Pickup Suggestions

edsmith

edsmith

New member
I am going passive with my Musicman Luke. It is only routed for HSS so I will need an HB and a couple of single hums. The body is alder with a birdseye maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. It is a little heavy for its size. It has a floating tremolo that I can use just like a Floyd Rose, up or down pulling.

I want a nice thick tone with no mid cut. I want to avoid high output or low output. Probably something in the medium low to medium high range. I do not want this to be bright or bottom heavy like a Tone Zone.

I am tossing around the idea of a PAF Pro bridge and Quarter Pounder neck and middle but I am open to suggestions. What do the forum bros think?
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

Do you want the singles to be stratty, coz the QPs aren't. I have a guitar with two PAF Pros, and an HS-2 in the middle. It's a good match for the PAF Pro.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

JB_From_Hell said:
Do you want the singles to be stratty, coz the QPs aren't. I have a guitar with two PAF Pros, and an HS-2 in the middle. It's a good match for the PAF Pro.
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I definitely want something thicker than that. Something articulate like the PAF Pro but in a single size. On the flip side I don't want something as high output as a Tone Zone S or Hot Rails. I play maintly instrumental rock, metal, and classic rock.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

How about a PATB-1b in the bridge? Not quite high output like the PATB-2 Distortion model...check out the SD clips and see...
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

You want single hums or traditional single coils? You mentioned single hums but then said QPs, I'm not sure what you mean.

QPs are very fat and powerful single coils... it's the closest thing Duncan has to a P90 on a strat bobbin. It's almost humbucker fat, and packs a whollop. They don't clean up terribly well IMO, but they work great for overdriven tones. The neck can get a little muddy under a lot of gain.

For noiseless operation, I suggest a Cool Rails in the neck. Wonderful pickup that covers a lot of bases and has a definite vintage vibe to it. Good middle solutions would be another Cool Rails or a Vintage Rails. The CRn/VRn work very well as a neck/middle combo.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

MikeS said:
You want single hums or traditional single coils? You mentioned single hums but then said QPs, I'm not sure what you mean.

QPs are very fat and powerful single coils... it's the closest thing Duncan has to a P90 on a strat bobbin. It's almost humbucker fat, and packs a whollop. They don't clean up terribly well IMO, but they work great for overdriven tones. The neck can get a little muddy under a lot of gain.

For noiseless operation, I suggest a Cool Rails in the neck. Wonderful pickup that covers a lot of bases and has a definite vintage vibe to it. Good middle solutions would be another Cool Rails or a Vintage Rails. The CRn/VRn work very well as a neck/middle combo.
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I thought of the Cool Rails for neck and middle but from what I can tell it sounds a litle sterile. I found some clips on youtube and did a forum search and that is what I came up with. If you know of some good soundclips I would be very interested. You are right. I definitely want something fatter than a Strat sound but not too dark or muddy. They have to be quiet though. I hate noisy pickups.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

edsmith said:
I thought of the Cool Rails for neck and middle but from what I can tell it sounds a litle sterile. I found some clips on youtube and did a forum search and that is what I came up with. If you know of some good soundclips I would be very interested. You are right. I definitely want something fatter than a Strat sound but not too dark or muddy. They have to be quiet though. I hate noisy pickups.
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Never count on a YouTube clip to give you an accurate representation of tone for anything.

If quiet is your thing then cross off the quarter pounders. All other things being equal, you'd be hard pressed to find a noisier single coil. That's just a product of the aggressive wind.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

I would second the PATB-1 bridge and Cool Rails for the neck and middle - the Cool Rails are anything but sterile and fit your description pretty well.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

So right now I'm looking at a PAF Pro + Cool Rails combo. What do you guys think about that?
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

Ed,
I had a black sparkle Luke and also decided to "passify" it.

I'm a huge fan of WCR and Kinmans, so in mine I had a WCR Goodwood in the bridge and 2 Kinman SCN's in the neck and middle.

I also fitted Titanium bridge saddles ( a superb addition )

The guitar sounded incredible, so good that a guy at a show offered me £3000 if I'd sell it to him ( they're £1400 new ), so I did the deal.

I've got another Luke on order as we speak and the same pickups waiting for it's arrival !!!

In the States, things are cheaper, so I'd maybe go with the Goodwood coupled with a pair of the new Duncan stacked singles.
 
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Re: Pickup Suggestions

wolf5150 said:
Ed,
I had a black sparkle Luke and also decided to "passify" it.

I'm a huge fan of WCR and Kinmans, so in mine I had a WCR Goodwood in the bridge and 2 Kinman SCN's in the neck and middle.

I also fitted Titanium bridge saddles ( a superb addition )

The guitar sounded incredible, so good that a guy at a show offered me £3000 if I'd sell it to him ( they're £1400 new ), so I did the deal.

I've got another Luke on order as we speak and the same pickups waiting for it's arrival !!!

In the States, things are cheaper, so I'd maybe go with the Goodwood coupled with a pair of the new Duncan stacked singles.
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It is funny that you mention the Goodwood because I ran across a Quicktime clip of it a couple of weeks ago and ended up visiting their site. The $185 price tag turned me away but I have no doubt that they are great pickups. Maybe I will get lucky and find one on Ebay.
 
Re: Pickup Suggestions

Is the Cruiser neck too bright for you? That would match up really well in the neck and middle with the PAF Pro.

The Air Norton S isn't a dark pickup. It sounds amazingly like the full-size version. I have one in the neck of one of my Strats and the tone is great. Not dark or too bright at all. Very warm sounding actually. I've been using it since shortly after Winter NAMM last year.
 
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