Hi, I have a gibson SG special electric (1 piece mahogany, rosewood fretboard, with standard gibson humbuckers).
Recently my pickups have started sounding err.... less than pleasant, so I want to get some new ones, but being a relative guitar n00b i would appreciate some help in finding good ones.
I want to get a strong low and high end sound which can handle A LOT of overdrive.
So far from looking/asking I've narrowed it down to a bareknucle warpig for the bridge, but I don't know whether to get a ceramic or alnico magnet.
For the neck I'm clueless because there are so many that have been recommended, so any help here would be appreciated. Been thinking to get a single coil for the neck, but don't know if this will cause buzz/tone problems when im using it with the bridge humbucker.
Muchas gracias for any help, wanna make sure I spend a few weeks worth of food money on the right ones!
pkeraoe: Hi, I have a gibson SG special electric (1 piece mahogany, rosewood fretboard, with standard gibson humbuckers).
Recently my pickups have started sounding err.... less than pleasant,
Can't really offer you any help with finding the tone you want, but I'm curious - what has gone wrong with your existing ones?
If you need any help taking the old ones out/wiring the new ones in, let me know.
Str
strange: what has gone wrong with your existing ones?
tbh i really don't know what's wrong, im no guitar tech. but over the last few months the sound of my guitar has just gone bleh.
when im playing with high overdrive and have it set to the bridge pickup or both i get a crackling noise, but not when its just the bridge.....
also i figure if i can get pickups which give me a good metal tone i can save a bit of money isntead of getting a new guitar.
pkeraoe:strange:
tbh i really don't know what's wrong, im no guitar tech. but over the last few months the sound of my guitar has just gone bleh.
when im playing with high overdrive and have it set to the bridge pickup or both i get a crackling noise, but not when its just the bridge.....
Apologies for taking ages to reply...
This doesn't sound to me like a pickup problem. Problems with pickups tend to be suddenly getting much quieter (blown pickup) or totally silent (bad contact).
Questions:
Do you get the same problem on other amps?
Do you have another guitar you can try through the same amp?
I'll pm you. Let me know if you want help sorting this out. It may not involve buying any new pickups at all.
Str
The crackling and what have you could indicate a bad contact in the pickup selector switch. This is surprisingly common.
strange: This doesn't sound to me like a pickup problem. Problems with pickups tend to be suddenly getting much quieter (blown pickup) or totally silent (bad contact).
That, or they just go microphonic, and the noise floor starts rising...
- Adam -:Freja: The crackling and what have you could indicate a bad contact in the pickup selector switch. This is surprisingly common.
This. Also, in the past I have had issues whereby loose connections in the input jack have resulted in crackling.
Yeah, sometimes the soldering in those things is super bad, had to redo mine
crackling is normally pots, turn them when it happens, you'll know fairly quickly if it is. Otherwise jacksocket or bad earthing.
As to pups, they are worth investing in, along with amp and any other part of set-up, including jack to jack cable.
Bareknuckle do rule imo, warpig is a bit ott perhaps, unless you know for sure that's the kinda thing you want. Saw someone mentioned painkiller, would've been my suggestion (although not a lot to go on from original post).
Adam Crossley
Hey dude, firstly good call choosing passive pickups. If you want control and smoothness under a ton of gain then passive is a smart choice.
As for passive bridge pickups I would highly recommend either Bareknuckle or Dimarzio. For Bareknuckle pickups you have a few options really. If you want a high mids style overdrive, reminiscent of todays 'Djent' tones (Periphery/Chimpspanner etc), then I would suggest the Painkiller. If you want a really tight bass response for riff riffing then I would suggest the new Aftermath pickup. If you just want solid balls out tone, super saturated metal tones then the Warpig is the one for you. As for Dimarzio, you again have many options. You are not going to find the gain with Dimarzio pickups, but then again, you can simply crank it on the amp if you are really desperate for that much... If you want a modern metal pickup, go for the X2N. It is the signature pickup of Chuck Shauldinger for 'Death', and it is super high output. I have one, and I love it very much. If you don't want that much gain, then go for the Crunch Lab. It is smooth, has epic clarity, but can saturate if you need it too. I would just head onto the websites and listen to their soundclips.
As for your neck pickup, I would reccomend you stay with the same brand as the bridge. Many people would agree with me, but I find that having continuity between your pickups often helps my tone. The companies make 'pickup pair' bundles exactly for this reason. For example, almost everyone who has an EMG 81 in their bridge has an EMG 85 in their neck. They were just made to go together. I personally would advise against having a singlecoil in the neck, purely because you are sacrificing so much in terms of versatility. If you really want a singlecoil sound I would reccomend getting a humbucker, with 'coil-tap' for your neck. Purists would argue that they are 'no cigar', but I really struggle to hear a different. I would get a neck humbucker, and I would go for the dimarzio Air Norten.
I hope this helps dude.