Seymour Duncan Livewires Or Mustaine Set

[GodBlessTexas]

Has anyone tried these (Livewire and Livewire Classic) and have any impressions of them? I love my EMGs (* Yes, even the clean sounds!*) but was thinking of putting something different in my RG520QS. These are supposed to be active versions of the venerable JB/Jazz combo, but I'm interested in what people who have actually used them have to say. The only downside I can see is that only the Classic cleans up, as the regular livewire distorts no matter what.

Thanks in advance.

GBT

[crafty]

I think the DM set is supposed to be somewhere in between the Classic and the Metal series. I'd be willing to bet that it'll sound similar to an 85/60 set. I almost ordered a set for my Les Paul, but I wanted to stay passive with that guitar for now.

I also get a sneaking suspicion that the DM set is actually being manufactured by EMG, in exchange for Seymour Duncan manufacturing the HZ series for EMG...

[GregP]

I don't quite understand the distortion bit. Do they have an onboard distortion circuit? Or is it the electronics of the active circuit that just get distorted (I'm assuming, in a bad way...?). As long as the output of your guitar is clean (ie. the circuit itself isn't being overdriven) then it should be able to "clean up" no matter what.

Greg

[crafty]

The problem with the LiveWire Metal pickups is that their output is so high that it overdrives the front end of the amp. Normally you'd need to add some sort of booster to the guitar to do this, but these pickups do it when turned all the way up. Kind of how EMGs sound with a PA-2 or Afterburner turned all the way up.

[GregP]

See, that's what I mean, though-- I understand driving the amp with a crazy-hot signal, but there's still a volume knob that goes from zero to max. Somewhere in-between, surely you can find a spot at which it's not driving the amp.

Plus, some amps have a lot of input headroom and won't distort as easily; or even still, a solid-state amp (again, with lots of headroom, because solid-state can still be overdriven) might produce a cleaner tone.

I'm just remembering back to the glory days of when after-market pickups first caught on, and people used to think that a pickup like a "super distortion" would actually produce a distortion sound all on its own.

Greg

[GodBlessTexas]

See, that's what I mean, though-- I understand driving the amp with a crazy-hot signal, but there's still a volume knob that goes from zero to max. Somewhere in-between, surely you can find a spot at which it's not driving the amp.

Plus, some amps have a lot of input headroom and won't distort as easily; or even still, a solid-state amp (again, with lots of headroom, because solid-state can still be overdriven) might produce a cleaner tone.

I'm just remembering back to the glory days of when after-market pickups first caught on, and people used to think that a pickup like a "super distortion" would actually produce a distortion sound all on its own.

Greg

Well, according the sound matrix at the Seymour Duncan Site, the Metal Livewire breaks up pretty good on its own. That's bridge position with no amp distortion. Here's it with amp distortion. My guess is that, due to the internal preamp, the signal from the pickup is overdrive no matter how much signal the volume knob is rolling off, much like a master volume switch on an amp.

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