Really hot pickups - Are they worth it??

[RaVenCAD]

 

Interesting comments in this thread I hadn't expected. Got me thinking. I'm not unhappy with the sound of my main axe, an all-mahogany PRS with a bridge super distortion I dropped in about 6 months ago. From the opinions here it seems I got a good thing going and shouldn't change it. The pup drives my tube amp noticeably harder than the stock pup I replaced, yet has pleasing cleans if you roll the vol back to about half. I actually get a kick out of this and find myself using the guitar vol to alternate between semi clean tones and balls to the wall distortion. As for the comments on losing dynamics, with this pup I find the opposite actually. The dynamics change dramatically with only a slight change in picking attack and I love that. Now with preamp gain maxed, yes it is a very compressed sound. But that's just perfect for playing say classic metal. The point of this thread has been to decide if an even hotter pickup would be even more of all those qualities and it seems surely not. Seems like I have what I want. Now as how this pup matches my guitar, most who use this axe have more classic pickups. I was going for an early Iron Maiden sound and I think I'll there, despite them using strats which are much brighter, yet still have that rolled-off treble tone that preserves a tight bottom and plenty of mids that I like. I also got it to sound similar to Al DiMeola, who used to use it on his early work. He still seems to sound tinnier than me. At the time he used a Les Paul, which is still a little brighter than my axe. It just seems there are so many other factors influencing tone that if the chance of getting more clarity at high gain is not possible with hotter pups, than a most Duncans or DiMarzios seem to work just fine. Those tonezones are getting a lot of raves though. Never tried them but it seems like tons of people have started using them.

 

 

... and have been for 20 years. I got my first one in like 1990. For a basswood body, they're fantastic. The only thing I ever tried one in that absolutely sucked was an Epi Les Paul with a mahogany body. It was way dark and muddy in that thing. Everything else (Charvel, Kramer, Jackson, Fender) it's been just lovely.

[oldschoolshred]

 

... and have been for 20 years. I got my first one in like 1990. For a basswood body, they're fantastic. The only thing I ever tried one in that absolutely sucked was an Epi Les Paul with a mahogany body. It was way dark and muddy in that thing. Everything else (Charvel, Kramer, Jackson, Fender) it's been just lovely.

 

 

Man I had no idea they were that old. I hadn't even started playing in 1990, I was only 11. But discard it for me cause I like mahogany Gibson-style guitars and if it don't work in an LP it won't work on my axes either. In case I want to experiment, what would you suggest for an axe like an SG or LP?

[RaVenCAD]

 

Man I had no idea they were that old. I hadn't even started playing in 1990, I was only 11. But discard it for me cause I like mahogany Gibson-style guitars and if it don't work in an LP it won't work on my axes either. In case I want to experiment, what would you suggest for an axe like an SG or LP?

 

 

Can't help you there cuz the closest I can get is my Carvin CT which has stock Carvin S22s in it.

[danswon]

put a series/parallel switch on your hot 'buckers. problem solved

[wartoxin]

I don't have a problem with the tone of hot pickups, the problem is with pedals and their low supply voltage, often the input is too much and they distort when you don't want them to. It's a sort of serious problem, I may get a special pedal to lower the output when I want to. Why not turn down the volume knob? The loss of high end is why, I prefer an active volume control.

[timmyfirst]

Pick-ups are such are subjective thing, the way they react in different guitars, with different strings/set-ups and amps is something that i dont think anyone will ever get their head around properly.

 

I enjoy a pickup that can be set a good distance from the strings but will still break up the input stage on my amp if i batter the strings hard. I currently use the Seymour Custom 5, i think its a great moderate to high gain pickup, it has just enough push to compress the input stage a little but retains all the clarity of the low/low mid frequencies. With pick-ups i really do think you need to match them to your rig and think about how you want the pick-up to react, most people seem to want different things from a pick-up for clean and drive sounds. The SH5 suits my guitar and my amp set up, although when my new amp arrives i'll probably have to try a few more pick-ups to match up the sound again.

 

I've founded the the hotter the pick-up the more compression i get into my sound, i'm not a big fan of that so i tend to not go for pic-ups with super high DC resistance/output figures.

[danswon]

if you're only ever going to have one pickup on one setting i would suggest a modern PAF-type like the Seymour Duncan '59 or whatever Dimarzio counterpart. it's a nice compromise of everything and can get heavy if you want

[axolotls]

A long time ago the hottest pickups were the X2N and the Megadrive. I chose the Megadrive.

 

I still have the Megadrive which I suppose sounds like its supposed to but lacks the tonality for some nice meaty blues or jazz etc. But, it is perfect for high-gain distortion.

 

My favorite pickup is either the SD Jazz or SD Distortion. I get pretty much all I need from those.

[jimwratt]

 

I'm the same way. I have maybe 20 hot wound pups in my parts cab, all stuff I either bought cheap on EBay to try out or stuff I bought or swapped out for others. Nearly all the pickups thet are wound Over 10K really start sounding crummy for cleans. I agree with dirty south, there is more than just the DC resistance. Pickup strengths and field placement are just as big factors. A pickup coil is an inductor and thus has a resonant peak like any other filter coil does. As a general rule the extra winds simply create a narrower Q peak. The bump in whatever frequency winds up being the resonant tone gets sharper and narrower. This isnt nessasarily bad but the trick is to "Match" the resonant peak of the coil to the resonant peak of the guitar which is a real trickey item. You actually have to test the instruments average resonant peak or take an educated guess on what might work best. If the guitar is mostly maple and has say a big 5K peak happening, you can actually mellow/balance that tone out that tone and make the responce flatter by using a pickup with a 5K dip. You have effectively neutralized the peak that way. Those who have allot of experience with vintage guitars know that many of those instruments had some fantastic tone. They often have cooler wound stock pickups with broader frequency responces happening. What is getting hard to find now is the cooler wound pickups. Everyone is pushing the hotter is better BS and in fact, its actually the other way around if you're looking for wider frequency responce. If you're looking for a highly compressed middle boost, then a hot wound might be your ticket. I run Fenders, and Marshalls mostly, both tube and transistor. The older tube amps sound better to me with a cooler pickup. I can run the EQ setting all about in the middle and sound great. With a hotter pup I wind up having to boost the Trebble and turn mids off completely off. Then you're playing stuff with that scooped mid tone that lacks chimes and harmonics. Its fine for Metal but only having scooped mids is like wearing lead boots to me. I play too many different types of music to be stuck with only one sound.

 

 

Great post. I agree, my understanding is that the hot pickup trend began before neutral boost options and high gain preamps were widely available. If you wanted a soaring lead sound in the early 70s but didn't want it fuzz drenched, then hot pickups were a necessity especially if you had volume constraints (how often do you get to crank a twin reverb?). These days, you can enjoy the benefits of low/moderate pickups while getting the drive you want by better means. Besides, pedals are fun.

 

I would like to know more about scientifically testing a guitar's and a pickup's resonant frequency. How do you do that?

[RaVenCAD]

 

A long time ago the hottest pickups were the X2N and the Megadrive. I chose the Megadrive. I still have the Megadrive which I suppose sounds like its supposed to but lacks the tonality for some nice meaty blues or jazz etc. But, it is perfect for high-gain distortion. My favorite pickup is either the SD Jazz or SD Distortion. I get pretty much all I need from those.

 

 

There was also the Jackson J80C, the one that came stock on the original Dinky Reverse. It was a real face melter. I still have one floating around the house somewhere. If I ever go totally metal again, that's my pickup.

[jtr654]

I have both D. SD and X2N and the SD has been in a guitar for 30 + years X2N is in my parts box.