dry sound

[guitardude05]

the mark iv is great.... some days. it seems like one day i will have an awesome tone, and the next i will hate it. but ive noticed a lot of the times including the times i like the sound, it's really dry. it's a struggle to get good pinch harmonics and dime squeals without the amp being too fizzy for my taste. i hope that made sense. has anybody else had this problem? maybe i need new tubes, or a cab (i just have the combo), or possibly new pickups b/c i still have the stock ones in my ibanez s520.

btw, i have tweaked this amp a lot, and i do like it, its just 'dry'.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I've never liked stock pickups, so that would the first on my list of things to change. Different tubes could be it, but honestly, you should be able to get some nice squeels out of R2 with gain on 8 pulled. You don't have to have massive amounts of gain for pinched harmonics, you might want to analyze your technique first, you should be able to hear them with your guitar unplugged right from the guitar. If you can, I would definitely get new pickups.

 

[guitardude05]

yea i can hear them unplugged with my guitar. the pickups are pretty weak anyways. ibanez advertises them as 'hi output' but theres no way. what do you guys reccomend for pickups? i am thinking about emg 81/85 or some kind of seymour duncans, but if anyone wants to chime in...

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I really like the Dimarzio EVO in the bride and PAF in the neck of the Ibanez S series guitars, but that's a very personal preference. Read up as much as you can on the tonalities of the different pickups and choose the ones that you think will suite you the best. I tend to go away from the EMG's, my SG that has a pair of 81's in it rarely gets played, they just don't have "that" sound I want, but again very personal preference.

 

[guitardude05]

thanks for the reccomendation. i wish it was easy to try out pickups like guitars and amps. :roll: i was actually looking at the evo2 and it seems like it would fit my taste. ive also been looking at the duncan invaders and of course the emg's. how does the evo2 handle metal? and what kind of advantage will a set of actives have over it?

 

[ToneAddictJon]

The EVO2 can handle metal with ease, I don't think there's any advantage with active over passives, or passives over actives, they have a very different feel and tone to them. The EMG's (while great for that grinding metal) feel like a one trick pony, they are just lifeless and don't sing like passives (IMO). They're not a bad pickup at all, just for my setup they don't work. I actually really liked the single coil EMG's in one of my strats I had, they didn't feel like the 81 or 85's have to me.

 

[guitardude05]

yea i think i will go with a evo2 in the bridge. i want to install this myself, and i dont have a router to make room for a battery so its win win. i mean if its good enough for steve vai, i think i'll be okay with it. now i need to decide if i need to replace the neck p/u at the same time :?