SH-5 in a G&L Fallout???

[2manyguitars]

Hi, I'm looking for some input? I have a G&L Tribute Fallout that after setup is better than my U.S.A. one??? A big W-T-F to that? It's a fairly dark sounding guitar & it has a small Mahogany body, a lot like the shape of a mustang, a bolt on maple neck with a rosewood fret board, & H/P-90 pickup configuration with the Humbucker tapped. The U.S. model comes stock with the same Paul Gagnon designed P-90 but a SH-4 for a bridge pickup instead of the Paul Gagnon Humbucker? I was considering buying another SH-4 & dropping it in but I've got a SH-5 just sitting around. I don't know anything about this pickup, I bought it & a SH-2, mostly out of pity, off a buddy who needed some cash & it's been sitting up on a shelf for almost a year now. I was wondering what you guys who have experience with this pup think of dropping it into this particular Guitar??? My friend loves these things!!! He has them in several of his guitars & says they are his absolute favorite pickup in the world & the best thing since salted butter but we play pretty different styles of music, he plays a lot of Avenged Sevenfold & stuff like that, I play a lot of blues, classic rock, clean fusion, ah la Phish, & as far as high gain stuff I go more for the mid. 90's grunge distortion? Now, when I play clean I almost never use the bridge pup & I love the stock P-90 so this pickup will mostly be used with some kind of distortion, either bluesy tube break up from my amps & pos. a lil T.S. over it, or a crazy very saturated & sorta noisy, fuzzy distortion! Any questions, comments, concerns, & or input will be very much appreciated!!! Thanks a bunch!!!!!

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: SH-5 in a G&L Fallout???

The SH-5 is a really great pup, very versatile, and should fit in very well with the type of music you play. As much as I love that pup, however, I don't get along with the brittle high end. I use it with an A8 magnet and I'm in heaven. It still has all of it's character...deep, firm, hard hitting low end, very strong mids, and present cutting highs (but warmer and smoother than the Custom's ceramic magnet could ever hope to produce).

For blues, classic rock, etc (just about anything), you can't get much better than a C8 (a Custom with an A8 magnet), especially in an SG-type guitar (small mahogany body). The JB (SH-4) is hit-or-miss in that kind of guitar. Some players love it, some hate it.

 

[2manyguitars]

Re: SH-5 in a G&L Fallout???

That's not a bad idea, so you bought the alnico 8 & replaced the magnet yourself? The only real experience I've got with pickup magnets is swapping the polarity on some SP-90's for hum cancelation, I've never really tried messing with the ceramic mag's from a humbucker? I assume it's not too complicated? I got a old P.O.S. bucker that I'm using as a fridge magnet, I guess I could go take it apart & see what makes it tick??? When you say "shrill" do you mean too bright? Also, How does the pickup sound while tapped? Sometimes I like tapping the bridge bucker & using the P-90 in unison for that cool Dou Sonic/Music-master bridge/neck single coil sound.

 

[2manyguitars]

Re: SH-5 in a G&L Fallout???

That is interesting & pretty dang easy too!!!

 

[2manyguitars]

Re: SH-5 in a G&L Fallout???

Sorry for the multi posts, my computer is acting up. I'll def. keep that in mind, I should probably give it a try as is & then take it from there? Good call on your S.G. comparison, that's probably the best way to describe this guitar's sound to someone who's not familiar with this particular model. It's a bit thicker & it has the bolt on neck but still sounds very much like an S.G.! This is one of my favorite features of this guitar, I love the sound of a S.G. but hate playing them, to me it feels like I'm strumming a 2x4 but I'm not much of a Gibson fan anyhow. Don't get me wrong, I love the sound & there's a few I'd kill for but I gen. find them heavy, cumbersome, & uncomfortable to play? So yea, think of it as a S.G. with a P-90 in the neck???