Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

[Timius]

Hey all,

I have a Custom guitar project going on and I'm open for ideas on pickup choices.

The body is all Koa. The neck is either going to be Pao Ferro or Goncala and the fretboard will be Pao Ferro. It will have an orginal floyd rose trem, 22 or 24 jumbo frets and I'm deciding between a clear finish or a tung oil finish. Oh, it's in the shape of a telecaster. Humbucker in the bridge and a stacked single coil in the neck. Tonally it should be a little brighter than Mahohany.

It's my Reb Beach Voyager woods, Mick Mars Tele shape w/floyd (Girls/Dr.Feelgood) and will have a 16 inch fretboard radius and neck shape of a Jackson (Dave Mustaine).

Those are 3 of my favorite guitarists, along with Dimebag, Zakk Wylde, etc.

Any Ideas Would be Killer.

By the way. I play through a 5150 combo or for at home a Behringer Vamp2

Thanks

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

What sort of sound do you want out of it? Mick Mars to Dimebag is kind of a big gap... What is the scale length gonna be?

 

[Timius]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

Scale length will be 25.5 or "Fender" scale if that is the correct number I just typed.

I'm looking for something that covers a medium ground between the two. I really want the tone of the exotic woods to come through also.

My last two guitars have had EMG's and I'm trying to get away from that sound.

I've been thinking about either a Custom, Lawrence XL500, something with boosted output but not like a distortion or EMG

Like I said I have a 5150 so I don't need the pickups to be over the top.

 

[Fatty]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

I have a Koa doublecut with a Rosewood neck, and I've had awesome results with a Custom Custom in the bridge. It's a borderline vintage sound (GREAT mids), but it can still do some heavier stuff.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

From what you've described if it was me I would be looking at the Custom, C5, and the JB... While I think the BL XL500 is a great sounding pickup it does have a real strong personality that may shadow the tones of the woods somewhat... For more grunt that your usual PAF but still not in that brutal category I would go custom... I dont think the guitar is going to be real bright from the sounds of it...I think it will naturally be smooth and even... That would fit nicely with a custom I think.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

While Koa has a warm tone similar to Mahogany, Pau Ferro is a very dense and bright-sounding wood. It is MUCH brighter than rosewood, really very close to Ebony in tone and feel. Also with the 25.5" scale you're likely to wind up with a pretty bright-sounding guitar. I usually consider this a good thing, since it's easy to roll back a tone knob or cut highs on your amp but darn near impossible to add brightness to a dark-sounding guitar.

The tone may even out due to the Koa, but I'd say not much. I'd recommend a pickup that's strong in the lower-mids.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

Pau Ferro is a very dense and bright-sounding wood. It is MUCH brighter than rosewood, really very close to Ebony in tone and feel.

Really? My take on Pau Ferro was that it was between rosewood and ebony but it wasnt an incredibly bright wood... I've never heard it have that snap that ebony or maple have... maybe its just me... Gancalo I thought was usually paired with ebony or pau ferro fret boards to make up for its mellower qualities...

 

[sosomething]

Re: Pickups for Koa body and Pao Ferro neck HELP!

Really? My take on Pau Ferro was that it was between rosewood and ebony but it wasnt an incredibly bright wood... I've never heard it have that snap that ebony or maple have... maybe its just me... Gancalo I thought was usually paired with ebony or pau ferro fret boards to make up for its mellower qualities...

It's somewhere in between Rosewood and Ebony, but definitely on the brighter side. I've never played a guitar with a gancalo neck, though, so I'm of no help there.