What Pick ups to use

[Robbyk]

Thinking about a pick up change in my Black beauty any ideas what to use.
I play blues, oldie rock from the 60-80's. Some hendrix, stevie ray grand funk , zeppelin etc. I can get a set of burst bucker pros for 75 bucks.
I want to keep everything Gold though cause it looks so frickin cool.
I was also playing with a rewire so the mid pickup can be played alone or shut off. any ideas?
Bluesman?

 

[micp33]

Re: What Pick ups to use

To my ears, the Custom 5 sounds very close to the Burstbucker Pro but a touch more articulate. I put one in my Paul last month and it is once again my favorite guitar for the first time in about ten years.

Disregard the "scooped" description on their site. I think Pantera when I hear scooped and it's anything but. Cleans up well especially with a volume pedal too.

 

[blueman335]

Re: What Pick ups to use

I'd go for the BB Pros; hey $75 is a nice price, especially if they have gold covers. Do it.

For the middle, many of us have come to the conclusion that a single coil sounds better than a HB (just not a location condusive to good tone for a HB, something to do with string node harmonics & magnetic fields), so Phat Cats & P-94's are becoming popular in the middle position.

The easiest way is to use a push-pull to shut off the middle PU. I'd also use push pulls on the other 2 volumes for coil cut for each HB, and you'd get a lot of combinations.

I've settled on a more complicated wiring that allows for quicker changes between PU's:
- wire a dedicated volume & tone pot for the bridge (optional: for me both are push-pulls, one for coil cut, the other for phase).
- wire a volume & tone for the neck & middle to share, the volume being a blend pot with a center detent, so you can dial any amount of neck and middle. I make the tone pot a push-pull to coil cut the neck HB.
- The toggle is wired just like normal for a HH guitar (botom lug to bridge, top lug to neck/middle; middle position is everything on).
This way I can flip the toggle and go from bridge to middle, or bridge to neck instantly, from solos to chords and back. I can also get all three PU's on at the same time with one flip.