Neck Pickup Opinions

STRATDELUXER97

STRATDELUXER97

Stratoblaster Tone Meister
Hey all....So lately I'm working on an inexpensive Ibanez strat that was given to me. It currently has an UOA5 JB that I put in the bridge.The JB in this guitar series/split/parallel is great.Love the 8k split strat tones.

The neck pickup is a 490R with it's stock RCA5 magnet from my 1985 Gibson SG...This may even be a Tim Shaw but I don't think so?

The first 3 strings sound fine with the 490R but nothing I've done has taken care of the E,A,D strings....I've went brighter strings,lowered and raised the pickup,adjusted the screws etc...Just not happy with the tone shy of replacing it.

The E.A and D strings are pretty woofy in the lows and if I Lower it some I Lose to much volume.

I have the G&L PTB tone controls setup and it helps,but as I Lower the low tone control the pickup gets weak and again a loss in volume.

It's been awhile since I did any magnet swaps...Do you guys recommend an A3 or A4 here?


I've not tried putting the ,047 cap in series with the hot connection like SD recommends.Some folks said it messed with the 2 pickup combinations together?

Can you all give me some opinions shy of replacing this neck pickup.

I need clean clear and chimey at that neck pickup...

Hope you're all doing well.
 
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My favorite neck humbucker is the SD Full Shred. It's tight on the lows. It's quite snappy / spanky for a humbucker though so if you need more give, you can throw in a UOA5 magnet

The UOA5 may also ever so slightly shave some deep lows too if the stock FS is too bassy (not to say UOA5 is brighter, it is definitely warmer than A5, but I've also noticed a hair less deep lows too)

There's also the Artie's mod for demudding neck humbuckers.... Let me see if I can find a link.....
 
AllHailDIO said:
My favorite neck humbucker is the SD Full Shred. It's tight on the lows. It's quite snappy / spanky for a humbucker though so if you need more give, you can throw in a UOA5 magnet

The UOA5 may also ever so slightly shave some deep lows too if the stock FS is too bassy (not to say UOA5 is brighter, it is definitely warmer than A5, but I've also noticed a hair less deep lows too)

There's also the Artie's mod for demudding neck humbuckers.... Let me see if I can find a link.....
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Thx for the reply....I'm really looking for something vintage PAF type output like a 59,though the 59 can get woofy too...I Know Artie since 2004 or so and familiar with his mod....Thank you..
 
STRATDELUXER97 said:
Thx for the reply....I'm really looking for something vintage PAF type output like a 59,though the 59 can get woofy too...I Know Artie since 2004 or so and familiar with his mod....Thank you..
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Ah I see

Hmm... the Full Shred may still be a good bet but yah, definitely not a true PAF type.

I think a 59 is a good idea... for magnet swapping. An A3 sounds pretty cool in a 59. Has less lows so it should sound less woofy while also having more give. But some people don't dig the A3 because of the extremely low output.

I never magnet swap a 490R so I can't say... but A3 and A4 should have less lows. However, though I love Gibson pickups, I find them more muddy than their counterparts...

Hopefully this helps a little! Hopefully someone else more informative can chime in
 
AllHailDIO said:
Ah I see

Hmm... the Full Shred may still be a good bet but yah, definitely not a true PAF type.

I think a 59 is a good idea... for magnet swapping. An A3 sounds pretty cool in a 59. Has less lows so it should sound less woofy while also having more give. But some people don't dig the A3 because of the extremely low output.

I never magnet swap a 490R so I can't say... but A3 and A4 should have less lows. However, though I love Gibson pickups, I find them more muddy than their counterparts...

Hopefully this helps a little! Hopefully someone else more informative can chime in
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Thank you....I Love the 59s and have used many over the years,but I have also run into them being pretty woofy in some cases...I'm trying not to purchase another pickup at this time honestly...LOL...I have swapped to A4s but I don't think I've done A3.

My research shows that this 1985 pickup was called the P490 and they used the Shaw pickups during this time too...Mine may be a Shaw but I don't think so.

I took this out of my SG probably for the same reason and normally favor the SD pickups.
 
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STRATDELUXER97 said:
Thank you....I Love the 59s and have used many over the years,but I have also run into them being pretty woofy in some cases...I'm trying not to purchase another pickup at this time honestly...LOL...I have swapped to A4s but I don't think I've done A3.

My research shows that this 1985 pickup was called the P490 and they used the Shaw pickups during this time too...Mine may be a Shaw but I don't think so.

I took this out of my SG probably for the same reason and normally favor the SD pickups.
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Haha I hear that! I've been trying not to purchase parts etc too but I keep finding myself with early Xmas gifts :laughing: oops...?

At least I have everyone elses gifts too!

P490 huh? Oh man, that sounds rad! I definitely don't have any Shaw pickups, let alone pickups from that time. In fact, that pickup is older than me haha...

Anyway, I've swapped polescrews with allen bolts on neck humbuckers... or completely remove the polescrews all together. The former helps a little (though changes the attack of the note) and the latter definitely helps but as you would imagine, dramatically decreases the output and resonance. IDK if you've given either a try but definitely easy, and more importantly... won't hurt your wallet :bigthumb:

Also, its good to meet another SG player :beerchug:
 
AllHailDIO said:
Haha I hear that! I've been trying not to purchase parts etc too but I keep finding myself with early Xmas gifts :laughing: oops...?

At least I have everyone elses gifts too!

P490 huh? Oh man, that sounds rad! I definitely don't have any Shaw pickups, let alone pickups from that time. In fact, that pickup is older than me haha...

Anyway, I've swapped polescrews with allen bolts on neck humbuckers... or completely remove the polescrews all together. The former helps a little (though changes the attack of the note) and the latter definitely helps but as you would imagine, dramatically decreases the output and resonance. IDK if you've given either a try but definitely easy, and more importantly... won't hurt your wallet :bigthumb:

Also, its good to meet another SG player :beerchug:
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Appreciate the posts my friend....Yes bought the SG back in like 1990 in L.I. NY where I grew up...I also own many other guitars.Mainly a strat player and I have like 8 of them now and many other guitars....The pickup is close to where it needs to be but I'm fussy.LOL
 
i had a SHORT RCA5 in an 490R for a short while. don't remember too much, but it was not woofy.
Liked it better than stock.
 
If you really want to go through the effort of modding a pickup instead of just replacing it, I'd copy the Invader Neck and wire in a small capacitor to one of the coils. If you read through this thread, or simply hit a search engine with "invader neck capacitor", you'll find plenty of information to help you pick the right value and perform the mod. (There is no one universal value that works for all pickups, so you do need to do your own research and testing.) Essentially you're putting a high pass on one coil, so the pickup is getting all upper-mids and treble from both coils fully, but the lower-mids and bass are offset, only fully coming through on one coil, with the modded coil only producing about half the usual low-end.

However, really it just sounds like you want a SD Jazz.
 
You know, I was never able to get a Gibson 490 to sound good, either. Nothing I tried worked...it was bland, weak, and uninspiring to play.
 
STRATDELUXER97 said:
Appreciate the posts my friend....Yes bought the SG back in like 1990 in L.I. NY where I grew up...I also own many other guitars.Mainly a strat player and I have like 8 of them now and many other guitars....The pickup is close to where it needs to be but I'm fussy.LOL
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Haha that's a lot of guitars! And hey, I know how that is (wrestling with a pickup etc)... We guitarists are picky! Haha
Besides my acoustic, all I play are SGs and Strats (if a "Super Strat" can be considered as one) :headbang:

Good luck finding a neck humbucker. Maybe a 59 is a good place to start. You can replace the polescrews with allen bolts and try an A4 to start.
 
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Hey John. For clean, clear and chimey tone from a neck humbucker, I use a roughcast Alnico 3 from addiction FX.

I use it in an Antiquity set in one of my PRS Custom 22 guitars. In the bridge I have the original A2.

I've also used RCA3 in a neck 59 with good results.

The only drawback to using RCA3 in a neck humbucker is that it doesn't do overdriven tones as well as A2, A4 or A5.

But that's not really a problem because I just use my bridge pickup for the overdriven tones and the British Blues tones I love.

So what I have with this set is a neck pickup devoted to clean, clear and chimey and a bridge pickup that gets the British Blues tones.

They also combine beautifully for a sound that's great for both clean and overdriven tones.

When I say clean, clear and chimey I'm thinking of Lindsey Buckingham/Fleetwood Mac, Mike Campbell/Tom Petty, Pretenders, Beatles, Eagles...those sort of clean tones. Country/Rock, Folk/Rock, Funk, R&B, Country and jazz. My RCA3 neck buckers do those tones well.

I don't know about your pickup though. My experience is with 59's and Antiquitys and the RCA3 neck combined with a RCA2 bridge or RCA5 gives me a range of tones in one guitar that's unbeatable.

I don't use that in every guitar but it's fabulous to have one great guitar in your collection set up that way.
 
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Hey John! Good to see you around. I skimmed over the post and caught some key words; clear, clean, chimey, vintage output, PAF. You sir, would love the Whole Lotta Humbucker! I use one now with a Custom Custom in the bridge of a Strat and I gotta say the setup is pretty sweet. It splits nice too. One thing did discover was that I had to have the tone control hooked up to the neck pickup. My original setup had it off the bridge only but I soon changed it to be off the volume control so it affects both pickups. The WLH was simply too bright without it. 500K volume and 250K tone.
 
ArtieToo said:
Hey John. LTNS. Just wanted to say "hey."
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Wow hi Artie....Hey Lew and Erik too....What a nice blast from the past hearing from you guys.Hope you guys are doing great,What a year huh guys? I do pop in on the forums once in awhile but haven't posted anything.Then a buddy hands me this lefty Ibanez strat that is pretty cool and has a nice comfy neck on it...And bingo right back to tweaking stuff again...LOL....I haven't done a magnet swap in quite a long time and so we forget stuff....Always enjoyed the forums and the knowledge and people on it. Still honestly the SD pickups are my favorite.

The only reason I have been dealing with this Gibson pickup,is because I've had it forever and it wasn't being used...Rather than shelling out for another SD pickup.The stock Ibanez pickups I really didn't care for...So it has a JB in the bridge and the N pickup is a work in progress....LOL..
 
Mincer said:
You know, I was never able to get a Gibson 490 to sound good, either. Nothing I tried worked...it was bland, weak, and uninspiring to play.
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Dave I wanted to say hello to you also and I hope all is great in your world...Lots of great memories all the way back to the early 2000s via the forums.Will try to pop on more often.
 
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