Jazzfiend101
New member
Hello all, I just stuck an alnico 2 pro in the neck position of my Epiphone Les Paul Custom. I had previously taken the bridge out in favore of a Pearly Gates and after weighing out my options I decided to experiment with the A2P. I understood it to be a low output p'up that would let my amp do the talking on its part, and I was led to believe the Pearly Gates was a great way to really cut through a mix with the music. The POG is indeed a trebly thing, it's very responsive, very bright, and does what my tone knob tells it to do. I am playing through a Crate VC50 from the 90s. It's all tube class A two channel and I'm using the new Lovepedal SUPERLEAD overdrive and a Dunlop 535Q Wah, just to give you guys an idea of what I'm working with.
To start I play classic rock, blues stuff, and maybe what you'd call hair metal or earlier 80's metal like Metallica. I'm in a band that plays a plethora of covers next to our originals that range from Aerosmith, GNR, AC/DC, some Journey, various blues classics like Crossroads, and Van Halen and Motley Crue here and there... just to give perspective.
Now I bought an A2P and when I stuck it through my father's Crate Palomino (16w I think) it sounded perfect. That amp does not gather full blown distortion that you would find from Guns N Roses, but I'm sure there's a pedal for those kinds of amps. What the pickup did do for that amp, however, was give me a gorgeous tone at cleaner volumes. I was suprised it had a thick bottom end and an almost strat-like sound when the treble was pushed on the amp. Made great moody jazz tunes also. When throwing the dirt on it, it could clean up great, and had a sort of bite to it, which suprised me for a low output pickup. My POG has a really aggressive snap to it that, thankfully, cleans up, gets darker with a roll of the tone knob, and has a knack for pulling harmonics out. So does this A2P at cleaner volumes. It rips a pinch harmonic out of it with ease, at cleaner volumes/tones.
My problem:
The Crate VC50 is a big, heavy (90lbs) loud ass amp. It has killer distortion on it and cuts somewhere between a plexi and a monster. The reviews said it was great for metal, classic rock, grunge, etc. The clean channel really stays in a world of treble bite (which is fine by my my stock epi neck pup could use the shade of light, and the A2P shines like sunlight with a fat fatness). The distortion is a problem with it. I notice on some parts, especially when I'm playing on my bottom E closer to the 12th it gets muddy. The 9th fret literally sounds like dmmmmmmmm. Mud. Yes, when I first got it to my rig the first riff I played was Sweet Child O Mine. I'm not looking for a slash tone, really, but it's a sort of Grail Tone that I use as a reference point to gauge what the pickup is capable of. But it gets muddy on those bottom strings. It has the sustain... but it's the sustain of dmmmmmm. The stock Epi neck pickup did not do this, so I find it hard to believe that this boutique pickup (which wasn't cheap) just doesn't work on certain parts of the guitar. I figured it to be versatile. Does anyone experience problems with this? Could it just be the amp simply? I have cut the bass OFF in some cases to see if I could get some single string clarity playing up there on that bottom string, and in some cases it's just a muddy incoherent sound. Now, I can get a distinct snap playing on my top strings. Solos sound pretty cool. But there seems to be certain points where there's just an area that will only produce a dmmmm sound.
Using my SUPERLEAD with the neck pup is pointless, as I've discovered. It wasn't much better with my stock epi pup, but the A2P just can't be used with that pedal (this changes more positively when I use the pedal over the clean channel which produces a more scooped sound that sounds kinda cool, but you may not want to use it on anything except for a Metallica or a Crue cover that happened to be HEAVY).
So tell me, is a muddy sound a quality to this pickup in some cases? Anybody have some sound getting lost out there?
To start I play classic rock, blues stuff, and maybe what you'd call hair metal or earlier 80's metal like Metallica. I'm in a band that plays a plethora of covers next to our originals that range from Aerosmith, GNR, AC/DC, some Journey, various blues classics like Crossroads, and Van Halen and Motley Crue here and there... just to give perspective.
Now I bought an A2P and when I stuck it through my father's Crate Palomino (16w I think) it sounded perfect. That amp does not gather full blown distortion that you would find from Guns N Roses, but I'm sure there's a pedal for those kinds of amps. What the pickup did do for that amp, however, was give me a gorgeous tone at cleaner volumes. I was suprised it had a thick bottom end and an almost strat-like sound when the treble was pushed on the amp. Made great moody jazz tunes also. When throwing the dirt on it, it could clean up great, and had a sort of bite to it, which suprised me for a low output pickup. My POG has a really aggressive snap to it that, thankfully, cleans up, gets darker with a roll of the tone knob, and has a knack for pulling harmonics out. So does this A2P at cleaner volumes. It rips a pinch harmonic out of it with ease, at cleaner volumes/tones.
My problem:
The Crate VC50 is a big, heavy (90lbs) loud ass amp. It has killer distortion on it and cuts somewhere between a plexi and a monster. The reviews said it was great for metal, classic rock, grunge, etc. The clean channel really stays in a world of treble bite (which is fine by my my stock epi neck pup could use the shade of light, and the A2P shines like sunlight with a fat fatness). The distortion is a problem with it. I notice on some parts, especially when I'm playing on my bottom E closer to the 12th it gets muddy. The 9th fret literally sounds like dmmmmmmmm. Mud. Yes, when I first got it to my rig the first riff I played was Sweet Child O Mine. I'm not looking for a slash tone, really, but it's a sort of Grail Tone that I use as a reference point to gauge what the pickup is capable of. But it gets muddy on those bottom strings. It has the sustain... but it's the sustain of dmmmmmm. The stock Epi neck pickup did not do this, so I find it hard to believe that this boutique pickup (which wasn't cheap) just doesn't work on certain parts of the guitar. I figured it to be versatile. Does anyone experience problems with this? Could it just be the amp simply? I have cut the bass OFF in some cases to see if I could get some single string clarity playing up there on that bottom string, and in some cases it's just a muddy incoherent sound. Now, I can get a distinct snap playing on my top strings. Solos sound pretty cool. But there seems to be certain points where there's just an area that will only produce a dmmmm sound.
Using my SUPERLEAD with the neck pup is pointless, as I've discovered. It wasn't much better with my stock epi pup, but the A2P just can't be used with that pedal (this changes more positively when I use the pedal over the clean channel which produces a more scooped sound that sounds kinda cool, but you may not want to use it on anything except for a Metallica or a Crue cover that happened to be HEAVY).
So tell me, is a muddy sound a quality to this pickup in some cases? Anybody have some sound getting lost out there?
