Seth or Ant or other

GHWelles

GHWelles

New member
I installed Seths in my Ibanez PS-10. The guitar is very bright because of the gibraltar two locking bridge and metal sustain block installed in a rout under the bridge.

I thought the Seths might help because the guitar was a little dark with the Ibanez v2 pickups. The V2 bridge is 16.4k Ohms and the neck is 9.1K Ohms. The V2's are patterned after a DiMarzio Super Distortion, but are a bit hotter.

After trying the Seths they are just WAY too bright in this guitar. They have to come out. I may put the V2's back in, but can anyone suggest an alternative that is more articulate and has more harmonic content than the V2's but is not as bright as the Seth's? The guitar is designed to sound like a Les Paul. Any ideas?
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

A little more clarification: You are right, the construction of the guitar (two locking bridge and metal sustain block) what you hear might be somewhat metallic. I experienced that with PAF clones in my only floyd axe, a japanese ibanez S series. Although it had a mahogany body, the tone was too metallic. But the same pickups in a LP was really thick, (bright yeah but) not icepicky.

CC does wonders in guitars with a floyd bridge. Sure the bass side won't be as pronounced as from a JB or C5, but more spongy. But I think it is enough. Moreover, the lowermids and round highs of it help to wash away that metallic tone you are talking about.

For the neck, the thickest neck PAF clone that SD produces would be an a2p. PG is close, yet it has some uppermids that might not be ideal for your situation.

B
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Thanks. I have an A2p in the neck of another guitar and it is great. I will try the CC. Yes the tone I am getting is very metallic, possibly made worse by my trying chrome metal pickup rings on the guitar as well.
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

A2Pro and CC should give you what you're after. If not, keep the pickups and sell the guitar! :smack:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Lewguitar said:
A2Pro and CC should give you what you're after. If not, keep the pickups and sell the guitar! :smack:
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:) Well I could do that but the guitar is one of these: http://www.ibanezregister.com/Gallery/ps/gal-ps10ltd20th.htm

A very rare and special and well made and great playing guitar. Better than the 1980 Les Paul Custom I used to have.

I am seeing if the guitar can be made better by replacing the stock pickups. :fing2:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

GHWelles said:
:) Well I could do that but the guitar is one of these: http://www.ibanezregister.com/Gallery/ps/gal-ps10ltd20th.htm

A very rare and special and well made and great playing guitar. Better than the 1980 Les Paul Custom I used to have.

I am seeing if the guitar can be made better by replacing the stock pickups. :fing2:
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Sure...but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If the guitar is just to bright and doesn't give you the tone you want because its inherent acoustic tone isn't what you want, you won't be able to change the fundamental personality of the guitar with new pickups....so why keep it? Lew
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Do you want to buy it? :laugh2:

I want to have one Les Paul Type guitar and this one fits the bill. I do like the basic sound and am just tinkering with it. The guitar is not too bright with the stock pups, I am just seeing if I can squeeze a bit more out. Many times I find a guitar won't sound that good to me but when I find the right pups, it sounds good. I may very well put the stock pups back in, who knows?
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

GHWelles said:
Do you want to buy it? :laugh2:

I want to have one Les Paul Type guitar and this one fits the bill. I do like the basic sound and am just tinkering with it. The guitar is not too bright with the stock pups, I am just seeing if I can squeeze a bit more out. Many times I find a guitar won't sound that good to me but when I find the right pups, it sounds good. I may very well put the stock pups back in, who knows?
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No! I have a nice Les Paul. :)

The only guitars I keep have a nice tone right from the get go. And then I improve them from there with hardware upgrades and set up.

But I have never kept a guitar for long that didn't have some kind of magic right from the start.
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Lewguitar said:
No! I have a nice Les Paul. :)

The only guitars I keep have a nice tone right from the get go. And then I improve them from there with hardware upgrades and set up.
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Agreed. This guitar is there tonally, it just doesn't like Seths.

The stock pups are like Dimarzio Super Distortions. I lke Dimarzio Super Distortions well enough, but they seem to me to be a little one dimensional and impart a specific character to the tone. Duncans seem to be more organic to me and let more of the natural tone of the guitar come through.

So I thought I would try some Duncans in the guitar to get more of the natural tone out. Or maybe I will try DiMarzio virtual Pafs which work well in some guitars. :bigthumb:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Its normal that the Seths would not be a good choice.
Seths are natural-sounding pickups and amplifies the real guitar voice.

You dont need "warm" pickups, you need "dark" pickups, in that case.

CC, Custom, A2P, Invader and Distortion are darker pickups. The '59 is always a good choice for neck position.
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Thames said:
CC, Custom, A2P, Invader and Distortion are darker pickups. The '59 is always a good choice for neck position.
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I think I will try the CC . . .after you send me the commission on the sale of that Strat with the Duncan Distorition in it . . . . . :laugh2: :burnout:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

GHWelles said:
I think I will try the CC . . .after you send me the commission on the sale of that Strat with the Duncan Distorition in it . . . . . :laugh2: :burnout:
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:laugh2: Ah yeah I remember, your name was familiar but didnt remember. But finally I sold it with a JB.... :rolleyes:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

Thames said:
:laugh2: Ah yeah I remember, your name was familiar but didnt remember. But finally I sold it with a JB.... :rolleyes:
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Well, if it sold with the JB instead of the Distortion I guess you are off the hook on the comission ..... :laugh2:
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

I'd be careful about using a 59 in the neck in this case. 59s to me sound brighter than a2 paf clones. So it might make the neck tone brighter than with a seth. 59s are great pickups especially for darker sounding customs and norlin era pauls. My .02.

Peace.

B
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

dr.barlo said:
I'd be careful about using a 59 in the neck in this case. 59s to me sound brighter than a2 paf clones. So it might make the neck tone brighter than with a seth.
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I know and like the A2P so am going that route.

Interestingly I have the 59 in the neck of another guitar and it seems muddy. The A2P seems to have more treble but in a rounded single coil kind of way, not in an ice pick way. They are different guitars and different scale lengths though, so that may be it.
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

GHWelles said:
I know and like the A2P so am going that route.

Interestingly I have the 59 in the neck of another guitar and it seems muddy. The A2P seems to have more treble but in a rounded single coil kind of way, not in an ice pick way. They are different guitars and different scale lengths though, so that may be it.
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Sure the wood/neck scale ... DOES matter.

I think 59s are still the best deal for the money, great construction, historically accurate (like seths and ants they are wound on the same machine as the real old PAFs)... I think it is an exact repro of pat # PAFs.

Still I too had the same problems you mention. The bass side of it is simply too strong (for the wrong wood ;) ), and made the overall tone sort of mushy, woofy and all. Then I changed the a5 in it with an a3, and it solved all those problems. ;) If you have a spare a2 and a 59n handy, that might be it. Many people I know love the results.

B
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

hey bro...My old Yamaha SG2000 has the same thing going on...brass sustain block, lots of maple in the body and neck as well as an Ebony board...it's great guitar but I wish it was a bit thicker sounding...I just got the Alnico II pro neck and the CC bridge...as soon as I get the rest of my parts Im gonna give it a shot...I'll let you know what happens!!!
 
Re: Seth or Ant or other

the guy who invented fire said:
hey bro...My old Yamaha SG2000 has the same thing going on...brass sustain block, lots of maple in the body and neck as well as an Ebony board...it's great guitar but I wish it was a bit thicker sounding...I just got the Alnico II pro neck and the CC bridge...as soon as I get the rest of my parts Im gonna give it a shot...I'll let you know what happens!!!
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OK :fing2:
 
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