Different Pickups and their tones

[tonyguitarguy]

Before The Plagues!!!!

[tonyguitarguy]

myspace.com/beforetheplagues

[panicden]

Hi, does anyone know of any online instructionsm preferably with good pics on how to replace Pickups on a semi hollow that does NOT have a back plate. My Guitar is a Raven West RG450 Semi Hollow body. Thx

[Woodrow swillson]

Originally Posted by panicden

Hi, does anyone know of any online instructionsm preferably with good pics on how to replace Pickups on a semi hollow that does NOT have a back plate. My Guitar is a Raven West RG450 Semi Hollow body. Thx

I've never heard of an electric guitar without a backplate. There HAS to be one, or else the company wouldnt be able to screw the pots into it. Can you post a pic of the back of your guitar? I looked up Raven west rg450's and they all had backplates. What kind of pups are you putting in it? I heard semihollows are VERY touchy about pups (feedbacky), though I've never had one myself.

Edit. I just saw how old the post is.

[JohnnyRoxx]

I have used many different pickups. Here is my rundown;

Seymour Duncan JB;
My favorite pickup. Nice midrange, full bottom, cutting top-end that doesn't peirce the ears. This pickup needs a great peice of wood to sound good in. Doesn't work well in a crap guitar.

Dimarzio ToneZone;
Second fave. Nice mids, like the JB, fuller bottom end, will get muddy if not careful with tone setting on the amp, cutting high end that is smooth. Again, needs a nice guitar to work well with.

EMG's: I've used the 81 and 85 models. To me, these will make a shitty guitar sound good because they have a mind of their own. The pickup is where the sound comes from with these. Unless the guitar has zero sustain, they'll sound good in anything. More of a metal pickup though.

Seymour Duncan BlackBacks;

Over-rated in my opinion. I A/B'd this with my JBs and the JBs are way better.

Seymour Custom Custom; Great pickup! I had a Washburn Idol with them and it was a lot like JB, just a little more mid growl.

Seymour Duncan Invader; I had a BC Rich Ironbird in the 80s with one. It was my main guitar. Nice distortion and not fuzzy at all. Chunky and rich!

[Auburn RSX-S]

I had to do the same thing for a friend of mine. It's tricky but not too bad. Easier if you're replacing pickups as you have larger area to fanagle wires.

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/vi...guitar-251515/

[rdclmn7]

I already talked about pickups.
Tonewood,
I bought a 6ft piece of Philipine Mahogany while in Korea.
I divided it into 3 pieces.
I made one into a les paulish strat.
I bolted a strat neck to it, hot-wired a pickup to it and plugged in.
It sounded better.

At the moment I have 2 strats, one w/alder, the other w/swamp ash.
2 years ago I had a laminated Bullet.
I kept the bullet neck and had it on the swamp ash body, pretty good.
I placed a CBS style neck on the Alder body, not bad.
I got rid of the combinations that didn't sound good.

I finally got around to switching things around again.
This time I have 2 strats that sound at their best, those 2, and my 85 LP Studio.

Change the wood, the sound will change.
For better or worse it will change.
Swapping necks/bodies is a lot cheaper than buying the guitar it self.

[JohnnyRoxx]

Cool post rdclmn7! Another thing I've noticed over my years of tweaking with guitars is that the placement and how you mount the pickup makes a huge difference in tone. I have three OLP MM1 guitars that have hard mounted Duncan JB's (without any mounting rings) firmly secured straight into the wood. What this does is incredible. The entire guitar vibrates when playing and the pickup takes all that tone into it, thus giving it a huge amount of sustain, presence and balls. You don't need to have a huge amount of distortion going to get what ya need and by having the gain backed off the amps you get unbelievable presence.. Also, how close/far the pickups are to the strings makes a difference. I don't like them too close cause the tone gets fuzzy. I prefer about two nickels under the low E and the pickup and one nickel on the high E. More balls is achieved by doing this and a tighter crunch.

[diyguitarmods]

P-90's are awesome but it could be that they sound so good because they are always stocked on great guitars.


http://www.diyguitarmods.com

[tmacfan]

I will have to agree with Joe king.

If u wanna override the wood of ur guitar go for EMG 81/85 actives

[partsfever]

This is one of the most frequently asked questions i get and is a bit complicated because sound is relative to the person and is an individual taste What I like you ma hate so I will tackle the question in two stages from bother perspectives.

O first of all if you are a collector you need the correct pickup for your guitar no matter how it sounds. As crazy as it sounds a 100% original 1959 les paul that sounds like crap is better than the best sounding modified one in the collectors market. By the way never really hear a bad burst!!.

Wth that said here we go. I personally think that a PAF pickup has a bite and a sound the pick makes when hitting the sting that a normal pickup does not. Again we are in personal territory here but the attack of the pick of the string for me is more aggressive and yet clean. I like that and yes they are have a great tone but to me that is a trademark. PAF pickups range from 7.7 ohms to 9.0 ohms i have had factory unsoldered double whites that read as high as 10 ohms this is not the norm. around a mid 8.2-8.5 is normal for nice one.

Now this is real important I ave heard bad PAF pickups when i mean bad i mean run of the mill sound not horrible. To me the the lower the reading usually the more mid tones and a warmer pickup the higher the output the more treble . But again as pickups age the age differently and i have heard the opposite both scenarios. but the general rule is the lower the output the more tone.

So if you are a player the PAF range is great and again it is a matter of taste. Not all pickups are killers and the pickups will sound different in different guitars. the higher output ones should go in solid bodies or semi-hollow bodys that i do know. This again being said I feel most with like the PAF tone and sound in a solid body guitar and semi-hollow guitar.

Now a little secret that some know . The best pickups Gibson made with a consistent and with a tone were from 1962-1964 in my opinion and are pre-t top pickups. Everyone I have ever heard in an SG sounds like GOD. everyone is a es-335 sounds like GOD. these are monster pickups at 1/3 price.

The first versions of these are pafs with new stickers that have patent numbers on them.They have double black lead wires and all PAF markings on pickups. By 1963 they went to black and white lead wires. FOR ME WHO CARES THEY ALL SOUNDS GREAT . Now collectors will argue and of course you need the correct pickup for te correct guitar and year if you collect or buy and sell guitar but for a player good new they all sounds great. I never heard a bad 63-64 sg or es-335.

These have that classic sound you loved from Cream, the Beatles, Mc5 and more. I will go out on a limb and say that 99% of the people who buy these pickups will be satisfied. These are my favorite pickups.

So I hope this helps I do not know if you are a player, collector or both but i hope this give some insight into the pickup decision making. If you have any further question e mail us at www.thepartsdrawer.com

JIm Pasch

The Parts Drawer

[Megadeaf]

I use a Seymour Duncan Invader and a Jackson CVR2 on my Jackson Randy Rhodes and the SD is by far my favorite.