prs_kamikaze
New member
Hello everyone. Looking for some pickup advice for my '92 PRS CE24 Alder body/Maple top.
I use a Engl Powerball head and cab. Looking for something with preferably Alinco V's in both, only because i have never enjoyed the sound of Ceramics when clean -but open to other peoples opinions on the matter. My previous guitar that I sold to get my current was a PRS singlecut with a Seymour Duncan custom (SH-5) and a Seymour Duncan Jazz (SH-2)(coil-tapped). I really loved the brutal distortion of the sh-5 for metal riffs and leads, it was perfect,but hated its clean. The sh-2 i thought lacked dynamics for the jazz tone i'm searching for, was ok for clean (didn't have the 'wow' factor), sounded to muddy when distorted, and had an alright strat tone when coil tapped(probably due to it alinco V i thought).
I'm tryin to decide between Prs pickups, seymour duncans or Dimarzio's.
I've played around with different Prs pickups also, thought the hfs combo or the Singlecut 7's combo both lacked clarity and had no real definition for what I was looking for. Thought the McCarty pickups were good but had more of a vintage tone than what i'm mainly after.
In regards to types of tones i'm after, the following trys to summerize
1) A humbucker for playing distorted chords with clarity on what the chords are. In the progressive metal direction of Opeth and Dream theater. Lots of chunk on power chords, but more importantly clarity on 3 or 4 note chords when playing with distortion. I've played around with a Seymour duncan full shred in a friends PRS, which is what mickael ackerfeldt from opeth uses and would perfer something similar but with more clarity.
2) A humbucker for playing leads with a warm mid range, sparkle and bright attack, mainly and primarily like Greg Howe's tone, but with a little aspect of John Petrucci(solo albums) tone.
I plan to split, mix and match the humbuckers with a 5-way and push-pull pot. In doing this I am wanting to achieve the following tones.
3) A humbucker that when split will produce a texas specials Steve ray vaughn strat sound with a bit of scott henderson in there too. This is another reason why I enjoy Alinco V's, when split they can get a strat sound but I haven't come across a ceramic which can do this as well.
4) A warm clean tone with plenty of mids, very little of that woofy bass and a bit of treble, but not to much to make it twangy.
5) Funky tone -the previous strat tone with some warmth to it.
6) Hollow body jazz tone
Strong and pronounced harmonics are also very important as well as solid dynamics.
The first 3 are my most important.
I've emailed the dimarzio guys this and they told me to get the AT-1 and Liquifire DP227, any thoughts on that recommendation?
Is there any PRS pickup that can fulfill this quota to some degree?
Any other recommendations?
Cheers for any help guys
I use a Engl Powerball head and cab. Looking for something with preferably Alinco V's in both, only because i have never enjoyed the sound of Ceramics when clean -but open to other peoples opinions on the matter. My previous guitar that I sold to get my current was a PRS singlecut with a Seymour Duncan custom (SH-5) and a Seymour Duncan Jazz (SH-2)(coil-tapped). I really loved the brutal distortion of the sh-5 for metal riffs and leads, it was perfect,but hated its clean. The sh-2 i thought lacked dynamics for the jazz tone i'm searching for, was ok for clean (didn't have the 'wow' factor), sounded to muddy when distorted, and had an alright strat tone when coil tapped(probably due to it alinco V i thought).
I'm tryin to decide between Prs pickups, seymour duncans or Dimarzio's.
I've played around with different Prs pickups also, thought the hfs combo or the Singlecut 7's combo both lacked clarity and had no real definition for what I was looking for. Thought the McCarty pickups were good but had more of a vintage tone than what i'm mainly after.
In regards to types of tones i'm after, the following trys to summerize
1) A humbucker for playing distorted chords with clarity on what the chords are. In the progressive metal direction of Opeth and Dream theater. Lots of chunk on power chords, but more importantly clarity on 3 or 4 note chords when playing with distortion. I've played around with a Seymour duncan full shred in a friends PRS, which is what mickael ackerfeldt from opeth uses and would perfer something similar but with more clarity.
2) A humbucker for playing leads with a warm mid range, sparkle and bright attack, mainly and primarily like Greg Howe's tone, but with a little aspect of John Petrucci(solo albums) tone.
I plan to split, mix and match the humbuckers with a 5-way and push-pull pot. In doing this I am wanting to achieve the following tones.
3) A humbucker that when split will produce a texas specials Steve ray vaughn strat sound with a bit of scott henderson in there too. This is another reason why I enjoy Alinco V's, when split they can get a strat sound but I haven't come across a ceramic which can do this as well.
4) A warm clean tone with plenty of mids, very little of that woofy bass and a bit of treble, but not to much to make it twangy.
5) Funky tone -the previous strat tone with some warmth to it.
6) Hollow body jazz tone
Strong and pronounced harmonics are also very important as well as solid dynamics.
The first 3 are my most important.
I've emailed the dimarzio guys this and they told me to get the AT-1 and Liquifire DP227, any thoughts on that recommendation?
Is there any PRS pickup that can fulfill this quota to some degree?
Any other recommendations?
Cheers for any help guys
I haven't tried the Liquifire yet, but I heard a Dream Theater song last night off the new album, (I don't care for the keyboards or vocals), but Petrucci's rhythm tone sounded pretty good. The lead tone sounded kind of thin, but that could just be the way it was recorded. I've got his previous pickup, the D-Sonic, and that one sounds a little fuller to me. I'd also recommend Satriani's bridge pickups, Fred and Mo Joe. They can do really deep, aggressively tight rhythm. (Not a fan of Satriani either, by the way.)
that will do the trick. Maybe the distortion, but I'd go with the JB, cause its a bit less output, more mids and a tighter low end, for my guitars, that is.
