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what's your favorite pickup? can be any brand


mbengs1

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What's my favorite pickup? P90s. The attack transients and the pure tone are blissful to me. Once I got used to playing with P90s, everything else just sounds dull.

 

Second favorite and the one I gig with are Duncan P-Rails with triple shot rings. They give me 4 sounds, P90, Rail, Series Humbucker, and Parallel Humbucker. The P90 sound isn't quite what a soapbar sounds like, but close enough (a little less low-mid frequencies), and I get the versatility of the other sounds. The Rail is perhaps the weakest, but playing with both neck and bridge pups in the rail mode can sound very Fender-ish. The humbucker sounds can either sound like a full or mini. It's almost like bringing 4 guitars to the gig.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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I've listening to the dimarzio the tone zone again lately and its one of the best pickups i've heard. its got lots of mids and has a loud 'cocked wah' sound.

 

I have one of those with coil split in a mahogany bodied Fender Custom Telecaster Special (Air Norton in the neck) and it does indeed sound very good in that guitar.

Guitars010.jpg

 

 

The detractors of that pickup sometimes say it's not the best for "cutting through the mix", but I'd rather have a bridge pickup that might need to have some bass rolled off in that application rather than something like a Duncan Custom Custom that's not much more than a mid hump.

 

 

 

My faves are the Burstbucker 1 & 2 combo. I like the complexity of tone from the scatter wound design and the extra vibe from no wax potting.

 

 

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Okay, seriously, there are dozens if not hundreds of pickups out there and none of us has tried them all. I'm generally a humbucker guy but along with Notes_Norton I'm fascinated by the Duncan P-Rails. That said, I like the "Duncan Designed" humbuckers in my Schecter just fine.

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Back when I was single, I was gigging in a club called Seymour's. There was this beautiful girl with the best smile I've ever seen there, so I asked her if I could sit next to her. We started talking, and it was like old friends right from the start. She's now my wife of 38 years and still has the best smile. She plays guitar, synthesizer, sings like an angel, and we are in the same duo making a living doing music and nothing but music.

 

Life is good.

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Didn't at the time, but she bought one before I did.

 

She got hers in a music store, a made in Korea model. The fit and finish is superb, without taking it into bright light, you can't even see where the neck meets the body. The wood grain is almost matched. Inside the wiring is ultra neat with good solder joints. Good fret finishing and higher quality switches and pots than you usually find in an Asian inport. Class act.

 

So when Parker started advertising Dragonfly guitars (now Maxxfly) I thought about giving up my 8 pound Faux-Les Paul for something lighter. My wife encouraged me (having two guitar players in the family can be dangerous to the bank account).

 

I bought one mail order (first time ever) and immediately bonded with it. It is a DF524NS - pickup arrangement like a SSH Strat.

 

I love the guitar, and the only thing I missed was the P90 sound. I have 3 P90 guitars (Gibson, Epiphone, LTD). So I asked the company if they would build a custom for me (they were still in the USA then).

 

The built a DF522NN (NN for Notes Norton) with two Duncan P-Rails with triple shot rings.

 

I love it. Besides for the great sounds in the Duncans, it has a Piezo under the bridge that I can blend with the mag sounds for extra jangle or twang. The piezo is too thin to sound like a flat top, more like an arch-top, but blending it with the mag sounds is what I like.

 

Plus it has ebony fretboard with hardened stainless steel frets, -- Sperzel locking tuners, Graph-Tech nut and bridge, and with the Parker Whammy, it stays in tune better than my hard tail guitars. -- It is contoured and balanced so it's more like wearing the guitar than holding it. -- It weighs only about 5 pounds but sustains as long as my 8lb LP. Since I switch instruments on the gig (sax, wind synth, guitar, flute) a light guitar is less tiring by the end of the gig.

 

There is one bad thing about the guitar. Since I got it probably 3 years ago, I haven't had GAS. I can look at pretty guitars, but have no desire to buy one. So I am deprived of the endless longing for a new guitar. :)

 

Probably TMI - sorry.

 

Notes

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