pickup help for g&l legacy usa..swamp ash..

[jageya]

hi..the alnico pickups in here are very bright and the bass contour control helps alot but i need to turn the tone on the guitar way down. I am looking at a few different combos from duncaN to put in here....even just a different bridge would be ok for now as the other 2 pickups are decent vintage wise but the bridge while ballsy is just too ice pick like and shrill.....
here are the pickups i am considering for the bridge
1) hot rails shr-1...may be too heavy?? to thick?
2) stk-s9b
3)five two strat bridge- may sound like what i have already?
4) stk- 7b??

for the other positions i am thinking:
1) stk-s4
2) stk-s6
3) stk-s7..
4) vintage rails

stk-s2 or 3 are wild cards and possible.....

the guitar is swamp ash with rosewood neck...very light with a trem so maybe the guitar is naturally bright sounding?...Its been beat up and aged from g&l and i play blues/ classic rock...amps i use are tweakers by egnator..vox night train..fender cybertwin2...ac-30tb...bogner tube amps...

I like alot about the guitar and the pickups sound ok and spanky like a bit hotter then vintage but the bridge is just too thin...help!! thanx

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: pickup help for g&l legacy usa..swamp ash..

I would do stk:
9 in the bridge
7 in the middle
4 in the neck

But me personally I prefer the brighter pickups and using the tone/volume controls rather than putting in warmer pickups in never touching my controls.

 

[jageya]

Re: pickup help for g&l legacy usa..swamp ash..

thank you...i have been using my tone control with these pickups and it helps to tone the shrill down and they dont sound dark....but i may hunt around for a bunch of pickups stk-4/7/9....and play with it....the hot rails i think will be a bit much...the vintage rails seem to sound nice in middle and neck from what i have heard...I agree about the tone control use...you can always tone fown a bright pup but if the pup is dark then you are kinda stuck..

 

[jageya]

Re: pickup help for g&l legacy usa..swamp ash..

thank you...i have been using my tone control with these pickups and it helps to tone the shrill down and they dont sound dark....but i may hunt around for a bunch of pickups stk-4/7/9....and play with it....the hot rails i think will be a bit much...the vintage rails seem to sound nice in middle and neck from what i have heard...I agree about the tone control use...you can always tone fown a bright pup but if the pup is dark then you are kinda stuck..

 

[dotsdad]

Re: pickup help for g&l legacy usa..swamp ash..

When you remove the pickguard from your American G&L, you may notice that you already have Duncan SSL-2 pickups in it! The stickers on the bottoms of the bobbins will say SSL2 on them if they are Duncan OEM pickups.

I recently put a set of SSL1 in my Fender Strat. THe SSL1 is the stagered-pole version of the SSL2, which is flat. In other words, pretty much the same. I felt the same way as you: great neck and middle - icepick bridge.

I now have the five-two bridge and am very happy. It still has killer quack in the notch position, and the icepick sound is gone when used by itself. The low strings still have a going sproing to them for surfy sounds, but the plain strings are much more civilized. I am really pleased.

I have also used both the SSL5 and STK-S6 in the past. The S6 is basically the noiseless SSL-5. Both are all mids. I think too far. They are so much mids it really soes not quack like a Strat any more, yet it is still not a ballsy as a humbucker. Just too much compromise with them.

Again, the SSL-52b would go great with those SSL2's.