Could use advice on Pickup selection for Alder body guitar!

[jesperhagstrom]

Hey everyone,
I could use some advice on beefing up my tone on my 1992 RT650.
I realize it was Ibanez's take on making a more retro-ish strat, less for shredding and more torwards blues, but I got a great deal on it and would like to get a more beefy tone, but it seems to be difficult, im dealing with an Alder body and a vintage Wilkinson Pro tremolo.

Brightness just seems to scream off it, currently the PUP configuration is B- Duncan Distortion M-Duncan Vintage Rails N-Duncan Jazz. I know its not the most desirable pickup selection for an Alder body but I bought it that way. I already threw 10s on it and brought up the pickups as far as I could, it sounded a little hotter and beefier but not enough to cut through the brightness and strat like sound.

Other forums i've tried can only offer suggestions towards Dimarzio pickups mainly because I think Ibanez lovers much prefer Dimarzio over other pickups. But from the selection of Dimarzio's i've played are usually one or two sided - either you can get great (and i mean great) metal low end, or what ever specific genre your going for but then you sacrifice cleans. Like I said before im playing through an Alder body so I need to level off some of that brightness and strat sound but achieve warm tone for cleans. Inspirations which I play everyday for me are - John Petrucci, Gilbert, Vai, Steve Morse, Mustaine, Blackmore, Alex Skolnick, Jeff Waters, Jesper Stromblad, etc..

So as can see I do play metal but I def. jam out on some Joe Pass or Brian Seltzer. So I guess what im saying is versatility is key for my playing but if I sacrifice I would want metal and progressive tonality and currently my pickups sound less then inspiring. I have heard more then great things from BKP and I dont mind shelling out the money if they can put me in tonal heaven!

Thanks for reading my rants...hopefully someone here can help me! any help will be appreciated!


 

[Telerocker]

Hi and welcome here!
I think you will be close to the tones you're after with a calibrated Holy Diver-set and a Slowhand in the middleposition. The Diver beefs up the tone in alder. It has a sweet topend, so your tones above the 12th fret keep some weigth. Does the prog.metal-thing very well. It splits great, together with the Slowhand your can get beautiful cleans in a Fender-way, but thicker since the Slowhands have quite some mids. If you want a bit a more sting, look at the Irish Tours. I love them in my strat, but I think you'll prefer the Slowhand for this guitar. Btw, scatterwound-pu's are sensible to the height of the strings, a bit lower or higher can provide different results. They also keep articulate, clear and dynamic with tremendous amounts of gain. They don't mud up and therefore seem to eat a bit of gain. The stringseparation is topnotch. Just to know when you purchase BKP's.

[jesperhagstrom]

Thanks for the response!

I checked out the Holydivers seems along the lines I was looking for...but currently im working as
a studio guitarist and would love to bring this guitar into the studio but im still having drawbacks
because of the pickups.

I was thinking maybe a WARPIG in the bridge and a HOLLYDIVER in the neck and maybe a SINNER
in the middle, im just worried about if these pickups might be a little highput and the hum might be to
much? Plus from the sounds clips the pickups don't have much character. But if not, I think the warpig would be great for low end metal metal rhythm and quick runs maybe some leads, the hollydiver for leads and melodies as well as  cleans and the Sinner for leads and cleans!

Let me know what you think!

[ElectricTurkey4369]

I second the Holydivers.

The lead sound is fantastic on the bridge. I have no experience with the neck model. Gilbert, Vai, Mustaine; Holydivers for you!

The Diver doesn't have a lot of low end, but it is very precise, articulate and FAT. I have mine in a LP and it sounds phenomenal.

[Telerocker]

I was thinking maybe a WARPIG in the bridge and a HOLLYDIVER in the neck and maybe a SINNER
in the middle, im just worried about if these pickups might be a little highput and the hum might be to
much? Plus from the sounds clips the pickups don't have much character. But if not, I think the warpig would be great for low end metal metal rhythm and quick runs maybe some leads, the hollydiver for leads and melodies as well as  cleans and the Sinner for leads and cleans!

The Warpig is quite brutal and has enormous bass but cleans up great and can do even jazzy stuff. The Sinner is not your classic middlepu, but to my ears designed for metal.  The in between sounds will sound completely different and middle/neck a bit offbalance. The question is: do you need this high output? If yes, then these three would provide a versatile set, not my first choice, but all three can handle leadstuff very well. And I think the Warpig isn't lacking character at all. It's just a beast, but still organic in sound if you choose the alnico version. The ceramic version will tighten up things a bit.