Need neck pickup suggestions to go with Duncan Distortion

[heymcz]

Hi, I am a long-time lurker, first-time poster. I have an Ibanez SZ520QM (25.1" scale, neck-through mahogany with maple cap) which I play into an all-tube Crate combo (VFX5112, which is modeled after a Marshall, I believe) using the occasional Maxon effect. I need neck pickup suggestions to go with the TB-6 Duncan Distortion that I'm putting in the bridge (essentiallY replacing the stock pickup with its better made USA counterpart). Right now, I have a '59 in the neck, which sounds okay, but a little flat and flabby. I like its power, but I'm coming off of owning a Les Paul with Bustbuckers and I want a similar "singing" neck tone.

I have searched the forums already, and so I have a Jazz neck pickup on order. It seems that's a popular choice for the music I play. But I need to know what to swap out using the 21-day return policy for the '59 as my contingency plan. So I need advice quick! Should I try something weird like put a Custom in the neck? Get a matching Distortion neck? Is there something else I haven't considered?

Style of Music I play is hard rock (AC/DC, VH, Darkness) to light '80s metal (Lynch Mob, Icon, Danger Danger), but I like to keep it a little updated (see below for my thoughts on the JB). The TB-6 distortion sounds great to my ears, even clean.

I don't do my own wiring, so I'm just looking for stock suggestions (esp. bridge-in-the-neck position kinda stuff) that I may not have considered.

If it helps, here are the pickups I have owned and what I didn't like about them:
*JB bridge: Way too "live" and hard to control, icepick clean (no, I'm not switching out the pots)
*SD Screamin' Demon: weak and pathetic in my Ibanez, the '59 neck smoked it....
*SD Custom (ceramic): nice, but the Distortion is fuller and has more sparkle and color to my ears
*SD APH-1 Neck: too faint, not enough clarity in a dark guitar
*Gibson BurstBucker Pro Bridge: nice, but a little nasal
*Gibson BurstBucker Pro Neck: nice, but got sold with the Les Paul (probably wouldn't sound the same due to scale differences, etc.)
*SD '59 Neck: As above, flat and flabby
*SD Full Shred Bridge: all treble, no sustain or body to the tone
*SD Distortion: Perfect, no complains (I turn down the mids a tad on my amp)
*Ibanez V8: utter crud, got me into this topic years ago
*DMZ Tone Zone: utter crud, no treble or cojones
*Ibanez V7: not a bad neck pickup, once I sunk it almost all of the way into the body of my old Ibanez SF470....

Oh, yeah, and it has to come in white, for aesthetics.

I am also open to other Manufacters' products for the long term, in case no Duncans work out, but I'd rather exhaust the possibilities here first. No active pickups, though...I'm set with the passive TB-6 bridge.

So, to summarize: which of these would you recommend as a backup?
*Distortion neck
*Custom in neck
*Custom custom in neck
*Other
*Non-Duncan other


Thanks for your time!
Michael (heymcz)
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[Young Angus]

Re: Need neck pickup suggestions to go with Duncan Distortion

As far as neck humbuckers in general go ive heard the new Dimarzio Virtual PAF is awesome, the absolute best neck humbucker to come out in a while...but of course this is only a few peoples opinions but read up about it on harmony central and see for yourself.

As far as duncans go, i wouldn't think you could go wrong with a matching Duncan Distortion in the neck just because you seem to like that vibe of things and probably couldn't go wrong with it...others you could try would be a pearly gates neck maybe or even an alnico 2 pro just for that bit of open sweetness. But i think the Jazz should fit the bill quite nicely by the sounds of things

 

[roadstar II]

Re: Need neck pickup suggestions to go with Duncan Distortion

the jazz is a great pup to go with any higher output duncan

 

[heymcz]

Re: Need neck pickup suggestions to go with Duncan Distortion

Cool, thanks...I was wary of ordering the Jazz at first, but I see a lot of people on Harmony Central and even Musician's Friend reviews recommending it. I guess my fear is that it will be all piercing treble with no thickness to the tone (couldn't be worse than a Screamin' Demon bridge, however.)

Thanks also for the DiMarzio suggestion; I will keep that on the backburner. Do you know what magnets they use? Their site is not as clear as Duncan's. Is that the best DiMarzio for a throaty, warbly, Les-Paul-like tone?

If possible, I'd like to combine an Alnico V neck with the ceramic for a variety of tone. It has to kick butt, however. The '59 is just too vintage sounding.

I forgot to mention that I have owned the HB-103 set briefly, and since it's based on the distortion neck and bridge, I was thinking that maybe it's not enough of a difference (with the HB-103s, it was just like rolling off the tone control a little when switching to the neck...not enough of a difference.) Anybody use anything weird like a custom neck with a distortion bridge? Does it sing?

Thanks again.
M.