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northwind · 24-10-08, 08:48 PM

I'm a bit out of date now, probably, it's years since I was doing this stuff.

I always liked Kinman single coils, they're sort of the holy grail- noiseless but still authentic. My own strat had Dimarzio Virtual Vintages though, a VV2 and a 54 if I remember rightly, which I chose for versatility more than for pure sound quality. Also, the logos matched its bridge humbucker

But also, coil tapping the 54 gave the best classic single coil pickup sound I've ever had. They were good overall, but not as good as the Kinmans- but had a wider range. I've not tried the Fender Hot noiseless ones but the standard noiseless are a bit sterile to my ears, don't like 'em at all. They sound like traditionalists think all noiseless single coils sound

As far as I'm concerned nothing's better for a neck humbucker than the Duncan 59. Fantastic pickups... So versatile, but you get all those classic sounds as well. You're spoiled for choice for the bridge of an RG but I like Duncan Distortions- they don't clean up too well but they do everything else brilliantly, and who uses an RG for cleans?

You could go mad and heavy with a Dimebucker or Invader or something but the Distortion's a great balance. If you like your huge chunky palm mutes the Invader is still awesome though. JB is one of the recommended ones, but I don't like them in anything but big solid guitars, they're a bit thin and cold I think. I don't think they work well at all in floyd rose'd guitars but then I didn't get to see that many. And I'd whack a Hot Rails into the middle, just because. Or a quarterpounder maybe but they're better in the bridge.

Not sure for the LP... Bare Knuckles do some great pickups, what was the mad heavy one, the War Pig? That's a beast. Couldn't believe it wasn't active when I first met one. If you only had the one humbucker guitar I'd say Distortion/59 or maybe Custom/59. What do you want it to do? A pair of PAFs in an LP is always a contender. I wouldn't want to put anything but a PAF of some sort in the neck, it's just right for the LP, classic sound but also versatile. But what pickups does it have in it? The old Epi humbuckers were fairly nasty but they got very good eventually. Some even come with the Gibson ones as standard. it's the hardware in the Epis which is mince- has your switch broken yet? It will...

There's no one right answer though... I liked to swap them around, I had an SG Special that I could never get to sound how I wanted and it had about 15 pickups in it over the space of 2 years

Some were customer pickups being "tested" before installation but lots I just bought off Ebay- used pickups are cheap.

24-10-08, 08:48 PM	#7
northwind Moderator Mega Poster Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: In the garage where I belong Posts: 17,083	Re: Guitar Pickup upgrades I'm a bit out of date now, probably, it's years since I was doing this stuff. I always liked Kinman single coils, they're sort of the holy grail- noiseless but still authentic. My own strat had Dimarzio Virtual Vintages though, a VV2 and a 54 if I remember rightly, which I chose for versatility more than for pure sound quality. Also, the logos matched its bridge humbucker But also, coil tapping the 54 gave the best classic single coil pickup sound I've ever had. They were good overall, but not as good as the Kinmans- but had a wider range. I've not tried the Fender Hot noiseless ones but the standard noiseless are a bit sterile to my ears, don't like 'em at all. They sound like traditionalists think all noiseless single coils sound As far as I'm concerned nothing's better for a neck humbucker than the Duncan 59. Fantastic pickups... So versatile, but you get all those classic sounds as well. You're spoiled for choice for the bridge of an RG but I like Duncan Distortions- they don't clean up too well but they do everything else brilliantly, and who uses an RG for cleans? You could go mad and heavy with a Dimebucker or Invader or something but the Distortion's a great balance. If you like your huge chunky palm mutes the Invader is still awesome though. JB is one of the recommended ones, but I don't like them in anything but big solid guitars, they're a bit thin and cold I think. I don't think they work well at all in floyd rose'd guitars but then I didn't get to see that many. And I'd whack a Hot Rails into the middle, just because. Or a quarterpounder maybe but they're better in the bridge. Not sure for the LP... Bare Knuckles do some great pickups, what was the mad heavy one, the War Pig? That's a beast. Couldn't believe it wasn't active when I first met one. If you only had the one humbucker guitar I'd say Distortion/59 or maybe Custom/59. What do you want it to do? A pair of PAFs in an LP is always a contender. I wouldn't want to put anything but a PAF of some sort in the neck, it's just right for the LP, classic sound but also versatile. But what pickups does it have in it? The old Epi humbuckers were fairly nasty but they got very good eventually. Some even come with the Gibson ones as standard. it's the hardware in the Epis which is mince- has your switch broken yet? It will... There's no one right answer though... I liked to swap them around, I had an SG Special that I could never get to sound how I wanted and it had about 15 pickups in it over the space of 2 years Some were customer pickups being "tested" before installation but lots I just bought off Ebay- used pickups are cheap. __________________ "We are the angry mob, we read the papers every day We like what we like, we hate what we hate But we're oh so easily swayed"