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Hi guys i plan to build a neck thru guitar, it will have a purpleheart neck, ebony fretboard, mahogany wings and a maple top, the top will be 3/4" and the mahogany will be 1" thick, if the guitar had a mahogany neck i'd go with a Seymour Duncan Distortion, but now i don't know...I like Seymour Duncan pickups and i hate di marzios and emg's so maybe what other seymour duncan would go nicely with this combo? I play melodic thrash metal, so i need lots of definition even if i'm tuned down to B, thanks guys!

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You choice of wood is going to have almost nothing to do with selecting the right pickup. I've never heard of anyone picking a pickup based primarily on wood, though of course at times people will pick a more mellow pickup to balance out a bright guitar.

Why do you hate DiMarzios? People who hate EMG usually don't like actives, so I understand that-- but why DiMarzio? They make fine pickups.

My advice, if you're set on SD... is simply to read the descriptions of each and pick out the one that suits you. There's no real other way, even if people give you their personal preferences.

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You choice of wood is going to have almost nothing to do with selecting the right pickup. I've never heard of anyone picking a pickup based primarily on wood, though of course at times people will pick a more mellow pickup to balance out a bright guitar.

Why do you hate DiMarzios? People who hate EMG usually don't like actives, so I understand that-- but why DiMarzio? They make fine pickups.

My advice, if you're set on SD... is simply to read the descriptions of each and pick out the one that suits you. There's no real other way, even if people give you their personal preferences.

Well, sometimes it has to do with the wood, specially when using a Seymour Duncan JB, I find them to be very temperamental pickups, that don't sound good in all guitars, for instace i hate it how it sounds on my friend's S seires Ibanez, which is Mahogany body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard and Floyd Rose trem, but it sounds fantastic on my neck thru body all mahogany, ebony fretboard fixed bridge BC Rich Warlock...

If i wanted to play safe i'd use a Duncan Distortion, but since i've never had a guitar with such a great percentage of the woods used that's not mahogany...I don't wanna end up with a guitar sounding too brittle...

Most DiMarzios i've heard sound crappy to my ears, specially the Di Marzio Blaze...ugh....

Edited by eddiewarlock
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You said it yourself-- situations depend. Unless you did an A/B with the identical guitar in an identical rig, you probably weren't in the right listening environment to make much of an assessment on the DiMarzios. :D Maybe you just didn't like the guitar the Blaze was in.

OTOH, people rave about Air Nortons, Tone Zones, Evos, and many others, all the time. :D

Nothing wrong with a Duncan Distortion from what I've read and heard... haven't really tried one myself. If it seems like the right pickup to you, go for it. Ultimately, it's still a humbucker. Your guitar still has a lot of traditionally "bright" construction to it, with the wood choices... but a Duncan humbucker is still not going to be as strident as a P90 or a tele bridge pickup, and those have appeared on some pretty "bright" guitars. I can't see any reason the Distortion wouldn't work, if it's what you would typically go for on a more-mahogany guitar.

Greg

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If it's definition you want, a Jazz you should get (for the neck position at least, imo)

I've got one that's been on an all-mahogany Jackson SLSMG soloist and turned it into an amazing fluid solo/clean machine, and now it's on an OLP MM1 and has some unbelievable clarity and punch.

It's somewhat middle- to low-output for a humbucker, but it makes up for it with some real sparkle... it does a great "woman tone" style wail and you can do some pretty complex chords at high gain and still hear every note.

YMMV of course, but that's my experience with it.

Also, remember that SD has a "pickup swap" policy where you can swap your pickup within a certain amount of time for another one as long as the original's not damaged or had the leads shortened too much. This way you can audition some pickups and swap if one isn't your sound.

Edited by TemjinStrife
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