SL1 serial info

[VClouds]

Chopper in neck with Duncan distortion in bridge? But is the Distortion not too hot to be paired with chopper?

it was the same story with a 1989 charvel 650XL and a 1992 soloist pro. they both were dark and kinda dull sounding. i think it is because of poplar wings. i replaced a lot of pickups on both of them but i wasn't satisfied with the sound, it was always too dark. Also the charvel had not so comfortable neck - thicker with bigger shoulders, soloists neck was fantastic. the story ended with selling both of them.
My current 2004 SL-1 cherry burst has a stronger and more open acoustic sound. now i'm also thinking of changing the pickups. there is an Air norton S in the neck & Paf pro in bridge

They are both hot pickups but why should that prevent them from being paired?
How does the Air Norton S sounds on the soloist? is it comparable to the old John Petrucci sound with the humbacker Air Norton?

[goshac]

The tone is very beautiful, BUT...the pickup has a lot of pick attack. So i must lower it in order to prevent hearing only the pick strokes when i play alternate picking on upper frets. But then it becomes lower output. This problem happens only with 9's strings. With 10's the sound is just perfect.
do you play on 9's or 10's?

[VClouds]

I play with 9's... what other pickups are you considering?
BTW, I saw in your thread that you installed a big brass block, what kind of improvements to the sound did that make?

[goshac]

I'm heavily considering Duncan custom in bridge & hot rails in neck.
big brass block made the sound little bit stronger and fuller. I also payed attention that there are more overtones in the sound.

[VClouds]

Thanks for the info, I will check it out.