Pickup Selection

[rocknrolldork]

I recently bought and refinished another 1981 Ibanez Blazer guitar. Ash body, maple neck and fretboard. I'm looking at pickup selection....... I'm playing covers. The covers are all over the board. Sam the Sham and the Pharohs, Katy Perry, VH, GnR, Ramones, Dave Matthews, Zep, Beatles, Commodores, Chicago, AC/DC, Keith Urban, Billy Currington, etc... I really want to make this a "do all" guitar. I liked the PRS Artist pickups so well that I picked up another set of them, but I'm not 100% sold on putting them in this guitar. Any pickup suggestions that would make this guitar sing for all of the tunes we do would be much appreciated.

[jhale667]

Hmmm...

M'kay...
Ash body, maple neck...aforementioned cover selection Duncan JB or Custom Custom perhaps?

[GAR]

Depends on the amp..

[Diamondjimi]

Depends on the amp..

It STARTS with the guitar...

[Coyote]

I thought it started with the guitarIST...

[kwame k]

Any suggestions for my 96' Tele.........I'm more of an acoustic type player and use very little distortion. The stock pickups are OK but really looking for something to make that classic Tele-twang!!!!!

[jhale667]

Any suggestions for my 96' Tele.........I'm more of an acoustic type player and use very little distortion. The stock pickups are OK but really looking for something to make that classic Tele-twang!!!!!

Look into some Duncan Antiquities, or perhaps the Dimarzio Twang King set?

[jhale667]

Dupe post.

[jhale667]

It STARTS with the guitar...

I thought it started with the guitarIST...

You're both right.

[GAR]

In this kinda guitar, I'd like to see a Seymour Duncan Full Shred, or a mixed pickup with the screws-side bobbin from a '59, and the slugs-side bobbin from a Duncan Distortion.

The four-conductor wiring configured with a volume pull-pot switch engaging the center tap to ground, for a WEAK single-coil output, would get your universal pop tone, while disengaged (knob down) would engage both coils normal config for high-output and meatier tone sensing closer to the middle of the guitar.

But that choice for me would depend on the amp: both pickups would work for what you're trying to do, but I'd select the alnico mag for the previous mention if you're using a tube amp, and the Full Shred if you have alot of shitty solid-state in the lineup or even solid-state amp.

Solid-state amps function in a very linear way to the ear, and when you're looking for saturated harmonic distortion and the choice to roll-off output to zero and get every tone in-between, you need as high an output as you can get - this is best had using a ceramic mag pickup. At a budget I'd use a Dimarzio super-distortion or X2N from the parts box, but even then I'd try to do the ol' "peel-down" method off the screws-side.

High-gain tube amps are less defined by super-high output ceramic pickups.. their input impedance is already @ 1meg and although anything 9.5K impedance and above will help with percieved volume, the harmonic overtones will diminish.

An example of this is lookng at some of the guitarists you cite in your target tones list there: look at their earlier recordings and how later, those tones diminished in dynamics with the increasingly hotter and hotter pickup outputs they recorded with.

Whatever your choice of pickup, a coil-tapping vol pot switch is around fifteen bucks, and effectively cuts the output of any pickup by half. If nobody knows what i'm talking about, I belive Cato may have saved pics of my tutorial I did of pickup potting and coil modification almost 10 years ago.. if not, I can see if I can recover off one of the dead PCs' in storage over the holidays.

[Diamondjimi]

Did anyone read that? Christ, it sounds like he's talking to himself....

[indeedido]

+1 on the Duncan JB. That was my first thought. That pickup is a universal tone good for most covers.

[indeedido]

After thinking about it, those came with either single coils or humbucker in the bridge. What config is yours?

[rocknrolldork]

It had humbuckers in it. The body has a holes for a neck and bridge humbuckers and 1 single coil in the middle. I'm checking out the Duncan pickups right now on youtube. Seems like a pretty versatile pickup.

[Diamondjimi]

+1 on the Duncan JB. That was my first thought. That pickup is a universal tone good for most covers.

Agree on that one. Probably the most versatile pickup I've ever used. I cleans up nice and is also perfect for crunch tones as well..