Neck pickup for my guitar

[Drew186]

I have a 2006 Jackson SLSMG (before they put in the active pickups) that I am wanting to get a really good clean sound out of the neck pup. The bridge is where I play almost all of my distortions and until I have the money its not to bad. But the cleans out of this guitar are terrible. It does have a very slim body, but it is mahogany neck-thru, so it should still be able to produce a good sound clean. I'm looking for a good warm clean tone, that while having great highs and great lows, is not too bright and clangy or to low and muffled. I want it warm and rich, with some emphasis on mid tones for a more Gibson like sound when clean.

I have been looking at the stormy Monday and the Cold sweat mostly. The stormy monday sounds a lot like what I want, but I don't really play blues, or classic rock, so that scares me a bit. also, even though my neck pickup is mainly for talking the talk and the bridge for walking the walk, I don't want the pickup to be a one trick pony either. I stillw ant it to have some distortion uses for new aged rock, but again clean is the most important part. any suggestions would be extremely helpful.

[Antag]

Hello & welcome to the forum :)

I'm looking for a good warm clean tone, that while having great highs and great lows, is not too bright and clangy or to low and muffled. I want it warm and rich, with some emphasis on mid tones for a more Gibson like sound when clean.

I reckon the VHII neck would be ideal for that.  Cold Sweat would be good too & either of them would be a good match for if you ever when you upgrade the bridge - they balance well with all the high gain BKP bridge models.

If it's any help, I recorded a neck clean shootout here

FWIW, I also did some leads, in two parts here & here

[Drew186]

I like where your heads at and I'm not totaly against the VHII, but it at times is just a bit to bright sounding for me. Maybe I am being to picky, but on high notes when picking, not strumming, it seems to have a little bite behind it.

[Drew186]

I found a video on you-tube with a sound I like quite a bit. It does look and sound a bit like it may be in the bridge though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmeyhEzX0Jc

[kevinr]

I have a VHII set in my Eggle Berlin plus and I can tell you it is not too bright! I have 7 BKP sets and they ALL have amazing neck p/ups, at the moment (and we do change our minds) the VHII is up the top followed by Holydiver, Abraxas(A2)

[Drew186]

The pickup in that video is the Mule btw

[kevinr]

He is using neck + bridge and it is a LP 22 fret, I imagine that your Jackson is 24 fret? so you will not get the same sound as that LP! Mules are a great pickup they are (in my expierence) brighter than the VHII.

[Drew186]

yea very good point... I just don't care much for the VHII in the video and sound bites I have heard. The highs just bother me in someway almost sounds overdriven or something.

[Drew186]

I like the sound of the Gibson 57 classic pickup in the neck on videos and sound bites I have heard, but it can get a bit muddy. Hope that helps define the sound better that I am wanting. The distortion with the 57 classic left a bit more to be desired from me as well, but I am mainly interested in the cleans anyway so it wasn't as big of a deal. That actually was the pickup I almost bought before I was turned onto Bare Knuckles.

[kevinr]

OK! if you are not to worried about the distorted sounds I would go for the Stormy Monday A2, I prefer A2 for cleans and they sound good when not too overdriven, from memory the 57 is A2, however it can't be compared with the SM as it is much better.

[Drew186]

So you don't think the distortion will leave me much to be desired on the stormy Monday though?

[kevinr]

Being A2 it wont be as tight in the bass as A4 or A5, Slash always uses A2!

[Drew186]

hmmm well what about the Mule as a neck pickup for cleans. Seems to be used more in the bridge position when not as a calibrated set, so I don't have much to go off of for cleans from he Mule in the neck.

[kevinr]

Better overdriven than the SM, however it IMHO is a little brighter than the SM.

[Drew186]

hmmm ok. Well now I'm thinking my decision is between the mule and the SM. I have been reading online and have heard that thinner body guitars benefit more from higher output pickups unlike a thick LP that will do fine with lower output ones. This would lead me towards the Mule. But then I started thinking and I can only imagine that thinner bodied guitars will probably produce a brighter and more trebled sound, so that would lead me towards the SM. lol tough decision. can anyone confirm whether this is right or wrong to assume?