Newbie seeking pickup advice

[PurpleRon63]

I have played guitar for several years now, and as I'm getting older so is my taste in music. I have always played Hair Metal, but have recently started listening and playing quite alot of Roots rock - Rockabilly, Surf, with a bit of bebop jazz thrown in for good measure.

I am playing a repro-Wolfgang (couldn't afford or find a repro or reish Jazzmaster/Jaguar locally) with pickups that are - um - less than tonal, through a Line6 SpiderII. I have looked in on several other style-centric forums seeking advice, and have wound up here at SD. I feel I want humbuckers (TB1 '59 and SH2 Jazz?) but don't know whether I should go for p90 soapbars.

Are there any other rockers out there, with similar styles and/or gear that can steer me in the right direction?

Thanks! :fingersx:

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Newbie seeking pickup advice

Hi, welcome to the Forum!

The 59 and Jazz are great pickups to start with, as they will cover a lot of styles. What kind of wood is your guitar built from? What kind of bridge does your guitar have? These components impact the guitar's tone and influence your pickup decision.

For old school (and new school ) rock in a humbucker, I like the Pearly Gates set that I have in my Les Paul. In a P-90, I love the Phat Cat set I have in my Epi Sheraton. The Phat Cats are P-90's made to fit a humbucker rout and are based on the Vintage P-90 from Seymour Duncan. The Pearly Gates are reproductions of the pickups in Billy Gibbons' 59 Les Paul, which he named Pearly Gates.

 

[PurpleRon63]

Re: Newbie seeking pickup advice

"The 59 and Jazz are great pickups to start with, as they will cover a lot of styles. What kind of wood is your guitar built from? What kind of bridge does your guitar have? These components impact the guitar's tone and influence your pickup decision."

I honestly don't know what wood it is made of - got the axe from a small local music store and got no documentation, and I can't find a website for the manufacturer (Vintage): it is fairly heavy for its size. It has a FR bridge. It is a playable guitar, but I wish I had stumped up for the jag....

Who makes the PhatCats?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Newbie seeking pickup advice

Welcome!

If your influences are 80's Hair Metal as you say, I think you should stick with humbuckers. You probably have that kind of tone hard wired into your brain. :laugh2: I'd just get a nice set of vintage output humbuckers. Lots to choose from. Jazz/59 would be cool tho the Jazz/JB is Seymour's favorite. Lew

 

[kaknight]

Re: Newbie seeking pickup advice

Yeah, I come from an 80's rock background, and now play jazz, blues, and classic rock as well. I think that I have never been totally able to abondon the "crunch" of that era though. I would recommend that you really look at the Seymour Duncan website and read the descriptions. Then ask yourself what it is that each of your pickups doesn't have that you wish it did. Maybe your present bridge pup seems very bright. You might also want a lower output pickup because your present one doesn't clean up well. If that were the case, I would probably recommend you to AIIpro, or Seth Lover. But, say you think your bridge pup is too muddy, and doesn't give you the output that you wanted. Then I might recommend to you a Custom Custom. There are literally dozens of possibilities, and if you can throw us a bit of a bone about what you want compared to what you have, I'm sure that we can fit you to something

 

[PurpleRon63]

Re: Newbie seeking pickup advice

Yes, my roots are in the 80's - but have 'been there, done that' etc... My love now is in the Rockabilly scene - and have been listening to A LOT of Brian Setzer, Del Souls, Rev Heat and the originators: Cochran, Vincent, Holly, with a bit of a stray into some rock'n'roll-ey surf stuff (Beach Boys, Ventures)

I have recently discovered that Setzer uses TV Jones' pups on his Gretsches. Anyone able to offer a comparison between say the SD Jazz and the TVJ Classic?

The sound I am seeking is a growly twang - if such things can be described in text... Good clarity for single notes, but with some b*lls for chording...: a'la Telecaster, Jaguar, Gretsch (all the ones I can't afford!). What I don't want is the strat sound...

Thanks all

~R