Upgrading To Tubes

[killemall8]

okay. all the passive pickups ESPECIALLY gibson pickups sound horrible to me. anything except for super high gain pickups like emgs or any active. anything else is just crap thru it. thats the only reason i dont like other pickups. gibson pickups to me when playing anything on a high gain channel sound like im playin a strat with the neck single coil. nothing sounds good to me unless you can get that perfectly clear super crunch when you hit an open E chord. i just cant stand anything else that doesnt have the power.

[Mattia]

Methinks you need to try some better high-gain passives; there are some fantastic pickups out there, even at very high gain. And if you want to clean up the sound, and want some warmth/grind to a clean/overdriven sound, EMGs aren't quite the ticket. I do quite like them in certain settings, but they are relatively sterile. I can't say I'm terribly impressed with Gibson's buckers - give me Duncans any day.

As for crunch/cleanness/etc, that very, very, very much depends on the interaction between the pickups and the amp you use; a new amp will reveal aspects of pickup sound that cheap tranny amps

[westhemann]

I like the Gibson 500t pickups...I find them to be quite good at high gain,I just am not much for gibson guitars...poor fret accesss,you know?

Of course,almost all of my guitars are EMG equipped,but I don't find them harsh at all,just more articulate,or "sterile" as Mattia says.Sometimes sterile is good...for example ,you would not want to be stuck with a "flavored" needle at the hospital,would you?

"Power" is a misnomer...EMG is not about power...in fact,they are lower volume than alot of passives...they are just cleaner.

[Xanthus]

Hey Mattia. Do you think you could recommend a set of Duncans that would be comparable (or, since you don't like them, better ) than the Gibsons? I was thinking something along the lines of the Alnico II Pro, like what Slash uses, though I admittedly don't know much about Seymour's pickups. Dimarzios have always interested me more.

[Mattia]

I don't know the Gibsons very well, has to be said, since I don't own any Gibson guitars, but I am quite partial to the 'boring old standard' combo of the JB/Jazz Neck. I don't really do really high-gain pickups in my own guitars, though. The Alnico II's seem like they'd be right up my alley, although I've yet to play a set. They're not high-output buckers.

I quite like the '59's in my first build, although they're a touch on the bright side. Not sure if that's just the guitar they're in, however, or the pickups themselves.

The duncan pickup I really, really want to try out is the P-Rail. Very likely will be going into one of the next builds I make for myself, unless I can convince the buddy of mine who was thinking about getting P-90s to go for the P-Rails...