Bridge pick up suggestions...

[R_ADKINS80]

Need a brighter pick up for my Dean 79 V. It has a Bill Larwence 500XL right now and has had a Dimarzio Evolution in the the bridge possition and both pick ups were pretty dark and muddy sounding. I'm looking for a brither pup that will still sound good for high gain metal but won't muddy up in an all mahogany guitar. Seymour Duncans need not apply and I'm looking to stay passive in this guitar.

 

[SonOfIAm]

Paul Reed Smith's PRS #7. Great high gain pickup.

 

[jdurso]

I would look at the PRS RP (Modern Eagle) pickups. They have tone, character, are pretty hot but not hot enough to make things sound too compressed. They have a nice high end thats puncuated but not spikey and because they're not super hot, they sound very open.

Also the Suhr Aldrich pups are awesome... i got frustrated with mine at first but then learned where they truly live in terms of pikcup height and now they sing.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Dimarzio Steve's Special might work...

 

[fatoni]

if the evolutions or 500xls arent bright enough without getting muddy youre probably out of luck. what type of electronics are used in your guitar? try and get rid of your tone pot. it seems to me that pickups arent the problem. what type of amp do you run?

 

[R_ADKINS80]

if the evolutions or 500xls arent bright enough without getting muddy youre probably out of luck. what type of electronics are used in your guitar? try and get rid of your tone pot. it seems to me that pickups arent the problem. what type of amp do you run?

Tone pot is already clipped. Volume pots are new cts 500k's. amp is a triple rectifier.

 

[Jak0lantern01]

A Recto? There's your mud problem.

 

[R_ADKINS80]

A Recto? There's your mud problem.

My other two mahogany guitars do not have mud problems with my recto. My Dean is a VERY DARK chunk of wood. With the Bill Lawrence I can run my bass knob at noon and it will have twice the low end that my other two Mahogany guitars with 18v EMG's have with the bass knob cranked.

Thanks for you words of anti-wisdom, though.

 

[fatoni]

youd probably need some pseudo active pickups like dimarzio d activators. dont know why your anti sds but i hear good things about the blackouts too. what are your other two guitars? none of that makes sense to me and im running out of advice.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

A Recto? There's your mud problem.

*facepalm*

 

[Rocky]

if the evolutions or 500xls arent bright enough without getting muddy youre probably out of luck. what type of electronics are used in your guitar? try and get rid of your tone pot. it seems to me that pickups arent the problem. what type of amp do you run?

I can't think of a brighter pickup than the Evolution. The PRS pickups mentioned earlier are WAY darker sounding than an EVO or the 500XL.


You could try 1 meg pots.

 

[reilly]

Dimarzio Super Distortion. I have one in my 78 Les Paul Standard and it sounds great.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

I think it's the active vs passive deal. If you have a 81 in the bridge of your EMG guitars, it's hard to get much brighter than that.

Have you tried redialing the amp for the passive pickups? The Evo is a pretty darn bright one the way it is.

I too would recommend the Aldrich....amazing pickup...but if you're having THAT big of a dark problem, I don't know if it will fix it.

Best of luck!

 

[R_ADKINS80]

Well I got a time set up with a buddy of mine to go through his box of Dimarzios. There are a bunch of Dimarzios brighter than an EVO. Dimarzio recommends I try a PAF Pro or the new PAF 36th aniversary to brighten and clean it up. My buddy has both of those so we'll see what happens. My other two guitars are an ESP Michael Amott siggy V and a USA Hamer Explorer that weighs roughly 10lbs and both of those guitars are brigher and more tonally balanced than my Dean V, reguardless if I am using the 81 or the 85 in the bridge.

To the one person's comment about being anti SD.....it's just personal prefference. My ESP had he JB/59 combo and I despised it. The JB was too bright and had a really honky thing going on in the mids I didn't like. The 59 was OK in the neck but just didn't really knock my socks off. I have also used Duncans in the past with ho-hum results like the Distortion, Full Shred and a Custom. The Dimebuckers were pretty lame to my ears as well. Every Duncan I have ever used as a bridge pup has been to harsh in just the right mid freq to make me yank em for EMG's or Dimarzios.

We'll see how the Dimarzio-fest turns out.

 

[fatoni]

your esp isnt your v...if you think the jb is too bright that might be your answer. and im pretty sure the evo is way brighter/hotter than a paf pro. you gotta consider the guitar its in

 

[R_ADKINS80]

I can assure you that in mahogany guitars the PAF Pro is brighter than the EVO. I know, I've played them both back to back in a mahogany RG series. The EVO is a hot pick-up, yes, but it also has a very flat frequency response. The PAF Pro has less low end, more mids and more high end, thus making it brighter than an EVO. I will also be trying out a D activator and a Fred pick-up which is a hotter PAF Pro with a bit more growl in the mids. A Super 2 was also recommended for brightening up a muddy short scale mahogany guitar.

 

[dani]

i would never thought of the 500xl as dark and muddy. it is one of the clearest pickup i've tried. you can try a one meg pot as rocky suggested, lower the bass side of the pickup and maybe stainless steel strings.

if all else fail, you can consider a dimarzio super 2. high output neck pickup that you can use in the bridge without sacrificing output and it is plenty bright.

 

[gonzo]

i think the Lawrence 500L would be a better choice in this situation..
because, sometimes the hotter the pickup, the more treble is rolled off, so actually less output is probably better for clearing up a dark guitar sound....