Pickup choice, help wanted.

RockWithMark

RockWithMark

New member
Hey guys,

First of all, I'm new to this forum, haha! But I've been stuck with a question for days now concerning SD pickups, and thought I should just ask you about it.

I recently bought a Mayones Setius GTM 6, which is an insanely good guitar, the craftmanship is absolutely incredible! The only thing that didn't really do it for me is the bridge pickup, it's a Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB, and eventhough I really love the JB mixwise and tonally, it just lacks this tightness and chunkyness, the bottom end sounds a bit loose IMO. (Not so good if you like tight chugs) :P

Is there a way to make the JB a whole bit fatter and tighter? Or is there a pickup, that has all the nice qualities of the JB, with added tightness and chunk? Is there a way to even tinker with the pickup itself?

Kind regards,

Mark
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

Duncan distortion is what I've gone for seems to be tighter in lower frequency than a jb. the two are similar (apparently) but distortion has the edge for me as I've down tuned to c standard. custom may do well too iirc. i'm new to this upgrading myself so a veteran will probably come with some real help. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryzie8mham8

this helped me choose mine. waiting on delivery. :)
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

Hey! another dutchie over here! always nice.

I tend to gravitate towards the distortion for your wishes allthough the PATB2 is also amazing.

A cheap trick to fix the issue on very short notice is to swap the alnico5 for an alnico8. that will boost the output, mids and tightness. Change it for an unoriented alnico5 for a bit more juiciness and less harshness but I think the a8 works best for you.
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

Welcome aboard! As a matetr of fact, we like to take PU's apart and put in different magnets. Each type of magnet is amde of a different mix of metals which gives them different magnetic fileds, and changes how they 'read' string vibrations. We literally create a new PU when you change the magnet.

Ah, JB's. The most controversial PU here. It's very fussy about the woods and guitars it sounds good in. So, many guys love it and others, well, don't. It was designed for bright woods and there's no telling what it'll do in warm woods. Hard to predict. Some of the biggest complaints is that in mahogany in particular, it can develop an 'ice pick spike' and a 'flabby low end'. Some people find JB's thin and piercing (it's been compared here to a 'dentist's drill' and a 'cheap blaring old trumpet'). Others love it. It's also going to to depend on your style and the genres you play; a quirky 16K PU is not going to appeal to a lot of players. I like an A2 or UOA5 magnet in my JB's (I don't care for them with the stock A5, which has a lot of treble and bass, and scooped mids). A2's and UOA5's add mids and texture, and decrease the treble and bass. That's great for me, as I play blues and classic rock. If you're into harder rock and metal, an A8 also adds mids and warmth, but has a cleaner sound that's good with lots of distortion, plus A8's are high output magnets. There's also ceramics. We usually advice players to try a magnet swap or two with their HB's and P-90's before they give up on them. A lot of times you can get what you want for several dollars worth of magnets.
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

Agreed. the JB can work superduperwell in a Les Paul-type guitar, but it can also work very badly. the Distortion seems to combat those issues (but the PATB2 even better!). the thing is that there is no cheap way of getting mags in the Netherlands cheap. all in all, it costs almost 30$ to get just one mag, including shipping.
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

orpheo said:
Agreed. the JB can work superduperwell in a Les Paul-type guitar, but it can also work very badly. the Distortion seems to combat those issues (but the PATB2 even better!). the thing is that there is no cheap way of getting mags in the Netherlands cheap. all in all, it costs almost 30$ to get just one mag, including shipping.
Click to expand...

Isn't there a mag supplier in the UK? If not, PM me and I can send this guy a mag or two, no charge.
 
Re: Pickup choice, help wanted.

First and foremost, thanks for the amazing replies, and welcoming me onto the Forum!
It's really appreciated! :)

About the A8 mod, I've heard that one more lately, may give that a try, if I can get my hands on some mags.
The Duncan Distortion is a model I am not really familiar with, but I'll take a looksie at that one too! Same goes for the PATB2.

Maybe I can give you guys an indication of bands I like, tonewise.

- Digital Summer
- Evanescence
- Evergrey
- Scar Symmetry (esp. ''Holographic Universe'' album tone)
- The Black Dahlia Murder (esp. ''Nocturnal'' album)
- Masterplan
- Periphery
- Tesseract
- Volumes

A few of you may actually know these bands, but as you see, it ranges somewhere between Hard Rock, to Death Metal, to Progressive Metal.
If you don't know these bands, and need a tone reference, you always check em out, so you can help me in advance :P

Anyway, thank you all!

Mark
 
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