Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

[wyldefan]

Hellow all Lee Garver is building me another one and I need to decide what pickups to use. The guitar has an alder body witha birdseye maple neck and a rosewood board. The pickp configuration is H/S. The guitar also has a recessed floyd. On my last GMW I had lee put in a EMG 81 and SA combo. I wanted to go in a different direction this time. What I would love to find is a pickup that is a perfect balance between the Duncan Distortion and Duncan Custom. I want to stay with a pickup with medium to high output so I don't have to re-eq my amps to much. Any suggestions? Right now I am thinking a Duncan Custom. I also would really love to hear the Dimarzio Steve's Special. Please give me your imput on a single coil for the neck as well. I am looking for something with a fat clean and lead tones, but that will do the SRV thing when you want as well.

[Newc]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

I'd say try either the Custom Custom, Custom 5, or just get a Distortion and sink it a bit lower into the cavity than you normally do (farther away from the strings yields a different tonal characteristic).

For the neck, I'd recommend a Lil'59 set to a coil-tapping puch-pull volume.
I'd like to find a push/pull that was 500K on one setting and 250K (for singles) on the other. That'd rock [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

The Lil'59, JBJr, and Lil'SD will get you the closest to a warm neck humbucker, and should give a good single coil tone as well. The only stacked humbucker I've heard that sounds like a hummer is the Classic Stack running to a 500K Volume and 250K Tone, but that was in the bridge. I had the same pickup in the neck of another guitar and it sounded too much like a single coil for me, and that was running to a 500K pot.

Newc

[sully]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

as far as what's between a custom and a distortion, it's the jb. can't say enough good things about the custom series, i love em.

[wyldefan]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

I actually hate the new JB. To me there is no life in it. The older JB which you can custom order were much fatter and more desirable. I will probably go with a Duncan Custom due to the fact that I think it will have more punch than the Custom 5. Or does the Custom 5 have enough punch???

[shreddermon]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

Tim, it sounds like you may be looking for a set-up similar to what I was asking about recently. After several recommendations here and tooling around with the sound clips on the Duncan web site, I went with a Custom in the bridge and Classic Stack in the neck.

On the singles, I thought the other choices were too full humbucker-ish sounding (the side-by-sides, mainly) and/or were a little too hot for my tastes. The runner-up for me was a Cool Rails. I may be placing more emphasis on a traditional clean tone for the neck than you are, though.

So much of this is subjective, though, and - while helpful - how much can you really tell from those short sound clips?

Sorry, I can't tell you how much I actually like the set-up, though, as the guitar hasn't been built yet. [img]graemlins/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

- Pat

[sully]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

consider the evh if yhou don't mind the steep price for one... that's a killer pickup.

sully

[j2379]

Re: Help me pick the right pickup for my GMW order

Tim i'de say a Custom Custom or a Custom, in the bridge & a cool rail in the neck BOTH with COIL TAPS. ive had that setup in a few guitars & think its great. i prefer the cool rail to the lil 59, its got a little more bite, & i luv the full size 59' in the neck.