Pickups for worship

S

Stevie22

New member
Hey Guys,

So I'm just looking for suggestions for pickups that'd be good for worship music, specifically bands like Hillsong, Jeremy Riddle, etc. I'm running a PRS SE Zach Myers into a Blackstar Club 40 at the moment and I'm just finding the tones muddy, edgy and stupid bassy (especially in neck). I've tried dropping posts to no luck. If I try and EQ the bass out, it gets to "twangy". My heart want's to slap a pair of Slash Pickups in there just in case I ever do a cover band again, but the primary focus would be on worship. Any suggestions?
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Welcome to the forum.

You need single coils. That kind of music is done on Telecasters and Jazzmasters and Jaguars.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

You don't have to go single coil, though the standard approach is Tele or Gretch (i.e., bright pickups) into a Vox. What amp (or amp model) do you typically use?

For P&W, I think that a set of Pearly Gates would be fantastic.
 
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Re: Pickups for worship

I used to be in a praise outfit, and typically I'd be playing with low-wattage amps so my pickups would actually be on the hot end of things. A MIM Strat with stock neck and bridge singles and a Hot Rails in the bridge served me really well for a long time!

If I had to do it now, I'd probably go with Pearly Gates for humbuckers and some sort of noiseless Duncans for singles. You can cover a LOT of ground with the Pearly Gates and it's tough to get a bad sound out of those.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Stevie22 said:
Hey Guys,

So I'm just looking for suggestions for pickups that'd be good for worship music, specifically bands like Hillsong, Jeremy Riddle, etc. I'm running a PRS SE Zach Myers into a Blackstar Club 40 at the moment and I'm just finding the tones muddy, edgy and stupid bassy (especially in neck). I've tried dropping posts to no luck. If I try and EQ the bass out, it gets to "twangy". My heart want's to slap a pair of Slash Pickups in there just in case I ever do a cover band again, but the primary focus would be on worship. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
yep slash set will work. It doesn't mean you have to play guns and roses 24/7. They are just a slightly hotter APH set.
Or go for the regular APH set and while you are in there, install some push pull tone pots for coil splits.
If you still want more clarity, swap the magnets out of the APH set and install some A5 magnets. That will give you the "jazz" set. Very clear and precise pickups.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Probably 75% of what I do is Christian Worship. I've used Strats (including Super Strats) and Les Pauls and have seen a lot of guys use Teles and 335s.

For Strats, I think the Fender Fat 50s is the perfect set for Worship–can have chimey bell-like cleans for Hymns and can take any amount of dirt you throw at them for Modern styles.

For Humbuckers, I've used Seymour Duncan JBs, Screamin Demons and Hot Rails. I've also used Gibson ceramic sets (496R&500T) as well as a DiMarzio Liquifire. All depends on the specific guitar as to what you need (more output, more clarity, less treble, etc.)

I just got a guitar in that I haven't played in Church yet but I think it is a killer set for Hymns or Modern Worship–Pearly Gates in the bridge and a Phat Cat (humbucker sized P90) in the neck. I'd give that combo an inquiry!
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I'd be tempted to go with a Jazz set, since they are more open sounding, and don't have excessive bass or mids. They are lower output pickups too, so they won't compress the sound either. As was said, most of the tones you are after use single coils, so you may even want to add a push/pull pot to either split the coils or add series/parallel switching. This will open the sound up further.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really want to keep the humbuckers for my own music stuff, but regarding the split coil items, do I need to buy specific pickups to do that or is it a change in the pots? Never done this before so I'm not too sure about that. Is there a negative to split coil like tone or power? Seems like the jazz and pearly are in high regard. How do they stack against each other and vs. The slash set?
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I kinda pick the right guitar for the songs we are doing that week, but the song styles will usually vary a bit for the same week too, so most of the time I just pick one and go. Lots of the time we've changed the key on the songs enough that it's not going to sound exactly like the original anyway. I guess never really thought about a guitar voiced specifically for "P&W", so, I basically do the songs as "me", of course I'm not into death metal or anything anyway, a thrash version of Overcome might not go over that well :headbang:

I have an old Ibanez Rootbeer JEM with a Breed in the bridge, a PAF Pro in the neck, and the stock DiMarzio single coil in the middle, a Hamer Centaura with a Custom in the bridge, SSL-6 in the neck, and a SSL-something in the middle. I have used a 7-string with Blazes once or twice, and I have a parts Tele with Hot Rails in the bridge and a GFS Vintage Rails (?) in the neck.

I guess I don't worry too much about sounding like the Edge, which seems to be what most P&W guitars sounded like for way too long (yes, I've had worship pastors ask for that sound).

FWIW, I would think you should be able to get close to the sounds you need with your equipment without major surgery... I haven't played a Blackstar amp in quite a while, but I would think you should be able to EQ it to get you in the ballpark. Where are you running the EQ on the amp?
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I play worship too and same here mostly superstrats HSS, HSH but also PRS, Teles and LP's, one of my fave strats has a Dimarzio super 3 and two D Allen singles, I've played with JB,59,59/custom hybrid, l500l, custom custom, a2 toneriders and all work very well, as of late I have found the P-rails w triple shots really give a wide range of tones also the Dimarzio VHPAF and VPAF which I put in my PRS Johnny Hiland and HSH strat are very clear and punchy. Besides a split switch a series/parallel switch is a good option, I also use a TBX tone control and treble bleed on most of my strats and Teles, the TBX can make a muddy HB unmuddy when cranked.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Stevie22 said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really want to keep the humbuckers for my own music stuff, but regarding the split coil items, do I need to buy specific pickups to do that or is it a change in the pots? Never done this before so I'm not too sure about that. Is there a negative to split coil like tone or power? Seems like the jazz and pearly are in high regard. How do they stack against each other and vs. The slash set?
Click to expand...

coil splitting really just means you are disabling one of the coils in a humbucker, so you get a thinner, cleaner, lower output more single coil style tone. It can be really useful. The best way to add it is to use push/pull pots for your tone controls, so when they are down you get your regular humbucking tone, and when you pull them up, you can split each pickup. It definitely adds a lot of versatility to your axe. You just need to make sure that you have 4 conductor pickups. I think the slash set only comes with 2 conductor, but most of the other pickups in the range use 4 conductor. Just check before you buy any set if you want to use the coil split option.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I have over 20 years of experience playing on various worship teams - covering everything from traditional hymns to contemporary to all out rock. I feel I had the most success with a Jazz/Screamin Demon set and a Pearly Gates set. These were in Les Paul Standards. My current LP's have A2P's in them, which also work well in a live setting. I am getting ready to switch back to PG's, but the A2P's have been solid for me - the mids get out of the mix well and the output isn't too over the top - so they produce great clean tones. Good luck, I'm sure whatever you come up with will work well.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

If you must stay with humbuckers, I would recommend a Pearly Gates bridge with a Whole Lotta Humbucker neck in parallel by itself and split to single when mixed with the bridge. A 59B bridge also would work, though a Pearly is brighter and beefier and works the range from clean to distorted better, IME. The Pearly neck is fine, though I've used the WLH neck more - seems more versatile and smoother between clean to distortion (has character but is still even, no nasty spikes in the EQ; and splits well, not that much drop in volume).
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I've played in worship groups for about 10 years, and my guitars run the gambit from gold Lace Sensors to Pearly Gates / Jazz combo to DIMarzio Breed, Super Distortion and Super 3. I predominantly prefer humbucker into a plexi style amps tones for worship.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I 2nd the Jazz recommendation. Anything with a very clean and chimey high end. I played in a church a while back too, and all my buds would usually have some kind of dirt pedal they ran through, so they relied a lot less on beefy sounding and hotter pickups to push their amps. Lots of teles, strats, and jazzmasters as already said. Few humbucker guitars too, mostly sgs and pauls.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

The Jazz is more open sounding than the Pearly or Slash set to my ears. It has more jangle, and less body with its scooped sound. It is a lot more open- which is why I think it might be better in this application.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

Hi and welcome!! First, aside from the pickups, how do you like the guitar? I haven't played one, but like the looks of that model!! Next, you can do P and W music on anything. Yes, single coils would be good for some stuff, but dont think from the previous posts that your guitar isnt capable. I used to play my Explorer at church... However, I do suggest as gibson175 pointed out, get pickups with 4 conductor wiring so you can split them. That way you have more colors on your tonal palette. Pearly Gates would cover alot of ground as prev mentioned. (plus the name is fitting too huh??) You mentioned your own stuff. What do you do otherwise? Again the PGs cover alot of ground. A WLH set is very sweet sounding and covers alot of ground, as would an AIIpro or Slash set.
 
Re: Pickups for worship

I'd second the Jazz set or possibly Jazz neck with '59 bridge. Something clean, clear, and "classy".
 
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