Pup selection for Ibby J custom

[Tahoebrian5]

Hi, new member here.
I just bought a used RG style J custom. It's got a mahagony body, maple top, maple neck, rosewood fretboard and Floyd rose, pups mounted on body on adjustable mounts. Right now it's got Seymour Duncan custom 5 bridge and jazz neck. They sound really terrible. At first I thought it just had way too much mid freq's. I checked with Tim and ordered a set of cold sweats. But now I've had more time with it I'm realizing it's got a ton of LOW mids but seems like a lack of high mids which make it sound really dark. I'm looking for a good 80's metal tone, I play in a two guitar band, I'd like to be more of the upper mid sound and let my other guitar player fill in the lower mids. not too hot, but hot enough the artificial harmonics come out easy. I'll be playing through a be100 amp. I know I'll have a better idea where I'm at once the cold sweats are in.

Thx a bunch!

[darrenw5094]

Upper mids and not too hot would be the Rebel Yell, although 80's metal tone might be a number for the Cold Sweat.

I have a set of Holy Divers in my J Custom right now and they fir perfectly. I put a C-Bomb in my other J Custom and it sounded very thin.

[Telerocker]

Rebel Yells or Holy Divers.

[Tahoebrian5]

I've got a holy diver in my alder Jen right now and it sounds really nice. I do wish the harmonics jumped out a bit more though.

Ok thx, I'll read up on the rebel yell also. Will post back once I try out the CS pups

[Dave Sloven]

I know I'll have a better idea where I'm at once the cold sweats are in.

I would wait and see what these sound like in your guitar before worrying too much.  The Cold Sweat is a great '80s metal pickup.

[Tahoebrian5]

Not sure what happened, my earlier  reply ended up a new post.

Anyway, the CS bridge sounds good but the neck sounds like I want to turn my gain up. The tone sounds good though. I've tried changing pup height too. Any thoughts? Anyone tried a ceramic magnet swap on the neck?

[Dave Sloven]

Not sure why that 's the case, could just be that your guitar is clashing with the pickup somehow.  If you can return the pickup and want to try something else a Holy Diver neck should work nicely with the CS bridge

I'm not sure why you having this issue as I have always felt the CS neck to be too hot and have it lowered all the way down

[Tahoebrian5]

Hmmm, that is weird. The neck has plenty of output, it's just so clean. Makes my overdrive channel sound like a clean channel. I've always like the evo neck pup which has a ceramic magnet. Anyone ever tried putting a ceramic magent in a CS neck?

[ztevie]

Before you do anything, measure the resistance.
Get some kind of ohm-meter, put a guitar cable in the guitar and measure over the tip and the inside area of the guitar cable on the other end. Just remember to set the switch to neck and make sure the volume is on full.
It should read somewhere between 8-9 kOhm.
If it's below that there's something wrong with the wiring or a faulty pickup.

[Kiichi]

Yeah, resistance measuring is a good idea, just to make sure the wiring and pickup are alright. Even a suboptimal solder connection can suck out stuff.

If that is indeed alright then we can think further into replacing it. However, IŽd be surprised if there is not something wrong here.

[Tahoebrian5]

Ok, thanks for helping. I measured 7.96 k ohms on the neck. I just spent some more time playing on it. Man, this think sounds really weird to me. It doesn't seem to match the bridge pup at all. The bridge is really nice sounding. Kind of compressed and very forgiving/easy to play. I usually find I want to turn in some delay when I'm noodling but the bridge sounds good just dry and keeps me from putting my guitar down. The neck though sounds super clean and almost hifi. Every tiny little flaw in my playing seems to come through and the notes aren't smearing together nicely, and still feels like im playing on a clean channel.

[Tahoebrian5]

Btw, my j custom has an alder body with a maple top, not mahagony/maple. I was mistaken, didn't even know they came in this combo.

[Alfi27]

Alder/maple is a quite bright combination, I think the Crawler, Holydiver, or Juggernaut are very good choices, depending on what you are after of course! I listed them in ascending order after how good they do metal btw! 

[Dave Sloven]

I would not be surprised if there is a wiring problem with the neck pickup.  Check that you have the hot wire soldered to the correct lug and that you don't have a cold solder joint somewhere.  When the resin runs out of the solder you can be pretty sure the joint is good.

[Tahoebrian5]

I've checked wiring and no problems. Tech support recommended a painkiller neck for me.