Author Topic: Tough choice (Read 5348 times)

Hammurabi · « **on:** June 07, 2005, 05:52:12 AM »

I need new pickups, but I have no idea what would be the best choice for them. The problem is I'm in two very different bands. In one of them I need to play about as clean as possible. Think acoustic sim. In the other band I need to play about as heavily as possible. If you've ever heard System of a Down's song "BYOB" that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Being a college student I don't have much cash to throw around. I only have one guitar (mahogany neck and body, 2 humbuckers) and I can't afford to buy another. I only have enough $ to replace my currently sucky pickups. So, what would be a good pup combination to best satisfy both needs?

HJM · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2005, 07:00:56 AM »

VH2s would be a great starting point. Good clean tones and enough power to get things rocking without too much effort on your part. Tap the coils for some great strat/tele like tones. Works a treat on my old PRS.

You could go for a Nailbomb, that's about as far as you'd want to go if clean tones are a priority.

Go for Alnico over ceramic. The splits will sound sweeter! :P

Tim · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2005, 08:32:12 AM »

Ditto.

Also worth considering is a Warpig.............this humbucker is seriously heavy when used in series but split it down or run in parallel and it's crystal clean.

Welcome to the forum!

Hammurabi · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2005, 04:10:40 PM »

So would a VH2 neck/Warpig bridge work well together?

HJM · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2005, 04:35:34 PM »

Might do, but if I was going for a Warpig bridge, I'd get one for the neck to in a calibrated set, then wire the neck in parallel as Tim suggests. Parellel wiring is a great half single half bucker type tone, great for clean tones.

Do any of the clips help?

OrangutanShoes · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2005, 04:55:20 PM »

This whole parellel thingy for the neck pickup has me quite interested. What does it sound like with distortion? And does it affect the tone of the bridge pickup?

Hammurabi · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2005, 05:09:07 PM »

Quote

Do any of the clips help?

Some of those clips are pretty impressive, but I didn't find any humbucker clips with much clean chord work or anything like System of a Down. It seems everyone here has better taste in tone than what I'm lookiing for.

HJM · « **Reply #7 on:** June 07, 2005, 05:11:08 PM »

It kind of gets straty but without the noise, best way I can describe it.

It doesn't effect the bridge, unless you parellel wire the bridge too, it's just how you wire up the humbucker coils.

Ratrod · « **Reply #8 on:** June 07, 2005, 06:55:09 PM »

It's either the Nailbomb or the Warpig, I think. To be honest, I think the Nailbomb would get you closer to the SOAD sound than the Warpig. SOAD isn't half as bassy as it might seem and their clean sound is very jangly.