New guitar, help me pick new pickups?

[memphiskat]

I got this SLSMG from a fellow JCFer, Thanks Spence!
It arrived in, as advertised, brand new condition. There is not a mark on this guitar. It's cleaner than 90% of whats on the floor at your local Guitar Center.

I love this guitar. It's by far the highest quality guitar I own.
I never had an ebony fingerboard before and I really like it . It's very smooth. The access to the upper frets is great.

The only thing I want to change are the pickups, but I knew that before I bought it. I had EMG HZ-H3's in my DKMG and replaced them. So anyone want to recommend new pickups

I play mostly metal, and am an EMG fan, so the obvious choice would be EMG81/85/60 ect. But I already have a DKMG with an 81/85 pair and a King V with an 81/81 pair so I thought I'd try something different. I thought I'd go passive and try a couple different pickups. I may clip the lead wires near the pots and solder a connector onto the wire soldered to the pot so that with each new passive pick up I only have to solder or crimp a connector on the end of the new pickup lead wire and slap it in. I am considering the following...

Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz
DiMarzio D-Activator, X2N, Super Distortion
Rockfield Fat Ass Bridge, Mafia

If I go active:
Seymour Duncan Blackouts - supossed to be hotroded 81/85 copy
or SD Dave Mustaine Sigs

I'd like to here any and all opinions. I know these types of questions are quite frequent here, but what the heck....

Karl


Oh yeah, heres some pics......

[Newc]

Duncan Custom Custom (B) and JB (N)

[NextInLine]

I used to have a Custom Custom - Jazz combo in my SLSMG which was also gloss black

It sounded really good but you may want to have a higher output pup in the bridge, since you love Emgs.. Maybe a Custom or Distortion. I always hear that Distortions sound great in mahogany, I used to have one in an alder guitar which also sounded great

[zeegler]

Duncan Custom (my answer to everything)

[Inazone]

My personal opinion about mahogany guitars is that the wood's natural tone is so nice that I'd want a pickup that makes the most of it. I think a DiMarzio Steve's Special and PAF Pro would make a good combination, or even a PAF Pro in the bridge.

[Super_shredder]

+1for the steves special

[DonP]

Best bet out there.

1) Get a Distortion Mayhem set. This is the Seymourizer neck and Duncan Distortion bridge.
2) Get the Stewart McDonald Mega 5-way Switch, E Model.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Components:_Switches_and_knobs/1/Megaswitches.html

This combo lets you have the neck hum, neck single, 1/2 neck 1/2 bridge in humbucking mode, bridge single, and bridge hum.

3) Get a push/pull pot for the tone so that you can phase reverse either the 1/2 neck or 1/2 bridge in middle position mode. This is another very useful tone.

This setup give you six widely varied tones. And by putting in a Duncan Distortion in there, you'll see how much whoop-ass you can do on those EMGs.

Finally, KEEP THAT FRETBOARD OILED! Not excessively, but whenever it is dry. I've seen many of your model with big cracks down the middle of the fretboard. I don't want to see that happen to you.

Get this stuff:

http://www.beafifer.com/boredoctor.htm

'nuff said.

[spencer4hire]

Wow Karl much better pics than I took of it. Glad you are liking it. As far as pickups Seymour Duncan Distortion set or try a set of those Rockfield Mafia's.

[Thrashman]

show pics of the neck profile! i wanna see how thin it is :o

[Sunbane]

If you want a similar output level to the EMGs, then Duncan Distortion and DiMarzio X2N are both really hot contenders.

I did personally not like the voicing of the X2N (too mid scooped for me). The Duncan Distortion has lots of mids and treble, and should sound great in a mahogany guitar.

[rocksoldier]

I really like the dimarzio evolution in my charvel, and for the neck a Paf Pro would be great i think.

[AfterForever]

I'd go for X2N or Evolution. Dimarzio makes the best passive pups imo.

[j4vice]

1962 Gibson Sg P.a.f.

[memphiskat]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to order some pickups tonight. I'm going to try a Rockfield Mafia, probably a DiMarzio Evolution, and an SD Distortion. Yes, probably all three. I'm just going to worry about the bridge for now.

I'm going to see which I want to keep and then go with DonP's suggestion and get the Stew Mac 5 way Mega Switch for all the different options. I guess I'll replace the pots too. Does anyone know, are the 500k pots they sell at Stew Mac any better than the stock ones? Should I try the 1Meg pots?

Karl

[spencer4hire]

By all means replace the stock pots because you will have to any way. The stock ones in my flametop SLSMG lasted about a week. I replaced mine with CTS pots. I do not know if the ones that Stew Mac carries are CTS brand though. The stock neck P/U is tolerable so replacing the bridge one first is a good place to start.