New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Ironbird666

Ironbird666

New member
. . . and I'm looking to finally get my first pair of Seymour Duncan pickups in the near future. First off, I've been lurking here for a while now and I have to say this place is awesome. It's very rare you can go to a forum dedicated to a particular brand and discuss just about anything without people getting all upset over internet words. Kudos to all of you guys here! :friday:

Now on to business. I've been a Dimarzio/EMG guy for a number of years and have very, VERY little experience with SD pickups (a few tries with a JB/Jazz combo and the JB was not for me). It's been years since I've tried them and my tastes have changed drastically, and while I still love my Dimarzio's, I want to broaden the tonal variety in my herd a bit and think a pair of SD's will be the ticket. This particular guitar will be a 1992 Jackson Dinky Reverse Professional model with the Granite finish, Basswood body/Maple Neck. Of course, it is Floyd Rose equipped and while I wouldn't say it's "thin" it's definitely not a thunderous Les Paul.

I'm into pickups that have good midrange, have tight bottom end, and are nice and articulate in the high end. I play a lot of fast, thrashy riffs and have a tendency to accent them with full minor chord stabs so I like hearing those high strings really shimmer and shine when I hit those big chords. The pickups I was looking at are the Custom, the PATB-1, and the Full Shred for the bridge. Right now I was leaning towards the PATB-1 as it seems to have the midrange and fullness I'd like more than the Full Shred will. I don't want the PATB-2 since it's a bit more high output than I really want now. The pickups I listed are about as high output as I'd like to go if possible, but I'm open to any and all suggestions. As for Neck pickups, I was thinking the Jazz or maybe the PATB-1n would be fine. Suggestions are greatly appreciated for the neck position as well!

I'll be playing the guitar through my Hughes & Kettner Coreblade which is already a very tight, chunky amp so if a pickup isn't surgical tight it shouldn't be an issue. The amp tends to take care of tightening up most pickups enough to make me happy. Please, no Dimarzio recs. I LOVE Dimarzio's but I'm wanting that SD flavor in this particular guitar. Thanks for your time guys, I really appreciate any and all help I get with this particular subject! :)


I looked for an introductory thread on the forum and didn't see one, sorry if I'm not posting my first post in the correct location.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

welcome to the forum!

i think the patb1 could be just what you are looking for. its a nice fat but clear sounding medium output bridge pup
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

jeremy said:
welcome to the forum!

i think the patb1 could be just what you are looking for. its a nice fat but clear sounding medium output bridge pup
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Thanks man! It really seems like a good pickup. I've heard it's sort of like a refined Custom, would that be somewhat correct?
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

I'm sure you'll be well taken care of with tone advice (and I love the PATB-1b, I think it's a totally under-the-radar pickup). I just wanted to say welcome to the forum.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Evan Skopp said:
I'm sure you'll be well taken care of with tone advice (and I love the PATB-1b, I think it's a totally under-the-radar pickup). I just wanted to say welcome to the forum.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome and the suggestions so far! I'm leaning pretty hard towards the PATB-1b unless a bunch of guys come here and say it's not the right pickup for the job.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

I see you're in the States. That means you have three weeks from the date you buy your pickup to try it our in your guitar and if at anytime during those 21 days, you're not 100% satisfied with the sound of the pickup, you can return it to Seymour Duncan and get a full credit toward any other pickup you'd like to try out. Click here to read about this insurance policy that comes standard with every Seymour Duncan pickup sold in the USA and several other countries.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

I have an old Ibanez RG570, basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard with licensed Floyd Rose bridge (I forget which Edge model, wasn't the low profile one that came out a year or two later...). I tried a JB as a replacement pickup and loved the lead tone, but always had trouble with the lack of bass and excess of lower mids.

PATB-1b is just perfect in the guitar. Brighter but less shrill than the JB, ridiculously punchier. More open tone, more bass but more controlled lower mids than the JB. Really does make the guitar respond more like a beefy Les Paul, tonewise. Harmonics are different from a JB (don't have that beamy upper mid thing), but are still ridiculously fun. I haven't found a style of music it doesn't work for. Due to high output, can be stiff with some modellers for cleans, but that goes away with even just a bit of gain.

For thrash, it's a lot tighter for rhythm than the JB was (I know the JB can work in the right guitar, but we're talking basswood with floating vibrato here, not mahogany fixed bridge or basswood with a maple cap). As long as you don't demand ceramic punch and bite, you'll likely be happy.

The Full Shred has more mids, but it's more compressed in feel. Awesome for downtuned metal, though. Very tight. Not quite as flexible a pickup by most accounts.

PATB-2 is an awesome gonzo metal pickup, somewhere between the Distortion and Invader for rhythm & riffs, but more like a thicker and tighter JB on leads. Terrific growl, insane beamy harmonics. But quite stiff for low gain or cleans. Very compressed, but articulate in spite of huge output.

If you don't mind having to switch to neck for PAF cleans & low gain, the PATB-2 is a monster for heavier gain. Great for both lead and rhythm. If you want more flexibility I'd stick with the PATB-1b. Or Full Shred if you want blazing tight rhythms.

I plan on eventually upgrading to a PATB-1n in the neck, but am still messing with the JB magnet swapped to A3 and with hex screws under the wound strings. Broad mids, very fat but not dark, much less loose than you'd expect from a JB in the neck. Output fairly moderate because of the weak magnet.

I'd go with the PATB-1n over the jazz if you are doing a Parallel Axis bridge. PATB-1n seems to be somewhere between a '59 and a Jazz neck, no boom, sparkly highs, great for cleans or distortion. Jazz is sometimes bland under some types of distortion, PATB-1n seems more flexible under gain.

If you went with the Full Shred bridge, I'd look at a Full Shred neck.

Hope that helps!
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Despair, that's exactly what I was looking for! Looks like the PATB-1b and PATB-1n will be perfect for what I want. My amp is plenty tight and punchy enough with alnico or ceramic pickups so I don't NEED ceramic by any means. All of the choices sound awesome but I think I've found the first set I'm going to try, thanks everyone!

It will be a month or so before I get them but I'll update this post with my thoughts and a clip if I get a chance. :)
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

By the way, if you find it is lacking in mids and has kind of an exaggerated twang with pianolike bass & steely high end, you have it too close to the strings.

Backing it off until the mids come up and it mellows out, it still has plenty of zing but is more usable for non-country styles. Turns into an amazing all around pickup. It can go a lot further from the strings before losing significant volume than conventional pickups, so be adventurous, focus on tone not output when adjusting height.

The PATB-1b is ridiculously responsive to tweaking volume and tone at the guitar, particularly for a high output pickup. In this guitar never liked the JB except with volume & tone at max, and that made it uncomfortably shrill. With the tone rolled down a fair bit, the PATB-1b starts behaving more like a tighter Custom Custom. Tone about maxed with volume backed off a bit, it gets a bit more PAFlike, or at least like the Custom 5.

It's ridiculously responsive to pick attack. Very lively for leads. But not random or splatty for rhythm parts, though it might take a bit to get comfortable with if you are used to less dynamic pickups. I was instantly in love with that, just took me a bit to figure out the height that made it sound right in my guitar.
 
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Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

I tend to play with my pickups fairly lower than most "metal dudes" I know but thanks for the heads-up regardless. I've learned over the years pickups really seem to open up and sound their best when they are backed away from the strings, just like you said. From your description I find it odd these pickups are so under the radar. I looked online for a bit of information and found some, but it wasn't that easy to find compared to some of the other models. I'm guessing people are turned off by the look of them?

Once again thanks, your information is not making the wait any easier for me! :lmao:
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

So I installed my first set of SD's into my old Jackson Dinky Reverse, '59 neck and PATB-1 bridge. After being an EMG (which I've been purging from my herd lately) and a Dimarzio fan for years I can now say I've welcomed SD pickups into the herd with open arms! These pickups sounds great in this guitar, the '59 is nice and smooth with just a touch of bite. It's an excellent guitar for leads and sounds exceptionally well for cleans, but you dudes know this already! :lmao:

The PATB-1 is exactly what I wanted as well. Nice and beefy, tight, huge mids, very articulate. I appreciate everyone who pitched in to this thread and gave advice to me, it turned out to be killer! Next up will be a Custom Custom and Alnico 2 Pro for me LTD KH602, EMG's got to GTFO.

Here's a couple pics of the guitar because I figure someone will ask:
IMG_3501.jpg


IMG_3499.jpg
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Man, that thing looks awesome! I think people really are turned off by the look of the PATB1 but if it sounds that good then who cares?

I've never tried one but the description alone is making me drool. I'm currently building a hardtail jazzmaster and I might consider trying one out.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Welcome aboard!

I've got a variety of PU's from different manufacturers, but by far, I have more Duncans than any other brand. They're great. And the forum is full of helpful people. You came to the right place.
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

Thanks for the welcome!

I don't think I'll ever give up Dimarzio's for Duncan's but I like having the different flavor in some guitars. Once it's all said and done and the pickup swapping is complete it will be close to 50/50 between the two brands. I enjoy having the ability to explore different tones between different guitars, no use being stuck with just one brand IMO. I also have a set of Suhr Aldrich pickups that I adore, very nice take on hot PAF pickups.

JohnZAH,

Get one and don't look back!!!!!!
 
Re: New to the forum, new to SD pickups . . .

...and, wait, you'll suffer from the "let's-swap-that-magnet" syndrome sooner than you expect...
:)

This forum is awesome, really, there are a lot of real experts around, lot of fun.
 
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