Pick ups
xtremehardy388
Posts: 2,759
All right. I'm looking for a good set of pick ups for my Les Paul, Strat, and Tele. The problem is, I don't have a lot of money (that's what happens when your jeep takes premium gasoline). However, I'm wanting to get better sustain out of the guitar.
Grand Rapids '04, Detroit '06
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
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look into some Lollars for the strat and tele. they sound amazing and are incredibly responsive. as far as the les paul, speaking from experience, unless you want to play metal avoid the duncan and dimarzio distortion series...i made that mistake twice....they do not clean up at all and get mushy when you rock back your guitar volume.
you dont have to do all 3 guitars at one time, take the worst sounding one and make that one sound better first. that way you don't wreck your main guitar and be forced to play your 2nd and 3rd ones until you fix the main one...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
That said, if you want traditional pickups at a bargain price, Seymour Duncan is probably the best reputation-to-price ratio. I've used dozens of SD pickups in guitars over the years, and have always appreciated them, never had a problem. http://www.seymourduncan.com/
The new guy on the block for affordable upgraded standard pickups is Kent Armstrong. I'd be more careful to read some user reviews of their stuff before buying, so you might find the model that *sounds* like it would work for you, and then check the reviews. http://www.kentarmstrong.com/index.htm ; http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... +Armstrong
Last but not least, Lace is a pretty well-known pickup upgrade, more popular ten years ago than they are now, but good stuff nonetheless. Lace made the Clapton sig. guitar's pickups for many years, with an active curcuit. They also have new Alumitone pickups that are supposed to save mass while adding output with a completely different type of pickup. I've never played the Alumitone's, so I don't have anything to add to that, you might check reviews. I do know that Lace will be more expensive than the others, generally. http://www.lacemusic.com/
You could always add an active boost to your guitar(s), but that would take some hefty wiring, and most likely some body routing, so that could get expensive.
The last option would be to try to use some sort of pedal to achieve the same result. You could try a clean boost pedal, which would (at least in theory) be the same as using an active boost in your guitar. I'd recommend some of the more transparent volume boosts, like Keeley's Katana, BBE's Boosta Grande, etc. rather than a "treble booster" or "range booster," which will dramatically alter your tone as well as increase output.
A lot of people use a compressor to increase sustain, which is why so many compressor pedals are also called sustainer pedals. There are so many great compressors out there, and so many of them do different things, that I won't recommend one over any other. But I will tell you to check out the Seymour Duncan Double Back Compressor, which is one really cool new idea on compressors.
The last pedal option is a delay pedal set for shorter delay time and higher feedback. It's not a seamless solution, but it can make notes "hang" for a lot longer.
Two final options for sustain: Fernandez is making a new gizmo that is essentially an intelligent eBow that drops into a pickup slot to add sustain. Never tried it, so I can't vouch for it AT ALL, but it looks cool, if you don't mind losing a pickup on your guitar, and you may need to route the body in addition to some hefty wiring. http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=300421 ; http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=300420
Lastly, and most cheaply, the Groove Tube Fatfinger. Never used it, either, but it's supposed to help, and it's less than $25. Buy one, use it on all three guitars, see if it works on any or all of them. http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=420270
Adder T300N - Neck (120-ish)
Fralin Blues Special - Bridge (80-ish)
My Epi G-400 has pretty good sustain, for stock pick ups. I'm not too worried on it, either.
The strat has an Original Kalamazoo 1960's humbucker in the bridge. The other two stock single coils aren't too good. I do like the tone, I just need more sustain.
The LP-100 has all stock and the tone isn't too bad, the sustain is just something I'd like to improve.
The Tele has a Mexican strat single coil in the neck, but I'm taking it out. The tone is great but the sustain is horrible. I thought about doing the P90 thing but I don't know how sure I am. I'm not too keen on adding pedals to my board (kinda weird to hear ME say that, eh?) so I'm gonna probably just do the pickup transition.
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
I'd look at Lindy Fralin's High-output Strat pickups for your Strat's Neck and Middle positions. Those pickups are AMAZING, great (if slightly dark) tone and super output. Would probably match a humbucker's output a lot better, too, making it a more balanced instrument overall.
For the Tele, I'd look at the Harmonic Design S-90. It's nominally a P-90 pickup in the same size as a regular single-coil. I had one in the bridge of a Tele once, and it was one of my favorite pickups. Still a bunch of Tele bite, but higher output and great tone.
The LP is a bit harder to nail down. There are SOOOO many humbuckers out there, many of them really good. Duncan's 59 would be a safe choice, but I don't know if you'd gain much in sustain. The JB might be a better choice. Gibson Burstbucker 3's would probably also get you there.
I have a JB in my LP and I really like it. The only downside would be that you loose a little versatility on cleaner tones. But it's still a lot more suitable than all the hotter distortion pickups.