Pick my Pickups

[jadedlikeme]

So I got an Ibanez SCA, hardtail, bolt on neck -- thin mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, 5 way switch. Playing through a Randall Rh100G2 into a 1x12 with a (soon to be) Eminence Tonker. I'm ready to change out my stock pickups.

I'm thinking a JB in the bridge and a '59 in the neck. Do these pups do single coil tapping well? The music style is mostly Hard rock, classic rock and some metal.

Any other suggestions and if you could point me to some sound clips in the "tips and clips" forum that'd be great too!

Cheers!

 

[jadedlikeme]

Re: Pick my Pickups

Oh yeah, how is the sustain on these pups, and do they spit out good harmonics?

 

[Travis]

Re: Pick my Pickups

I was never a big fan of the JB, although a lot of people praise them like crazy. The JB is a higher output pickup that has great harmonics and sustain, supposedly. I have always found it lacking. The Distortion has better sustain, better harmonics, and a better eq curve to my ears. The JB can be a little brittle due to the upper mids. The Distortion stys tight in the bottom, with more lower mids, and a bit of a compressed character. I will always recommend a Distortion over a JB for hard rock/metal. The 59 is a great neck pickup for versatility and provides awesome cleans and a pure tone when under high gain. I find that it doesn't sustain wuite as long as some higher output pickups, but that's a small tradeoff for the purity of tone it provides.

 

[theodie]

Re: Pick my Pickups

I was never a big fan of the JB, although a lot of people praise them like crazy. The JB is a higher output pickup that has great harmonics and sustain, supposedly. I have always found it lacking. The Distortion has better sustain, better harmonics, and a better eq curve to my ears. The JB can be a little brittle due to the upper mids. The Distortion stys tight in the bottom, with more lower mids, and a bit of a compressed character. I will always recommend a Distortion over a JB for hard rock/metal. The 59 is a great neck pickup for versatility and provides awesome cleans and a pure tone when under high gain. I find that it doesn't sustain wuite as long as some higher output pickups, but that's a small tradeoff for the purity of tone it provides.

+1 but, Since the guitar is thin bodied I would go with a Custom Custom in the bridge to fatten it up a little, it would work better for classic rock, hard rock, and it could also pull of metal.

 

[jadedlikeme]

Re: Pick my Pickups

Cool. So Duncan Distortion or Custom Custom with a '59 in the neck.

Any others to look into?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Pick my Pickups

I'm a big fan of the APH/CC combo in a thin guitar for hard rock. You can also get a Custom at the bridge spot. It's going to be brighter and more aggressive than the CC, but it will still sound fat and have a good split tone.

BTW, I'm not fond of the 59 at the neck. It's a bit too boomy in that position for my tastes. I much preffer the APH, PG, Seth Lover, or Jazz.