Ballsier bridge pickup for a MusicMan Albert Lee HH?

[Pierre]

Hi guys, I'd like to get something slightly brighter/ballsier in my MM AL HH. The guitar is all Mahogany body/all Rosewood body, and as such is lovely sounding but a tad too mellow for me.
I'd like to inject some steel into it. I was thinking a slightly brighter pickup.

Power is no issue right now, so nothing overly hot. Something balanced, but with a tiny little aggression in the treble.
I have one pickup in mind which sounded AMAZING in a LP Custom... but I'd rather not influence the forum's opinions :)

So what's a great pup to add character to a mellow guitar, without losing clarity and that midrange 'crunch' you get with Mahogany?

Ah other issue: the tab holes in the MM are DiMarzio specific and Bareknuckles don't fit :( Would the team be able to account for this with custom tabs or do they offer stock tabs which fit?

Thanks!

[Kiichi]

Are the tabs those triangular ones? If so we just had a thread somewhere where it said you can just put that in the comment box and bäm.

As for the PUs, if you want character, not overly hot, bright, agressive and midrange crunch I can only say Rebell Yell, rebell yell, rebell yell.

['Ash' J. Williams]

Riff Raff or Rebell Yell for more output.
Also, put a request for "triangular mounting tabs" in the comment box.

[Pierre]

Thanks :) RiffRaff is what I had in mind. It sounded just amazing in that LP; a small treble spike to drive the aggression up, but such a rich and responsive pickup! From what I can read the RY would be similar in spirit, but badder sounding. Could be the key here!

[BigB]

Was about to suggest the RR too  :lol:

[Telerocker]

RR will do fine, but what about a VHII?

[ericsabbath]

RR will do fine, but what about a VHII?

this
the VHII a little hotter, edgier and punchier than the riff raff, but they still sound like cousins

[Pierre]

I actually went with the RY, based on the current pickup's output (I hadn't realized they were that hot!). We'll see how that goes :)

[Kiichi]

Get back to us with the results mate!

[darkbluemurder]

VHII was my first impression, too, but I must say I prefer the RY. I think you will be very happy with it.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

Congrats! Fiddle with the height to find the sweet spots. BKP's are sensitive for that.

[Pierre]

Funnily enough; my baseline for pickups are Duncans, and most people say the RY is like a more refined, ballsier JB. Normally I really don't like the JB and swear by the Custom pickup family (the SH-5 is just unbelievable).

[Philly Q]

Funnily enough; my baseline for pickups are Duncans, and most people say the RY is like a more refined, ballsier JB. Normally I really don't like the JB and swear by the Custom pickup family (the SH-5 is just unbelievable).

There's a guy who used to post on here, Antag, who absolutely HATES the SH-5.  :lol:  Personally, of the three "Customs" I quite like the SH-14, although it can be quite harsh sounding.

I don't think the RY is much like the JB at all.  It's a lot tighter, less bass, probably a bit brighter and generally less "messy" sounding.

[Pierre]

Great to hear that :)
I won't install it for a while, I just restrung it and I hate locking tuners!

[Pierre]

CRUSHING! Man those Axis pickups in the guitar are truly great (not sure what they correspond to in current DiMarzio models), but every time I replace a pup with a BK I'm impressed by the clarity they offer.
The RY are great for this guitar: they took a little mellow-ness away and added this great KRAAAANG factor to it. Loving it.