Ibanez S570, please advise

[Øyvind]

Hello everyone,
I've got an Ibanez S570 and I've been thinking about upgrading my pups to Seymour Duncan but I'm not sure if I know what's best for my style. I want a versatile guitar that's capable of playing jazz, blues, rock and metal.

The main thing that I don't like about the pups I have now is how the sound of each string gets watered down when they're played together. There's also a very clear picking sound coming from the single coil I have now. I don't know if this has to do with the strings being floppy or if it's the pup. I'm gonna try to go from 09 strings to 10 and see if that helps.

Here's the specs on my guitar:

neck type 3pc Wizard II Maple neck
body Mahogany body
fret Jumbo frets
bridge ZR bridge w/ZPS2
neck pu INF1 (H) neck pu
middle pu INFS1 (S) mid pu
bridge pu INF2 (H) bridge pu



Any feedback is appreciated,
-Øyvind

[Øyvind]

Here's a picture of the guitar

[Despair]

I'd do something like PATB-1b (Parallel Axis Original) or PATB-3 (Blues Saraceno) in bridge, and PATB-1n in neck.

That's a pretty thin body, and the floyd takes a good chunk out of it. Parallel Axis pickup line is advertised to beef up a thin superstrat with floating bridge to sound like a thick Les Paul. They deliver. Also have reduced string pull, improved sustain, improved harmonic response, improved articulation and better string balance. Ridiculously responsive to pick articulation.

I'd go with the PATB-3 if you are most conserned with cleans and low gain tones from the bridge, and tend more towards classic rock levels of gain. With the guitar volume backed off a 10-20%, it's indistinguishable from a '59.

If you tend to like medium to high gain, the PATB-1b is simply an amazing pickup. It's decent at lower gain, but excels at singing leads and crunchy rhythms. With the volume backed off a bit, it's somewhere between a Custom 5 and a Custom Custom.

I have a PATB-1b in my basswood RG570, and it's not coming out of the guitar until I have to replace the body.

For middle pickup I'd probably look at a STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus or STK-S7 Vintage Hot Stack Plus. Latter will sacrifice a little quack on the 2+4 positions, but probably balance better in volume with the humbuckers and be better for gutsier stratty sounds.

You could also go with the PA-STK1n, it's not quite as classic strat sounding, has a bit of P-90 flavor, but it balances great against the rest of the Parallel Axis line.

I've never been happy with the sound of the stock single coil on my Ibanez, but haven't gotten around to replacing it yet. I have found a number of weird qualities with different amps from it, the picking sound is a familiar annoyance. Dropping the pickup further from the strings may help that, but then you hit annoying issues with it not balancing against the other pickups.

[Nagash]

If you want a guitar able to play almost any style, you could go with the JB in the bridge (sooner or later someone would have suggested this pickup anyway). Jazz or 59 in the neck, and a moderate output single coil in the middle. That's the ultra classic combination

[Despair]

JB in a thin floyded guitar is often extremely honky. Might not be as bad as it can be in a basswood guitar that doesn't get on it, but not where I'd start, unless you have one on hand, in which case I have to wonder why you haven't tried it already.

I had a JB in my basswood RG570 and fought with it for 15 years and numerous amp changes, blamed the guitar (which is partly fair, but it takes two and all that) and just tried to work within what it could do for a long time. There are people who love the JB, but I haven't heard comments from any of them on the PATB, most people haven't tried it. Those who have tend to be overwhelmingly positive about it.

One possible problem I didn't think of: the PATB have squarer cutouts. You may want to check pickup dimensions and make sure it'll fit in your guitar, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of having routing done. I think it's most likely to be a problem on the PA-STK1n.

[Benjy_26]

I like the JB AND the PATB-3, just depends on what you're doing with the guitar. The neck and mid choices (for me at least) depend on what you're going to throw in the bridge.

[ehdwuld]

on mine i did this

RG4CarvinComplete

air norton
cruzer
tone zone

is how the prestige models dress

[Øyvind]

Wow, I'm gonna have a hard time keeping up with these suggestions, hehe.

For the bridge pickup I'm thinking something along the lines of what Despair suggested with the PATB-1b. Singing leads and crunchy rhythms.

As said before, I'm very specific on having a pup that doesn't water down the sound of each individual string when they're played together. That and something with good sustain and a characteristic tone for each pup setting.

Gonna check out some of those recommendations on youtube eventually. Thanks for the feedback so far