Re: Neck humbucker with attack and clarity
Been going through this search myself, here's where i've been:
Jazz: Ok, but i still find it a bit boomy in the lows. Depends on how far you want to go in the bright/tight arena. Still works well in parallel if you use that. This is on the brighter/tighter side of traditional.
Full Shred Neck: Havent tried it yet, but most people here said it is basically a jazz with hex poles and sounds nearly identical.
Dimarzio EJ Neck: Brighter/Tighter than the Jazz. One step further in that direction, like the jazz it is still well within PAF territory tone wise. Works well in parallel if you use that.
DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell: Brighter/tighter still. Nothing like a single coil despite their descriptions, still very mucha PAF-ish, but clear highs, tighter bass than the EJ or Jazz, but still "woody" on the low notes, though not muddy or boomy like a Jazz or EJ (everything is relative; a '59 is WAY muddy/boomy compared to an EJ or Jazz). I recommend backing the bass side off the strings with any of the above, on the H from H that pretty much eliminates mud, but it still doesnt have that tight bright low note attack like a single. In Parallel it sounds sort of odd, almost like a piezo. You might like that sound and might not, but it doesnt sound like other buckers in parallel, thats for sure.
DiMarzio Fast Track 1 with a single coil to humbucker adapter ring: Very nice neck pickup, nearly perfect balance between humbucker and single coil. No mud or boominess at all, but also definitely fatter and with less highs than a single. Still has certain single coil like aspects though. 60% single, 40% neck PAF. The aesthetics of the adapter ring or just mounting it in a normal humbucker ring with gap showing might not appeal to some though. See Greg Howe's guitars when he was doing that.
Lollar Firebird Neck w/pickup ring adapter to fit in humbucker rout: Not dissimilar to the H from H but with a bit more of a single coil feel; it does sense the string in a tighter area so that makes sense. Probably 70% HFH, 30% fat single coil.
Working with a local builder here in Nashville to, here's what I've tried from him:
Smit's HWP Bucker Lite: Larger wire Neck PAF with Low DCR similar to a HFH. Not as bright as an HFH, but no mud at all either. Like a super even frequency jazz would be; a jazz without the boomyness or mud. Has the same issues in parallel mode as the HFH, in that it sounds piezo if you run the coils in parallel instead of series. Very interesting in that the highs are more like a jazz than a HFH, but it also has no mud at all and is very even across the frequency spectrum, so it fits into the traditional PAF category tone wise, just.....super balanced and no boominess.
Smit's HWP Neck MIni bucker under full size humbucker cover: Had this special made, still testing it but initial impressions are it is somewhat like the Lollar Firebird. Will post more once i mess with it more.
There are other things I'm messing with and will post more once I get sufficient results to comment in detail.
