Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

[Clint 55]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

It's brighter and less hot than the A8, but would you say it's a little hotter and smoother than the A5? Maybe between an A5 and A8?

A9 might sound a little hotter than A5 but it's more aggressive. It has the treble of A5 plus introduced upper mids like A8 but they're focused higher up.

Thanks guys! I'll try to find one from EU to minimize shipping costs and taxes, would be very interesting to try one in neck position. A8 and Ceramic are a bit too much for me in that position, would be nice to find something between A5 and A8. Can you comment how A6, A8 and A9 differ from each other? I like A6 in some situations but haven't been able to compare to A8 just yet. Too busy doing guitar maintenance, gigging and composing new material, lol.

A6 is like A5 with a balanced bouncy character but with the top slightly rounded and added soft lower mids like A2 but not as much. I view A8 and A9 as similar since they're both aggressive and A6 as kind of a variation on A5.

 

[Shooweri]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

Yes, A8 is very strong for neck for me too. But I love it in bridge with many (not all) pups.

I like A8 in some of my bridge pickups as well. I've very powerful polished A8 in my Pegasus that is installed to somewhat dead sounding Ibanez RDG2127FX (Basswood body, 5-piece maple/wenge). I'm gonna install neck inserts to it to hopefully bring it to life and help the guitar sustain better. I really like what A8 does to Pegasus!

 

[Shooweri]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

A9 might sound a little hotter than A5 but it's more aggressive. It has the treble of A5 plus introduced upper mids like A8 but they're focused higher up.

A6 is like A5 with a balanced bouncy character but with the top slightly rounded and added soft lower mids like A2 but not as much. I view A8 and A9 as similar since they're both aggressive and A6 as kind of a variation on A5.

Thank you so much for this! I'm gonna write this up somewhere so I can remember. Seems like I need to find some A9's to try in my 7-string 59B I've installed into neck slot of previously mentioned RGD2127.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

No prob!

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

I like A8 in some of my bridge pickups as well. I've very powerful polished A8 in my Pegasus that is installed to somewhat dead sounding Ibanez RDG2127FX (Basswood body, 5-piece maple/wenge). I'm gonna install neck inserts to it to hopefully bring it to life and help the guitar sustain better. I really like what A8 does to Pegasus!

I tried the A8 in my Pegasus 7 and it did a lot for the pickup. I didn’t like the metallic clang that it tended to get though. Plus I was looking for more treble. The Pegasus is a little too warm and polite to do everything I need it to do and the a8 makes it a bit brash which I like but it felt like it had less treble than the a5. I would consider the A6 or maybe an unoriented ceramic they were the true medium between a5 and ceramic.

 

[jong21]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

Last time I asked about what bridge pickup to go for and finally found a perfect one. Thanks again for recommendations, ideas and comments!

I'm definitely set on Perpetual Burn(bridge) and SSL1 rwrp (middle) but I haven't yet found a perfect neck pickup. The guitar is very bright and punchy basswood bodied PGM301 with stop tail bridge, bolt-on maple neck with maple fretboard and 24 frets. The guitar is so bright acoustically that it made most neck pickups sound like a strat, even though wired as a standard humbucker. The pickup placement appears to be the reason but I'm pretty positive that there is a perfect pickup for this application.

List of neck pickups I've tried:
-Paf Pro
Too mushy and undefined when playing fast solos. Nice cleans and split tones

-Humbucker From Hell
Very focused sound, too bright for my taste

-Paf Joe
Bright and spanky but too bright, nice split tones

-59
Sounded very bland and low power with this guitar. Didn't like the split tones

-Liquifire
Too smooth and compressed for me. Cleans have natural compression which I don't like

-Air Norton
This is what's in currently. Still a bit acmarket and twangy but I can just about live with it. Has nice sustain when soloing and notes get nice harmonic feedback. Full clean sound and super nice slit tone.

So, I'm looking for a darker pickup than AN, which is just a bit too bright. The ones I'm looking for are P-Rails, A2P, Breed neck and Air Zone.

I would go for gravity storm neck

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

Clint, thanks for those descriptions of A6 and A9 especially their comparisons to A5 and A8. Very useful info.
I've already got some A6 and A9 mags, just haven't had the time to try them out.

 

[Shooweri]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

I tried the A8 in my Pegasus 7 and it did a lot for the pickup. I didn’t like the metallic clang that it tended to get though. Plus I was looking for more treble. The Pegasus is a little too warm and polite to do everything I need it to do and the a8 makes it a bit brash which I like but it felt like it had less treble than the a5. I would consider the A6 or maybe an unoriented ceramic they were the true medium between a5 and ceramic.

Very cool to see other people that has tried A8 Pegasus! I know what you mean by it sounding brash as the A8 seems to accentuate mid frequencies, especially high mids. To me it adds nice aggression to the overall sound and helps me to cut better through the mix since I play/sing in six-piece band with three singers. It also helps to get more output and sustain from my RDG2127 that has SSL1-7s middle single coil and 59B 7-string in the neck. A8 in Pegasus also reduces low mids that stock Pegasus has a lot of. Those low mids was a problem to me and was the cause of mag swapping.

I tried A6 in it for few days but was looking for more output. I liked the tone overall and it was more balanced than A8 Pegasus. Might try it again some other time, let's see

 

[Shooweri]

Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

I would go for gravity storm neck

Thanks for your imput! To be honest I didn't care for Gravity Storm when I tried it in few guitars that my local retailer had them in. I was looking for more warmth than GS has to offer. I'm very happy with the Whole Lotta neck that I settled while ago!