Hey Guys,
I'm new in this forum as well as for pups matters. I have HSS French made guitar Lag Jet 1000 equiped with the EMG Steve Lukather kit (85, SLV, SLV) with quilted maple on African mahogany body and ebony fret board. Very nice for playing blues to hard rock tones. I bought this guitar at a local shop here in Tunisia (where I live) cause it was the one that had the best quality/price ratio and the most versatile profile. However, i'm feeling more and more insatisfied with tone i get specially when going high gain to play Dream Theater like sounds. while the neck and middle pups sound great, the bridge one (85) sound verry muddy and lacks precision. Moreover, I can't get any progression in the sound through the volume knob, either it's loud or weak like having it through a volume pedale.
So i thought about going with passive pups. My main choice for the bridge is the Dimarzio Crunch lab, for its warm punchy high output while keeping that cutting edge sound.
The problem comes with the neck and middle pups. As you can see on the pic of my guitar, the pickup space does not allow any flange like those on the Dimarzio Air Norton S (my main choice for the neck position) and so for the middle. Actually, Dimarzio provide no flange pickups but only through special order and considering th shipping and the payment this would make these pickups cost and arm. that's why I came looking for Seymour Duncan which propose single coil sized humbuckers that fit into my guitar.
After doing extensive reaserches and performed the Tone Wizard tool, I came up with these choices:
Neck: (single size hum)
Cool Rails
Little '59
Hot Rails
Middle: (single coil)
Quarter-Pound Staggered
Considering these, the opinions i got from reading forums got me even more confused about the good choice to make (while I haven't seen any topic talking about such combination of a Crunch lab in the bridge and an SD in the 2 other positions).
My main idea is to have a nice combo that gives a similar tone to the one of Liquifire/Crunch Lab or at least the Air Norton/steve special one.
These brands (SD and DM) are not represented here in Tunisia, I can only get them through friends in europe or by myself during a trip (I'll be visiting Rome in mid March - btw if you could suggest a dealer in there that would be helpful).
your suggestion would be very helpful. Feel free as well to suggest any other alternatives to the pups I listed (even the Crunch Lab) as long as it fits to my needs.
Thx in advance
Specifications:
• mechanical: self-locking Gotoh Magnum
• Nut: lubricated Graphite
• Adjustment pin: Bidirectional + 2 titanium rods stability
• Neck: Channel Maple (Hard Rock Maple) Canada screwed with guide reinforcement body-neck titanium exclusive system Lag
• key: African ebony African ebony with net
• 22 frets, Jim Dunlop USA, Silver-Nickel, Jumbo
• Highlights: Mother-of-pearl
• Table:quilted maple on African mahogany body (Book-matched)
• EMG active pickups Kit Steve Lukather: 2 single coil (EMG SLV) + 1 humbucker (EMG 85)
• Wilkinson-Gotoh vibrato Absolute
• Electronics: 1 volume + 1 tone, pickup selector 5 positions
• Nickel Hardware
• High gloss finish
I'm new in this forum as well as for pups matters. I have HSS French made guitar Lag Jet 1000 equiped with the EMG Steve Lukather kit (85, SLV, SLV) with quilted maple on African mahogany body and ebony fret board. Very nice for playing blues to hard rock tones. I bought this guitar at a local shop here in Tunisia (where I live) cause it was the one that had the best quality/price ratio and the most versatile profile. However, i'm feeling more and more insatisfied with tone i get specially when going high gain to play Dream Theater like sounds. while the neck and middle pups sound great, the bridge one (85) sound verry muddy and lacks precision. Moreover, I can't get any progression in the sound through the volume knob, either it's loud or weak like having it through a volume pedale.
So i thought about going with passive pups. My main choice for the bridge is the Dimarzio Crunch lab, for its warm punchy high output while keeping that cutting edge sound.
The problem comes with the neck and middle pups. As you can see on the pic of my guitar, the pickup space does not allow any flange like those on the Dimarzio Air Norton S (my main choice for the neck position) and so for the middle. Actually, Dimarzio provide no flange pickups but only through special order and considering th shipping and the payment this would make these pickups cost and arm. that's why I came looking for Seymour Duncan which propose single coil sized humbuckers that fit into my guitar.
After doing extensive reaserches and performed the Tone Wizard tool, I came up with these choices:
Neck: (single size hum)
Cool Rails
Little '59
Hot Rails
Middle: (single coil)
Quarter-Pound Staggered
Considering these, the opinions i got from reading forums got me even more confused about the good choice to make (while I haven't seen any topic talking about such combination of a Crunch lab in the bridge and an SD in the 2 other positions).
My main idea is to have a nice combo that gives a similar tone to the one of Liquifire/Crunch Lab or at least the Air Norton/steve special one.
These brands (SD and DM) are not represented here in Tunisia, I can only get them through friends in europe or by myself during a trip (I'll be visiting Rome in mid March - btw if you could suggest a dealer in there that would be helpful).
your suggestion would be very helpful. Feel free as well to suggest any other alternatives to the pups I listed (even the Crunch Lab) as long as it fits to my needs.
Thx in advance
Specifications:
• mechanical: self-locking Gotoh Magnum
• Nut: lubricated Graphite
• Adjustment pin: Bidirectional + 2 titanium rods stability
• Neck: Channel Maple (Hard Rock Maple) Canada screwed with guide reinforcement body-neck titanium exclusive system Lag
• key: African ebony African ebony with net
• 22 frets, Jim Dunlop USA, Silver-Nickel, Jumbo
• Highlights: Mother-of-pearl
• Table:quilted maple on African mahogany body (Book-matched)
• EMG active pickups Kit Steve Lukather: 2 single coil (EMG SLV) + 1 humbucker (EMG 85)
• Wilkinson-Gotoh vibrato Absolute
• Electronics: 1 volume + 1 tone, pickup selector 5 positions
• Nickel Hardware
• High gloss finish
