Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

[prologsound]

Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Hej folk,

I need some advice for new pickups. I bought a used '95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series. She has built active EMG pickups (Zakk Wylde Set) which I do not really like. They sound too sterile to me.
The guitar has a body made of poplar. The fingerboard is made of ebony. I would imagine that here the poplar body could be important for the sound properties.

I usually tune in a semitone lower or a whole tone lower on D standart.

This guitar is made for metal music and it should be used for that as well. I would like to show you some sound samples from well-known bands, so that you have a rough idea of what the pickups are for.

good standing lead sound, nice clean parts

I can only post 1 video so here are the 2 links
https://youtu.be/muAc0OQKxWo
great heavy sound with "soul", not too much high gain

https://youtu.be/LbLzL8akcX4
the hardest band in the list. Classic Black / Death from Sweden, great lead sound, chrushing heavy rhythm.

I had planned to get the Black Winter set. I am however undecided regarding the poplar body of my Jackson Rhoads.
Maybe there are experiences here in the forum.

Thanks in advance for any answers or tips.

cheers

 

[Golem]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

I’d consider trying the 18 volt mod if there’s room first, or at least checking demos of it. I think it’s a slight improvement.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Welcome to the forum!

My poplar-bodied guitar is the middy-est, mushy-est mess. I had to get very bright, scooped pickups, which now make it great. Do you want to stay with actives, or are you open to passives? That EMG set is sorta sterile sounding, but I think that's why Zakk uses them.

 

[prologsound]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Welcome to the forum!

My poplar-bodied guitar is the middy-est, mushy-est mess. I had to get very bright, scooped pickups, which now make it great. Do you want to stay with actives, or are you open to passives? That EMG set is sorta sterile sounding, but I think that's why Zakk uses them.

Thanks for the welcome ....
I definitely want to use passive pickups. The info I forgot to mention, sorry.
The sound on my new old Rhoads was thinner than expected. If you played distorted chords you could hear the individual strings well but it was missing the "heaviness" (...but not in the more gain/output sense).
Hope you guys understand? Guitarist speak is sometimes weird

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Poplar is a weird wood. I've heard it do unpredictable things. In your case, it sounds like you need mids, so I'd go with a Black Winter set. Less modern would be an Alnico II Pro & Custom Custom.

 

[prologsound]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

It will probably be the Black Winter. Or does anyone still have a good idea what else to take?

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

The Poplar RR is the only guitar I haven't liked the sh6 in. I've had good luck with dimebucker, and patb, and the custom.

 

[prologsound]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

The Poplar RR is the only guitar I haven't liked the sh6 in. I've had good luck with dimebucker, and patb, and the custom.

What did you dislike about the SH-6 sound? Can you describe that in more detail?

 

[DonP]

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

Re: Pickup Advice for ´95 Jackson Rhoads USA Series

I have a Lightning Sky 1995 RR USA with the stock OEM Bill Lawrence USA pickups (not the Bill and Becky ones) . Sounds good to me. I'm sure they'd work good for de-tuned stuff.