Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

[Uncle Os]

Hey All...

Long time lurker... First time 'poster'...

Here's the guitar... 25.5" scale, basswood body, soon to be scalloped board, Schaller Floyd... She's not stock... Currently running Gibby BB1 and BB2 (neck and bridge respectively).

My favorite production p'ups are Duncan TB4, Jazz Neck and Alnic Pro II... not necessarily in that order.

What I'm lookin' for is a better match for the Gibson BB1. The BB2 is too bright in the bridge position for my liking. A hair too soft as well. I desire a JB-ish tone shape but with less 'oompf'. I need it a little softer. So far, the closest thing I've heard is a Suhr DSH+ that a buddy of mine has in his, believe it or not, '90s Ibanez. He runs it through his Dumble clone and it just sounds phenominal! That's kinda what I'm going for.

Any Suggestions for a Duncan pickup to run in the bridge position?

Respectfully...

Big Cor

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Welcome to the forum.

The best properties of the TB-4, SH-2n and APH rolled into one? :scratchch That'll be the SD Allan Holdsworth signature humbucker.

 

[Despair]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

I love the PATB-1b in my basswood Ibanez RG570.

I used to have a JB in it, which I found too inflexible in my guitar, rather limited honking tone, poor cleans and flabby rhythms, but leads of course still great.

With the PATB-1b I can get lead tones fairly close to the JB for leads, but it can also do a ridiculous amount more. It mostly sounds like a cross between the best parts of a Custom 5 and a Custom Custom, but it has these sweet upper mids and harmonic-friendliness that let it hang with the JB for soloing, though it lacks the unpredictable harmonic response the JB has from it's absurd and awesome upper mid spike.

It's got more high end available than the JB, without the focused and sometimes piercing upper mids. It's got more and tighter bass and lower mids.

The PATB-1b (and I've heard same said about the PATB-3, which might more fit your needs if you prefer low to medium output pickups) is ridiculously interactive, can do loose feels very well, but tightens up with more controlled playing and heavier distortion tones.

It's the perfect bridge pickup to thicken up a thin superstrat to sound like a beefy Les Paul, especially in basswood with a floating vibrato bridge. The polepiece and coil architecture givs improved articulation, low string pull, extended sustain, enhanced harmonic response, sweet upper mids and excellent string balance. Also higher but more controllable output. It's extremely sculptable from the guitar's volume tone controls.

[I do love the JB in alder, particularly with a fixed bridge. I think it's not particularly suited to basswood, though.]

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

A '59 with an A4? It's a "little 'softer'" than a JB with less "oomph".

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

PATB-3 in the bridge - it looks cool, too. It is the PAF variant for the Floyd guitars.

If you want more oompf in the neck too, take the BB2 into the neck.

 

[DonP]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Hey All...

Long time lurker... First time 'poster'...

Here's the guitar... 25.5" scale, basswood body, soon to be scalloped board, Schaller Floyd... She's not stock... Currently running Gibby BB1 and BB2 (neck and bridge respectively).

How / why did you end up with a BB pair in that guitar? They are designed for a short scale, mahogany body fixed bridge.

From what I read of your post, I'd say a Custom of some sort. My first choice would be a custom custom and move the BB2 to the neck as mentioned.

 

[Despair]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

How / why did you end up with a BB pair in that guitar? They are designed for a short scale, mahogany body fixed bridge.

From what I read of your post, I'd say a Custom of some sort. My first choice would be a custom custom and move the BB2 to the neck as mentioned.

Why a Custom Custom instead of the PATB-1b? In a basswood floyded shredder, the PATBs are just killer, some people find the CC a tad dull in basswood, most prefer it in brighter guitars (though like anything, there are exceptions).

As far as the PATB-1b vs PATB-3, they're both great, it just depends on what tones you are looking for. Given the JB mentions, I'd lean towards the hotter of the two. If he was talking PAF more, I'd go the other way.

 

[DonP]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Why a Custom Custom instead of the PATB-1b? In a basswood floyded shredder, the PATBs are just killer, some people find the CC a tad dull in basswood, most prefer it in brighter guitars (though like anything, there are exceptions).

If you read the OP's original post, he was complaining of the guitar being too bright. With a CC, he wouldn't have that problem now, would he?

 

[Despair]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

I did read the OP, which is why I knew he wanted JBish tones, which the CC misses the mark on...

 

[Uncle Os]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Whoa, Whoa, WHOA! No fighting! You crazy kids!

Seriously... My apologies for not getting back sooner. I lost a hard drive on my computer. Grrr...


Thank you all for your guidance and direction.

Every one of your suggestions has been weighed, measured and taken into consideration. However, I seem to be more attracted to the PATB solution(s) and I'll tell you why. Ove the holidays, I'd been going through my old cassette tapes of some recording I'd done in the '90s. I had a lot of guitar back then. All of which had different pickup configurations. The 'best' recorded tone I had was of one of my Ibanez S guitars (S540FMTT for you die hards). Both the rhythm and lead tones outta that bridge p'up were phenominal. That particular pickup was a PATB-1b played through a rig using higher gain settings that I use these days and the tone needed the extra highs to cut through. These days, I'm a little shy of the gain I used to use so I'm thinkin' the PATB-3, with it's A5 and dip in the mids, might provide more than what I'm actually lookin' for with it's softness, bounce, and tone curve.

Wha'chou guys think?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

I've just put a PATB 3 in the Parker below, and now I'm looking for other guitars to put them in!!! Its thick and bold and very musical with an ability to work well with most gain levels.

Beware though - Once you've tried it I have a feeling you'll want to rip the neck pup out and stick a 1n in there......you have been warned;-)

I've actually got a Jackson Dinky which I'll put a PATB1 into the bridge slot as the JB in there is a less impressive in Alder with a thick poly finish on it. This will be my more high-gain guitar......The parker is more like a LP custom for me

 

[skynyrd]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Get a Alnico 2 magnet and swap it out in the bridge pup,, won`t be near as bright and will have better dynamics. Or if you play more metal try and Alnico 8 mag, it will ad oomph to the BB .

 

[Despair]

Re: Suggetions? Replacing Gibson BB2 in Bridge...

Every one of your suggestions has been weighed, measured and taken into consideration. However, I seem to be more attracted to the PATB solution(s) and I'll tell you why. Ove the holidays, I'd been going through my old cassette tapes of some recording I'd done in the '90s. I had a lot of guitar back then. All of which had different pickup configurations. The 'best' recorded tone I had was of one of my Ibanez S guitars (S540FMTT for you die hards). Both the rhythm and lead tones outta that bridge p'up were phenominal. That particular pickup was a PATB-1b played through a rig using higher gain settings that I use these days and the tone needed the extra highs to cut through. These days, I'm a little shy of the gain I used to use so I'm thinkin' the PATB-3, with it's A5 and dip in the mids, might provide more than what I'm actually lookin' for with it's softness, bounce, and tone curve.

For solos the PATB-1b is the best pickup I've ever played, and it can do decent low gain, though it takes a light touch to make it work well.

The PATB-3 is much more PAF-like for cleans & low gain, and is said to be almost indistinguishable from a '59 if you back the volume off to 80-90%.

They're both great pickups, ideally I'd have both around at the same time. I'm surprised the line hasn't caught on more, they really do some things no other pickup I've heard of does.

Given you liked the lead on the PATB-1b so much, I'm wondering how the PATB-3 will work out for you, it's a rather different sound, though a great one. Still, if you figure out it doesn't do quite what you want in time, there's always the 21-day guarantee.