Godin Icon guitar, very bright LP-style, need pickup advice

[coreyj]

Hi Everyone,

New to the BKP forum.

I have one of the original Godin Icon guitars. It is a 24.75" scale guitar with a chambered mahogany body, no cap, with a glued-in mahogany neck and an ebony fretboard.

Acoustically, it is an amazingly bright guitar. It came with a Duncan 59 in the bridge (which was shrill in this guitar) and a very muffled Godin neck pickup. I switched them out for a set of the Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker pups, which are a drastic improvement. However, these are still quite bright in this guitar. The neck is ok, but I'd like something a less midrangey on distortion. The bridge pickup goes into crunch right on the spot. I wish it did not.  A nice tone, but a tad on the bright end for this guitar.

I play all genres through a fractal audio set up through front of house or into a FRFR rig. 

I saw that Godin has some LP models with Bare Knuckle Mules in them.  Here is a demo:  https://youtu.be/WnX-msgfDGU

Nice tone in these guys.  I was tempted to just go ahead and buy them, but they still may not solve my problem.  Hence my post here. 

Where might you all start, regarding which BKP models might help to solve my problem?

Thanks,

Joe

[Yellowjacket]

Hello to a fellow Godin owner.

I have a Godin LG, which is a short scale mahogany neck / rosewood board with a solid mahogany body.  Snappy guitar but also quite dark.  I put a Rebel Yell bridge and VHII neck in it and it is unbelievable.

I have a Redline III which is a bright guitar, but with some beef in the lows as well.  It has a Juggernaut set, which work really well with excessively bright guitars, like an Ibanez RG.  The Juggernaut set is great for a bright axe but it also is extremely powerful and can easily overdrive the front end of an amp.  The cleans, leads, and rhythm tones are all excellent but I think it is far too much HP compared to what you are looking at.

My first thoughts are to try a Crawler set or at least a crawler bridge.   This may have too much power but then it may not.  These are phat pickups that would likely work well in a bright guitar.

Holy Diver bridge and Emerald neck? 

I am not sure on the mules.  They are low output but low output pickups tend to be brighter overall and I have thought of this set as being balanced.  Maybe others can chime in?  I hear the Black Dogs are phatter vintage voiced pickups that people really love.  Not sure if these would work at all. 

I am curious about the muddy neck pickup.  I had a thin bridge and muddy neck problem in my Les Paul  (Swiss Cheese weight relieved) and I went with an Alnico Nailbomb in the bridge and a Rebel Yell in the neck and it really helped even up the problem.  If you are dealing with a similar situation, perhaps a dark voiced bridge pickup with a brighter and clearer neck pickup is the solution.  Just keep in mind that the difference may not be as drastic as you think so you may need a 'slightly' brighter neck pickup compared with a slightly phatter bridge pickup such as in my case.

Did you email Ben French about the problem?? 

Is the Icon bright compared to a Les Paul or bright compared to a strat??  What electronics are you using in the guitar?  Have you adjusted the pickup height and the height of the pole pieces? 

[Dave Sloven]

My first thoughts are to try a Crawler set or at least a Crawler bridge.   This may have too much power but then it may not.  These are phat pickups that would likely work well in a bright guitar.

I thought the same

[coreyj]

Hello to a fellow Godin owner.

Did you email Ben French about the problem?? 

Is the Icon bright compared to a Les Paul or bright compared to a strat??  What electronics are you using in the guitar?  Have you adjusted the pickup height and the height of the pole pieces?

Yellowjacket,

Thanks for the recommendations.  I have checked out the samples for the Crawler, and it sounds intriguing. 

I have done a lot of adjustments on these pickups and am not able to solve the problems as desired.

The guitar is brighter than my Alder-body Am. Std. Strat, but has more mids also.

Who is Ben French?

Thx,  Joe

[Yellowjacket]

The mid / high dominance is interesting.  Usually, those guitars like pickups like the Warpig or Juggernaut but these pickups are very high output and they will drive the front end of a clean signal into clipping if you play hard.

Are we talking about upper mids, center mids, or low mids?  My Godin LG had treble and low mids with a notch in the upper mids.  I still think the Crawler is a great option. 
My only qualm here is that you have to start getting into contemporary pickups to get less mids.  The Juggernaut set is designed specifically for bright guitars and the pickup is very dark with a hole in the upper mids.  It sounds great in my RG7421, which is pretty much all upper mids and highs.  It would work well EXCEPT for how powerful it is.  WAY too high output for your tastes.
Miracle man would probably be much the same.  Warpig also.

I wonder if the Black Dog would work? 

I am not sure how a crawler would play with the mids on your guitar but it just seems like the best option for you.  I would email ben french and see what he says.  Basically you want a phatter sounding lower output pickup that will tame the highs with out adding midrange.  I'm just not sure what mid band we are talking about. 



Ben French is the customer service guy at BKP and he gives advice on which pickups will give the desired result. 

[Telerocker]

Crawler + Mule-neck or Emerald-neck. The Crawler is not superhot in my experience My VHII is nearly on par with it. I would say it's medium output. Cleans up and splits very well too. I play for years and years with Crawler loaded HSS strat. I can cover many styles. For metal is def.  not your first choice.

[coreyj]

Crawler + Mule-neck or Emerald-neck. The Crawler is not superhot in my experience My VHII is nearly on par with it. I would say it's medium output. Cleans up and splits very well too. I play for years and years with Crawler loaded HSS strat. I can cover many styles. For metal is def.  not your first choice.

Thanks, Telerocker.

[coreyj]

The mid / high dominance is interesting.  Usually, those guitars like pickups like the Warpig or Juggernaut but these pickups are very high output and they will drive the front end of a clean signal into clipping if you play hard.

Are we talking about upper mids, center mids, or low mids?  My Godin LG had treble and low mids with a notch in the upper mids.  I still think the Crawler is a great option. 
My only qualm here is that you have to start getting into contemporary pickups to get less mids.  The Juggernaut set is designed specifically for bright guitars and the pickup is very dark with a hole in the upper mids.  It sounds great in my RG7421, which is pretty much all upper mids and highs.  It would work well EXCEPT for how powerful it is.  WAY too high output for your tastes.
Miracle man would probably be much the same.  Warpig also.

I wonder if the Black Dog would work? 

I am not sure how a crawler would play with the mids on your guitar but it just seems like the best option for you.  I would email ben french and see what he says.  Basically you want a phatter sounding lower output pickup that will tame the highs with out adding midrange.  I'm just not sure what mid band we are talking about. 

Ben French is the customer service guy at BKP and he gives advice on which pickups will give the desired result.

I assume the Black Dog would sound like the Whole Lotta Humbucker that I already have in there, with a very Pagey tonality.

How can I contact Ben French, through the email contact on the website?

Thanks,

Joe

[Dave Sloven]

I think that for such a bright guitar the two main combos in the range that would work would be Crawler/Emerald or (alnico) Warpig set.