Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

[Maceo]

First post so flame away/thanks for having me, but my guitar didn't come up in a search (just a thread on RavenWest guitars from 2 yrs ago), the ToneWizard doesn't cover Walnut, and after a couple hours of reading I know there's folks on here who are waaaaay brighter and more experienced than me on the subject of matching pickups to guitars, so any help on this one is greatly appreciated

I've had a Woodo GS2 (6-String, Neck-Thru, HSH, w/a Floyd Rose) for a couple years and I'm looking to gut the electronics and bring it up to speed. Thinking 7-Way switch, coil-tap on the humbuckers, RS kit for the wiring, nothing super-crazy.

The factory Humbuckers are nicely balanced, but strike me as being pretty thin. I bought the guitar in part because I was hoping that the neck-thru Walnut body and maple & palisander neck would bring out a lot of sustain - I wanted to capture a more resonant sound on the low strings while the harmonics would just bounce off the neck on the thin ones - and the pickups basically seem to just grab the pick-attack/only highlight the action right over the pickups in a pretty flat and non-dynamic manner even after hours of height-adjustments. I can hear a richer spectrum of sounds when I play it acoustic, and even when I dial the hell out of EQ's/Mid-Boosts etc. in my chain, I get a sound that I'd equate with a rusted First Act guitar run through a Fisher Price turntable. Well, maybe not that bad, but I'm basically modding the "signal" rather than using effects to amplify/accent the guitar/playing. Not expecting HSH to sound like a NanoMag by any means, but definitely have had better results.

Musical-styles I most want to compliment with the pickup swap range from Opeth-style melodic prog-metal and fusion to Texas blues... On a "clean" setting I'd like to be able to go from a really articulate "jazz" sound with good "thump" on the fretboard playing on a set of 10's to having the growl and sustain of SRV's tubescreamer-pushed 13's just by dialing up volume I guess My "perfect rig" would basically go guitar->amp or guitar->red box, and in terms of effects I always try to make sure I can still hear the guitar's natural tone (ie: If I switch from a Les Paul to a Flying V that has the same wiring it should still sound tonally different), so pickups are make-or-break for me... But on a grad-student budget I can basically afford to do like one serious guitar project a year, and I can't blow 100% of my tax return on some boutique $500 set of pickups and risk hating the results :S Which is why the forums here are awesome, and why SD is such a great option

So short of that "these pickups are hand-wound by Hobbits for your guitar" ideal, the "standard" advice I've got from a long internet search and the tech at my local shop (Elderly Instruments, MI) was "Do a Jazz/JB with maybe like a Red Velvet in the neck," and alternately "Yeah, JB/Jazz works on Ibanez 540's, you should do that!" After reading posts on here, I'm wondering about a Custom-Custom and Alnico II Pro combo...? And I'm totally open for feedback on the middle/single coil.

Any takers?

Guitar is here:
http://www.woodoguitars.se/products/Woodo GS2 Ebony FR/Product.html

Not a lot of review vids on youtube for this thing, but here's a kid playing it clean that captures some of the "blah" tone of the pickups (and may confirm your suspicion that only dorks buy these guitars and write posts about them, right?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1D-VW7c-0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHXo2Az9Do

This guy adds some effects but the recording is at least a bit better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj32cML7M-g

Thanks for any help forth-coming, gang! MUCH appreciated!

 

[jtougas]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

For all intents and purposes, you can treat walnut like it's a hair warmer than maple - bright, but with good bass and lower mids.

But honestly, the neck through portion of the guitar will have more impact than the wings of the body - that's where the pickups are mounted, and most of the string vibration takes place.


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[J E C]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

Walnut is a brighter wood. Is the body of yours sandwiched like the one in the link or is all walnut with a though neck? What is the finger board made of? Looks cool!

 

[Maceo]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

Thanks for the feedback! Neck is hard maple and palisander (rosewood) fretboard, body *is* a walnut-set sandwich like the one in the pics...

...although Woodo appears to have upgraded pickups since I bought mine... EMGHZ's w/a cool tap built in on the website; mine are G&B's, which is a Korean 6.8K and 8.2K pair of hums, so maybe I'm not the only one who thought these p\u's sucked?

So, would a custom-custom/TB11 give it some more range/definition or would it get too slushy at the low end w/the 24 fret/25.5' scale? Any thoughts on a 59' vs. Alnico II vs Jazz on the neck?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[jtougas]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

Hmm.

The Jazz/JB combo would be interesting to try, but the JB might get too bright.


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[vinta9e]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

So, would a custom-custom/TB11 give it some more range/definition or would it get too slushy at the low end w/the 24 fret/25.5' scale?

The custom custom ought to smooth out that plinky attack. Pair it with an A2 pro neck and why not an aps-2.

I imagine the JB/Jazz in this guitar would bust your eardrums with upper mid spike straight from hell. I'd avoid typical alnico V singles for the same reason.

 

[Inder_Cine_Mann]

Re: Pickup Advice: Woodo - Walnut body H/S/H - Sh11 & APH?

Maybe a Tone Zone bridge? I really don't think a Jazz or 59 would be good neck options.

Maybe a 59n with an A4 or UOA5.

I guess if PU's get too bright you could switch pots and/or caps ya?