Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

S

SamD92

New member
Hello!

I'm on the road to being a full time musician, and I've been slowly rounding out my guitar collection to fit my needs. Right now I'm working on my second Les Paul copy, wanting to set it up for a variety of tones ranging from old country to 70's classic rock. (I already have my other one set up for solid Metal tones) It has a mahogany body, set mahogany neck, and ebony fretboard. Stop tailpiece, all that good stuff.

I'm looking for something I can coil split, for the country songs that need some twang, and something that can also pull off some good Jimmy Page/Slash like tones. I'm going to be playing with a band that will be doing stuff like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Seger, Marshall Tucker, The Eagles, etc. Maybe even a few classic rock and blues songs. I really need something well rounded that can handle all the variety of tones I'll need.

And call me vain, but I'd like to find something I can get in cream or zebra. I'd hate to kill the look of my cherry sunburst finish on the flamed maple top with big black pickups sitting in the middle of it! haha.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

A couple of options -

Slash neck / Page bridge (and everything in between) = A2P neck, 59 Bridge. Great wide range, good all around. Have to talk to the 'splitters' Classic PAF's with moderate output.

Alternate choice:

Pearly Gates neck, 59 Bridge - The PG is a bit brighter and a has touch mopre 'tude than the A2P. You'd have to use some serious tone control to get Slash tones out of it. But you could...

They are both available in zebra/reverse zebra. Larry Dooshba- I mean DiMarzio prevents full cream versions from being sold.

Those are 7k pups when humbucking, so they will go to 3.5 when split! Might want a volume boost of some sort when you do that...

such as a Duncan Pickup Booster pedal! (Although i dig the MXR Micro amp myself...)

I might also suggest a pair of 59's. But some find the bass boomy or muddy whn in the neck of a Les Paul. A Pearly gates changes the eq in all the right ways for that...
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

StagMag splits to a true single coil which sounds awesome. The Custom8 also splits very well and has some good twang when split and very good output for a split hummer.

For the neck, Can't beat the Pearly Gates. It's great for classic rock, blues, Page, country, even Slash. It also splits very well if you want to split the neck pup too.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

PG set and call it done. The PG set can cover anything from classic to extreme metal- provided your amp can do the lifting.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

Thanks for the info guys! I'll wait for some more opinions. It's worth noting that right now, I use Guitar Rig 5 for my amp tones, both recording and live. I run into an Art Tube MP preamp, then my Rig Kontrol 3 interface. I know it's not conventional, but I've been very pleased with the tones I can achieve with it.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

Don't wait too long. You may not get any more. All the good suggestions have already been given.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

For what you're doing, you need PAF's, and Duncan makes some of the best: '59, PG, Seth, and A2P. Mix and match them.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

I love my A2Ps in my LTD PB500, mahogany body and neck, I play classic rock most, but everything is possible with them, except modern metal maybe.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

Ah....P-Rails.

My pup in my current #1 guitar. I absolutely love the gutsy P-90 tone in the P-Rail. Better than any other P-90. Plus the option of having the rail and the parallel mode (using the Triple Shot) just makes me smile....a very big smile.......well, actually it's more like a giggle. Maybe I even chuckle everytime I play it.

Very satisfying.

The P-90 is great for classic rock. For a more PAFish sound, the P-Rail in parallel mode is excellent. And for Country, the Rail mode really fits the bill. Series mode is for the real heavy rock, but I personally love the P-90 for most everything rock.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

GuitarDoc said:
Ah....P-Rails.

My pup in my current #1 guitar. I absolutely love the gutsy P-90 tone in the P-Rail. Better than any other P-90. Plus the option of having the rail and the parallel mode (using the Triple Shot) just makes me smile....a very big smile.......well, actually it's more like a giggle. Maybe I even chuckle everytime I play it.

Very satisfying.

The P-90 is great for classic rock. For a more PAFish sound, the P-Rail in parallel mode is excellent. And for Country, the Rail mode really fits the bill. Series mode is for the real heavy rock, but I personally love the P-90 for most everything rock.
Click to expand...

what he said....so far the p-rail is the only pickup I can even think of that can do everything you're asking I don't typically look to vintage output humbuckers when I think of splitting but that's just me....I have a set of cream p-rails in my main guitar (the bridge is the hot model but I'm either going to mag swap or buy a regular p-rail bridge)
 
Last edited:
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

GuitarDoc said:
Ah....P-Rails.

My pup in my current #1 guitar. I absolutely love the gutsy P-90 tone in the P-Rail. Better than any other P-90. Plus the option of having the rail and the parallel mode (using the Triple Shot) just makes me smile....a very big smile.......well, actually it's more like a giggle. Maybe I even chuckle everytime I play it.

Very satisfying.

The P-90 is great for classic rock. For a more PAFish sound, the P-Rail in parallel mode is excellent. And for Country, the Rail mode really fits the bill. Series mode is for the real heavy rock, but I personally love the P-90 for most everything rock.
Click to expand...

Didn't you have to do some mag swapping to get them dialed in?
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

don't forget you can also get series mode (which is more of a modern character with a bit of output)
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

Aceman said:
They are both available in zebra/reverse zebra. Larry Dooshba- I mean DiMarzio prevents full cream versions from being sold.
Click to expand...

yeah I kinda hate him for that since there are only a couple DiMarzio pickups that really cater to me duncan (and other companies like fralin/lollar) have way more to offer me and I can't even get my double cream on
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

GuitarDoc said:
Ah....P-Rails.

My pup in my current #1 guitar. I absolutely love the gutsy P-90 tone in the P-Rail. Better than any other P-90. Plus the option of having the rail and the parallel mode (using the Triple Shot) just makes me smile....a very big smile.......well, actually it's more like a giggle. Maybe I even chuckle everytime I play it.

Very satisfying.

The P-90 is great for classic rock. For a more PAFish sound, the P-Rail in parallel mode is excellent. And for Country, the Rail mode really fits the bill. Series mode is for the real heavy rock, but I personally love the P-90 for most everything rock.
Click to expand...

+1

Prails are super versatile and the p90 and parallel modes are great. The rail is adequate for single coil sounds. I have 2 guitars with prails and they are great in both! One recommendation is to flip them I mounted them flipped in both guitars and it brightens the tone a bit!

Tim
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

both pickups on in rail mode is one of my favorite tones for playing country and certain blues stuff.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

i would say go with a custom UOA5 bridge with a triple shot so you can get low output tones in parallel and a PG neck with a triple shot.
 
Re: Looking for pickups to handle a variety of musical genres.

Right now im using a C8 and UOA5 jazz for this purpose. I can get any possible style of music from this axe. Literally. Anything from metal, to stratty tones, to tele tones, to jazzmaster tones, etc etc

As soon as i can get some chrome covers made, im using my p-rails.
 
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