Pup Talk

I'm soon buying the olp petrucci fiddle. I've done a buttload of research and i've tested it. Loved it.

Now...I know it's been discussied countless times...but lets keep it fresh.
I need to know what pups to put in it. For the neck, i want a very low response pickup for a nice clean strumming sound. Marcos reccomended the seymour duncan invader neck for this. ANyone else have experience with it?

For the bridge, i want something good for sustained leads and thick overdrive/distortion. I've inclined to a dimarzio, tone zone perhaps? Or one of the Vai models?

I have no idea. There's so many pickups :( .

ALL input is greatly appreciated. Any dissing/praising/reccomending etc... is encouraged. Go nuts people...I need it.

What kinda budget do you have for them? I can give you recommendations from $20 each to $200 each.

Oh, and by the way, the Duncan Invader is a high-output pickup, not a low-output one.

EDIT: I just double-checked my last statement by going to the Seymour Duncan site. Here's a quote from their description of the Invader:

Designed for the heaviest tones a passive pickup can produce.

An Invader Neck pickup has half the output of the Invader Bridge pickup. Just to clarify.

From some reasearch on the same site.

Available for both neck and bridge positions - most commonly used in the bridge position. The Invader neck pickup has considerably reduced output for tonal versatility.

That's true, but all neck pickups are lower power than their bridge counterparts. I don't mean to be picky, but I have a headache and I'm cranky. :(

do you have seperate volume controls for each pickup? It could be really annoying having one mega low output and one high output for certain thigns, for other things it'd be awesome, like going from a rythm sound on a low pick up (with distortion) and flicking up to the high output for a lead sound, kinda like channel switching but doing it from the sound source.

Alright. Thanks tons gfor the input
-Sorry for the output misunderstanding or quoting you wrong marcos :o
-My budget is between $100 and $180 for the set
-The guitar only has 1 volume and 1 tone control

Originally Posted by: ericthecableguy-Sorry for the output misunderstanding or quoting you wrong marcos :o

You didn't. ;)

I put a Tone Zone in the bridge position of my SG. I love it, wouldn't change it for anything. It is a hot pickup which handles the low's very well, not real mid-rangy, and a bit bright on the treble end, but that can easily be corrected with the eq.

I highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by: JFRICKI put a Tone Zone in the bridge position of my SG. I love it, wouldn't change it for anything. It is a hot pickup which handles the low's very well, not real mid-rangy, and a bit bright on the treble end, but that can easily be corrected with the eq.

I highly recommend it.

How are the harmonics and lead sustain for this pickup?

Originally Posted by: AkiraI'd certainly recommend the Duncan '59 in the neck, and the Duncan JB in the bridge.

...or for a bit more distortion, A 59n neck and the new Seymore Duncan "Distortion" for the bridge. I have them in an ESP and they sound great :D

I find that a DiMarzio Tone Zone and a PAF Pro will do anything I want from it, with more bite and harmonics than I get from an identical guitar with a DiMarzio Dual Sound and a SCHB.

I guess I better recommend something instead of just arguing with people! :rolleyes: :)

Well, your budget precludes the really top of the line stuff by people like Bare Knuckle and so on, but you can still vastly improve on the stock pickups, I'd say. Keep in mind that the guitar you're looking will shape the sound a bit as well, so to compare the pickups to how they might sound in other guitars can be a bit misleading.

For the bridge, I'm kinda partial to DiMarzio's Evolution pickup. It might be a little bright for some people, but there is plenty of power and detail for leads and heavy rhythm. Or you could go with their Breed bridge pickup for a warmer sound than the Evos and a fatter sound than the PAF Pro pickups. They're still plenty hot though.

For the neck I think the Air Norton is a good recommendation.

I'm not that fond of Seymour Duncan pickups myself. I haven't really liked their sound all that much in any guitar I've tried. I actually have owned a few myself and always wondered what the fuss was about. To me they didn't sound any better than a lot of stock pickups. All the other companies whose pickups I like that are in your price range don't make hard rock pickups; they're more geared towards the vintage sound.

Have fun with your new guitar! :)

Thanks tons for all the advice. This is exactly what i was hoping for. :)
I'm liking the PAF pro for the bridge as it looks quite good for clean, airy strumming (I could be wrong) and decent highs.

Originally Posted by: ericthecableguyHow are the harmonics and lead sustain for this pickup?

Harmonics jump out from it and the sustain is awesome. Notes ring for days...

Alrightly then...sounds like tone zones getting the green light.

as always I am gonna tell you to look at Bare Knuckle pickups.

although that said, I ahve heard a lot of very good things about the Tone Zone.

also, I have heard a friends guitar with a Duncan 59 in the neck and a Jb in the bridge...and it sounded amazing.

Damn those bare knuckles are costly. Which ones do you reccomend?

I love DiMarzio... most of my guitars have them as standard...

The JS has a nice combination - PAF Pro at the bridge and Fred at the neck... very versatile...

Originally Posted by: ericthecableguyDamn those bare knuckles are costly. Which ones do you reccomend?

I'd recommend a Mule for the neck and maybe a Cold Sweat for the bridge. If you really want tons of harmonics, then a Miracle Man bridge would be your thing. If you want an enormous-sounding heavy weapon in your bridge, go for the Warpig.