Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

[Takuma]

I've had my BC Rich for a year now... (seems so long ago!) and to date it remains to be the best guitar I've ever tried at the price range I managed to get it. Here's the spec for my guitar. I've started to play around with various settings for the guitar and realised that the tone on the guitar could be improved by changing the default pickups.

Often I find myself lacking tremolo with this guitar, becomes really evident when playin some of the AC/DC songs. Also the bottom strings hides away the top strings when played at the same time. Cure this problem - either get a new amp (expensive!) with equaliser and everything or get a new pickups....

I know nothing about how to chose the right pickups - using the wizard on the site, I got the following:

Bridge 1 SH-5 Duncan
Bridge 2 SH-14 Custom 5
Neck 1 SH-1N '59 Model
Neck 2 SH-2N Jazz Model
Middle 1 NA Not Available
Middle 2 NA Not Available

But I don't really undestand the results. (wheres Bridge 1/2, Neck 1/2, Middle 1/2) and it'd be great if you guys could tell me what they mean so I can choose the right pickups for the guitar and the tone I want. I normally play with heavy distortion (metal as well as posthardcore etc.) but I also want a nice clear, sustaining clean sound without distortion. Do you have any recommendations as to which pickups I should get?

THANKS A LOT!!

Tak



----++++====/ Rock 'n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution \====++++----

 

[theodie]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Custom 5 and Jazz neck. That would be my personal choice out of those.

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

the 1 and 2 after the position(bridge/neck/middle) just stand for various options recommended by the wizzard. Since your guitar doesn't have a middle pickup there's no middle available. B.C Rich stock pups just suck,there's nothing more to it, better get rid of them as soon as possible. For your style you might want to try EMGs but those are active and quite expensive,also cleans are not their speciality. for actives i would say a dimebucker in the bridge(maybe invader for hardcore stuff) and you should imo have a great rythm pickup for everything high-gain.For the neck there are several ways to go since you wanna play some good cleans,too. I personally use the full shred but it's not designed for cleans,allthough it sounds good enough for occasional clenas(it's gret for soloing and shredding). maybe you should go with something less hot and try a jazz neck or a 59 both sound great are nice pups for nearly everything.

 

[Takuma]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Thanks. So if I go SH-5 for bridge and neck, Jazz neck... like theodie says, I've listened to some of the sound samples and SH-6 duncan seems to have a little more brightness to the distorted sound which I quite like, would it fit onto the bc rich? or should I stick with SH-5?

One another thing, these pickups are they double humbucker like they're with the ones that normally comes with the mockingbird? They would fit wouldn't they... ?

Thanks again

Tak



----++++====/ Rock 'n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution \====++++----

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

all SD humbuckers should fit your B.C Rich so you can basically use all of them. It's just a matter of the tone you wanna get.

 

[Takuma]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Thanks, to actually fit it in, because I'm not very good or know about these things I should goto the shop and ask them to do it right?

Takuma

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

if you have no idea of electronics and wirering you should get it done in a shop.

 

[Young Angus]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Definitely take it to a shop to get it all done, you sound pretty green on these topics and thats okay but i wouldnt go trying to put pickups in or anything if thats what you're thinking because it probably wont be a happy experience.

At first i saw "BC Rich" in the thread name and thought id just come in here and make some kinda joke because i dont like BC Riches but you sound like you could use some help.

First of all i have no idea what you mean when you say "lacking tremelo"...tremelo is not a tonal characteristic as far as im aware, it is an effect which comes from a tremelo pedal...much like you get chorus from a chorus pedal and wah from a wah pedal. So unless you plug in a tremelo pedal you will be severely lacking in tremelo...but this has nothing to do with your pickups.

Secondly, getting new pickups will not make your guitar sound fantastic if you are still playing through an average amp. Pickups do make tone better, but only by a bit, and you can only really hear the difference properly if you are playing through something half decent to begin with. Dont put new pickups in expecting a world of difference because you just wont get it and may be dissapointed. If you have a crap amp then i'd suggest getting a better one of them first...or at least some good pedals to give it a kick in the right direction.

As far as pickups go it sounds like you're into heavily distorted rock since you said you liked the duncan distortion sound, but in a guitar like that with a basswood body i dont think you should go for a ceramic pickup...i think you should definitely go with a JB in the bridge position. A JB is the first duncan i ever put in to the bridge of one of my guitars, and i could actually hear a big improvement in the sound, and the JB is a high output pickup which sounds big, fat and chunky and sounds awesome when used in heavily distorted situations...lots of 80's dudes used them like ritchie sambora from bon jovi, the guy from ugly kid joe (if you havent already, listen to the ugly kid joe album americas most wanted, awesome stuff!!!), and not that i like tool at all but i think the guy from tool uses one too, not sure though. But i definitely think you should go with a JB in the bridge.

And in the neck i think you should go with a Jazz neck because along with the JB it will make for a very versatile combination...a JB/Jazz combo is one of the most popular. This combo will cover every tonal base you will really need to cover, especially the high gain stuff! They'll make your guitar sound fatter, and just sing!

So there you go, i think definitely go for a JB/Jazz combination...thats JB in the bridge, and a Jazz in the neck...this is also a particularly good combination to get if you dont really know much about pickups yet, you cant go wrong.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! Happy rockin'

 

[Takuma]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Ill stick with what's been recommended and thanks for your time.

Mistake in the terms i used ... by tremolo i meant to say treble, got confused :smack: i guess...

And about the amps, i personally dont have an amp of my own... i got to a school where they do hav decent amps so no worries about amplifiers...

But if im unable to change the pickups all at once which one should i change first (i dont have the money to buy both atm...)

Cheers,

Takuma

 

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

Duncan custom Bridge, Jazz Neck!!!

 

[Young Angus]

Re: Suitable pickup for my BC Rich?

If you can only do one you should definitely do the bridge first.