Looking for a new neck pickup

[Francecagnacci26]

Hello, as the title says i'm looking for a new neck pickup.
The guitar is a charvel pro mod dk24 with hsh. the stock pickups are the full shred in the bridge position and a alnico II pro in the neck (both by SD). the guitar has an alder body and maple neck, i use an hiwatt t40 combo and a friedman be od.

I wanted a new neck pickup that is smoother, because the alnico II is too bright! i only heard good things about those but mine is very ice picky and has a lower output than the bridge pup, i cant play leads with it, i even tried recessing the pickup and even the pickup screws. i dont have a lot of options but i was considering an air norton by dimarzio or a paf pro(still need to decide between those two but i was inclined towards the air) , or does anyone have any other suggestions? basically looking for something smooth for leads that splits well (for tangly strat tones) and sorry for the wonky language but i am Italian! thank you in advance everyone, and happy holidays

 

[Francecagnacci26]

forgot to mention i play mostly 80's stuff . so i wanted an 80's voiced pickup (if that makes any sense at all), so the paf pro was considered just because it was one of the pickups used on eat em and smile by steve vai (and i LIKE the tones there) and the air norton because i knew petrucci used one, sorry for my ramblings

 

[Aceman]

If an A2P in the neck sounds shrill and Ice Picky, compared to a full shred in the bridge, there is something wrong. An A2P is one of the fatter sounding neck pickups there is.

I would pull the pickups and make sure they are not reversed....FS in neck and A2P in bridge, or even make sure the switch isn't wired/installed backwards.

 

[Benjy_26]

I agree with Aceman. I have a Full Shred in a Godin and it's brighter than the SSL-2 in the mid and a Cool Rails in the neck is WAY fatter than the Full Shred.

Maybe the APHn is shorted out to one coil or is malfunctioning somehow. I'd check connections inside the control cavity,l as well as checking resistance at the jack (you should see something in the mid-7k range).

If all is well and you still need more thickness, check the pots. If you're wired up at 500k, there are ways for the neck pickup to see 250k.

Aside from that, maybe an Invader or even a Super Distortion would get you where you need to be.

As far as Vai, a PAF Pro probably worked for him because the rest of his rig has always been pretty dark/thick.

 

[Mincer]

Yes, make sure the A2P is working properly- it shouldn't be shrill at all. It should sound warm and buttery. Even then, if it is sounding shrill, it could be an overtly shrill sounding guitar. Perhaps a neck Invader would work better.

 

[nexion218]

Shrill and low output -> sounds like a singlecoil to me. I agree to what Benjy_26 said: on coil might be shorted to ground. I've had that happen from factory. Things weren't taped off properly and my '59 was running in single coil mode.

 

[Francecagnacci26]

thank you all for the help, i'll have a look inside even if i had the guitar checked by my luthier plenty of times, maybe it's a problem with the switch.

 

[Francecagnacci26]

gonna look into it, i remember the 5 way switch was a bit faulty so i'll look into changing that with and a setup

 

[Francecagnacci26]

here attached should be the wiring, and it all checks out...

 

[Benjy_26]

Do you have access to a multimeter?

 

[Francecagnacci26]

maybe a family member has one. but i wanted to go to a luthier for a general setup and i will be discussing the situation with him, because i had some switch issues and found an easy fix so that could be the problem

 

[Benjy_26]

Hopefully it's something simple. If you DO get access to a multimeter, insert a cable into the guitar and switch to the full neck humbucker. If you're not seeing ~7.5k in resistance, there's something wrong.

 

[Francecagnacci26]

Hopefully it's something simple. If you DO get access to a multimeter, insert a cable into the guitar and switch to the full neck humbucker. If you're not seeing ~7.5k in resistance, there's something wrong.

thank you very much, i just contacted my luthier about this issue, he said that we are going to check that tomorrow and worst case scenario he already has a superswitch ready to swap with the old one

 

[Zheddar]

I'm not sure if anyone knows, but those A2P's have short hex screws like the full shred does. Probably to make their appearance match better, but I am sure it effects the tone.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Hex screws will be giving your A2P a tighter and brighter sound.
Still, they shouldn't be making it noticeably weak or thin.