Just a quick hi, and quick question about pickup/amp treble balance

[IbbySabre]

I've been on the forum about a week up to now, but thought it best to have a look around first, before asking a million questions which I'm sure have been answered before. But on a higher note, I thought I'd make a post saying hi to everyone :)

The question I have isn't necessarily pickup related, but I wasn't entirely sure where to post.

Judging by my name, you can probably guess that I'm quite a lover of the Ibanez Sabre (Ibanez S, now) guitars. I've always kept the stock pickups in, and found that even with the mahogany body, it's quite a bright guitar. My question I wanted to ask, before actually queering about "which" pickup is: With my rig being quite bright sounding, I tend to back the treble of the amp quite far back, and wondered for both recording/live purposes, is it better to cut through by having darker pickups and increasing the amps treble, or to have a bright-ish pickup, and to back off the amps treble? It was just an interesting thought I had whilst perusing through a number of threads.

Any advice would be great, and again hi to all :)

[IbbySabre]

EDIT: sorry accidentally posted twice

[Miracle Man]

In my experience, it's always easier to make a bright guitar/pickup sound darker than the other way around. I use bright BKPs and a JCM800 (which is pretty bright - can be shrill) and dial the treble, middle and presence controls back to 3 or even lower. I also like to have a bright amp and then compensate with darker sounding speakers if necessary. This way you can still turn up the presence and treble if you're not cutting through in a mix.

As an alternative, you can also use bright pickups and use lower value volume pots (300k instead of 500k). In the end it's all personal preference.  :)

[timmy_b]

It's always worth bearing in mind that you can't really add frequencies to your signal that aren't being reproduced by the pickup, so, to that end, I always try to get as broad a sound as possible with plenty of presence right across the board, then you are free to attenuate with the amp eq as you see fit to get the sound you are after. However, if you are having to drop the treble back a lot, then you would probably benefit from something a bit darker pickup wise, as you are most likely cutting peripheral frequencies with that dial that you might like to keep.

Or as miracle man says, play with some different pots to tame some of that brightness

[IbbySabre]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have a good look at different pickups, and possibly post a topic if I have any questions.