The ultimate Def Leppard pickup combo?

Remember - we are talking Mutt Lange production.

There are hum buckers, single coils, harmony keyboard lines, sustainers and all manner of things to make a single sound. There really won't be one "good for everything" pickup.

I'd at least want to have a split of some sort too. Or be able to go to uber clean with chorus/delay and some brightening.
 
Aceman said:
Remember - we are talking Mutt Lange production.

There are hum buckers, single coils, harmony keyboard lines, sustainers and all manner of things to make a single sound. There really won't be one "good for everything" pickup.

I'd at least want to have a split of some sort too. Or be able to go to uber clean with chorus/delay and some brightening.
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Yeah, that I'm aware of. I can coil-split if needed, and I've got three decent Lep tones dialed in: split with delay/chorus (clean parts on "Hysteria"), distorted rhythm ("Pour Some Sugar on Me" riffs), and distorted lead (works best for Collen's solos). Still working on a tone for the janglier solos ("Armageddon It" and so on).

I'm not trying to nail things perfectly, believe me. Hysteria is one of the most produced albums of all time. But it still seems to me that a Super D and maybe a Super 2 will give me as much of that album as any single pickup combo could.
 
Aceman said:
Yeah - but isn't it a GREAT sound?!?!?!?!?!
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If I didn't think it was a great sound, I wouldn't have spent this much time learning the songs and chasing the tones. So yeah, I agree. :D

Besides the songs themselves, it is so well-assembled. I love the layers, the guitar parts, the drum sound, all the harmonies, the fact that Phil and Steve were playing off each other and using inversions and smaller chord shapes instead of only churning out power chords on the lower strings.
 
Love Animal, one of my all-time Lep favs. So fun to play, and deceptively simple. According to the band, Phil Collen did the solo in one take, then said to Lange, "I can do it better." And Lange said, "No, you can't," and they went with that take. :D

I mean, yes, parts of that album were recorded in agonizing detail, and Animal itself came together over three years, to hear them tell it, but not everything was 12 takes and "string by string" like the Hysteria prechorus.
 
weepingminotaur said:
Yeah, I posted that same link earlier. That's really what convinced me that either the SD or Super 3 is the way to go, but I wanted to check with you fine folks to make sure.

How would you describe the PAF Pro from a tonal standpoint?
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The PAF Pro in the neck is the classic shredding tone: flutey mids with a bit of hair on top. It's an upper mid-focused pickup, but not obnoxiously so. It's fairly even aside from the rolled off bass.

The "PAF" part of the name is misleading. It sounds like it's from the 80's.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk
 
I haven't posted on here in quite a few years, but thought I would chime on in this one.

There is some great info on the Steve Clark Tribute website about his guitars.

I cant tell you some things from what I remember hearing/reading about Steve's guitars and what pickups he used.

The 3-pickup LP custom has a Dirty Fingers in bridge
He also played a Les Paul XR-1 for a bit and that also has Dirty Fingers

I believe his Tobacco Burst LP Standard had stock Tim Shaw humbuckers (covered)

To be honest, you can totally cop Steve's album tone with a Les Paul with Tim Shaw's or Duncan '59's in it.

Phil Collen loves his Dimarzios.....Basically everything on Pyromania was Super Distortion
Hysteria, he had some money and bought alot of guitars, especially Jacksons. His custom painted Jackson Dinky had stock Jackson J-90C pickups in it till somewhat recently, when he modified it to have a Super 3 under the painted Jackson cover.

Phil usually uses Super 3, Super Distortions and became recently infatuated with X2N's, especially in some of his guitars that are somewhat dull. There was a recent video on Youtube about his rig rundown.

I could include Vivian's rundown, but his is pretty complicated
 
You know - depending on the songs of interest, and the guitar of course...a Jazz or a Full Shred could easily work in the neck.

Jazz + Super Distortion.
 
Just ordered my Super Distortion (in DOUBLE CREAM) today from Sweetwater. Super-excited! Will probably do the Paf Pro in a month or two once I have spare cash.
 
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