probably what you're after. With my guitar's volume control on full, they push my amp about as hard as a humbucker and get a great overdriven and sustainful tone. When I back the guitar's volume down to 5 or 6 they clean up very nicely and do so without losing highs. Great set of pickups...I like the tone alot. Lew

No Prob, Lewguitar!

I like to have more vintage pups for bright cleans and then go to pedals and EQ for dirty sounds.

The other thing is that live wires should be very sensitive to EQ changes.