Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

[Alex79]

Hi all!

I'm new here and already have a question!

I have a Gibson Voodoo LesPaul which I enjoy playing a lot - the neck feels great. However, I am having some problems with it tonally.

Currently it has a Bareknuckly Miracle Man in the bridge and delivers a slamming metal sound - focused and aggressive, when downtuned it delivers a lot of thunder. Unfortunately (?) I already have an ESP Eclipse with EMGs which I prefer for metal. What I need is a guitar with a "softer" approach (Guns, Aerosmith, Bluesrock, Hardrock), plus I don't really tune this guitar down.

The acoustic sound of the guitar is:
crisp mids, spikey treble, big bottom (not that tight unfortunately)
Due to the body being made of swamp ash (mahogany neck with ebony fretboard) it has less mids than the average LesPaul-style guitar. It is still however a set-neck guitar, therefore not as "trebly" as let's say a swamp-ash strat.

This has been driving me nuts. I know which pickups would work well with a classic mahogany bodied guitar, but this swamp ash thing is driving me insane. I briefly had a very midrangey pickup in there and it did not do much at all for the sound which did not become full and fat.

I have the opportunity to get either a SH-14 custom 5, a SH-12 George Lynch or a Pearly Gates pickup fairly cheaply (which is in part why I am not considering Bareknuckle at the moment). In the neck I'd go with a SH-1 in any case.

I would like the sound to be "round" but still "clear" - not harsh or spikey in the top end. At the same time I hope the low end would not be too flabby. I hear the SH-12 can be quite "edgy" and "airy", that worries me. I'd rather have a bit of compression going on to make the sound more compact, so I was thinking about the SH-14, but the fact that it doesn't have much mids makes me worries.

Is it better to accentuate the guitar's tonal characteristics or to counter them? It seemed a midrangey pickup did not work in a guitar that is not midrangey.

I'm open for thoughts and suggestions.

Oh, and here's some pictures since I'm new to the board. :naughty:

(Seagull S-6 and Krank Rev Jr on the side)

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

Welcome to the forum.

To my ears, "round" and "clear" spells PAF. Within the SD range, that means the '59, the Seth Lover or the Antiquity.

One of my early DIY-o-casters is a Swamp Ash ST-style guitar with a maple neck. It always had similar problems to your Gibson until I chanced to try out a pair of Tokai/Gotoh PAF replicas. Bingo! These days, the guitar has a Gibson '57 Classic and a DiMarzio Bluesbucker-style mongrel HB of my own divising.

Heck, there's another suggestion. DiMarzio Bluesbucker for the neck position.

 

[Alex79]

Re: Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

I'd like just a bit more power than the SH-1 in the bridge and preferrably an Alnico V magnet. As I said I could get the SH-12, SH-14 or the PEarly Gates cheaply - other pickups would cost me more.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

i'd say try the pearly gates in there first since it's an a2-based pickup. it's still a raunchy/britty/bluesy pickup, but with nice fat mids and round highs because of that a2 magnet. if you don't like it, try taking the magnet out and putting it into the custom5, which would essentially make it a custom custom.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

The obvious candidate for your needs is Duncan Custom Custom.

B

 

[tone4days]

Re: Pickup suggestion to make my sound rounder

when i think of how nice a 59 sounds in the neck of a swamp ash tele, i am inclined to suggest that for the neck position of this guitar

which leads me to a C5 for the bridge as being a 59 with a bit more oomph