Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

[sbp]

Hi,

First post, etc. I have a Westone Pantera X390 which I'd like some advice on replacement pickups for. It's a maple body, maple neck with ebony fretboard. 24 frets, 25.5" scale length, Kahler trem. At the moment I have a set of SD 59s in it.

http://www.westone.info/cats/86pantera/index.html

It's pretty bright, with a sharp attack. What am I looking for? A neck pickup that has more bass and middle and sounds a bit more necky - this is a 24-fret guitar so the pickup is closer to the bridge than usual. An all-rounder bridge pickup. Some form of coil splits or hybrid single coil/humbucker to take advantage of the brightness/potential strattiness of the guitar.

I see that Dave Eichenberger has an all-maple Steinberger and likes the Custom Custom (or 59/Custom) for bridge and the APII for the neck. Perhaps this would be good? How about coil splits?

I was thinking also of the P-Rails, but it sounds like there are many compromises to get a good balance of sounds.

I don't play metal, just general stuff, pop, rock, a bit of jazz. I like how the guitar plays and sounds acoustically, just want to get some pickups that will do it justice.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Sean

 

[Mincer]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Hi Sean! Recently I switched to an Alnico II Pro set in that Steinberger and I like it better. Higher output pickups were compressing the sound too much in this guitar. Maple guitars are not my favorite, but current Steinbergers are mostly maple, and it is a tough wood to find pickups for.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

NIIIICE... thank g-d it at least doesn't have a blonde maple fretboard, else I'd be having a GAS attack right about now...

Pearly Gates? Demon? Super 70?

 

[darthphineas]

Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

CC or PG in the bridge.


Sent from my armored battle station using Tapatalk

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Any objection to going active rather than passive?

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Any objection to going active rather than passive?

THIS !!!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

The Westone brochure gives away nothing about the specs of the stock pickups. Not even something as simple as whether they are calibrated to their respective positions.

Knowing the properties of your pickups will help to form useful suggestions. (As distinct from bombarding you with lists of OUR favourite pickups or magnet swapping suggestions.)

 

[sbp]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Active-wise, I am considering getting hold of a RedActive set as a cheap way to try active pickups out.

Original pickups - I'll see what I can find out about the original specs. I have the original neck pickup, so I could at least do a resistance check if nothing else.

Thanks people.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Humbucker From Hell.

Jk, whatever you do, don't put a HFH in it. Have you tried 250K pots yet?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

All-maple + ebony = superbright. Depending on what you want the end-result to actually sound like, you could start with a Screamin Demon (since George Lynch's ESPees are typically all-maple with ebony boards). Not sure if this is classified as a hot pickup, but your amp gain levels will determine the final ouput level more than the pickup.

Best place to start would be to determine what tonal freqs you're looking to affect/enhance with the new pickups, then go through the comparison chart.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

A set neck guitar with a maple body and a double octave ebony fretboard, with a kahler and double buckers is not going to sound like a strat in any sense. So uh, how about sticking a pair of Livewires there and let her rip?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

The all-maple construction and ebony board will, in fact, yield a very Stratty tone. Of course, that depends on your interpretation of a Stratty tone. Plinky, bright, favoring the treble side of the audio spectrum more than the bass. That's a Strat to me.

And Strats do come with crappy trems and 2 hums as well :lol:


The Kahler will darken it just a tad, but the double-maple + ebony are your primary tonal influences. Dense woods are bright.

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

I have a custom custom in a bright guitar. A certain part of the high end just disappears. You might like it... Nothing wrong with prails. Pearly, a2pro, prails will all sound fine in the neck.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Or a JB with 250K pots. JBs seem to be popular in all maple guitars with an ebony board and they actually sound great without being overly bright. Jerry Cantrell has a very similar guitar as you: kahler, maple body + neck, ebony board, and he uses a JB/or Motorcity variant with a 500K pot. Might actually work.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Active-wise, I am considering getting hold of a RedActive set as a cheap way to try active pickups out.

Original pickups - I'll see what I can find out about the original specs. I have the original neck pickup, so I could at least do a resistance check if nothing else.

Thanks people.

Too much maple and ebony. Unpredictable results with actives or pickups not spec'd with maple in mind are to be expected... may turn into THE Icepick from Hell or quacky-weird with stuff like EMG 81, Dimebucker, etc.

Really do check out the pickups Lynch uses. Or take a pickup configuration from another maple-heavy guitar that you actually like.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

The all-maple construction and ebony board will, in fact, yield a very Stratty tone. Of course, that depends on your interpretation of a Stratty tone. Plinky, bright, favoring the treble side of the audio spectrum more than the bass. That's a Strat to me.

Well, no. Bright is a general term that does not really mean anything more specific than what you've just said.
Bright comes in different flavours: a violin sounds bright and so does a trumpet. Many neck through Jacksons and bolt on Fenders sound bright. But not really alike.

And Strats do come with crappy trems and 2 hums as well :lol:

So do tellies. But then, these hardly sound like a tele.

The Kahler will darken it just a tad, but the double-maple + ebony are your primary tonal influences. Dense woods are bright.

That's a bit too general. Rosewoods and mahogany can be really dense and not sound bright at all.
My maple neck-through BC Rich has an ebony board and alder wings. Does not sound plinky or stratty in any sense.

 

[sbp]

Re: Suggestions for 24-fret all-maple guitar

Seems like the original humbuckers used Alnico II magnets, and I measured mine at about 8KΩ DC resistance, so SD Alnico Pro IIs would probably be a good choice for the original sound.

However, I'm finding myself thinking about Lace Dually Sensors for a mix of single coil and humbucker sounds. I have Gold sensors (with EC midboost) in my Japanese strat, so I have some idea how the singles sound, but has anyone had experience of the Duallys? I like the idea of having combinations of different sensors per Dually, e.g. red/silver, blue/gold, a bit like hybrid pickups, and I could choose which coil to split to get different sounds off the same pickup.