warm, middy humbuckers for a semi-hollow

[veil]

Hello,

It’s been ages since I’ve looked into aftermarket pickups!

I have a '15 Ibanez AS-73 semi-hollow, which is 24.75" scale with a maple laminate body, mahogany neck, and rosewood fingerboard. The pickups are "Classic Elites," which the Ibanez wiki tells me have ceramic magnets with 9.5K/11.0K DC resistance on the neck and bridge, respectively. They have wayyy too much bass for my taste. I think they might be a little too hot for me, too, but it’s hard to tell because the bass bloats up input gain really easily. I’m toying around with pickup height, which is helping a little bit, but I get the feeling I’m fighting against the way these pickups are voiced.

This guitar doesn’t get a ton of use—I mainly use a guitar with Filtertrons and a guitar with P-90s. But now and again I like a middy, creamy, thick sound. I only play and record at home, so I don’t need this guitar to be versatile or overlap my main two guitars in any way. I just want it to be distinct from my my main two guitars by excelling at humbuckerism.

I was looking at Alnico 2-based humbuckers, since I don’t need mega fat bass or crispy, bright treble, and I’ve heard these magnets have complex midrange tones. I excluded the Antiquity (out of my budget), the Duality (don’t want active preamp), Stag Mag (don’t want coil split), and Phat Cat (don’t want to approximate a P-90) and now have this list:

Seth Lover (SH-55)
Pearly Gates (SH-PG1)
Alnico 2 Pro (APH-1)
Slash Alnico 2 Pro (APH-2)
Custom Custom (SH-11)

While the Custom Custom seems to be the hottest, middiest outlier, I’m not sure how to compare the other four. How do they line up to one another in terms of EQ and output response?

Also happy to consider anything not on this list.

 

[jeremy]

seth lovers in a hollow body are usually a winning combo but they are paf type pups so might not be middy enough for what you want?

 

[GuitarStv]

Seths sound great in a semi-hollow, and are middy. But they're bright humbuckers . . . you'll need to use the tone knob to get them to sound "warm". If you have a .022 cap, they're very versatile tone-wise.

 

[AlexR]

If your stock pickups are too hot, then the Custom will be moreso.

The A2pro would be the winner in my book for warm and middy from your list.

 

[Mincer]

If your stock pickups are too hot, then the Custom will be moreso.

The A2pro would be the winner in my book for warm and middy from your list.

This would be my recommendation as well. They are relatively inexpensive, too, so that is a plus.

 

[Juanhanglo]

Dimarzio 36th work well too.

 

[veil]

I'm no stranger to a tone knob and love to roll it off to get dark, mellow sounds from the neck pickup or vocal, peaky sounds from the bridge pickup. I'd love humbuckers that play along nicely with tone knobs. I probably should have mentioned that haha!

Come to think of it, I had a 36th in the bridge position of a Strat a few years ago. That was a great pickup.

The shortlist is now:

Seth Lover SH-55
Alnico 2 Pro APH-1
Dimarzio PAF 36th

 

[Mincer]

Keep in mind that the Seths have sort of an upper mid honky thing going on. In a good way, but it isn't the same mids as the Alnico II Pro, which is shifted a little lower. Seths are not potted, which is great for dynamic styles, but not great for a lot of volume and preamp gain.

 

[Condemned soul]

It's worth your time looking into the low gain Dimarzio Pickups. There are some excellent pickups in that group. Here are two sets that might work for you.
I've got both sets in SG Standards and really enjoy them. The PAF Master set has an A5 in the neck and a A4 in the bridge.

DMZ 36 Anniversary set
DMZ PAF Master Set

 

[ICTGoober]

I have a set of Antiquities in my AS73.... No lack of mids.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Yah, the Antiquities have even more honk that Seths, I think. But they're expensive.
Maybe a used set of Ants could be an option?

Still, when I think heavy mids, I think DiMarzio - some of them sound like a cocked wah.
Back in the 70s, Larry's PAF model was extremely honky & snarly.
I agree the 36th Anni might be the best fit out of the current lineup.
There are others with even stronger mids but they aren't vintage output.

 

[veil]

Thanks for the info, everyone! I like a honky upper midrange, Mincer

I felt like I hadn't done my full due diligence, so I put new strings on the guitar, re-adjusted the pickup heights, and tried different amps to be certain the problem couldn't be solved with the basics. I have reconfirmed that the pickups are indeed just way too bassy and dark.

BUT, surprisingly, when I was A/B/C'ing directly to my main guitars today, the stock pickups are not as high output as I thought of them as. A smidge of a gain boost, and not unpleasant. In light of this, maybe I could even add the 59/Custom (SH-16) bridge to the mix. That model seems to have a really interesting midrange going on. Maybe a medium-hot bridge pickup could give me that focused, muscular rock sound that humbuckers excel at. I could then put one of these vintage output humbuckers in the neck so that I can get gooey, smokey jazz rhythm sounds too. Those are the two main humbucker sounds I like, which I sometimes struggle to get on my other guitars.

Haha I should probably be narrowing down my options instead of expanding them, but I'm just trying to keep the main point of the pickup swap in mind, i.e. getting ones that do what my Filtertrons and P-90s can't do.

 

[veil]

I spent some time listening to videos of people comparing Seth Lovers and Antiquities and I decided I like the Seth Lovers better. It was a little tougher finding direct comparisons of the Seth Lovers and A2Ps though.

Condemned soul I also spent a bit doing the same for the Dimarzio 36th and Master PAFs, but would love to hear your thoughts comparing the two!

Gonna scratch the SH-16 other medium-output pickups off my list just to make decision-making easier.

 

[veil]

haha well my journey has taken me full circle and I've come to accept the stock pickups for what they are. There is definitely room for improvement, but it's close enough, and I don't use/like this guitar enough to really justify it. Just wanted to thank you all for your help! Thanks!

 

[playas]

If you found a comparison of the A2Ps vs Seths could you share pls?

I haven't heard the alnico2s for comparison but really like the Seths in an LP style guitar I have (it's not hollow).

If you're certain you're sticking with the same pickups it may be worth your while buying a few Alnico bar magnets (eg. A4, A2) and try replacing the ceramics. That should presumably add mids. I'm not sure how they would affect the bass - someone else will surely have an idea though.

I would also assume it would be way easier than replacing pups in a semi-hollow guitar too.

 

[freefrog]

For the record, AS73 "CH" stock pickups vaguely remind a SH4 + a SH1 with ceramic mags...

Bridge Ibanez PU= 15.4k and 7.8H of inductance.

Neck Ibanez PU= 8.3k and 4.1H.

Brass baseplates.

Their specs and core tone make me think that AlNiCo mags in these HB's would make them a bit too bassy.

But IME, the mentioned guitar model can be improved by other components than pickups - like another bridge... FWIW.

 

[Mincer]

The mid peak of A2Ps is lower than the Seths. The Seths are still scooped, with a generally PAF-y profile. The A2Ps are the reverse of that.

 

[GuitarDoc]

I think that the main thing you don't like about your current pups is due to the ceramic magnets. If you want to try some magnet swapping you could probably get very close to what you want (A2 in the neck pup, UOA5 in the bridge).

If you don't want to swap mags, then that 59/Custom hybrid that you rejected would probably be a great bridge pup for you (plus this pup splits extremely well and has some terrific tones...just change one of your pots to a push/pull pot to split it). The perfect pup for the neck (and, yes I mean perfect) would be the Alnico 2 Pro (A2P, or APH-1) bridge model. Yes the bridge A2P in the neck has lots of really, really great mids and will give you singing, sustaining, violin-like lead tones.

You say that this guitar isn't your favorite and you don't play it much, but with these pups in it, that might just change drastically. This could end up being your favorite most played guitar.

 

[veil]

I think that the main thing you don't like about your current pups is due to the ceramic magnets. If you want to try some magnet swapping you could probably get very close to what you want (A2 in the neck pup, UOA5 in the bridge).

If you don't want to swap mags, then that 59/Custom hybrid that you rejected would probably be a great bridge pup for you (plus this pup splits extremely well and has some terrific tones...just change one of your pots to a push/pull pot to split it). The perfect pup for the neck (and, yes I mean perfect) would be the Alnico 2 Pro (A2P, or APH-1) bridge model. Yes the bridge A2P in the neck has lots of really, really great mids and will give you singing, sustaining, violin-like lead tones.

You say that this guitar isn't your favorite and you don't play it much, but with these pups in it, that might just change drastically. This could end up being your favorite most played guitar.

Haha well, I'm not sure it would depose my Duo Jet (absolutely in love with that thing), but I agree better pickups make any guitar much more inviting and fun to play!

Thank you very much for your suggestions, I would not have thought to put a pickup designed for the bridge position into the neck position! Cool idea. To be clear, I wasn't so much rejecting the SH-16 59/Custom Hybrid as I was taking it off my short-list just to simplify and focus my options. Coincidentally, I always wanted to try an SH-5 Custom back when I played heavier music, but I think you're onto something with the suggestion that ceramic magnets might be the factor I'm not getting along with. So maybe the 59/Custom might be the way to get mids with clarity, and some spice in the output level.

The magnet swapping is also an interesting idea. I just watched a video tutorial and I think even an oaf like me could manage it without breaking something. I would need to pay a tech to install pickups, as I've never done it for a semi-hollow and after watching a demonstration I don't think I trust myself to try haha! Anyway, what I'm saying is it sounds like the cheapest/easiest way to change up the sound. Where do you guys like to buy magnets?

 

[skelt101]

For magnets, I'd look here:
http://addiction-fx.com/gallery1.htm
https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/bar-magnets/
https://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/pickup-parts-and-kits/bar-magnets