Neck Pickup for my DK2

[wr3k3d]

Right now i have a dk2 (the one with the duncan designed) and i replaced the bridge pup to a dimarzio X2N and love it. i want too change the neck pup and possibly the middle one aswel.

i was wondering opinions on what people think would sound good with it?

i was thinkin maybe some emg single coils but dunno.

i want some good clean tone from it and i want it good for some classic rock.


thanks for the help, i appreciate it.


edit:

here are some pics with it installed.. and didn't switch the middle single coil for the strat one yet..

[DonP]

The Duncan Designed singles are supposed to be quite good. They should be able to do cleans and classic rock.

If I were to change mine, I'd go for hot rails / cool rails / vintage rails, or some other humbucking single coils.


Maybe you should explain what is wrong with the current pickups.

And EMG's would not be a good idea unless you go all EMG. It's easiest to have all passive or all active.

[MartinBarre]

In my SL3 I have a JB bridge, Duncan SSL-1 middle and Hot Rails neck. Works very nicely.
I prefer a genuine single coil in the middle, it gives a great variety of tonal options, and works well in the notch positions.
If I were you I'd leave the middle Duncan Designed pickup (they're really not bad the single coil DDs) and try a Lil 59 or a Hot or Cool Rails in the neck.

[HoddiDarko]

Can you be so kind and post a pic of the wiring in your guitar with the new diMarzio pickup? Im also putting A Dimarzio pickup in A Dk2 and a good pic would be awesome.

I am too thinking about single coils for my Dk2. Going for DiMarzio thats for sure, maybe Hs-2.

[Grahf]

the only single coil that's gonna sound decent with an X2N is a high output rail.. otherwise, if you switch in the middle of a song with volume on full from bridge to single coil pickup.. youll barely even be able to hear it

[wilkinsi]

Anyone who snubs their Duncan Designed pickups may happily send them to me. I used to own a DX10DFS and couldn't get enough of those DD's.

[tomanyjacksons]

My PS2 has Seymour Duncans, bridge Alternative 8 (still working this one out but happy so far) middle a Hotrails neck and in the neck position I have a Hotrails bridge. The 2 hot rails have parallel/single/series switches on them and it has really opened up the ole cheapo guitar. Plus with the switches right there you can really tell the differences between series and parallel wirings ( kind of cool to me) but with the 5 way wired up common I get alot of different sounds considering i bought the guitar for $100.00 a year and a half ago. All I've done to it was replace pups and pots (CTS ofcourse) and put in 2 mini on/on/on switches. Turned a dinglie sounding guitar into something with some real growl and scream and switching through all 5 positions doesn't leave any positions sounding low on volume. I have a project Charvette H/S/S that I'm going to do a similar set up with Dimarzio (gotta givem' a try) pups and 3 parallel/single/series switches. I can't wait. I'm thinking my setup won't be the best for you as I play more metal oriented music, from old to new.

[Rich#6]

I would go for the hot rails neck and cool rails middle too.

[MartinBarre]

the only single coil that's gonna sound decent with an X2N is a high output rail.. otherwise, if you switch in the middle of a song with volume on full from bridge to single coil pickup.. youll barely even be able to hear it

That's a myth. Dave Murray has a vintage Fender single coil in between his Super D and PAF and it works fine for him.
I always put/keep middle single coils as vintage type single coils to work in conjuction with higher output humbuckers or stacked humbuckers. It's a lot more versatile than the HHH setup which seems a waste of time to me. Replacing the middle Hot Rails in my SL3 for an SSL-1 really opened that guitar up for me.
Sure there's a bit of a volume drop but adjusting the pickup heights can help that, and for playing metal the middle single coil will likely only be used for clean parts anyway so you can boost the volume with a pedal when switching for those parts if you need to.

[wr3k3d]

Thanks for the input everyone, and the hotrail would sound good in neck position?.. Thought it was meant for bridge, but that was my intial thought since i had the X2N. I was even thinking about changing that out but not quite sure, i really like it. What about Dimarzio single coils? Any suggestions these?

[HoddiDarko]

It can also combine well with the Fast Track 1™, Chopper™ and Pro Track™. The split option is very effective, because a single X2N® coil has similar performance parameters to many Strat-type pickups.

Check that out. This is what they recommend at least

[MartinBarre]

Thanks for the input everyone, and the hotrail would sound good in neck position?.. Thought it was meant for bridge, but that was my intial thought since i had the X2N. I was even thinking about changing that out but not quite sure, i really like it. What about Dimarzio single coils? Any suggestions these?

The Hot Rails come in two different versions, one for bridge and one for neck which is not as hot as the bridge version.
The Hot Rails sounds sweet in the neck position. I have two - one in my SL3 and one in a Squier strat. Killer lead tones.

[wr3k3d]

well, i finally went out and bought a new pickup i went with the seymour duncan hotrail. It is a pretty versatile pickup, works best for cleans if turned down a bit.

[MartinBarre]

Good stuff! If you're going to use it for cleans a lot you could coil split it remember. That's what I'd do if I ever used the Hot Rails on it's own for cleans.

[wr3k3d]

yeah thats true. is it hard to coil split a pickup?