Yamaha SG2000: Looking for pickup advice please.

[Scotty477]

The first thing I'll say is that I love the guitar to play. It has a solid but slick feel to it, helped no doubt by the ebony fretboard.

I'll also say that I like the sounds that the stock neck pup gives me. It isn't a hot sounding pup but has good clarity and sounds very nice when it's coil tapped. Sort of like a warm Strat in position 3.

My issue is with the bridge pup. It is just too lightweight sounding. It's not just that it's too bright. It lacks  ... body.

So ... that leaves me with the choice of replacing the bridge only or both pups and hope that I can get a BKP neck pup that sounds similar to the stock neck.

The guitar itself is a mahogany back with maple top. It has a mahogany and maple neck through with an ebony fretboard. It also has an under-bridge brass sustain plate. The guitar appears to be set for 9-42 gauge strings and it weighs 11.5 pounds.

The SG2000 is known as a guitar with more treble characteristics than a Gibson Les PaulStandard . What I don't know is if this is due to the stock pups, the build design or a combination of both.

What I'm looking for in this guitar is to use it primarily for lead work. Ideally I'd like a bridge pup that has a warm bottom end and rich mids with enough treble to make it sit well in the mix.

I'd like the neck pup to be similar to the stock pup - as described above but perhaps a little warmer.

Style of play that I'll be using the guitar for is leads similar to Gary Moore, Dave Gilmour - kinda old school rock stuff.

One thing to bear in mind here is that I already have much of what I'm looking for with Emeralds in my LP. I just want more of the same but with more emphasis on warmth and smoothness. The Emeralds are excellent because they have a crisp bite to their tone - making them great for aggresive solos.

There we have it. Am I asking for too much here?

Oh yeah ... I also want black covers with gold poles, to keep the original look of the guitar  :P

Here's the guitar.

[_tom_]

Dunno how it'd sound in a heavy mahog guitar with maple top but in my all mahog pearl (which is also quite heavy) my bridge Pig 90 (humbucker size) sounds awesome. Its pretty high gain but still does rock fine, quite versatile. You can get a tap fitted for a lower output more twangy sound. Clips in sig as always!

[Philly Q]

I'll stick with what I said on your previous thread - Crawlers will round off that brightness nicely, and give a lovely warm singing tone from the neck.  I found them a little dark in my LP but they'd work well with the maple in the through-neck.

But I'd echo what Ratrod and Phil K said about the Abraxas set too.  I haven't tried the bridge model but from what I've read I think it could be perfect.

[Ratrod]

You'll definately want the Abraxas neck pickup. It's the same as the Crawler neck pickup afak.

A crawler in the bridge will make it sound warm, smooth and fat but also very compressed. At this point in time, I like open sounding pickups better than the compressed ones.

The Abraxas is probably a bit less compressed and  closer to the original. They'll do more than Santana alone.

Your SG is a brighter sounding neck through with an ebony board so I'd go for AIV magnets if you want to roll off the brightness a bit.

I can't think of anything better than an Abraxias IV set.

[Scotty477]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

The Crawler was something I considered for my LP, before getting Emerald pups. Abraxas, I don't know too much about them in terms of clips to risk buying them.

I want to retain a decent amount of brightness in the bridge tone but give it more 'body' and warmth. If I was flush with cash I would experiment with a few different types and see what worked best.

I would love to try a RY in the bridge of the SG2000, just to see what it would sound like. It would certainly be bright but I wonder if the clarity that all BKP's have would allow them to sound warm as well and not be too bright?

[Philly Q]

Others will disagree I'm sure, but I never found the RY could do warm particularly well.

[_tom_]

My RY wasnt extremly warm sounding, no. Great for 80s tone but thats about it for me. My pig 90 is way better for the sounds I wanted :) I guess its best to email tim as usual. Mules are a good choice but I'm sort of finding they lack a bit of push now I've got used to my pig 90, being slightly higher output.

[Scotty477]

I think I've been corrupted by Hunter, when he did that clip of 'Empty rooms' by Gary Moore - using a PRS SE with a RY bridge.

Mind you it might have been the Budda amp that made it sound so good .....


http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=11345.0

[Philly Q]

It's a great clip, but I still think it sounds quite bright.  Just before halfway through, as the solo kicks in, there's what I think of as a very characteristic RY tone, a little bit "nasal", with a "vowelly" sound at the beginning of each note.

But anyway, I think it's really hard to judge from clips unless it's a straight A/B comparison.  There are just too many variables.

[Scotty477]

It is bright but it's the kind of brightness that I could happily live with.

As a comparison the stock SG2000 bridge is a quite a bit brighter.

[Philly Q]

Sounds like you're pretty much decided on the RY!  :lol:

[Scotty477]

The RY is on my list, along with the Crawler and the Holy Diver  :D

[Ratrod]

You can always ask Tim for final advise.

[Scotty477]

You can always ask Tim for final advise.

I will do, although the problem I have is that I don't know if it's the guitar that's inherently bright or it's the stock pickups that are a bit lightweight.

I suspect the latter but I won't know for sure until I swap the pickups out.

If I was technically minded I would make a few recordings on my Emerald loaded LP, then stick my Emerald pups into the SG2000 and see what difference there is when I play/record the same stuff on it.

On a side note, I was advised on another forum to put pickups with alnico II magnets into the SG2000. I'll take a look at this option as well.