New to the forums

zilla

New member
Hi All.

I'm new to the forums (and Duncans), but I've been playing for longer than I'd care to admit :)

I was hoping for some advice for pickups in two different gutiars. I play a lot of hard rock/metal from van halen to ratt to gnr to dream theater to satch and vai. I'm looking to copy anyone's tone, i just want something that works for me.

Gutiar 1: Frankenstrat. Warmoth maple neck with ebony board. mahogany body. HSS config and a locking trem. This was my main axe for over a decade and it had a Tom Anderson H3 pickup in the bridge. I still love the H3 for solo work, but my tastes have changed and find that it's a bit muddy and flubby for rhythms and not tight at all. I tried swapping in a dimarzio evolution that i had kicking around (hated it in my rg550.. thought that the mahogany body might tame the shrillness.. no such luck). I've seen some vids of the suhr doug aldrich pup and that impressed me. there are some bareknuckles that seem interesting, but i can't justify that kind of coin on a pup. I'd love an H3 that is tighter and more defined for rhythm playing. This guitar usually has light top heavy bottom strings 9-46. Whatever I put in here MUST be 4-conductor.

Guitar 2: PRS SE 245.
Stock pups are 'ok' but maybe a bit too vintage-y for me. they don't really work for me when it comes to more modern playing. They kind of get flubby when you start playing fast palm muting. I don't like how they sound when i play lower tunings. Some guys on the PRS forums are raving over BKP Mules, but again, i can't justify that price tag. I'd like to get something with nickle covers to get that vintage look, but with a modern tone. There's a guy near me who's selling a JB/jazz with chrome covers, but i don't want chrome. I know this is a classic set for a les paul, but would this work for D or Db tunings? I'm kind of flexible on 2-conductor or 4-conductor. AGain, I was thinking about the doug aldrich pups or maybe alnico II's but I'm not sure how the A2 or slash pups would handle high gain metal.

kind of off topic a bit, but I love the low friction Bourns pots in the EVH guitars. Do they make a low friction push/pull version of this pot?

Thanks for looking!

Tim


Edit: one thing that I forgot to add, and I'm really anal about this. When I'm playing and hit a chord, I want to be able to hear every single note in that chord ring out, not have it sound like a flubby mess. I want something that keeps definition, is tight, but is still warm. The one thing I *HATE* about the evolution is the shrillness of it.
 
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Re: New to the forums

Greetings and welcome to the forum!

Your needs are somewhat out of my realm of expertise. But there are guys here that will definitely give you the low down and the hook up.

On the EVH strat, a standard solution would be the Duncan Custom Custom. You'll likely want a tighter bass response so swapping out the bass screws for either hex scres as found in a Full Shred, or finding shorter screws, or clipping the ones in there, will do the trick. Might be exactly what you want there.

As for the 245, the Distortion is a very popular pup for down-tuning. Yet for the clarity you want, I generally recommend low output pups, classic PAF style. Duncan makes a number of those - it's sort of 'their thing'

Anyway - hang in there. By Sunday night I'm sure a numbr of dudes here will have you hooked up. And, given your particular tastes, I'm going to guess right out of the gate that you need to hear from the mag swap crowd. They may well have the suggestion to get you exactly what you need.
 
Re: New to the forums

welcome!

You should try a Full Shred set (or at least a full shred bridge) in your SE245. They are excellent for down tuning because they are awesomely tight, not super high output, so they are quite clear from string to string, and in mahogany, it retains a nice warm and balanced tone. Granted, it's a bright pickup, but mahogany tends to tame that high end.
 
Re: New to the forums

Thanks for the replies.

AniML: do you know if those bourns are the same low friction ones as the EVH uses?

GuitarDoc: i was just going to ask about the screaming demon. is it available with a nickel cover?

Aceman: how does changing the pole pieces from hex to screw and the length affect the pickup performance?

Cheers
 
Re: New to the forums

Don't know, I just remembered they carried a full line of bournes. Give them a call or email
 
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