Re: Opposite pickup types, dose it work?
I put a ceramic Duncan custom and an Alnico II Pro neck into the same Schecter. The inbetween tones on the 5-way switch were awesome! But the A2P sounded weak by itself, despite some tweaking with height, polepiece height, etc. I ended up selling the guitar. So now my general rule of thumb is to imagine a "ladder" of tone, more aggressive toward the top:
1. Ceramic
2. Alnico V
3. Alnico II
...and take no more than one step at a time. That is, Ceramic + Alnico V okay, and Alnico II + Alnico V okay. I've never messed with Alnico 8, but from what the other threads say, it'd be "1.5" on my list. I wonder if anyone has tried A8 with A2....might be cool because of the extra mids in A8 (as I hear it told....) I am currently swapping my guitar over to all A2 (CC/A2Pn) as soon as my tech can do it, though...I want a warmer sound.
But hey, whatever works for you and your needs...I've never liked active pickups, but there are plenty who swear by them. I can't imagine going active + Alnico II. I tried active once back in the late '80s...batteries inside a guitar kinda freaked me out....:eek13:
