Gibson SG-3 Single Coils Advice

[Ratrod]

Route it out and get 3 P90's.  :D :D :D

[indysmith]

Sorry to be useless, but I just had to tell the owners of these guitars that they have fantastic taste.

[martinw]

Sorry to be useless, but I just had to tell the owners of these guitars that they have fantastic taste.

Cheers!  :D

[kristo]

thanks martin, ill see if i can get one made too.

and cheers indysmith, it is one awesome guitar, just the question of which pickups to kit it out with........

[sgmypod]

Yeah like the look of these havn't seen them before

[kristo]

so ive contacted bob and am waiting to hear back from him.
ive just thought, with the sg neck being wider that a strats are the pole pieces gonna line up with the strings, or is it gonna be a bit out?
also, im definitely swaying towards the trilogy suite set of pickups, as these seem to cover all the things im after and from what ive read sound awesome. is this a good idea?

[martinw]

The pole pieces will be slightly out of line, but it doesn't make any perceivable difference.

I'd have thought the Trilogies would be a bit hot for the kind of music you decribed?

[kristo]

ok, thats good to know.

do you think? i mainly use the crunch and fuzz tone, which it seems they would be awesome for. my only concern is the cleanish sound, but from what ive read it appears they could handle this ok. its basically between them and the irish tours i think. i spend most of my time around the bridge pickup, so i was thinking the higher output would get a nice fat strat tone?

[martinw]

Depends what else you use to generate your crunch and fuzz. High output pickups don't always give the best crunch and fuzz tones in all circumstances, and they do have their own voice, which may or may not be what you want.
Example: EVH (and many others) using standard Gibson pickups throughout the 70's and 80's to generate a huge range of gainy rock sounds.

It's all very subjective!  :)

[kristo]

my amp generates all my tone. i have a tech 21 trademark 120, i set all channels to tweed, and the clean is a crisp fendery twang like on old soul records, the crunch is a 'stevie ray' amp pushed hard sound, and with the tweed drive maxed it creates a cool 60s fuzz sound that i use to approximate a 'the black keys' dirt tone.
im after single coils that will compliment this, but they need to be tight in the bass as the amp has an inherent bassy tone. p90s work real well with the amp, but i need some single coils too.

[martinw]

Then I'd definitely go no hotter than the Irish tours.

[kristo]

they were my initial thought, and are kinda at the front of the line along with the mothers milk, but now im just not sure they will have enough kick in the bridge for the real fuzzy stuff. it all hinges though on getting that scratchplate now, hopefully bob will reply soon. im toying with the idea of getting a standard humbucker scratchplate too and loading it with mississippi queens, but then the guitar would have to be modded i think. hows the carving under the scratchplate, is there just enough for the single coils? and the 6 way switch might not work with just 3 settings?
the more i write the more i think you've got the right idea by getting a hss scratchplate made.......

[martinw]

The body is routed for 3 humbuckers, so obviously is shared with the "SG3" and customs. (The rout, not the wood or anything else.)
The switch could be made to work in any configuration by putting links on, or you could buy a standard Alpha rotary switch and set it up for 3 positions.

With the pickups, you'll have to go with your gut, and then experiment.

[kristo]

thats it then, think im gonna get a humbucker sized scratchplate and go with the mississippi queens. after reading all i can about them they sound perfect for me.