Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

[njstoehr]

Re: Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

It kinda depends on the guitar but here is my $0.02:

Distortion: In a les paul - beefy cleans as in there is pleanty of low end and high end sparkle to go with it. Sounds more "modern". Fairly well balanced from string to string. Articulate and smooth for a ceramic magnet pickup.
JB: In a MIM Strat - Took a little work but now it is very nice. Glassier highs than the distortion, blends/pairs well with high output single coils. In my case, 500k pots made the difference over the standard 250k.
Invader: Les Paul - clean tone was a bit to "muddy" for me. Had a bit of that "blanket over the amp" sound going on. Some really like it in a strat type guitar but I haven't tried it in one yet.
Gibson Dirty Fingers: Les Paul and Epipone Dot (ES335) - I love this one. Unfortunately I don't have it installed in anything right now. This one gets a lot of bad press but for the life of me I can't figure out why (to each his own I guess). The cleans are great. Very articulate and blanced from low-e to high-e. Take drop tunings well. The key, IMO, is to get the pickup set at the proper height. Due to its output I found that backing it off from the strings gave it the best sound overall.
Gibson '57 Classic Plus: Les Paul - Not a whole lot to say. It is an icon in the Les Paul SG world. Slightly overwound PAF and has the PAF-like tones. Glassy highs, reasonably tight low end, slightly boosted mids (to my ear anyway).
Gibson Angus Young Signature: Deluxe Tele (yeah you read that right) - Like the '57 Classic Plus just hotter and scooped a bit.

Hope that helps

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

El diablo has great cleans IMO....

Are you referring to the one that looks like a Screamin' Demon or the twin-rail version with exposed A2 mags? I've owned both and the twin-rail Diablo lacked a lot of character when clean in my experience. In fact, that was the sole reason why I took it out of all 3 of my Kevin Bond Rhoads guitars and my Washburns...it was great when driven, but lifeless when clean. The old-school "El Diablo" has bite and clarity both driven and clean...much better!

 

[gvis]

Re: Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

Alternative 8

+1. Nice full roundness too it. Unfortunately that's all I cared for with that pup. More an A8 thing; too much everywhere imo, no what pup I tried it in (when testing under gain).

 

[Adieu]

Re: Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

Super 70... A8 higain monster goes soooo sweet and bluesy on a clean channel. Glassy chime if strummed hard. Very sensitive attack.

Or wait, was it the other way around, my jaw dropping from first plugging a sweet n sparkly bluesy LP into a cranked 6505?

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Which high output humbuckers surprise you with its clean?

Dimebucker made me curious, anyone tried it in parallel?

I haven't tried any of mine that way, but had the one in my Les Paul set up with a push/pull pot to split it, and in single coil mode it would twang like a mofo. It made my LP do a very good Telecaster imitation.