Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

[earthless]

I recently tried Ibanez S670QM and was stunned how comfortable this guitar is (thinnest neck, lightest weight, versatility).
I'm thinking to buy it but my only gripe is stock pickups.

Wanted to ask advice for HSH pickups replacement.
I will provide detailed description of sound as well as possible pickups based on various forum posts:

PAF or even P90s neck for hard rock/early metal (early Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, early Black Sabbath).
Considering 59, Seth Lovers or Phat Cat.

Strat middle for blues/funk (Jimi Hendrix).
Considering Classic Stack Plus Strat, Custom Staggered Strat or Custom Flat Strat.

Crunch medium or high output bridge for stoner rock/metal (Corrosion of Conformity, Down, Electric Wizard).
Considering JB, Custom, Custom/59 hybrid.

What would you choose from aforementioned pickups?
Are there better options to choose?

 

[Blille]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

You have some great choices there!

For the middle position, why not something with less output if you're going for a jimi tone?

Do you use in between or split positions?


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[daenius]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

59 in the Neck
Classic Stack in the Middle
JB in the Bridge

That is the tried and true combo from the Duncan catalog! Considering the kind of music you play, you will NOT be disappointed!! I've tried at least 20 different pickups and I keep coming back to the JB

If you want more bottom end punch and do some detune stuff occasionally, the Custom is a great choice too.

 

[earthless]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

You have some great choices there!

For the middle position, why not something with less output if you're going for a jimi tone?

Do you use in between or split positions?

What would you recommend instead?
I'm not sure about what I will be using as I'm considering this as my first guitar.
Specs say it's 5 way blade switch so if I'm not mistaken positions are
1) neck humbucker
2) neck single coil with middle single coil parallel
3) middle single coil
4) bridge humbucker with middle single coil parallel
5) bridge humbucker

 

[earthless]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

59 in the Neck
Classic Stack in the Middle
JB in the Bridge

That is the tried and true combo from the Duncan catalog! Considering the kind of music you play, you will NOT be disappointed!! I've tried at least 20 different pickups and I keep coming back to the JB

If you want more bottom end punch and do some detune stuff occasionally, the Custom is a great choice too.

Pretty much the combo I'm considering.
Just wanted to make sure that I'm not alone.

 

[daenius]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

Pretty much the combo I'm considering.
Just wanted to make sure that I'm not alone.

No way you're alone haha. Thousands of players put that set in their guitars, not to mention that's the set that comes stock on a bunch of high end guitars too... Jackson... ESP... Charvel... you name it

 

[earthless]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

No way you're alone haha. Thousands of players put that set in their guitars, not to mention that's the set that comes stock on a bunch of high end guitars too... Jackson... ESP... Charvel... you name it

Unfortunately there's not a lot of videos where guitar player put these pickups on Ibanez guitars.
Also this guitar is bolt-on-neck and has 24 frets so there's another reason for concern that it will not sound exactly the way I want.

Hope thin body will not affect the sound in negative way.

 

[MkIII Renegade]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

I've always stuck with DiMarzios for Ibanez. Partly as a matter of tradition I suppose, but also because they tend have nice thick mids to help relatively thin-bodied shred guitars.

For that guitar and your description, I'd consider:

Evo2 bridge (one of my fave DiMarzios)
Area 67 or HS-2 middle
PAF 36th or Liquifire neck

The Pickup Picker on the DiMarzio website helps you walk through the options based on your guitar's body wood, bridge, music style, etc. If nothing else, it's a fun exercise.

 

[Blille]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

What would you recommend instead?
I'm not sure about what I will be using as I'm considering this as my first guitar.
Specs say it's 5 way blade switch so if I'm not mistaken positions are
1) neck humbucker
2) neck single coil with middle single coil parallel
3) middle single coil
4) bridge humbucker with middle single coil parallel
5) bridge humbucker

If you're going to change all the pickups you might as well rewire but I checked and this is what you have:

I think you have two paths:
1) hotter
59
Custom flat (no need to have staggered)
JB or custom

2) less hot
I would try to leverage the in between positions to sound more "stratty". I would go with an SSL2 in the middle and likely the hybrid in the bridge (wired to have the custom coil when split) to balance it a bit. I would also consider the prails for the neck.

Your call, they are all awesome


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[daenius]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

Unfortunately there's not a lot of videos where guitar player put these pickups on Ibanez guitars.
Also this guitar is bolt-on-neck and has 24 frets so there's another reason for concern that it will not sound exactly the way I want.

Hope thin body will not affect the sound in negative way.

Well not a lot of people bother putting videos up, but if you look for stuff like the old Jackson MIJ DK2M, those guitars are 24 fret maple neck bolt-ons with locking trems. Pretty close to what your S-Series is. Sure the body is not as thin and we're talking about mahogany vs alder but it's that general ball park anyways. The danger of sound demos online is that everyone has such different signal chains with the amp and effects that even with the same guitar it'll sound different anyways, not to mention playing technique which makes a way bigger difference than anything else. Rarely are you going to hear a YouTube video and go "yup! that's the JB doing work!"

For some reason I get the feeling that most Ibanez players do tend to go Dimarzio, but I think that's because Ibanez has a closer relationship with Dimarzio and every Ibanez artist uses Dimarzios.

In any case though, I seriously don't think you'll be disappointed with the JB STK-1 59 combo. There are plenty of aftermarket high output pickups out there and they are all great at doing what they're advertised to do, but I have to say the JB has versatility like no other. You look at pickups like the Dimarzio Super Distortion or Tone Zone or Evolution or Duncan Custom or Black Winter and you see a bunch of metal heads and hard rock shredders using them because they're excellent for that stuff, but you look at the JB and you get a wide variety of players: everyone from blues to hard rock to metal.

 

[CB434]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

Agree with the suggest for SSL-2 for strat quack in the middle. And also for the Dimarzio option, but it depends if you naturally prefer the Dimarzio "vibe", or the SD "vibe". They are both good, just different from each other. Evo2/Liquifire is a pretty well rounded set. For lower output in the neck, more PAFish you could consider Air Classic.

For SD, there's lots of options. Even the Screamin Demon or Full Shred can work in an Ibanez, but since you have the thinner S type body, the bass response might be a bit lacking. If the priority is the lower gain/clean side.. a Custom/59 could work well, splitting to the Custom coil as others said. The JB can work. The Custom can work. Even a Duncan Distortion? It really just depends on how much output you prefer in the bridge and what the biggest priority is. It's a shame they don't sell the JB/Custom as it could be perfect for this situation. Another brand not mentioned is Suhr.. a Suhr Aldrich bridge, ML single and SSV neck could be perfect. The Aldrich is JBish in some ways but it sounds PAFish when the volume knob is turned down.

There's a lot of options. And they are all have advantages or disadvantages over each other. Any of these can work, it really depends on your EQ and output preferences and how fussy you are about what you are hearing. For the single coil, it's a similar thing in terms of.. if the priority is for position 3, or if it's for position 2 and 4.

 

[bloodswords]

Re: Pickups for HSH Ibanez S

My S771: Jazz / Q-pound (m)/ Perpetual Burn (b). The PB is an Alnico V, to my ears, they aren't as harsh-sounding as ceramic ones under loads of gain.