Need PUP suggestions for new band

stm113

New member
Hey all I am looking for a new set of pups for a new band I am playing with. Here’s what I have going on, the guitar I’m going to be using is an early 2000’s Ibanez Saber Classic. Thin mahogany body, bold on maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 25.1” scale, dual hums hard tail bridge.




The kind of music we are going to be doing is a mixture of Blues, Funk, old pop maybe some late 90’s to mid ‘10’s country. I’ll be spending about half of my time in single coil mode. I am a hard rock guy so this is going to be a stretch for me.




I need a pup set that’s equally adept in SC mode as it is in HB. Right now in the bridge I have a Duncan Designed HB112, which was something I had wanted for years and I do dig the pup so it’ll make its way into something else. when I split it, it’s a little weak, nice tone but a bit weak. When I go full HB it’s a bit quacky, with a bit of a honk. This is something I can normally dial out but for this I want to keep my gear around “home base” settings. I do want something that's also going to be “player friendly” as I said I am used to playing Rock/Hard Rock/Metal so I'm used to using some gain and since I am dialing that way back in this deal, and diali g back the bite, I don't want to feel like my guitar (by way of the pups) is fighting me is that makes sense.




I appreciate any suggestions.




P.S. I do have quite a few guitars but Ive never been a SC player so all of my guitars are humbucker mid to ahigh gain and set up in Drop Dd, D Standard, Drop C and Drop B. This will be my only standard E guitar so I need to cover all the ground with this.
 
I'd say maybe a Jazz and 59/Custom Hybrid? The Hybrid sounds great split (so does the Jazz) and the Hybrid can also do many types of music without sounding or feeling too compressed.
 
59/Custom sounds good for the bridge pup. Also, just to play devil's advocate here, but perhaps try a gentle transition to some more SC type sounds? Maybe a Phat Cat (Silencer for noiseless!) in the neck position? I ignored all but high output humbuckers for ages, but then heard about HB sized P90s like the phat cat. Leans decently into SC tones when dialled back a little, and still rocks hard when needed!
 
Any member of the Custom family (Custom, Custom Custom, Custom 5, 59/Custom Hybrid) splits like a Fender single, almost quacks on it's own in my Jackson. You could also consider a StagMag for the bridge, which obviously splits even better and still does great PAF bridge sounds for blues. For the neck, yeah a Jazz is almost Fendery on it's own (I haven't tried it split), but I'd imagine split and combined with a bridge split would have the right Fendery quack for some country pickin' and/or funk.
 
Do you have an HSS Strat? It would be easier swapping for an SSS pickguard and the humbucker for a single-coil.
 
I was thinking the Jazz. also, mine split is not weak in any way. I would go with a Pearly Gates/Jazz combo for this gig and guitar. The PG split is very Stratty.
 
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