Choosing Pickups For My Guitar.

[Zeb_hendrix]

I'm gonna be buying some New Pickups for my guitar soon and I'd just like to hear some peoples opinions on my Selections.

For the bridge position I was thinking of a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker or a Dimarzio X2n.

I'd just like to hear some peoples opinions on these pickups or some alternatives (not EMG 81s though, allready have some on another guitar and I want to try something new).

Also I haven't decided on a pickup for the Neck position but I was thinking of having a Seymour Duncan Invader, Full Shred Or distortion some thing. (also could someone tell me some good neck pickups from Dimarzio).

Zeb.

[Tim37]

you might check out bill lawrence for a dimebucker get the original and save yourself a few bucks in the process

[axxion]

You ask what pickups to pick and you'll get as many answers as there are forum members...

What kind of style do you play?

What kind of guitar is it?

Most importantly.. what sound do you want to achieve

Also, keep in mind that pickups are just one of the many variables to achieving awesome tone. The complexity of your wiring plus pedals and your amp have to do with just as much of your sound as pickups...

Of course, I can understand a want for new pickups. There is a reason they make so many kinds....

I'm a versatile player... so I'd say go with a pickup you'd be decently happy with all around. I like PRS and Gibson 59's personally.

The other day I converted my 2 wire stock Epipphone pickups into 4 wires and added so many doodads like phase and coil tap and tone filters and I can tell you that I no longer want fancy pants pickups anymore...

If you want to go that route then you came to the right place cuz all the info is in these forums my friend

[Zeb_hendrix]

I'm putting the pickups on my custom handmade guitar and I play all types of music but mostly rock, metal, blues and Jazz.

For this Guitar I want high out put Pickups along the lines of the Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio ones I suggested.

[axxion]

For this Guitar I want high out put Pickups

Yeah I'd go Dimebucker if you go Duncan or even Bill Lawrence. I've heard numerous times that the Dimebucker doesn't handle mids very well but when you listen to Dimebag's tone he pretty much kills the mids and cranks lows and highs...

I've never played Lawrence but I've heard nothing but sparkling reviews.

Personally I still say go with PRS. The Mike Tremonti set is amazing... those babies can handle all the jazzy classic stuff but when you crank it they scream bloody murder! Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth has them in most of his guitars and Opeth does everything.. jazz.. blues... heavy-deathy metal...

[Sami Ghouri]

i've tried the dimebucker on a couple of guitars and i have to say (and hopefully won't be lashed to the slavestick for it) that it's VERY disappointing. no clarity, lots of muddiness (at least on the deans i've tried) and not much tone. X2N ftw!

and also, a duncan distortion or a dimarzio super distortion are standards for this kinda tone! they never get old! and they're pretty well balanced.

[Keegan]

You might try out some EMGs you've never tried before, too.

[Zeb_hendrix]

Maybe I'll go for the Dimebucker in the bridge position and the Dimarzio super distortion in the neck position.

[dayvo]

Hey Zeb

As you're in Oz, check out Mike Brierley

He is becoming quite well known

Have a look at this site and check out all the positive feedback he is getting

dayvo

Edited December 8, 2008 by dayvo

[Xanthus]

The Super Dist is mighty loud! I'm not sure how well it will balance with a Dimebucker bridge. A guy I used to play with has the X2N and the thing is a beast. I'm a fan of my Tone Zone, but it's not as high output as the kind you're looking for. The guy who mentioned the Tremonti pickups might be onto something. Opeth does a lot of jazzy, quiet interludes. I'm not sure what he has in the neck pos, but the dynamic range is definitely complemented by the pickups.

[Paul Marossy]

My vote is for a DiMarzio FRED on the bridge.

[Zeb_hendrix]

Does anyone no exactly what the difference is between the Dimebuckers ouput and the Super Distortion?

[Keegan]

Well, not exactly, because SD doesn't really give much info about their pickups. But Dimarzio does give the output in mV, and an X2N is similar to a Dimebucker, except that the dimebucker is wound even more(to 16.25kohm, the X2N is 13.68k). The X2N is already 85mV more output than the Super Distortion. A Dimebucker will have even more output than that. That's a pretty good neck/bridge difference, it'll probably be pretty balanced. You'll have to play around with the pickup height a little, but not too much.

[IPA or death]

A good place to start would be to ask yourself what specific player's tone you like and would like to try to emulate, or which part of their tone you like and would like to build from. Once you have that, you can get to work because you'll know what pickups they use and in what kind of guitar they use them.

Also, what woods is your guitar made of? What kind of amp do you play through? There are many things to consider, but the good thing is, pickups are fairly inexpensive so you can try something and then move on. Sell the old ones on Ebay.

[Geo]

A good place to start would be to ask yourself what specific player's tone you like and would like to try to emulate, or which part of their tone you like and would like to build from.

But remember... tone is in the player's hands too. Think of Jimi... he played a Strat, but his tone is WAY thicker than a normal Strat tone, even played through the same amps.

Just something to keep in mind.

[Paul Marossy]

My vote is for a DiMarzio FRED on the bridge.

I still vote for the FRED. It will not get muddy like those super high output pickups will. You can hear this pickup on my tune called "The Race" here: http://www.myspace.com/j201jams

I believe that I was using the FRED on both guitar parts, but I know for sure on the rhythm track I did.

Edited December 11, 2008 by Paul Marossy

[Serius13]

I'm building a guitar right now and i want to put the most versatile humbuckers in it. I tested many different pickups from all kinds of different brands and i choose two seymour duncans. I choose a Full Shred for the bridge, and a Alnico Pro II for the neck. The sounded great together. I play mostly metal and classic Rock so these two pickups were pefect for me. Also the output of thee full shred is high put not too high so it doesn't take away any tone or volume from the Alnico Pro II.

[Paul Marossy]

Another combination that I like is the pickups on my Parker Mojo Nitefly - A Seymour Duncan "Jazz" on the neck and a Seymour Duncan "JB" on the bridge. I also like the vintage Seymour Duncan AH-1 Allan Holdsworth signature pickup a lot, too.