pickups on prs

[prsman88]

i have a prs se custom.
i am looking to replace the bridge pickup with something hotter.

i play mostly hardcore/metal stuff but don't really want to go with emgs. i know they are great but i am wanting something that isn't as dark/scooped.

i want a pickup thats high output that will be good fro tremelo picking, sweeps, and still be good for the nasty distorsion. kinda like an emg but u know what i mean. a good thick sound.

i was thinking maybe seymour duncans or dimarzios? i want to be able to deliver a good clean and crunch with it as the brutal distortion.

i play in drop c on a mesa dual rec triple channel.

Suggestions???


Thanks

 

[Commander Coo1]

the prs tremonti treble is extremely thick, and has decent cleans

 

[AustinK]

i tried out some dimarzio deactivators yesterday and i really liked them.

They were very tight.

i want a pickup thats high output that will be good fro tremelo picking, sweeps, and still be good for the nasty distorsion. kinda like an emg but u know what i mean. a good thick sound.

You sweep with the bridge pickup? I know some guys do but i always use the neck.

 

[fishyfishfish]

I would recommend the seymour duncan super distortion, or the dimarzio super distortion as a starting point and go from there. The Duncan being first because it is a little hotter than the Jeff Beck with the emphasis on the upper mid's and nice but not harsh treble. The Dimarzio SD is a pretty good pickup for lead work as well, with almost the same sound as the SD, but a tad more distortion. It can get a little overwhelming, so look for them used at the back of your local music store and get handy with a soldering iron. I put the Duncan Dist. in my McCarty and found the missing link.

 

[RawkerMan]

DiMarzio Tone Zone

 

[Elpelotero]

whatever you end up using, post your results. My friend is in the same boat. His SE is extremely bright, scooped, and has some harsh high end.

 

[EirikBrandal]

think I would go for the DiMarzio D-sonic.

I also use the bridge pickup for sweeping. I got a PRS custom 24 and uses the stock pickups, but the pups are closer to the strings than normal people tend to have them.

 

[nomad100hd]

seymour duncan doesn't make a super distortion they do make a duncan distortion

 

[AustinK]

I also use the bridge pickup for sweeping.

I always use the neck. But what kind of sweeps are you doing because i know i can get 3-4 string sweeps to sound good on the bridge but 5-6 string sweeps sound too rough on the bridge.

 

[EirikBrandal]

I like both neck and bridge for sweeps, but I feel that it gets muddy with the neck. Kinda sounds like I'm trying to hide my mistakes or something.

But I'm not the guy who changes pickup every second bar type of thing, I use the tone control a lot more.
Have it around 6 on rhythm, and 5 on leads. Of course I go on single coil for cleans, and neck humbucker for jazzy leads. Have the tone control on 3 for those. The PRS has a lot of tonal options just with the guitar, so I want to use them, but I don't bother about pickups in high gain distortion.

 

[AustinK]

But I'm not the guy who changes pickup every second bar type of thing, I use the tone control a lot more.
Have it around 6 on rhythm, and 5 on leads. Of course I go on single coil for cleans, and neck humbucker for jazzy leads. Have the tone control on 3 for those. The PRS has a lot of tonal options just with the guitar, so I want to use them, but I don't bother about pickups in high gain distortion.

Do you have one of the prs with the rotary pickup selector?
That would deter me from switching pickups.

 

[EirikBrandal]

yeah, I have the rotary. I don't find it hard to switch pickups. But it would have been even easier if the button was somewhere closer to the picking hand.

But as people say, you get used to use the rotary switch instead of the three way selector

 

[Commander Coo1]

i just put a jb and alnico 2 pro in my ce 24 and really like it. but would you have to order the jb with the magnet flipped to work with the rotary unless you can do it yourself

 

[nomad100hd]

i think you can just flip the pickup around

 

[prsman88]

what about a gibson 500t in the neck? the se custom has a thick (les paulish) sound and this is the stock pickup on the studio and classic?

emg 81 vs gibson 500t

i want an articulate thick distortion that will be great on the lead channel, ballsy on the rythum, and be able to do some decent - good cleans.

please help me compare the two.

can get one or the other for $50.

Thanks

 

[moltar]

let's see is 81 white or gold.. white, ok.

If there's a pickup that I was going to hide behind for sweeps, it would be the 81 in the neck. IMO the tone from an 81 sounds as though you you're playing a massive hot and scooped passive pickup and picking over the octave of the neck. What you gain in drive and girth you sacrifice in some of the guitar's natural tone. Installing emg(s) is going to require replacing all your pots, so you're not going to be able to have an emg and a passive.

I don't have any experience with the 500T. Find a guitar with one in it and give it a test run. I'd like to know what it can do.

My strat is packing a duncan distortion bridge and a duncan detonator (bassically korean made invader) in the neck. The dist is really raw sounding and very hot. I like to practice sweeps on it because it exposes me for the hack I am. Optimal sweeping for me is coil split on the neck.

I would also look into active Duncan Livewire Dave Mustaines. These pickups state that they're active Duncan JB's.

 

[Rocky]

The Mustaine neck pickup is voiced like a Jazz not a JB

 

[Commander Coo1]

i believe tht the tremonti is based off of a 500t, and i definately liked the tremonti much more than the 81, the 81 was kinda bland sounding with pretty uninteresting cleans. the tremonti was much thicker and more saturated.

as for rotating the pickup, that will not work.
in order for the 5 way switch to work correctly and be able to do the phase cancelling stratish sounds the pickups have to have opposing magnetic force if you place them face to face. the tremonti was already compatible with the 5-way without modification. if not, the magnet under the pickup coils has to be flipped so that the part that usually faces up, now faces down.

 

[moltar]

The Mustaine neck pickup is voiced like a Jazz not a JB

Yeah, I didn't feel like being too specific about pickups I've never heard. What's your take on their sound?

 

[moltar]

as for rotating the pickup, that will not work.
in order for the 5 way switch to work correctly and be able to do the phase cancelling stratish sounds the pickups have to have opposing magnetic force if you place them face to face. the tremonti was already compatible with the 5-way without modification. if not, the magnet under the pickup coils has to be flipped so that the part that usually faces up, now faces down.

Are you positive about this? The wiring and magnets are still the same. I think you have to flip the connections to reverse the polarity. Also he's going to need to cut both coils if he wants a strat sound.

What about an old dirtyfingers pickup? If you don't like it, you can sell it to me.