Thoughts on the Invader....

Chestnut King

New member
I wanted to get some feedback on my consideration to purchase the invader for the neck position of my Les Paul Classic. I play semi heavy rock, so would it be wise, and if so, with what neck pickup does it go well. Thanx.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

invader for the enck spot equals the following:

mud city
bad cleans
bad tone :D

I guess we need to know what you'd be doing with it. for leads? for cleans?

for cleans, a 59 or jazz is great.
for leads, a 59 is great as is a jazz
for a total shred tone, a dimarzio paf pro is really nice, on duncans an sh-6 would be nice.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

The Invader isn't a very good pickup so I would say don't waste your money. The bass and the mids of the Invader are overkill and tend to drown out the higher notes you play. Its not a very well balanced pickup if you ask me. It lacks clarity and treble. The Invader is only good for strictly barchord playing IMO. Anything outside of barchord playing such as soloing you will find that the Invader will be way to muddy for it. I wouldn't recommend the Invader to you. :saeek:
 
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Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

Chestnut King said:
I wanted to get some feedback on my consideration to purchase the invader for the neck position of my Les Paul Classic. I play semi heavy rock, so would it be wise, and if so, with what neck pickup does it go well. Thanx.


Your post is kinda confusing. You ask if it would be wise to get an Invader neck and towards the end of your post you ask which neck pickup would be a good match the for Invader. :smack: I'm assuming you mean't Invader bridge and wanna know what neck pickup would go well with it. As I stated above, I wouldn't recommend the Invader so my recommendation to you would be to check out a Duncan Custom or a Duncan Distortion bridge pickup. As far as a neck 59' or Jazz would work. The 59' has more bass than the Jazz.
 
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Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

The Invader is NOT a bad pickup. In fact, I think they're wonderful. They're a high output-full frequency range pickup. If you boost the bottom, end on them, you're going to get an overly heavy bottom end. They're an amazing bridge pickup, you can get sustain and overtones for days.
However, I don't suspect that they're a real good choice for a neck position on a Paul. LPs have a tendency to be midrange heavy, and you have to think of pickups like microphones. Paul Reed Smith says that an electric guitar is first and foremost an acoustic instrument. The pickups are a "microphone" of sorts. They color the tone of the instrument, but only to the extent of the tonal characteristics of the guitar. I like Invaders, but wouldn't consider putting one on a Les Paul. They make instruments such as Vs, Explorers, SGs and Strats sound like God, but I suspect that what they're doing is leveling the playing field and making up for some mid and low response that wasn't there.
If you want a high output pickup on the neck position in your Paul, you might want to consider something like a Jeff Beck or Full Shred (if you want to terrorize the pets). My own preference is to go with a lower output pickup in the neck position to give the instrument some tonal variance. For instance, if you put a Full Shred in the bridge and a '59 or Phat Cat in the neck, you'd have a tonal spectrum that would let you go from Blink 182 to Wes Montgomery. Again, this is just my opinion.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

mcclano said:
Dude why would you get one if Blink 182 use em!?!?!

I was using Invaders long before Blink 182 was formed. Are you saying that it's wrong to use them?
 
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Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

Hellion said:
The Invader is NOT a bad pickup. In fact, I think they're wonderful. They're a high output-full frequency range pickup. If you boost the bottom, end on them, you're going to get an overly heavy bottom end. They're an amazing bridge pickup, you can get sustain and overtones for days.
However, I don't suspect that they're a real good choice for a neck position on a Paul. LPs have a tendency to be midrange heavy, and you have to think of pickups like microphones. Paul Reed Smith says that an electric guitar is first and foremost an acoustic instrument. The pickups are a "microphone" of sorts. They color the tone of the instrument, but only to the extent of the tonal characteristics of the guitar. I like Invaders, but wouldn't consider putting one on a Les Paul. They make instruments such as Vs, Explorers, SGs and Strats sound like God, but I suspect that what they're doing is leveling the playing field and making up for some mid and low response that wasn't there.
If you want a high output pickup on the neck position in your Paul, you might want to consider something like a Jeff Beck or Full Shred (if you want to terrorize the pets). My own preference is to go with a lower output pickup in the neck position to give the instrument some tonal variance. For instance, if you put a Full Shred in the bridge and a '59 or Phat Cat in the neck, you'd have a tonal spectrum that would let you go from Blink 182 to Wes Montgomery. Again, this is just my opinion.


Well in my opinion Invaders aren't great. Everyone's got their own opinion though...... :rolleyes: :dance:
 
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Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

People say sh1t about the Invader because they dont know how to use it properly. You first of all have to have it set in your guitar right. Second you have to cut the mids on your amp- my settings are low- 9, mid- 1, high- 9.

If you dont cut the mids then you will get the Mud everybody talks about.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

I agree with Hellion: the Invader is a great pickup whcih has a bad rep cause of Blink. I use my Invader bridge for really heavy slooooooow Billy Gibbons-like blues soloing. But in the neck of Les Paul? Hm, don´t think so...
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

I'm going to put a pair of Invaders in my Warlock, it's all maple and very bright so I think Invaders would be perfect for it. I've not heard much about the Invader neck model, how would that sound in a bright guitar?

Cheers,

CJ
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

wixomwhat said:
People say sh1t about the Invader because they dont know how to use it properly. You first of all have to have it set in your guitar right. Second you have to cut the mids on your amp- my settings are low- 9, mid- 1, high- 9.

If you dont cut the mids then you will get the Mud everybody talks about.

Man, I could never get an Invader then... my settings consist of Bass at about 4.5, Treble at about 6.5, Mids as high as they go!
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

joelap said:
Man, I could never get an Invader then... my settings consist of Bass at about 4.5, Treble at about 6.5, Mids as high as they go!


Why would you dial in the amp the same for every pickup???
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

I probally would not recomend the Invader for a les paul. The sound would be very dark and possibly muddy in my opinion. I have played one in a strat before and it sounded good for mainly power chords and stuff like that (very powerful and raw!!!). I didnt like it at all for leads, it wasnt clear enough and it had way too much bass and mid to cut through. The Invader is pretty much a one trick pony in my opinion. As far as neck pickup to go with it, a 59, jazz, and a full shred should work very well.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

When my PRS-copy is sounding a bit thin and bright and not heavy and mean enough, I switch over to my SG with an Invader bridge (no tone or volume: straight to the jack) and the problem solved. Crank up the gain, the Invader just sounds massively huge and full.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

Heeey! Anyone who flames the Invader will be given a punishment of druct taped to my cab as I do chunkychunkyfunkyblasts with my axe 'til morning on volume eleven! :argh: :firedevil :D

Invader + Les Paul or any dark sounding axe = muddier tone (Alex_In_Chains bro' would complain, anyway ;) )

Invader + Strat or any bright sounding axe = better clarity but still dirty2the hell tone.

sum: if you want clean sounds don't go this way. The '59, Full Shred, JB (in the neck) will better rock your boat in a darker sounding Paul.


Clean:

clean


Dirty:

dirty

or anything from Metallica's Master of Puppets



You decide. I have already done it.

A M E N
 
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Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

mcclano said:
Dude why would you get one if Blink 182 use em!?!?!

:rolleyes:

Isn't that like saying 'why would you get a strat if the guy from blink182 had one?'

What a rediculous post!

Also some people happen to like blink 182 and thier tone, anyways....

Although i wouldnt recommend one for a les Paul (would possibly sound overly dark) thats not to say its a bad picup.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

When I have played the Invader I do not think it sounds like Blink 182. They must have had the volume control or the gain turned down. The invader is HARD. It has one of the, if not the hardest driving pickups I have played. The distortion sounds out of it are sick. In a good way.
 
Re: Thoughts on the Invader....

wixomwhat said:
People say sh1t about the Invader because they dont know how to use it properly. You first of all have to have it set in your guitar right. Second you have to cut the mids on your amp- my settings are low- 9, mid- 1, high- 9.

If you dont cut the mids then you will get the Mud everybody talks about.
There's no way any EQ will pass enough midrange to sound good with these settings.

I think you have bad taste.
 
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