Yearly pickup reconfiguration

Outa_Tune

New member
I am going to reconfigure my early 80's Strat, it currently has the everything axe pickup set in it which I don't like. I play through a Marshall DSL-40C, play mostly older hard rock and metal like Priest, Zep (Physical grafitti era), Sabbath, and stuff like that with this guitar.

The everything axe pickup set just doesn't do it for me, the JB-jr lacks crunch, the duckbucker doesn't have that good squawk sound, and the lil59 sounds boring to me. Before I used the everything axe set I had a hotrails in the bridge, and a dimarzio area in the neck, I liked those pickups but just got bored with them. I am not able to get the JBjr to sound big, mean and full with pedals and gain like the hot rails did. Probably good pickups, just not my style.


All that said, I'm thinking of going to a HH config. Routing is no big deal for me. I'm not worried about cost and I am sentimentally attached to this guitar so I am not interested in selling it and buying something already in HH. I am thinking HH because I think going to full sized humbuckers will give me more tone, sustain and harmonics, generally a better sound than single coil sized humbuckers can produce. I was thinking HS might also be OK, as long as the neck was noise cancelling.

So the question is, will the full sized humbuckers give me that extra I want over the single coils? I can always just put the hot rails back if there is no gain in going to a full sized HB.

What would you suggest for pickups based on what I like to play?



BTW, I'm one of those guys that picks right over the middle pickup, so I usually set it really low and hardly ever use it. Would be nice to not have a middle pickup.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

JB/Jazz on a 5 way megaswitch

if you still need more crunch, then maybe the distortion set., It'll back off nicely.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

Pearly Gates set is a good idea and a nice compromise for what you play
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

Pearly Gates set is a good idea and a nice compromise for what you play

Yep. Just completed an HH Strat with a Pearly Gates set with a super switch. Could not be happier.

I have another Strat with a 59/C bridge and Pearly Gates neck. The 59/C is a littler livelier than the PG and just may be a little more versatile.

Can't go wrong with either set.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

PG will get dirty enough to play Sabbath?

Always thought PG was for more of a ZZ Top kinda sound, lighter distortion rather than heavy distortion.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

if you have enough gain on amp + pedals the PG is great for thrash and black,also sounds just great through a hm-2/hm300 for swedish death metal, but you could also follow mincer's advice of a SLUG, tho put an El Diablo on the neck if you do that, full blown sabbath tone for ages even after forever
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

I like the pearly gates plus and rev polarity 59 combo like in the big Apple strat and you get the quack in the 2-4 positions, another HH setup I am absolutely digging is the Dimarzio pg-13 mini humbuckers in an alder/maple strat (classic vibe of all things) and the tone is insane, great clarity, Balls, great cleans, , can do any type of music I probably play it more than my other 48 guitars, I am starting to think they are the perfect pickups for a strat. I am going to do a 3 PG-13 setup in another one of my strats as they now make a middle pickup to match, I wasn't crazy about the tone in the Paul Gilbert video of these pickups but got them at NAMM for cheap, the specs look weird bridge 12k, 145mv, ceramic magnet, but once I tried them......I was sold. I'm going to have to do a vid on these as there is not much out there on them.
 
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Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

I have changed my mind and decided to go back to a Hotrails in the bridge. I listened to some older recordings I did and I like the tone.

I also liked the Area 58 in the neck and am thinking of doing that again.

That leaves me with a config question again.


In my box of pickups, I have another Hotrails bridge, Duckbrucker (don't like in middle), lil 59 (don't like in neck spot), and a JB jr (Don't like this in the bridge).

This is gonna be a hard rock/metal guitar that's gonna see 90% bridge pickup use.

I was wondering what the bridge/middle position would sound like with a Hot rails in the bridge and center spots.

Maybe a Hotrails bridge, hotrails Mid, JB jr neck?

Or HR/JB jr/HR?

Reading around has some people saying the HR bridge in the neck position is not so good.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

Yeah, a Hot Rails bridge in the neck isn't a great sound. It will also overpower the bridge, even if that is a Hot Rails, too.
 
Re: Yearly pickup reconfiguration

OK, so scratch the HR in the neck position.

How about HR bridge, ??? Middle, Area 58 Neck?
 
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