Alexander Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 Hi all, I really like the pickups in my Peavey Wolfgang Special, and I'm going off the EMG81 I have in my project guitar, so I thought it would make sense to "go for what I know" and get another Wolfie pickup for the project axe. Thing is, as you probably know, the Wolfies have the pickup mounted directly to the guitar body, and my project guitar uses a pickup ring. The holes in the Wolfgang pickups base plate are too large, and not threaded for the usual mounting screws that go through the ring, and I think the route in the body of the guitar is too deep to body-mount it. Has anybody managed this, or do you have any suggestions of the best way to go? Failing that, what's a good, similar hot humbucker for that VH/Motley Crue hi-gain rock sound? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 There are dozens of pickups that will put you in the right ballpark. If you want to check out what the "big" manufacturers have to offer, just go to DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan websites and read. They have pretty good descriptions of most of their pickups. The original EVH pickup was just a PAF, no? Not even a "metal"/"rock" pickup! It's all about the fingers and the amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 I would epoxy something to the old pickup tags and then make new holes. I would use some of the fibre board used for making singlecoil pickups - but only because i have some. You could just as easily use a bit of plastic cut from something like a CD case or anything you could think of really. Another option is to have little nuts on the ends of the pickup screws. The only problem is that you would need to remove the ring and alter the nuts to change the height of the pickup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 I think they're quite a bit hotter than stock PAF's ( I also think stock PAF's would usually sound better than the Wolfs). You could probably just bolt the coils onto another base plate. Might require drilling 4 new little holes to line up with the bobbin holes, but that shouldn't be a huge deal, unless I'm not thinking it all the way through right now. But, I don't think those pickups are so great, so it's probably better to just buy a different pickup. I think they're quite similar to a Duncan JB. If you can get the wolf pickups dirt cheap, then it might be worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 Thanks for all the replies guys - I'm really only looking at the Wolf pickups because I know I like em, go for what you know etc! They're considerably hotter than a PAF - 13.7 or something they come out at. Do Seymour Duncan do a PAF or equivalent now? The problem is really *too much* choice as far as I see it. Plus I can't say how hard a PAF would drive my 50w JCM800 - I like a lot of gain but am I missing a trick by trying to get gain from the hotness of the pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 DiMarzio Tone Zone bridge and Air Norton neck are about as close as you'll come to the Wolfie's pickups. The design of the Wolfie and EBMM EVH pickups were based on those DiMarzios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suicidecustom Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 he original EVH pickup was just a PAF, no? Not even a "metal"/"rock" pickup! It's all about the fingers and the amp. the pickup in the frankenstien guitar was just a gibson paf. funny enough, when charvels pickup guru and seymour duncan looked over the pickup for the new evh replicas coming out they found out that the pickup should be dead. they couldn't get any readings from it with a meter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 It all just depends on what era of EVH you're trying to capture. If you want the brown sound, DLR-era Van Halen, any suitable PAF-style pickup should work. If you want more of the Van Hagar stuff, the DiMarzios and even EMGs would probably work well. For the Cherone/VHIII era, you could use a Stratocaster for most of that stuff. On the recent stuff, it's back to the old PAF. Personally, I love the DiMarzio PAF pickups, Regular, Classic, or Pro. They have the sound and enough bite to cut through effects and processing. Everyone has their own "brown sound", it's as individual as a fingerprint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 (edited) Thanks again guys. I've never tried DiMarzios, mainly been a SD man all my life. Has anyone tried the PAF Pro, or Hot PAF or whatever they call it? I'm just not sure whether I should be kicking the preamp's ass with something hot, or using something vintage and letting the amp do the work. Hmm... Oh yeah - I assume I'll need an F spaced pickup as my guitar has a Wilkinson trem? Edited April 13, 2007 by Alexander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 (edited) I've used the PAF Pro before and I use the PAF Classic in my Les Paul. The PAF Pro is the staple '80s shredder pickup--great for processing, good balance of tones. The Duncan JB is also great--but I don't like it going through a processor. There's a lot of people who rip on DiMarzio just because Ed Roman rips on 'em, but they really do make great pickups. EVH is back to using Duncan on the EVH Art Series and Frankenstein, but he used the DiMarzios for a LONG time. Anyway, the choice of using the amp to pull the load or pushing the preamp with the pickups is pretty much whatever floats yer boat. I like a front-loaded little Champ or Junior for blues, but for straight-up rock and shred I think you're better off with a clean pickup, quality effects, and a strong amp turned all the way to 11. A lot of people just turn the amp all the way up and control the overall volume with the volume control on the guitar or a volume pedal. The other issue is that hotter pickups lose a lot of high-end response and you really have to EQ 'em up to get the highs back. Edited April 14, 2007 by crafty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Thanks Crafty - all GPWM. I'm not really able to crank the amp to max - it's a 50w 2204, through a 4x12 (albeit with inefficient speakers in it) and sadly I'm not playing huge venues (club-sized, I guess you'd say), so I'm still going to have to rely on mainly preamp distortion, which I don't mind too much. The JCM800 is a pretty bright amp anyway as well. I don't really use any processing - just a vintage MXR flanger, Boss DD3 and a modded Phase 90 up front, I guess I'm looking for a good balance between "vintage tone" - so that when I roll back the volume it cleans up to a nice chimey, toneful sound, but when wound up it's fat, warm and rich-sounding. Do I want my cake and eat it here, or does such a pup exist?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 I'd just add a good quality overdrive pedal to your lineup--like one of those new MXR/Custom Audio Electronics Boost/Overdrive pedals. I think that in combo with the quality effects and amp you already have will work quite nicely with a set of Duncan '59s or DiMarzio PAFs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Yeah I'm currently using a Digitech Bad Monkey to kick the front of the amp, and for the price (£40) it's a helluva good pedal. Leaning towards the DiMarzio PAF Pro - sounds like what I'm after - a PAF but a little but hotter. There's a zebra F spaced one on Ebay at the moment, might plump for that, whack it in and see what happens! Thanks for all the advice guys. Appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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