108Dragon
New member
I posted earlier for some help choosing a set of pickups for my Epi LP Custom Plus. All of your input has been invaluable to me. Your experience has been like trying out pickups without actually having to buy them. lol
Anyhow, I tried the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifier combo. It didn't have the drive or EQ curve I was looking for in the Epi. Also, for what its worth, the Crunch Lab did not mix well with the Epi middle pickup for some reason. I guess I'll just use those in one of the Ibanez guitars where they seem to belong.
I have been buying my active pickups from John, at Pilgrim's Projects, for a while now. His knowledge and experience are tops. He also knows exactly what I'm talking about when I ask for the obscure items that I often do. I told him what I needed and he got with Seymour Duncan and requested a middle pickup to go with a set of Dave Mustaine actives he was going to send me. These require some explanation;
The Dave Mustaine LW-MET set is a set of Live Wire pickups where the bridge is EQ voiced like the JB and the neck is like a Jazz model. Way different than my normal selection of standard 18 volt Metal Live Wire. But then, these were going in a LP with a Mahogany body and Maple top. The Dimebucker was just right for the Sabre's mahogany body, so I figured these would do the LP justice.
The JB is notoriously middy. So I decided to use one of Artec's EXP active "parametric" single channel eq's in the form of a potentiometer, to level things out or actually scoop the EQ in that pickup. I wired everything up. Actually had to auger out the potentiometer holes in the guitar to fit the 100k pots that came with the active pickups.
I plugged the guitar into my solid state Beringer modeling amp and then the Marshall 4100. OMG! The difference was staggering. I'm running the pickups almost right on the strings, yet there is almost no magnetic string pull (typical of Seymour Duncan's actives). Bypassing the Artec yielded the best and sharpest tone from the bridge. It surprised me, yet not at the same time, due to the mahogany offsetting the middiness of the active JB. Running the Artec may come in handy for taking the edge off using the bridge for rythm playing, coupling the bridge and middle pickup does about the same thing.
Neck and middle "Jazz" pickups? Just like the Seymour description says, "Just because it says "Jazz" doesn't mean its just a jazz pickup". Can follow Slash or Stevie Ray Vaughn's stuff easy. Smoother stuff, if you back off the volume and tone a hair.
I haven't had a chance to try these new pickups in a full band atmousphere, but Livewires have never failed to impress me in any capacity.
All in all; pricey little bastards, but worth every penny. Consider the 9volt batteries "price of doing business in shred land" too. Ultra reliable pickups. Expect these to sound EXACTLY as Seymour says they will.
Anyhow, I tried the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifier combo. It didn't have the drive or EQ curve I was looking for in the Epi. Also, for what its worth, the Crunch Lab did not mix well with the Epi middle pickup for some reason. I guess I'll just use those in one of the Ibanez guitars where they seem to belong.
I have been buying my active pickups from John, at Pilgrim's Projects, for a while now. His knowledge and experience are tops. He also knows exactly what I'm talking about when I ask for the obscure items that I often do. I told him what I needed and he got with Seymour Duncan and requested a middle pickup to go with a set of Dave Mustaine actives he was going to send me. These require some explanation;
The Dave Mustaine LW-MET set is a set of Live Wire pickups where the bridge is EQ voiced like the JB and the neck is like a Jazz model. Way different than my normal selection of standard 18 volt Metal Live Wire. But then, these were going in a LP with a Mahogany body and Maple top. The Dimebucker was just right for the Sabre's mahogany body, so I figured these would do the LP justice.
The JB is notoriously middy. So I decided to use one of Artec's EXP active "parametric" single channel eq's in the form of a potentiometer, to level things out or actually scoop the EQ in that pickup. I wired everything up. Actually had to auger out the potentiometer holes in the guitar to fit the 100k pots that came with the active pickups.
I plugged the guitar into my solid state Beringer modeling amp and then the Marshall 4100. OMG! The difference was staggering. I'm running the pickups almost right on the strings, yet there is almost no magnetic string pull (typical of Seymour Duncan's actives). Bypassing the Artec yielded the best and sharpest tone from the bridge. It surprised me, yet not at the same time, due to the mahogany offsetting the middiness of the active JB. Running the Artec may come in handy for taking the edge off using the bridge for rythm playing, coupling the bridge and middle pickup does about the same thing.
Neck and middle "Jazz" pickups? Just like the Seymour description says, "Just because it says "Jazz" doesn't mean its just a jazz pickup". Can follow Slash or Stevie Ray Vaughn's stuff easy. Smoother stuff, if you back off the volume and tone a hair.
I haven't had a chance to try these new pickups in a full band atmousphere, but Livewires have never failed to impress me in any capacity.
All in all; pricey little bastards, but worth every penny. Consider the 9volt batteries "price of doing business in shred land" too. Ultra reliable pickups. Expect these to sound EXACTLY as Seymour says they will.