OLP MM1 (floyd rose) High output or low?

[SDuff86]

Hi there well I'm looking at changing over the pickups in my Olp as when I bought it someone had decided to shove some EMG actives in there which is just way to clinical a sound for me, the issue is (and I'm sure it's been covered lots of times I'd imagine) should I go for a lower output PAF type maybe with an alnico II or something with a higher output and maybe an Alnico V I'd really like a humbucker that's more vintage than modern (but still packs plenty of heat when you need it to) with some of the mids scooped out. any recommendations?

Cheers!

[fhn_lopes]

Well, do you need output to saturate your amp or it has plenty of gain? It's one important thing to know.

I would be carefull with "mids scooped out" in a basswood guitar, bare in mind it reacts very differently from a mahog axe for example. If you go for too scooped pup, maybe you'll lose cut.

Well, in that path, I'd check out a few BKP options:

1) Cold sweat set (mid scooped, moderate to high output but with a vintage character to it, ceramic mag, very tight and fast bass response).
2) VHII set (not midscoop but not a middy pup, very muscular and fat, with a lot of edge in both low and high end. Very clear and defined, but it really saturates an amp for a vintage hot pup. Very versatile, going for early EVH tones to nice metal tones too, it makes from acdc to modern shred very well with the right amps.
3) Abraxas set - It is a more vintage voiced pickup with a higher output, unique tone, you can hear the assymetrical coils working very clearly. smoother tone I'd say, rounder and softer than the other ones I've said before.
4) Riff Raff set - probably the most ballanced pup between bass, mid and treble. Rounder edges, it has a smooth sound but it holds higher gain aplications very well, again very versatile as the VHII, but with a smoother and rounder tone. Very clear and open sounding.


Well, if you say what you intend to play with this axe and describe your gear, it's easier to recomend something.

[SDuff86]

Thanks for the recommendations, the gear I'm using with the olp are a vox ac3092 but I do sometimes use a Blackstar ht metal in front of the vox' clean channel. As for style I do love the whole early VH brown sound although much prefer the 1984 sound as opposed to vh1 era but I don't want to get obsessed with vh tone chasing. I would say my style is classic rock heavy like ed at times but more gritty like led zep other times.

[fhn_lopes]

VHII isn't only VH, and actually, it is more at the Fair Warning tone era than VHI. It's a very versatile pup and breathes classic hard rock, even though it is pretty capable of doing some shred.

The neck pup is a true overwound paf, very articulated and clear. As you don't need a high output pu to saturate the amp, I'd go for something on the vintage hot side...

Riff raff of VHII are good choices IMO, even the rebell yell

[Kiichi]

The way I see the kind of sound you want I would not go higher than what effectivly is vintage hot (the RY also falls into still vintage hot for me).
If you need more output, get a booster or an overdrive. That combined with a cold-medium hot PU is what you need I feel.

Pickups that should be concidered are as mentioned before by fhn_lopes. The VHII is actually what I would call my favorite here.
Still I can only give support to fhn here.

[fhn_lopes]

Another thing to bare in mind is that you have a floyd system, what means you need a muscular pup if you don't want to loose too much low end..

Not sure how the Riff Raff would behave with Floyds, but I"m sure the VHII would handle that hands down. Not sure about the rebell yell too, as it is more a les paul pup, even though it seems versatile too.

Another pickup that maybe fits your tastes is the Crawler, a bit darker and with more low mids than the VHII... if your guitar is on the bright side, and with the floyd, maybe it helps balancing things out, but again, a VHII would be a no brainer.

[Telerocker]

For bolt-on guitars you can't go wrong with either VHII, Abraxas and Crawler. They are beefy enough.
I have both VHII and Crawler in ash/swampash-strats with vintagestyle-trems. Total different pickups but both work, being the noncompressed VHII obviously being the more dynamic, punchier, edgier and screaming when pushed of the two. The middy, way more compressed Crawler - as mentioned already - is fat, growls when pushed, has a softer lowend (but for me tight enough in a strat) and really enough presence in the topend. It's a great allrounder that does nearly everything. The Crawler isn't that hot. Medium output, I would say. The Abraxas is related to the Crawler. Same character with more chime and topend.
Btw, a Mississippi Queen would work too, if you like P90's.