Help Choosing Pickups for Basswood Rg

[SFW]

I would recommend the Duncan Custom.

[Tony]

They're all great in basswood. The JB and FS are kind of like a Tone Zone/PAF Pro. They're versatile and high performance. The Custom Custom has enough bass so I wouldn't worry about it. To me , the Custom Custom is more like 4/7/6 eq in basswood. It makes an awesone Ibanez bridge pickup.

How do you think something like the pearly gates or aph-1 could sound on basswood?

[UberMetalDood]

How do you think something like the pearly gates or aph-1 could sound on basswood?

Possibly the PG, but the other no. You're going to have a mid-scooped sound with a deep low end and bright high mids with the PG. The other will be thin, bassy and muddy. A Seth would be better than the PG in my opinion. The PG is great in mahogany and alder because those woods have strong mids. A pickup should match the wood it goes in so I think a balanced wood either needs a balanced pickup or a strong midrange pickup. Basswood is good with balanced pickups, strong mid pickups, and bright pickups. The Full Shred is a good pickup for Basswood and so is the Custom Custom, JB, or Duncan Custom for metal.

That's my opinion, but the best thing to do is sit down with your guitar unplugged and listen carefully to how it resonates with each string and that will give you a good idea of what part of the EQ spectrum your guitar accentuates. Then plug it in and figure out what you don't like about your current pickups. There is your recipe for making a good pickup selection.

Don't forget that you can swap your pickups within a couple of weeks if you don't like the way it turns out.

[Tony]

Possibly the PG, but the other no. You're going to have a mid-scooped sound with a deep low end and bright high mids with the PG. The other will be thin, bassy and muddy. A Seth would be better than the PG in my opinion. The PG is great in mahogany and alder because those woods have strong mids. A pickup should match the wood it goes in so I think a balanced wood either needs a balanced pickup or a strong midrange pickup. Basswood is good with balanced pickups, strong mid pickups, and bright pickups. The Full Shred is a good pickup for Basswood and so is the Custom Custom, JB, or Duncan Custom for metal.

That's my opinion, but the best thing to do is sit down with your guitar unplugged and listen carefully to how it resonates with each string and that will give you a good idea of what part of the EQ spectrum your guitar accentuates. Then plug it in and figure out what you don't like about your current pickups. There is your recipe for making a good pickup selection.

Don't forget that you can swap your pickups within a couple of weeks if you don't like the way it turns out.

Thanks a lot man for the recipe, i played the guitar unplugged and you are right strong mids , bright or balanced pickups is the way to go.

[Tony]

Any more advices? Options will be very wellcome.

Cheers for everyone.

[Meggo]

Breed.

[Tony]

Breed.

Both positions?

[elelpe]

If thinness is your real problem, get PATB-1 set man.

[jclogston]

I've been going over the same thing and have decided initially with the Breed in the bridge (and I have an air norton for the neck already). But will be going to try out the dimarzio dominions (just cause local store has them) as they are supposed to be similar to the Breed.....

jeff

[King IzzO)))]

24 frets, right? I'd go Breeds or a CC/Pearly Gates bridge (in the neck) myself.

[Sruffie777]

C8

+1 100%

[Tony]

I've been going over the same thing and have decided initially with the Breed in the bridge (and I have an air norton for the neck already). But will be going to try out the dimarzio dominions (just cause local store has them) as they are supposed to be similar to the Breed.....

jeff

Hey man could you make some demo clips when you get that pups installed? What pups do you tried before? Good luck with those Dominions you will try.

Have a good day.

[Tony]

If thinness is your real problem, get PATB-1 set man.

Sounds like a good idea too. How fat are the patb1 compared with the '59 model that i actually got installed man?

Cheers.

[Tony]

24 frets, right? I'd go Breeds or a CC/Pearly Gates bridge (in the neck) myself.

24 frets 25 and 1/2 scale. Hey man i got a paf pro around there, could be a good match on neck for the breed bridge? I got a super distortion too, what do you think?

Thanks.

[wolf5150]

I'll stand by my recommendation.
JB Bridge, PAF type in the neck, 250k pots.

[DonP]

I have a 1990 RG550. PAF Pro and Super Distortion sound fantastic in it. No issues at all with thinness. At first I thought the bridge pickup must have been a Tone Zone, but was surprised to find an F spaced Super D was doing the job.

[Jason_Clement]

I've always lived by the rule dimarzio for basswood, seymour for mahogany -- I don't know how much of that is just Ibanez vs Schecter/Gibson/whatever bias...

[Tony]

Thanks for the feedback guys, you are giving me a lot of elements to understand and getting close to a choice. Not so sure yet but close.

[Jason_Clement]

I had an Evolution once in an Ibanez RG7421 and it had very smooth highs and a tight low end. I don't know if that helps. It would have been a basswood body

PS: keep in mind that was a 7 string and apparently 7 string pick ups tend to sound slightly different due to the wider magnetic field or something like that.

[King IzzO)))]

Yeah dude, you gotta at least try the SuperD/PAF Pro in that thing, might just rock yer socks off.