Pickup Choice

[Phreaky]

I know these threads are pretty monotonous for most people but I really would appreciate some help picking some pickups. I have had a listen through many sound clips for various pickups but I haven't been able to pinpoint which one suits the best.

Styles: Rock, Shred, very occasionally Metal (Maiden, nothing too heavy or distorted)
Artists: Satriani, Govan, Slash, Tremonti, Van Halen.
Guitar: Custom build Mahoghany JEM/RG style.
Amp: Orange Rockerverb 50

A few notes: In terms of distortion, I adore the really heavy, thick distortion you get from Slash in songs like She Builds Quick Machines/Slither - I'm not really a fan of Tremonti's "drenched in gain" style distortion, just his playing/music. Lead wise I like it smooth and thick, but with enough definition to hear the harmonics well and get nice tapping sounds. Govans lead sound in Waves is pretty much what I would go for (possibly with a little more drive to get it into Satch territory), but I know my amp isn't quite flexible enough to get in that range but something close would be nice.

Any ideas? I doubt I can roll all of those into a pair of humbuckers (or maybe you can? :D). I'll also need a single coil, although I have no idea what style I would use it for - I only use the single coil on my other guitar for messing around with Hendrix stuff.

Thanks!

[Roobubba]

Hmmm crawler springs to mind for the bridge, cold sweat in the neck, and I have no idea for the single coil.

But don't take my advice - ask Tim! :)

Roo

[Phreaky]

The Crawler sounds fantastic, I hadn't even looked at the Sig series pickups. I really like the DiMarzio FRED, which has the same Alnico 5 magnet and slightly higher resistance, so it could be a goer.

Love the sound of the Cold Sweats too, although i'm not sure if the two would compliment each other or not? Any ideas anyone?

Single coils wise, Trilogy Suite looks pretty ideal.

I'll be honest though, you guys have way too much choice.

[Philly Q]

The Crawler sounds fantastic, I hadn't even looked at the Sig series pickups. I really like the DiMarzio FRED, which has the same Alnico 5 magnet and slightly higher resistance, so it could be a goer.

There's not much similarity between the Crawler and the Fred, I'm afraid - the Crawler has more bass and a lot more midrange, it's a beefed up vintage sound whereas Fred has quite a bright, modern sound.

The thing with Fred is that there's quite a big offset in the winding of the two coils, so it picks up a wide range of frequencies and can sound quite single-coilish.  In that sense I'd suspect the VHII may be the closest BKP to the Fred sound (although I don't own a VHII, so that's a bit of a guess).

Welcome to the forum, by the way!  :D

[Jonny]

I thought for Van Halen the VHII would have been obvious. And going into the Contemporary range would be going a bit overboard, especially if you want to go with Satriani.