First time poster, long term lurker on occasion. 
Its pretty clear the crowd here focuses on the more old school vintage sound, and hopefully you can help me out. I've had three guitars in my time that I consider good indicators for tone. Korina Explorer with an EMG81 before I knew what tone was... was too stuffy in the upper mids when I went through my Mesa rack. Had an old Kramer with a Tone Zone that sounded way too phat, too many mids to get a nice growl.
Currently with a basswood RG7421 with BlazeIIs. SOO MUCH BETTER than these other guitars in tone. Actual cleans, actual mids, and a nice smooth sound ala Love of God by Vai (perfect example of the RG7 sound).
Anyway... this is where I need help. I'm not happy with the overall presentation of the sound from this guitar. The bass gets a bit overwhelming for a nice Strat like clean, but I know for a fact that the pickups aren't wired up properly.
I am going to use the PRS rotary switching, as well as coil tapping and probably some phase switching (2-3 rotary switches on board LOL). Ambitious stuff, but I've worked out how to get the job done.
I grew up on Slayer and Metallica, more recently Nile and Opeth, and a bunch of other death metal bands. I'm a "Fear Factory" style riff guy from waaay back. Thing is, I'm 30 now and I need some decent range in the sound because I like to play blues and suchlike. Guitar Rig 4 gives me more options than my Line6 POD did. I need clean sounds without having to spend two minutes rolling back my knobs.
Sooo. Which pickup? I'm considering a couple options.
FSb/59n for the Opeth fan in me. Should be tight, but get some softer tones from the neck. But enough bass and output? I've heard the FS in a Strat beater guitar and under volume it's soo growly which I love, but a lot of people says it is thin. I tune drop A 10-52 with a 70.... I need strength.
FSn/b to get the super clean sounds, but is it organic enough? I like that mid 90s Suped Marshall riff metal tone, but it's quite limiting?
Invader n/b to get the muscle. I'd be putting in wiring to suck the power out of the sound, and using coil cuts for my cleans a lot, so maybe going with Nile's muscle sound would be helpful? Thing is, I didn't like the Tone Zone 10 years ago?
The main goal is to get a tighter pickup than the Blaze, which I find is "too much woofy bass" for a genuine clean, but on the same token I know it is wired wrong and I don't think I've had a real bridge humbucker for 8 years now.
Can you guys help? I've been reading about FS and Customs and Invaders etc etc etc until my eyes have bled. The thing is, I just don't know how different these pickups could be to my Blazes - the FS seems to be built similarly to the Blaze with the hex screws, the Invader seems to be a growly Tone Zone, the Custom could be the same as the Blaze LOL, am I going to give too much bass away with a FS when I know that I need a fair bit of output for the strong American metal sound I like?
Great forum, best for pickups online. :cool2:
Its pretty clear the crowd here focuses on the more old school vintage sound, and hopefully you can help me out. I've had three guitars in my time that I consider good indicators for tone. Korina Explorer with an EMG81 before I knew what tone was... was too stuffy in the upper mids when I went through my Mesa rack. Had an old Kramer with a Tone Zone that sounded way too phat, too many mids to get a nice growl.
Currently with a basswood RG7421 with BlazeIIs. SOO MUCH BETTER than these other guitars in tone. Actual cleans, actual mids, and a nice smooth sound ala Love of God by Vai (perfect example of the RG7 sound).
Anyway... this is where I need help. I'm not happy with the overall presentation of the sound from this guitar. The bass gets a bit overwhelming for a nice Strat like clean, but I know for a fact that the pickups aren't wired up properly.
I am going to use the PRS rotary switching, as well as coil tapping and probably some phase switching (2-3 rotary switches on board LOL). Ambitious stuff, but I've worked out how to get the job done.
I grew up on Slayer and Metallica, more recently Nile and Opeth, and a bunch of other death metal bands. I'm a "Fear Factory" style riff guy from waaay back. Thing is, I'm 30 now and I need some decent range in the sound because I like to play blues and suchlike. Guitar Rig 4 gives me more options than my Line6 POD did. I need clean sounds without having to spend two minutes rolling back my knobs.
Sooo. Which pickup? I'm considering a couple options.
FSb/59n for the Opeth fan in me. Should be tight, but get some softer tones from the neck. But enough bass and output? I've heard the FS in a Strat beater guitar and under volume it's soo growly which I love, but a lot of people says it is thin. I tune drop A 10-52 with a 70.... I need strength.
FSn/b to get the super clean sounds, but is it organic enough? I like that mid 90s Suped Marshall riff metal tone, but it's quite limiting?
Invader n/b to get the muscle. I'd be putting in wiring to suck the power out of the sound, and using coil cuts for my cleans a lot, so maybe going with Nile's muscle sound would be helpful? Thing is, I didn't like the Tone Zone 10 years ago?
The main goal is to get a tighter pickup than the Blaze, which I find is "too much woofy bass" for a genuine clean, but on the same token I know it is wired wrong and I don't think I've had a real bridge humbucker for 8 years now.
Can you guys help? I've been reading about FS and Customs and Invaders etc etc etc until my eyes have bled. The thing is, I just don't know how different these pickups could be to my Blazes - the FS seems to be built similarly to the Blaze with the hex screws, the Invader seems to be a growly Tone Zone, the Custom could be the same as the Blaze LOL, am I going to give too much bass away with a FS when I know that I need a fair bit of output for the strong American metal sound I like?
Great forum, best for pickups online. :cool2:
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