what sounds good in all-maple axes?

chief brody

chief brody

New member
I've got a rear-routed Super Strat and I'm looking for a bridge humbucker for general hard rock & metal playing (i.e. EVH to Jeff Waters). the guitar has these specs:

Bolt-on maple neck
Maple fingerboard
Hard Maple body
Schaller Floyd
25.5" scale

it's got a single volume pot hole. I have both a 500k and 250k vol pot, but haven't decided which to install..?

thanks
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Well that guitar is going to be bright as hell and sustain like mad. I'd say go with a bassier pup and 250K pots, or 500K if the pup has a really low resonant peak. Might also want to check out putiing in a push/pull to go from volume to tone (when pulled, volume is cranked and tone is engaged).

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WDUH00101

For an all maple guitar, I'd say a tone pot would DEFINATELY be worth having, you're going to need it.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

A2P or custom custom come to mind. If you don't mind custom shop, I hear great things about the EVH '78 too.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Maple is not as bright as some people think it is. Everybody has this notion that maple is the brightest thing there is. I've played basswood guitars that were brighter, alder and ash too. It's all dependent on the pick from the tree.

I've got a maple bodied Kramer Baretta with a maple neck/rosewood fretboard. I slapped a maple/maple neck on it before and it didn't make a huge difference with it. It was a hair snappier and a little more presence but that was it. It's got a JB humbucker in it with a 500k volume pot and a Original Floyd Rose. It sounds nice and fat with just the right amount of everything.

My recommendation, try a JB with it. Maple bodies tend to tighten up the somewhat loose low end of the JB.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

custom custom or patb-1
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

I had an all maple guitar (well, the fingerboard was ebony) and it had a PATB1 in the bridge. I've had PATB1's in several guitars and in this one was the second-best it's ever sounded. Absolutely god-like.

-Austin
 
Last edited:
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Hard maple or soft maple body? I have an all maple Charvel style, hard maple body, it's bright, but I don't think it is overbearing. It has an overwound JB with a A2 magnet in it because I had the JB laying around. I would say the CC would be a good choice or the PATB-2, you want something with lots of mids, the maple has plenty of highs and tight lows.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Invader, CC, PATB-3, Screamin Demon, Super 3, or Super Distortion would all be solid choices. I didn't care for thr JB in my maple Carvin DC127T, though. It was a bit too spikey for my taste.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Screamin Demon, CC, and Dmz Airzone, are the proven all maple guitar humbuckers.

The SD will probably be more dynamic, and less compressed.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Think warmer, like an Alnico II Pro Humbucker and a Custom Custom bridge. I have two Alnico II Pro Staggered pickups and a Custom Custom in my Ibanez RX240 (or, I should say, the guitar I gave away), and at least they sounded decent (the CC in a maple body had a nice hot-and-trashy sound like maybe Main In The Box / Alice In Chains sound).

I can speak from experience here. The JB was an ice pick in all maple (and believe it or not, the guitar had a rosewood fretboard, which should've helped soften the highs a bit). I'd suggest pickups with lots of mids, tight lows, and soft highs. If they made a 5/2 humbucker, that would be the holy grail for all-maple, in my opinion. And use 250k pots, in my opinion.
 
Last edited:
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

OK, it only seems 2 users in this whole thread actually know maple guitars and the rest are talking out of their butt becasue they seem to think maple is ungodly bright. NOT TRUE!!! Read post #6 for more details.

What works really well in maple,

JB,
Scremin Demon,
PATB-3.

Other might work "OK" but, these have been confirmed to work VERY well!!!
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

I've heard the opinion that maple guitars are not so bright many times AND just for a second experienced opinion I asked Tim from Bare Knuckle about which of his pups fit in all maple. He recommended the Miracle Man (a powerful ceramic one that's not dark). You can be sure that he definitely knows tone and generally guitars, so I'm more inclined in that opinion too.

Also remember that there are the 250K pots or the pure nickel strings that can help you in this too.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

theodie said:
OK, it only seems 2 users in this whole thread actually know maple guitars and the rest are talking out of their butt becasue they seem to think maple is ungodly bright. NOT TRUE!!! Read post #6 for more details.

What works really well in maple,

JB,
Scremin Demon,
PATB-3.

Other might work "OK" but, these have been confirmed to work VERY well!!!
Click to expand...

And it seems certain people like to refer to certain other people without saying names. However, I could still care less, because brightness depends on who's listening: it's not a scientific measurement. My quilt maple top Ovation isn't that bright. If I hung around F-16's more, I'd probably start losing my high frequency hearing and think maple is dark anyways.

So, bottom line, your mileage may vary. On average, maple is bright, so you probably want to balance it out with alnico II magnet pickups. Alex from Seymour Duncan was the one who first told me this, and he was right.

But still, it's a baseline, since not every species and sample is going to be the stereotypical bright or dark or warm. You sometimes run across bright guitars that shouldn't be as bright, in theory. Case in point: my Showmaster FAT HH. Basswood (with an ash body veneer) with maple set neck and rosewood fretboard. Shouldn't be bright, in theory, but it is, almost as bad as that Ibanez soft maple body guitar I used to own.

So, bottom line, I find it a waste of time to argue one person's opinion versus another.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

Metalblaze said:
I've heard the opinion that maple guitars are not so bright many times
Click to expand...

Its not opinion, its fact. Everyone seems to have this "opinion" that maple is bright though.
 
Last edited:
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

In my experience, it's not about all-maple guitars being super bright either. The difference seems to be more about the envelope and dynamics of the notes: attack, bloom, sustain etc.
 
Re: what sounds good in all-maple axes?

TwinReverb said:
And it seems certain people like to refer to certain other people without saying names. However, I could still care less, because brightness depends on who's listening: it's not a scientific measurement. My quilt maple top Ovation isn't that bright. If I hung around F-16's more, I'd probably start losing my high frequency hearing and think maple is dark anyways.

So, bottom line, your mileage may vary. On average, maple is bright, so you probably want to balance it out with alnico II magnet pickups. Alex from Seymour Duncan was the one who first told me this, and he was right.

But still, it's a baseline, since not every species and sample is going to be the stereotypical bright or dark or warm. You sometimes run across bright guitars that shouldn't be as bright, in theory. Case in point: my Showmaster FAT HH. Basswood (with an ash body veneer) with maple set neck and rosewood fretboard. Shouldn't be bright, in theory, but it is, almost as bad as that Ibanez soft maple body guitar I used to own.

So, bottom line, I find it a waste of time to argue one person's opinion versus another.
Click to expand...

No, its a waste of time to take in account someones advice (I will mention names here, yours) That has had little expereince with Duncans lineup of pickups and also many different woods and first hand knowledge of all of them and how they work together. Of course, this same person (you) is in about every pickup advice thread throwing your opinion out there without a whole lot of first hand knowledge while talking out of your butt. Maybe you will get a "generic" suggestion from the tone wizard at times and post it but, this is of course "generic".

Bottom line, maple is not icepick bright like most of you guys on here think it is though, you guys still spew out this mis-information. Maple is maybe brighter than mahognay but, it aint nearly as bright as you folks seem to think it is. You are getting the word "opinion" mixed up with "mis-information" you have hear someone else say. Try it for yourself and you will see and hear the "facts" not, opinions at that point. Maple really needs to be viewed as what it typically is, "tight, focused, precise, balanced"

In closing, actually try something for yourself and try it throughly before shooting off your "opinions" that are usually false.

BTW TR, I stand firmly behind what I said in my previous thread.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top