Pickups For Sl1. Advice Please

[howieizme1]

The stock SD middle and neck pickups on my Soloist SL1 are not my cup of tea. Ideally I would like to get a strat sound out of the neck pickup. The stock SD's seem quite muddy and poweless. Anyone else feel the same way? This is an active pickup set. Does anyone have any experience with replacing the stok SD's with some EMG's pehaps? Any advice for a newbie would be appriciated.

Peace,

Mike

[Bert]

You won't get a strat sound out of EMGs that's for sure. You want true single-coils (none of that stacked humbucker stuff)... they will be noisy, but they will get the tone you seek (or at least as close as you can get with a neck-through Jackson).

[Carbophos]

You won't get strat neck sound fom 24 fret axe, the tone will be not enough "neck" anyway. Ebony fingerboard is also not the best thing to get strat sound. Ah, yes, and FR tremolo too...

[Ricey]

You can get a decent Straty type sound out of an SL1. Maybe not 100% authentic Strat, but very nice in it's own right. The Ebony board and Floyd Rose are not as big an issue as the two extra frets , which does push the PUP a bit closer to the bridge, changing the tone somewhat. Just think about the difference in tone between a Strat neck vs middle PUP. It's the same idea only not as pronounced because the PUP is only a little closer to the bridge on a soloist than on a Strat.

That having been said, I would look at something like a Duncan SSL-2 Vintage Flat, SSL-6 Custom Flat, or APS-1 Alnico II Pro Flat. You have a very flat fingerboard radius and an unwound G string, so you probably want to steer clear of the staggered pole piece versions of these PUPS. If you want noiseless, for the sound you are describing, I have heard that the new STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus is a big improvement over the old STK-S1 Classic Stack and I have also heard great things about the new Dimarzio Area 58's, as well as Kinman Traditional Mk II and Kinman Woodstock's.

Another thing to keep in mnd, if you have an older SL1, the PUP route on your guitar is very thin and will not accept every model replacement pup out there without routing out a small lip in the back of the PUP cavity to accommodate the triangular "lip' found on many single coil PUPs. A skilled woodworker can route inside the PUP cavity underneath the PUP without even effecting the face of the guitar, so the route is invisible once the PUP is in place. Another option is to find a stock replacement PUP that does not have this Lip (like the EMG's). There are many such models out there, but you will have to look around. A final option is to custom order from Duncan. I looked into this at one time, because I have a 90 USA Fusion with the small PUP cavity. Duncan will make you any model PUP in their catalog without the lip and, as I remember, there was either no extra cost or the upcharge was minimal. Any Duncan dealer in your area can place this order for you. Of course, if you have a newer SL-1, your PUP cavity is already set up to accomodate the lip.

Good Luck!

[Zerberus]

Actually, on some EMG singles the cables come out the "lip side" (so on teh actual side, parallel to the guitar´s face, towards the bridge), for ex. on the SAs I mounted in Phoenix. The route was so tight that inserting the pickup without routing out part of the aforementioned "secret lip" would have severed the leads

[hippietim]

Ricey - that was some pretty good advice.