Beautiful Sweep Picking Pup

[darkvoid86]

Hey there you lovely people. I have an Ibanez USA Custom RG which i adore however i am not satisfied with my neck pickup sound. The unique features on this guitar that i would like to mention for tonal purposes are it's mahogany body, maple top that is 15-17mm thick and Bill Lawrence L500XL which for my needs and purposes sounds SICK. Another RG'esque guitar i have with a Basswood body sounds awesome with the same BL pup in there but this is just........ YUM YUM, OH MY, YUM. Anyways! The guitar is HSH with the middle pickup disconnected, (i just don't like those sounds, plus the middle pup is lowered as far as possible because it also gets in the way of my technique), and the selector switch has been replaced with a 5 way stew mac E-megaswitch.

The neck pickup in the guitar at the moment is a Seymour Duncan 59, which sounds quite articulate with picking and has textures in it that i like however it doesn't quite fit my needs. A friend of mine has a gorgeous framus, (also mahogany body/maple top) with a JB/59 combo in there, the inbetween sound on the three way had me fall over myself but so far nothing with the 59 on clean does anything special for me. At the moment i am studying jazz so i love my clean sounds/sweeping but also dabbling with high gain situations. The 59 in there currently is only two conductor and the person i bought the guitar off wired it in there, neither him nor i know how the two humbuckers are wired up concerning positions 2-4 but apparently because the 59 is two conductor no coil splitting can be going on.

I do apologise, i have really rambled on so far so i will try and wrap this up. Basically the 59's clean isn't all that, the rolled down neck sound doesn't hit it for me, and the in between sounds just aren't up my street. The in-between settings i appreciate much more are like on a PRS 5 way HH guitar. The Stew Mac site says that the E-mega switch goes like this with positions 1-5: bridge, bridge split for outer coil, outer coils of both humbuckers, neck split for inner coil and neck pup.

1. What pickups would people suggest for my type of guitar for excellent cleans and good clear articulation for high gain sweeping? (so far i am considering a Air Norton or some kinda PRS neck pickup or bareknuckle)

2. Can i wire my pups using this switch for PRS middle sounds? According to the stew mac site their P-model switch does this.......... does that mean i have to go and buy another switch?

3. One of the in between sounds i want to guarantee is Petrucci's middle position which is apparently the two middle coils (series or parallel i don't know). According to the Stew Mac site their P-model megaswitch's positions 1-5 go: Bridge, Inner pickup coils parallel, Outer coils series, Outer coils parallel, Neck Pickup. Is position two on this right for that Petrucci middle position?

Again sorry for the extensive writting at the beginning of this thread, this is something that is really important for me and i want to get sorted. I would be so grateful if you guys could help me out.

Ian.

[Xanthus]

1. Dimarzio X2N. As far as I'm concerned, Michael Romeo IS sweep picking, however it's a bridge pickup, not what you need.

2. Yes, but both pickups need to be 4-conductor.

3. Funny, I've never heard anything about Petrucci's "middle" position. But if that's what you want, that what it'll give you. I have the switch, and I like it a lot, though I would say that the difference between the positions is more pronounced on clean settings, much less so with high gain. I play it through my V3 cranked and the differences are slight.

[darkvoid86]

1. Dimarzio X2N. As far as I'm concerned, Michael Romeo IS sweep picking, however it's a bridge pickup, not what you need.

2. Yes, but both pickups need to be 4-conductor.

3. Funny, I've never heard anything about Petrucci's "middle" position. But if that's what you want, that what it'll give you. I have the switch, and I like it a lot, though I would say that the difference between the positions is more pronounced on clean settings, much less so with high gain. I play it through my V3 cranked and the differences are slight.

Okay i am asking about neck pickups but you mention one of the craziest bridge pickups ever........... and all the videos i have watched of Michael Romeo is with him using EMG pickups......... fair play i havent watched LOADS of his videos but interesting you would bring that up and also correct yourself.....

The reason why i mention the two conductor thing is that the guy who put the pickups in said you couldnt split a two conductor pickup and yet this megaswitch has it split and i was just wondering how on earth.......

I am NOT a Petrucci'phile in the slightest however i did make a note of that clean sound/texture he was getting during his rock discipline video and i mentioned it infront of some Petrucci'philes and they all affirmed what it was however i dont know if that middle position for him is whether the coils are in series or parrallel and they couldn't tell me, but i am guessing in series?

If my E megaswitch can do these things, why is it that Stew Mac sells megaswitches switches for all different purposes if you can just use one switch to do whatever crazy wirings you want? But yeah your right, i want the inbetween positions mostly for clean textures.

[borge]

you can convert a 2 conductor HB to 4 quite easily, theres a tutorial around, cant remember where though, its been years since i did it.

[Xanthus]

If I recall correctly, Borge, it involves stripping the tape off the pickup sides, nipping wires, and a bunch of other jazz. Nevertheless, might be interesting to find for the OP.

So why can't you sweep pick with the bridge pickup? Roll off the highs a bit and you're all set. Well, so long as you're watching Michael Romeo videos, he uses a Tone Zone pickup in the neck position now. Listen to his solo sound recently, especially on Paradise Lost (album) and you'll get a sense of what his deal is. I thinks it's loverly

RE: JP middle pos. The coils in series will give you a Gibson 3-way sound. Parallel will give you a Strat-quack sound. Since the JP sig guitar has a 3-way switch, I'm willing to put money on it being a series-wired middle position, in which case you wouldn't need a fancy megaswitch.

On the topic of megaswitches, they give you different tonal options. E-Switch automatically does coil tapping for you, P-Switch is a PRS position copy. The switch where you can put in any wiring combo is the Superswitch, which is a total beast and requires an advanced engineering degree to even purchase.

In all honesty, I have the P-Switch in my V, and I can't hear a huge difference in pos'ns 2 and 4. One is a bit more trebly, one a bit more bassy, but that's about it. Nothing to pull an Eric Johnson over.

[darkvoid86]

For live situations you obviously want to switch easily between pickups, or more accurately sounds, the neck pickup to my ears sounds best for sweeping and i have a guitar with two pickups in it so............... yeah

I thought on a les paul type guitar the middle position was just both pickups (4 coils) in series? Thus some people (petrucci'philes), make a little fuss over this being interesting because its just the inner coils being accessed? This is just ONE of the sounds i wanted to garuantee, i want a 5 way switch in PRS style selections. I was just curious about position two because wiring wise it seems to very close to Petrucci's middle position.

Its cool to know that this switch can coil tap two conductor pickups, but do you still stand by the idea that i can get the PRS middle positions with this particular switch then? But hey you know each to their own, whether you can tell the tonal textures/possibilities capable with a 5 way switched PRS or not isn't in discussion. I love PRS guitars to death but they feel awkward for me to play but i do think sound wise they are just pure genius. Maybe i am a Silly ol Eric Johnson for wanting the same in-between positions on my Ibanez. But I am hardly debating on the tonal benefits of brass neck shims, scratching the paint off beneath your pickups etc etc etc etc

[Xanthus]

Oh man, are you kidding? Building that all-wood guitar was the best tonal improvement I've ever seen. Metal parts interfere with the pickup's magnetic field, everyone knows that

It sounds like you want a P-Switch for what you're asking. And no, the middle pos on an LP switch is one coil from each pickup. Unless you want coil tapping (which I think you don't, coil tapping = noise, and not conducive to sweeping), go with the P-switch. Who knows, maybe your ears are closer to Eric J's than mine, and you'll hear vast differences in the soundscapes provided by the switch. Best of luck!

[GregP]

I assume you meant "is not" one coil from each pickup.

You can get multi-pole 3-way switches that'll allow you to do that with 4-conductor pickups, though. Or put in a push-pull.