Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?
I am really undecided here...
59? Jazz? Alnico II Pro? Pearly Gates?... oh boy...
My opinion: listen to the sound clips over and over. Read the How To Pick A Pickup and write down what your needs are based on what it says. Look at the tone chart, get to know it. Use the tone wizard and see what it says (out of curiosity). Then, to be honest, if you're still undecided, call Seymour Duncan's line and ask someone, and voice your concerns. That's what they're there for. If you end up not liking the pickups they recommend, there's the exchange policy (which is frankly a very nice thing for them to offer).
I'm not saying take advantage of the exchange policy, I'm just saying do more research. I know how you feel: I get very OCD about my instruments too.
That's how it went for me recently. My first set was the Hot Rodded Combo. Loved it! Then I bought my dream axe, the Lite Ash Stratocaster, and realized that I love the natural string sustain of alnico ii pro magnets, and the clarity of single coil pickups. So I read through the How To Pick A Pickup again, and just honestly answered the questions:
1) Wind: how much output do you want? It basically says that more winds = more output at a loss of dynamics. I love dynamics and pickups that reproduce every tiny detail of how I play (mainly because it drives me to work on my technique lol), so for me, vintage or medium output is more for me.
2) Resonant Peak: determines what frequencies the pickup likes best. Me, I like clear, clean sounding pickups, so low resistance results in high resonant peak, which sounds clean and clear, so I chose that.
3) Magnet. Alnico II has "a smoother, warmer, rounder tone with softer attack", and also has less string pull for more natural string vibration (i.e. more sustain, all other things being equal). I love sustain, and I love how alnico ii magnets sound, so for me, Alnico II is the way to go.
4) Which Pickup? I read the descriptions, and the ones that stood out to me as being for a bright guitar (which technically a swamp ash body with maple neck and fretboard is, especially with a floating tremolo) were Seth Lovers, Pearly Gates, Alnico II Pro Humbucker, and Custom Custom. Having used a Custom Custom before, and needing a dark high output bridge for harder genres, I chose that for my bridge. As for the neck pickup, I didn't want a Pearly Gates because it didn't say "Jazz" on its recommended use ("application"). Not to say that it cannot play Jazz, but I wanted a neck pickup
well suited for Jazz (if you see what I mean), so I picked the Alnico II Pro Humbucker for my neck.
That's basically how my train of thought went. We're all different, have different musical tastes, different amps and pedals, etc, so this doesn't work for everyone. However, it worked for me.
Also, try going to play some guitars that have Seymour Duncan pickups in music stores. I have owned, for example, the '59 and Jazz, but I like the sound of the Jazz more (although the '59 sounds great). To others, they may like the '59 more than the Jazz, and it depends on their amp. I play a Twin Reverb, which is sort of dark (made to work with the Stratocaster and other brighter Fender instruments, I would imagine), so I tend to like brighter guitars with alnico ii pickups anyways.
There is so much in the equation, so just try everything out. You won't know everything in a week, and surely not even in years. Just take people's advice, do research, and if you still can't make up your mind, call the company directly and ask what you should do.
Good luck on your tone quest!
