any recommendation for blues pickups?

ok, im buildin an axe... its all about pickups...

itll be semi hollow or hollow strat. maybe smthin like mixture of strat and sg but hollow. im in blues, so i wanna woody tones. not barking, but snarl well in overdrive... glowing, whining tones...

im not rich btw...


any recommendation? :confused:

[font=trebuchet ms]I only play humbuckers, so I can't advise on single-coil pups. However, since you're building your own, you might consider a DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucker at the bridge, and a DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell at the neck.[/font]

Originally Posted by: Lordathestrings[font=trebuchet ms]I only play humbuckers, so I can't advise on single-coil pups. However, since you're building your own, you might consider a DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucker at the bridge, and a DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell at the neck.[/font]

Couldn't agree with you more on the Paf Pro, but for me the humbucker from hell would be way too hot for the neck position....a killer blues humbucker for the neck by DiMarzio is the BluesBucker

it was designed to sound like a p90, but to my ears, it falls between a p90 and a paf. It has its own sound that is very cool. Basically one coil is a dummy coil for hum cancelling and the other coil is like an overwound singlecoil. Also, you can split it into a single coil, and it has the most realistic single coil tone that I have ever heard from any splitable humbucker.

As far as a good single coil replacement, Lindy Fralins hot vintage are exeptional, as are the Rio Grande tallboys, and muy grandes.

let us know what you get

ill build it from probably olivewood. i have no idea about how it affect the pickup decision... i like singles, u know theyr cheaper and easier to wiring... i can reduce hum with good shielding, but its still hums... i like teles than big jazz guitars... i dont know man... :confused:

btw i start a thread about wood, but nobody give anythin... :(

I know people swear by DiMarzio pickups... however for a true blues guitar... it has to have the character of a blues guitar, you know??? I would go with something in the range of medium output... where as most DiMarzios are going to be upper-medium to high output... which will give it a little more bite than a traditional blues pickup should have. Like you said, you want it to sound good when its overdriven but im sure you want a nice clean tone with clear tones accross the EQ. If you want a mixture between an SG (not really a blues guitar) and a Strat I would say go for a Single-Single-Humbucker configuration... This will allow you to mix your tones very well... and give it a good versatility. Now for the pickups of choice... I personally use a set of Fender Custom Shop '69 pickups in my Blues Strat. It gives great clarity in all switch positions from smooth lows to Clear bell-like highs. Same pickups used by Jimi Hendrix and stock on all 1969 Fender Strats... and NOS Custom Shop '69 strats... They're actually wound by the same lady that wound Jimi Hendrix's pickups and signed and dated by her... These are nice medium output pickups... the high output version is essentially the Custom Shop Texas Special pickups... they give a more natural bite to all frequencies and are more hard edged... These are the pickups that attribute to the Stevie Ray Vaughan tone. For the humbucker I would reccomend mixing in a Gibson humbucker to get that true blues humbucker tone... or maybe a P-90 that would be an interesting combo... But as far as the type of Humbucker I would look at different Gibsons and maybe play some of them to see what tone you like... Same goes for the single coils....

Also, Its not more difficult to wire Humbuckers... in fact... you can get them in the same two-wire configurations as single coils. Most pickup companies can make them in 2 and 4 wire versions for different applications... The 4 wire version are if you want to be able to split the coils...Its not any harder to wire one than single coils though... because essentially they're just two single coils... I will check out your thread about tone woods and respond to that question there... good luck

DiMarzio also makes medium to low output pickups to vintage specs, as well as the more modern high oputput p/u's.

Same w/ Duncan.

Lindy Fralin, and Jason Lollar are making some of the highest regarded vintage p/u's on the market today.

thanx to aschleman... im familiar with fat strats, u know, s-s-h...
im currently runnin with s-h in my old axe... i remove the mid pup and filled up the cavity...
switch conf:
in phase paralel, out of phase paralel, h single, s single...
im happy with it, bright to hot, twangy to deep. it gives me everything i want...

so i should keep good old setup...
hb in bridge and single for neck. i think the main lameness is magnets of my pups. humbucker still workin over ceramic, i modded single with nice n strong alloy magnet but im not sure about alnico or whatever...

Check out http://www.torresengineering.com

IIRC DiMarzios and Lindy Fralin are stock items (there probably others too), but what is most important Ray will take the time & make the effort to help with any enquiries you make.

Good Luck...we can trade 'build stories'. :p