Pickup noob, help me choose a set of SDs please.

H

Horse

New member
Hi,

I have never really experimented with pickups, but now the time has come.

I have an Indie Guitars IPR (PRS clone) Mahogany body - very light though, one of the less dense woods of the 'mahogany' family - Mahogany neck and rosewood board.

The pickups that came with it are not too good, the neck is shrill the bridge lifeless and flat.

My needs are:-

Bridge: Prog to classic rock to metal, cleans to full on gain, needs to be clear, upper mids hump if possible. It needs to lift the bridge tones which are dull as ditch-water at the mo.

Neck: For flutey bell like tones, cleans to stoner/psychedelic type tones, even response, woody, lots of character and life. For reference, I love Mikael Akerfeldt's and Steven Wilson's clean neck tones.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
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Re: Pickup noob, help me choose a set of SDs please.

I have to question the wisdom of throwing the better part of two hundred Dollars worth of pickups, pots and switches at two hundred Dollars worth of guitar.

Some of the lacklustre sound may be due to the acoustic qualities of the constructional materials.
 
Re: Pickup noob, help me choose a set of SDs please.

Funkfingers said:
I have to question the wisdom of throwing the better part of two hundred Dollars worth of pickups, pots and switches at two hundred Dollars worth of guitar.

Some of the lacklustre sound may be due to the acoustic qualities of the constructional materials.
Click to expand...

Quality amplification is going to be your friend as well. There's so many areas where you can improve your sound before you start looking at the subtle differences in pickups, because there's no 100% answer for that question either. When you have your solid foundation (Quality technique, guitar, amp) you can work on the shine and polish (pickups, IMO).

So what DOES your signal chain look like? How long have you been playing? Is this your first/only guitar?
 
Re: Pickup noob, help me choose a set of SDs please.

Funkfingers said:
I have to question the wisdom of throwing the better part of two hundred Dollars worth of pickups, pots and switches at two hundred Dollars worth of guitar.
Click to expand...

In today's global economy, foreign countries are producing absolutely dynamite instruments for pennies.

Perhaps the OP has found an instrument that he/she loves playability-wise. Perhaps it was a gift. In any case, you have no right to judge the merits of the instrument based on cost alone.

Pickups are the single most important part of an electric guitar so it's very feasible to pay extra for a quality set.

That said, Funkfingers does has a valid point in that DiMarzios and Seymour Duncans tend to be on the pricey side of aftermarket pickups. You may want to consider a swap with a set of GFS pickups to see if your guitar responds well to the change.

Should you decide to invest in Duncans though, pretty hard to beat a Duncan Distortion in the bridge of a mahogany doublecut. I pretty much have one in all of my "metal/shred" guitars. Jazz SH-2n isn't bad for cleans either.
 
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