Quote Originally Posted by MetalManiac View Post
This whole scheme ssems outta wack to me.

I put pickups in a guitar based on the tonewood.

Not sure what exactly you are asking for..

Is your intent to be a swimming pool route , so you could throw anything in there?
if so, probably a balanced wood like Alder would be your best bet...



based on an Alder guitar, Id have two say you'd need two different prototypes;
1) Hot
Screamin Demon fullsize or Hot Rails single , Vintage Rails, Lil Demon or Cool rails neck
OR STkS-9B, STK-S4M, STk-S6N

Possibly I'd go with a qaurter Pound Bridge, SSL2 middle, and SSL-6 neck.I

2) Vintage
Vintage Seth or '59 bridge, and neck, OR 2 or 3 P90's,
or if I was going H/S/S I'd maybe go 59/Lil 59/Lil /59.
But that's "tradition", which I6 said he was looking to get away from.

If tradition dictates you put in a pickup to amplify the acoustic tone rather than add to or subtract from it, then do the opposite - put in a pickup that is going to influence the tone - make a Strat sound like a Les Paul, or a Les Paul sound like a Strat, that sorta thing.


However, with that said, pickup choice depends on what tones you're going for - do you want a Strat that sounds like a Les Paul? Do you want a Les Paul that sounds like a Tele? Do you want a Tele that sounds like a 335?

Now, you're going to have to get into wood tone somewhat to know what it's going to sound like as far as frequencies, and then you'll have to base your pickup choices on what you want those pickups to add to or subtract from that base tone.

Body shape will also have some influence on what the pickups reproduce - a V-shape where most of the wood goes away from the pickups rather than surrounding them (like a Strat/LP/Tele) will generally focus the mids (Schenker, Downing, etc), whereas a more traditional shape will more or less balance the tones (which is why they're traditional and in such wide use).