Hello All,
While I'm certainly not new to this forum, this is my first post. After a session of frustrating playing and disappointing sound, I've had a revelation. I literally went through all my guitars, especially those which are my favorites and found all of them sounding like total garbage today...I know it's not the wiring or the amp or anything. New strings, new tubes, the whole nine yards. It was just one of those days where nothing sounded right...until I got to one guitar in particular. :disappoin
I was playing my Fender Double Fat Strat with the Pearly Gates Plus and '59 neck. I've recently taken the EMG's out of it and went back to those pickups to have a more versatile set up. My amp is a Mesa F-50 and it's thick and hot. I've always been one to play hotter pickups, being of the mindset that they work better for me...now I'm really not so sure! This guitar was thick and growling, but the distortion was so much smoother and richer and I had so much more control over my tone. It was so much closer to the tone I have in my head. After playing my other guitars which have much hotter pickups in them, I found I just didn't like the tone any more. The hotter pickups sounded really harsh in the mids and high end and sludgy. I couldn't get them to sound right.
Here's question one...Am I just nuts? Or, have I actually had a tonal epiphany? I mean...I hadn't played the PGP+ and the RWRP '59 neck since 2001 or so when I changed the pickups for EMG's...It was an idea I was throwing around in my head...why not try pickups with less output...give different magnets a try than what I was used to...I actually enjoy lower output pickups more! Now, I feel I'm closer to what I hear in my head.
Next, I'd love suggestions as to what pickups, Duncan or otherwise, would suit my tastes. I'm running a hotter amp and I play a wide variety of styles, from blues and jazzier stuff to Progressive styles and hard rock. So, versatility is really important. I find I like a woodier tone, where I can hear the wood of the guitars I'm playing. I like a fatter Bridge sound that can be dialed in to be tight if needed, but has midrange to it. I, personally, enjoy a smoother distortion and a honky, fat PAF vibe. I like some honk in the midrange to give single notes a singing quality. I also love a good growl to a pickup too. I don't know if such a pickup exists, but the PGP+ comes so much closer to it. I don't like the more focused, scooped sounding mids of that pickup and would prefer more mids and even a spongier bottom end.
As far as the neck pickup goes, the '59 sounds better in my strat than in my Les Paul. I prefer a more open, throatier pickup than smooth and polite. The scooped mids bugs me. I like them warm, woody, with a sparkling high end...just a more open, throaty, perhaps single coil-ish tone. Ruder in the mids I guess is the best way I can describe it.
I'm open to suggestions, as all of what I'm used to is totally turned around on its head! I'm open to trying more pickups with say Alnico 2 or 5. I don't really have the ability to swap mags out myself at the moment. Any other thoughts is much appreciated. Is the lower output approach a better way to go? From what I'm hearing with this amp, it really seems closer to what I'm trying to get.
My Double Fat strat is what I'm looking at changing first, it's a hard tail, alder with rosewood fingerboard. The next guitar is my PRS SE Custom 24, which is mahogany with a maple top and set maple neck and rosewood fretboard...that one has the PRS trem on it. Thanks everyone for your help. Sorry this is so long...
