New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

[topper]

My collection is growing and I'm having fun with it. To set the scene, I am lucky enough to own the following guitars with humbuckers:

Brian Moore i9.13 HSH

• Bridge: Seymour Duncan Custom
• Middle: Seymour Duncan Custom Stack
• Neck: Seymour Duncan Jazz

Chapman ML-1 HSS

• Bridge: Seymour Duncan Distortion
• Middle: Seymour Duncan Hot Rails
• Neck: Seymour Duncan Hot Rails

PRS SE Singlecut Dual Humbucker

• Bridge: Bill Lawrence L-90 6H
• Neck: Bill Lawrence L-90 4H

PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt Dual Humbucker

• Bridge: Bill Lawrence L-500 XL
• Neck: Bill Lawrence L-500 R

I'm looking to upgrade pickups in the following guitars. I'm looking for something rocking but not too hot, articulation is important but so is balls. I generally play from crunchy to "soaring" gain, but not high-gain by modern standards. Note I'm not a JB fan, it's just not for me, mids are important for sure, but something about its voicing doesn't sit well with my style / rig / fingers / ears / whatever.

• Chapman ML-2 Dual Humbucker
• Chapman ML-3 Tele-style routed for singles

The ML-2 had the L-500s in for a long time, but I moved them to the Akerfeldt, so now I'm looking for a couple of humbuckers to slot in. Was thinking of:

• '59 neck and bridge
• '59 neck, 59 / Custom Hybrid bridge
• '59 neck, Custom 5 bridge

I'd like the ML-3 to be slightly hotter than a classic Tele, I have a Squier Classic Vibe to handle classic sounds. I might have considered Hot Rails, but they're more than slightly hot, they lose the Tele bite, and I have a pair in my ML-1. I don't feel like fighting hum, so I guess a stacked option might suit. Was thinking of:

• Vintage Stack neck and bridge
• Vintage Stack neck / Hot Stack neck

Thanks for reading this far, any advice appreciated, if you have played these pickups in similar settings even more so.

 

[Mincer]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

I own a Brian Moore, too (C-55PM). I love the Alnico II Pro and the Custom Custom. Those are good pickups for any of the HH bolt-ons you might have. I dig the Vintage Stacks in Teles. My only other choice for a Tele is a Jerry Donahue with a Seth Lover humbucker in the neck.

 

[topper]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

Thanks for the answer. By the way, the ML-2 (dual humbucker HH) is a set neck, and the ML-3 (dual single route Tele-style) is a bolt-on neck.

Out of interest, why the Alnico II Pro / Custom Custom over the '59 pair? I already have the Jazz / Custom combo in my BM, I thought the '59s would be a bit further away from that.

Cool to hear you dig the Vintage Stacks, any love for the Hot Stack?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

I think for the ML-3 you had a pretty good idea going with the Hot Stack bridge, Vintage Stack neck. For the ML-2 though, I'd say you are better off with a Sentient neck, 59/C bridge. It will end up being fairly similar to the 59n and 59/C combo that you mentioned, but I find the Sentient better matches the 59/C. The way the merchandising literature describes it, the Sentient is supposed to sound about halfway between a 59n and a Jazz, and to me that is right on the money. These pickups work so well together that SD could easily sell them as a set. I'd recommend 250k pots for both volume and tone with this setup.

 

[Mincer]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

Thanks for the answer. By the way, the ML-2 (dual humbucker HH) is a set neck, and the ML-3 (dual single route Tele-style) is a bolt-on neck.

Out of interest, why the Alnico II Pro / Custom Custom over the '59 pair? I already have the Jazz / Custom combo in my BM, I thought the '59s would be a bit further away from that.

Cool to hear you dig the Vintage Stacks, any love for the Hot Stack?

The 59 would be too bright in my Brian Moore...it is actually a very bright guitar. It came with the Alnico II Pro, which I really like. The bridge was a JB, which was super harsh. A Custom Custom fixed that. Even with these swaps, it isn't a warm, buttery sound (which is what I hoped for). But I use that guitar mostly for midi signals, and processing the magnetic signals all to hell, so I can deal with it.
The Hot Stack is a pickup I would like in the bridge, but I think I personally need something not as compressed for the neck.

 

[topper]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

I think for the ML-3 you had a pretty good idea going with the Hot Stack bridge, Vintage Stack neck. For the ML-2 though, I'd say you are better off with a Sentient neck, 59/C bridge. It will end up being fairly similar to the 59n and 59/C combo that you mentioned, but I find the Sentient better matches the 59/C. The way the merchandising literature describes it, the Sentient is supposed to sound about halfway between a 59n and a Jazz, and to me that is right on the money. These pickups work so well together that SD could easily sell them as a set. I'd recommend 250k pots for both volume and tone with this setup.

Interesting, didn't know about the Sentient. So why that combo over the vanilla '59s?

The 59 would be too bright in my Brian Moore...it is actually a very bright guitar. It came with the Alnico II Pro, which I really like. The bridge was a JB, which was super harsh. A Custom Custom fixed that. Even with these swaps, it isn't a warm, buttery sound (which is what I hoped for). But I use that guitar mostly for midi signals, and processing the magnetic signals all to hell, so I can deal with it.
The Hot Stack is a pickup I would like in the bridge, but I think I personally need something not as compressed for the neck.

I'll whisper it softly, because I clicked on your page and you're a phenomenal musician... I personally don't believe that the wood in a solid body electric guitar makes a perceptible difference to the sound. Having said that, my Brian Moore came with the same two pickups - as you can see from my OP, I swapped them both out. The Jazz for the Alnico II Pro because... Don't remember, and the Custom for the JB because I also found the JB super harsh and simply for from the tone "in my head".

So you wouldn't be against the Hot Stack in the ML-3 bridge... That's what I was suggesting. I just think that it can give the ML-3 a more ballsy tone than my Classic Vibe Teles, in which the Tonerider pickups offer great dynamics and crunch. I also like blades as you see from my Bill (and Becky) Lawrence love affair.

 

[Mincer]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

Thanks!
Yeah, I think the Hot Stack would be a good choice. It would certainly be more ballsy.

 

[topper]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

The '59 / Custom Hybrid / Sentient combination seems interesting. Indeed I want a modern touch and the vanilla '59s are cool but vintage, which is less the vibe I want with this guitar (ML-2). The Sentient lead me to think about the Pegasus in the bridge. How would the Pegasus do vs the Hybrid based on what I'm looking for?

At this point I suspect they're all good, but I might as well try to be as sure as I can before I pull the trigger.

 

[topper]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

Another bump, hoping someone can answer on '59 / Custom Hybrid vs Pegasus in the bridge for my use case.

 

[Mincer]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

The Pegasus certainly has some compression going on that I don't feel in the Hybrid. The EQ is similar, though.

 

[topper]

Re: New pickups in modern dual humbucker / tele-style guitars

Thanks for answering the right question (I wrote Sentient instead of Pegasus in the bridge, now edited).