Pickups for SG Special

[scotte]

Im getting an Epiphone SG Special in about 2 weeks, and want to get new pickups for it ASAP. The dimebucker sounds like the one for me, but which pickup would compliment this with a sweet clean tone because i play multiple styles? And should I put the Dimebucker in the neck or bridge position?

Thanks
scotte

:13:

 

[lateralus]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

if you're using a dimebucker, the ideal neck p'up would be a '59. Thats what dime himself uses

 

[mitchp420]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

i also have an epi sg special with a dimebucker in the bridge and i found that if you just lower the neck pickup way down i gan gey really nice clean and blues tones. but im shure there is a better pickup for you than then dimebucker i dont really like it myself im looking for something different . i cant really get the dimebag tones out og it with this guitar but i dont really have a metal amp either

 

[sgman]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

I have a jazz on the neck and a 59 in the bridge on my SG...It is nice.....

 

[sgman]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

I think the SG Special is made of adler wood not mahagony like the more expensive SG's ....Keep that in mind when you make your decision....

 

[BRHGM]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

My SG Special was kind of hot with the stock pickups. It's such a thin guitar, you might want to go with something a little cooler. A JB/59 or JB/Jazz set up. You can get plenty of blues mojo with those combinations and killer distortion. I have a custom/jazz set up in my Steinberger and I can go from Speed Metal to Jazz on both neck and bridge. The SG is a great slide guitar as well as a really fast metal machine. Put the Dimeducker in a shred macine like a Korean Kramer Striker. Incidently I played a vintage Kramer Pro Axw with trembucker and dual hot rails through a Marshall TSL 601. Way cool.

 

[ChickenFingers]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

I've always wanted an SG for those tasty blues and crunchy rhythems, what's the tone like typically, and what should I look for? The epiphone's are they any good, I suppose they aren't neck through body, but glued or bolted on necks??

 

[sgman]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

It depends if you have three hundred dollars or so get a G400....Set neck, mahongy wood, Alnico pups. If your budget is less then that get a G310...Bolt on neck, adler wood, open coil ceramic humbuckers....both are excellent starting out axes.....

 

[papersoul]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

My SG Special was kind of hot with the stock pickups. It's such a thin guitar, you might want to go with something a little cooler. A JB/59 or JB/Jazz set up. You can get plenty of blues mojo with those combinations and killer distortion. I have a custom/jazz set up in my Steinberger and I can go from Speed Metal to Jazz on both neck and bridge. The SG is a great slide guitar as well as a really fast metal machine. Put the Dimeducker in a shred macine like a Korean Kramer Striker. Incidently I played a vintage Kramer Pro Axw with trembucker and dual hot rails through a Marshall TSL 601. Way cool.

I agree, at first I thought I liked hotter pickups in lighter guitars and lower output pickups in heavy guitars but lately I am not sure. My heavy, heavy black LP workes best with a hotter, 15k pickup and my light burst LP works with a more PAF pickup My PRS, not sure, but I am geting the Alt 8 to replace the Dragon bridge.

My SG special sounds nice with the stock 490Ts but am thinking of replacements. I hear the JB and the Rio BBQ are nice in the SG. It is light and resonant. Wouldn't a hotter pickup help sustain? I'll have to see whathas more sustain, my LPs or SG.

 

[papersoul]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

SG Special is mahogany!

Anyway, I want something thick and muscular, that sounds good clean and dirty for classic rock through modern heavy rock.

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

I'd play the guitar and see how it sounds before deciding on what pickups to buy for it, personally speaking.

 

[CenterStaqeSilver]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

I'd play the guitar and see how it sounds before deciding on what pickups to buy for it, personally speaking.

Best comment yet. The Epiphone is not an SG. Multiple component differences will alter the tone of the two instruments. So you cannot think that pickups you'd buy to alter an SG would be the same pickups you'd buy to alter the Epiphone to get the same final output tone. Two different starting points. So learn about the construction and electrical specs of both guitars and play the Epiphone for a few days before you decide what needs to be changed and by how much.

I was in a large store just yesterday and played both the Gibson SG and the Epiphone. Plugged in or not, they sound different, feel different.

I think that one of the best things people can do to refresh their listening perspective just before deciding on pickups is to go to a guitar store and play a variety of guitars through one amp; Fender, Gibson, Gretch, Epiphone, Squier , PRS and a few others. Learn what the major and minor tone differences are, the designs, woods, pickup specs, strings, and other factors are, to tone.

For instance, someone might buy a guitar knowing nothing about pickup height adjustment, string gauge options, volume and tone pot options, caps, how body and neck woods affect tone, etc. They then replace pickups for the next 20 years and never get it right, when all they had to do was change the pots and adjust the height of the original pickups.

I've heard that if you take the metal covers off the Gibson humbuckers, you'll recover a considerable level of the higher frequencies. Similar with the SG, if you switch the neck pickup pots to 500s, it's no longer muddy.

Play and listen before changing anything.

 

[papersoul]

Re: Pickups for SG Special

Good point!

My LP with Motor City pickups sounds more lively. This SG has the Bill Lawrence circuit board pickups made for Gibsons in the late 80s.