Lookin' for some pickup recommendations for my Y2K R9....

[Chad]

I play hard rock/metalish stuff on my guitar probably 65-70% (maybe more) of the time. I rarely play/copy other people's music and do my own thing for the most part, but by the description "hard rock/metal" I mean stuff like pre-Load Metallica, Zakk Wylde era Ozzy stuff, some Pantera, pre-Adore Smashing Pumpkins stuff, Godflesh, Prong, Helmet....as far as new bands, I like the tone the guy's from Skrape have. The rest of the time I play everything from jazz to blues to country licks. I might even try to strangle a few surf guitar tunes out of my Lester from time to time, but I usually grab my Jazzmaster for that.

Anyway, basically I'm looking for a pickup that would lend itself well toward metal sounds, but yet still is versatile enough to do some of the other styles I mentioned. I'm not looking to pin-point any exact band or player's sound. After some research, I'm thinking maybe a SD Custom in the bridge and a SD 59' in the neck. Both with nickel covers to keep the stock look on my geetar.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Chad]

BTW, I will be putting in CTS pots when I do the pickup change.....

 

[Taurus Junkie]

Joe Barden Humbuckers

 

[Chad]

Taurus Junkie: Thanks for the very wordy, detailed reply.

Anybody else?

 

[Taurus Junkie]

Sorry Chad,

I am just thinking of the style of music that you are aiming for. seems to be a bit of downtuned grindy riff-meister stuff. The Bardens are brutal PUP's...that would really help you retain some clarity when you're chugga chuggin away like old school Helmet

 

[nicholas]

E-mail RICH. He's the resident metal head guru and won't steer you wrong

 

[RICH]

I just love the duncan distortions or the 500T gibson for the old metalica stuff, it really nails that percussive thump thing, just think "Ride the lightning", and it does a kick ass old ozzy. Actually, I can cover all metal and some "slightly" lighter stuff with either of those pickups. If you need to use covers, I would probably lean on the 500T because gibson bridge-spaced nickle covers are pretty available for them, and the gibson nickle neck spaced covers will fit the duncan 59. The 500T still has a decent clarity, and with a R9 with 500K pots it will sound better than they do in the LP classic, because the classic has the lame 300K volume pots which make them a little muddy sounding with the 500T, plus I think the R9's construction with the larger neck makes better use of the 500T. The all around best thing I heard yet for metal is a double cream duncan distortion and a double cream duncan 59 without the covers, which is how my R9 is set up. More note definition without the covers, and no fear of microphonics, and the sick F**k that I am leaves the tone pots disconnected for even more clarity and power. My usual rule of thumb is if the guitar is bright, I use the duncan, and if its dark I use the 500T, but LPs are generally bright with the maple top, so I lean on the duncans for the R9. The down side is that you just don't find double cream duncans that easy, so you would most likey have to order zebras and reverse zebras to make your own, so in the end the 500T with a nickle cover may be your answer. Sounds like work, but no pain, no gain!! I tried just about every hot pickup on the planet, and these combos kicketh the most ass for metal. I don't know about the jazz-blues-surf thing though, thats not my area of knowledge.spin

BTW, what amp are you using? This very well could change things.

 

[Chad]

Rich: Thanks for the reply. For metal and such, I have a M/B Dual Rectifier Solo head into a Peavey 5150 4x12 Straight cab, and I also from time to time use a Marshall JMP-1 -> Marshall Pro 120/120 Power amp into the Peavey cab. For the other styles, I sometimes use the above amps, but I also have a little Vox Pathfinder amp....and I've been looking for an old Fender Vibrolux, but never have found "the one".

 

[RICH]

Those are pretty gainy amps/setups. I had a single rec singing with the stock 57 classics in a historic goldtop in a local store one day. The advantage of using the duncan or 500T though, is that you can use the pickup to push the preamp harder, so you won't need to crank the gain on the head, which would make the mesa a little more versitile, meaning that it won't sound SO mesa if you wanted to get away from that sound. I was shoping around for a mesa a while back, and it seemed that with the stronger pickups I could get a wider range of tones without everything screaming the "mesa" tone, because the guitar was sounding fatter to start with.

 

[Chad]

Rich: Just curious, what do you think of a Duncan Custom? From the specs, it seems that it is quite similar to the Duncan Distortion, but a touch milder. Seems like it might clean up a little better, which would probably make it a nice choice. I also am considering a JB. Keep in mind, I'm not really wanting a total balls to the wall metal pickup, but one that does metal well, but will also accommodate the occasional surf tune or other clean playing styles.

BTW, I appreciate the fact that there's a "resident metal head" on the forum....they appear to be kinda rare.

P.S. You have interesting ideas regarding backing off the gain on the Mesa while boosting it up with pickups. I hardly ever turn my gain past 2 o'clock....it just gets too mushy. Anyway, thoughts on getting a different sound out of a Mesa are well taken. I really thought this head was cool when I bought it four years ago, but now everyone and their brother has one and I feel trendy playing it. And that DR sound is SO played out. I've strongly considered getting a VHT.

 

[Ed Rafalko]

Customs are lower resistance than Distortions, and lower output too. They havd ceramic magnets, I think.

 

[BrianGWN]

The Duncan Custom is a fine choice, I've currently got one in a Classic PremPlus, it worked out great this past weekend during a marathon jam.
Both the DC and DD have stronger ceramic magnets, the DD magnet is physically bigger. According to the SD tonechart info, the DC output is just a little less than the DD, not that much. The DC will have just a little less mids, still plenty of top end.
I know the DD coils are wound using 44 gauge which is 2 gauges lighter than the traditional PAF 42 gauge wire, while I suspect the DC is wound using 43 gauge, so the coil resistance values of the two (DC @14K versus DD @16K) probably can't really be compared directly.

Chad, you could also tweak the character of the stronger wound pickups (JB, DC, DD) by using a 500K versus a 1Meg volume pot. A higher value pot will enhance the upper mid response. I have tried a 1Meg vol with a DC, it sure ripped. I imagine RICH has at least tried a 1Meg pot with a DD, may be using that permanently in some axes.

 

[RICH]

yeah, that Korina explorer I brought to texas has the 500T/496 combo with 1 meg volume pots and a disconnected tone pot. I want to pickup broadcasts from space.spin

 

[BrianGWN]

500T mega-three-part-magnet with a 1Meg volume and a disconnected tone pot??? Hhmmmm, was that guitar maybe excessively midrange-strong to start with? and you wanted to really max the upper response of the pickup?, or... did you maybe forget where you put your powered paint stripper?, and you figured this setup would do as a good substitute? :lolspin

 

[RICH]

Everything louder than everything else.:dude

The guitar barks like a daisy cutter!!:lol2