semi hollow pickup options?

B

babybatter

New member
Hey good folks. My first post! Any help for a noob would be greatly appreciated.

I play a godin flat 5 semi hollow with a solid wood maple top into a new traynor 40watter. The traynor is a bit too gainy at performance volume, so I dropped the first gain stage preamp tube from a 12ax7 to a 5751, and im satisfied with this so far.

I find my guitar sound a bit dark right now, as the guitar's top is solid wood, therefore a bit darker than most semihollows. Some say that Godin gutiars are darker on the whole. Im leaning towards the standard seymour duncan jazz/jb combo right now as a solution.


My lead sound will be thick and grungy with a light fuzz pedal, but still running clean enough to retain some of the boxy 'thud' of a semi hollow. Im looking to bring out hot blossoming notes somewhere in between Eric johnston and Ian Thornley, with picking dynamics available too.

Some of the 'old school' guys are hinting that the JB might have too much midrange sizzle that lots of high output pickups have. But if my sound is currently a bit dark/muddy, I figured the jazz/jb would be the solution.

Anyone care to talk me out of it/into it?

This will be the first time swapping out pickups in 15 years of geetaring.

Thanks! :fingersx:

Darryl/babybatter
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

That set is a great set but you will get a fair amount of bass response along with the nice clear treble response of the Jazz neck.

In my Hamer Monoco Super Pro I used a Seth Lover neck and Custom Custom bridge pickup. That was a solid maple top guitar with a chambered mahogany body and I thought that set sounded excellant in it...it got a fairly warm, midrangey tone.

Sounds like I like a little clearer and cleaner tone than you're thinking about though.

I'd go with with the Jazz neck...as for the JB, that pickup sounds awesome in some guitars and a little peaky in others. It's certainly worth a try.

If it doesn't work out, my suggestions would be to try the Duncan 59B or Custom next.

Or for a more vintage tone, a set of Seth Lovers, Alnico II Pros or even Pearly Gates pickups would be nice...don't want to confuse you with to many choices though.

Go with your original plan and use the 21 day exchange if you need to.
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

thanks for the quick response.

Im definately trying to do 'it all' in one guitar. Clean and textured with my neck, and a big grind out of the bridge. I hadnt looked at the custom custom because it was described as useful for brighter guitars.

To be honest, im having a hard time hearing the difference between this one and the jb. :blackeye:
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

babybatter said:
thanks for the quick response.

Im definately trying to do 'it all' in one guitar. Clean and textured with my neck, and a big grind out of the bridge. I hadnt looked at the custom custom because it was described as useful for brighter guitars.

To be honest, im having a hard time hearing the difference between this one and the jb. :blackeye:
Click to expand...

The Custom Custom might not be the best choice for your guitar if it's an inherantly dark sounding guitar. I love it, but the tone has a very wide and pronounced midrange that gives it very smooth, non-biting highs and thick syrupy singing mids and somewhat loose bass and less bass than the JB.

The JB has an upper midrange peak that gives it a brighter tone...some people like it (it;s Duncan's #1 bridge humbucker) and some people don't. Sometimes that peak sounds to hard and penetrating and sometimes it sounds to thick...and sometimes it sounds absolutely great...but it very much depends on the guitar and the player.

The Custom is worth a consideration...it's a really nice pickup too and has a little more sizzle to the highs then the Custom Custom and more bass and tighter bass and strong mids. Most of the people here seem to like the Custom more than the JB.

The Jazz and a JB or the Jazz and a Custom would be a nice set to try...or the Jazz and a 59B for a more vintage tone with vintage output from the bridge pickup.

Jolly gets a great modern rock tone with a pair of Jazz pickups! That would probably be a very nice set in your dark guitar but the output would be moderate rather than high. Still: any humbucker will overdrive most amps easily enough. Like I said, Jolly gets a killer tone from a Jazz neck and Jazz bridge in his Les Pauls.

Worth considering!
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

jolly is a forumite here, i guess?

well ive dropped a preamp tube from 12ax7 to 5751 in the interests of making my sound less gainy, so maybe i should entertain the lower output pickups too...thanks for the scoop.:dance:
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

I really, really like the Pearly Gates set. It's fat and bright with no boomy lows or mud. It's my fave combo in a Les Paul.
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

Welcome to the forum!

When I put my '59 B into my semi, it sounded less dark... mind you, the more noticable thing was the "open-ness" and clarity of the sound; before, it had been pretty dull and muddy, and the 59 changed that, particularly when playing clean. I can't handle grungy stuff too well, but that could be the rest of my rig as much as the pup. For jangly, psychadelic or jazzy cleans and gritty break-up sounds, the '59 is a pretty good place to start.

I suppose you don't need a particularly high-output pup, if you have your amp and pedal(s) the way you want them...
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

Thanks again for the info.

The JB was a solution to make sure I could cut through my muddiness, but going with a lower output pickup is sounding like the way to go.

Any thoughts on the Air Zone? Im guessing this is a bit lower output than a custom, which in turn is a bit lower than the JB......
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

Well im sure you were all sleepless wondering how id fared.... :6:

Heres the 'bedroom only' initial review.

I decided on the jazz/jb combo.

I have only a quick review of the jazz - awesome. I still havent quite figured out how to optimize its use, but better in every way relative to my stock pickup.

Now the JB....

I think im leaving it in. I think. Its midrange peak is NUTS. Im used to having the volume and tone knob all the way up...those days are done with the JB. It has to be tamed. Too much gain, and too much midrange. I now find that my midrange knob on my amp now adds lots of volume when i turn it past noon. So now im tweaking my amp eq a lot.

cons - definately must find more time to 'tame' the midrange'. Too much gain for my semi-fuzzed jazz box. Lost some serious bass, ive got it cranked up on my amp, and I added my eq box back into the loop due to the lower frequency loss.

pros - when i can find a place for that bite, it sits in a place in my brain that no guitar sound ever has. It is legitimately captivating. This pickup is introducing me to juicy midrange. I think it will be much more to my liking when I play out with it; it should REALLY stand out and give me extra bite incase i need to cut through.


The jazz - keeper
The JB - a monstrous beast i need to better tame, but i may yet. :13:

ps - if I do the 250k pot thing, ill probably replace a few other pieces of hw like my 5 way switch and my stock machine heads.

thanks for your help everyone

darryl
 
Re: semi hollow pickup options?

My guitar teacher uses a '59 in the neck and a custom 5 in the bridge of his semi hollow and it sounds amazing.
 
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