Pulling out EMG HI-Z'z in favor of something more 'rockin'... suggestions?

[che_guitarra]

I've bought a Jackson DXMG (I believe is the model). It's a cool guitar - 2 humbuckers, locking trem, 24 frets, a lighter body and brighter tone than an LP... It's got a real 1988 cutting-edge metal machine look going on.

Although I think it's the shizzle, i'm not a metal man apart from a few old Metallica and Slayer chops - i'm wanting to build a rock 'n' roll axe to compliment my small arsenal of Fenders and LP variations. I'm pulling out the pre-installed EMG HI-Zs to take the guitar out of metal territory and over to the domain of hard-arsed rock 'n' roll. What exact pickups i'm after though, i'm unsure of.

I'm going through a bit of a Van Halen phase at the moment, so a pickup that has a bit more balls than standard to aid my tragic tapping attempts and harmonic squeals would be great... that said, I don't want it so hot it's as touchy as hell at volume. I'm not a fan of the ceramic magnet tone either.

It'll be plugging into a Line 6 Flextone amp, so as well as sounding good driven, it's gotta have a good clean tone also (not overly punchy like a ceramic magnet can be). It'll be covering the scope of rock, blues, funk, hard-rock, R'n'B, reggae/dub, surf, rockabilly... you name it - although it's rock assets are it's most important.

I got both positions to fill so any suggestions would be great! It's my first Floyd-Rose equipped guitar, and I want to get the best out of it.




Cheers

[charlemetallica]

Get A TB-4 For The Bridge( Alnico V Magnet--> So Smooth In Soloing) And SH2-N For the neck(Fat Full Sounding With No Word Of Muddiness) And to get the Best clean tone out of those 2 babies Split them Using A Coil Tap Potentiometer ( Get The 500 K it would be nice )

These are the best pair u could ever play with, even in cleans, overdrives and high gain distortions.

Any One With ME

[Benjy_26]

No, sorry, not with you at all.

For what the OP described, I'd go with a PG/CC combo, to help aid the post 1984 VH licks while still having plenty of versatility for pretty much anything else.

[supernosher]

Pearly Gates or Alnico 2 Pro sets / or a '78 custom shop in the bridge with a PG neck.

[Binnerscot]

Those are good suggestions. I would use a C5 for the bridge (don't let the tone chart fool you - its not crazy mid scooped pup). The C5 is a great pup for just about everything. It isn't dead-on Ed, but it does have a very PAF flavor with a bit more output, so it does well enough and can still pull out some heavier rock (I even like it for some metal - it chugs pretty well).

For the neck, a 59n or Jazz. Its really just a matter of taste, both are excellent. The 59 is warmer, the Jazz has more clarity.