need help choosing a pickup for my ibanez

[keefyJVMshred]

hey all, i have a ibanez sas36fm electric guitar. mahogany body and set neck, rosewood fretboard, vintage style trem. i recently upgraded the stock bridge pickup to a seymour JB. it sounds great and i am heaps happy with the way it sounds. however, my problem is the neck pickup..

it is a single coil vintage sounding pickup, and im after something with a little more creamy smooth tone that i can use for sweep picking, lead work, and clean tones.

ive tried the 59/JB combo in 2 of my mates guitars (esp and ltd) and i decided the 59 wasnt what i was after, it lacked the warm rounded tone im after.

any suggestions or experience with a similar guitar would be awesome

thanks

[Dr. Vegetable]

Welcome to the forum!

I can't be much help with pickup suggestions, but I just wanted to say the SAS36 is one of my favorite guitars. I think I can blame this guitar for finally turning me into a set-neck snob. I'm playing mine stock, and the bridge pickup in mine sounds great, but I've been considering doing an upgrade. I'll be interested to hear how yours works out.

What kinds of music do you play? Are you looking to upgrade the middle pickup as well? Do you think you'll change the switching?

[LatsMcGee]

Pearly gates or Screamin Demon...

[keefyJVMshred]

Welcome to the forum!

I can't be much help with pickup suggestions, but I just wanted to say the SAS36 is one of my favorite guitars. I think I can blame this guitar for finally turning me into a set-neck snob. I'm playing mine stock, and the bridge pickup in mine sounds great, but I've been considering doing an upgrade. I'll be interested to hear how yours works out.

What kinds of music do you play? Are you looking to upgrade the middle pickup as well? Do you think you'll change the switching?

Can't agree with you more mate, this guitar was my first 'good' guitar, and I love it. Had it since brand new in 2006. I had it stock for many years, but since upgrading to the Marshall jvm amp, the pickups just didn't cut it. Sounded way too stratty for me.
I play metal mainly, but I like to have the versatility in a guitar that I can switch to play some Hendrix or a clean jazz style.

Through abit of abuse in playing the 5 way selector needs to be replaced so I may look at rewiring the guitar, maybe changing the pots aswell.

[keefyJVMshred]

Can't find anything on pearly gates? And is the screaming demon a bridge pickup?

[NewWave]

Your guitar has HSS config right? Why did you say that after trying your friend's 59/JB set, you don't want a 59? I mean a real hum don't sound the same as a singlecoil sized hum.. and materials of body of the guitar affects the tone too you know, the ESP/LTD might have alder which don't have as much mid and bass as mahogany ..

I too don't have much experience with single coil pickups but usually creamy and single coil pups are rarely used in the same sentence.. But, before you pull the trigger and buy new pickup(s), have you tried to roll down the tone knob of the guitar? also single coil pickup (from my limited amount of experience) is very, very did I say very? UNFORGIVING you might try picking the strings much softer than while using humbuckers *you can also tweak your amp till you get the tone you want, but I personally don't do this because it makes the tone of the pickups not organic.. I mean I tweak my amp to compliment my pickups not to change their sound.. But.. YMMV*.If after all that you still can't get the tone you want, A pickup change is the solution.. I think the Screamin demon might suit you from SD description

"Like its big brother the Screamin' Demon™ humbucker, this li'l savage combines a big, open sound with just a subtle hint of "glass." George asked for a pickup that could scream and provide rich harmonics, but would clean up when he backed it off. Using a unique slotted and Allen head screw combination that gives each coil a slightly different magnetic field, the tone is big and percussive without being too harsh"

OR you might like Yngwie pickups.. Remember to check out as many sound clips you can find on youtube before buying or you might end up buying another (or another) just like what I did a lot of the time.. And yea that's from my not so long experience of playing the fiddle. There are lots of experts round here, just wait a day or two and you can get many info

[esandes]

if the neck pickup is a HB, i'd check out the jazz. if it's a SC, i'd use the SSL-1.

[AAAHHH79]

want versatiliy? that´s simple, use a p-rails SHPR2 on the bridge.

[kramersteen]

Well i would recommend a bare knuckle sinner. I also really like the old sd hotrail neck pickups. And also dimarzio airnorton.

[keefyJVMshred]

Your guitar has HSS config right? Why did you say that after trying your friend's 59/JB set, you don't want a 59? I mean a real hum don't sound the same as a singlecoil sized hum.. and materials of body of the guitar affects the tone too you know, the ESP/LTD might have alder which don't have as much mid and bass as mahogany ..

I too don't have much experience with single coil pickups but usually creamy and single coil pups are rarely used in the same sentence.. But, before you pull the trigger and buy new pickup(s), have you tried to roll down the tone knob of the guitar? also single coil pickup (from my limited amount of experience) is very, very did I say very? UNFORGIVING you might try picking the strings much softer than while using humbuckers *you can also tweak your amp till you get the tone you want, but I personally don't do this because it makes the tone of the pickups not organic.. I mean I tweak my amp to compliment my pickups not to change their sound.. But.. YMMV*.If after all that you still can't get the tone you want, A pickup change is the solution.. I think the Screamin demon might suit you from SD description

"Like its big brother the Screamin' Demon™ humbucker, this li'l savage combines a big, open sound with just a subtle hint of "glass." George asked for a pickup that could scream and provide rich harmonics, but would clean up when he backed it off. Using a unique slotted and Allen head screw combination that gives each coil a slightly different magnetic field, the tone is big and percussive without being too harsh"

OR you might like Yngwie pickups.. Remember to check out as many sound clips you can find on youtube before buying or you might end up buying another (or another) just like what I did a lot of the time.. And yea that's from my not so long experience of playing the fiddle. There are lots of experts round here, just wait a day or two and you can get many info

My Mates ESP is a mahogany body with flame maple top and set neck, so it's pretty comparable in that respect. It is indeed true that the single coil size will sound different to a full size humbucker though. Would it be that much different though?

I've tried to mess around abit with getting a better tone, but it's the vintage single coily sound I don't like. The stock bridge pup sounded horrible with my new amp, swapped it for JB and I love it. That's why I'm thinking an upgrade is in order.

I will have a look into all the pick ups suggested, and yes I'm scouring YouTube looking for videos to give me a better idea.
Thanks mate

[keefyJVMshred]

If I could get something that sounded similar to a petrucci or sgfoli tone I would be stoked. I know they would probably both use humbuckers but I'm just trying to give people an idea. That real smooth liquid like tone

[keefyJVMshred]

bump

[Funkfingers]

The guitar will have left the factory as HSS. I once modified one using Duncan Designed pickups. HB102B bridge, SC101m centre, TE101n neck. (Essentially, JB, Strat, Tele sounds.) You might prefer a Stack or a single coil sized 'bucker for the neck position.

I agree with the suggestion to upgrade the pots and selector switch. My compromise volume pot resistance value was 300k.

IMO, a set neck "mahogany" guitar is always going to be biased in favour of humbucker tones over single coil ones.

[Dr. Vegetable]

The guitar will have left the factory as HSS.

That's what mine is. There are other SAS models, but the 36 is an HSS configuration. If the OP's guitar is as beautiful as mine, it would be a crime to re-rout it for anything else.

IMO, a set neck "mahogany" guitar is always going to be biased in favour of humbucker tones over single coil ones.

Indeed. This is the least "stratty" superstrat I own - it was my gateway from superstrats back to humbucker LP copies. It's an unusual design.

[keefyJVMshred]

That's what mine is. There are other SAS models, but the 36 is an HSS configuration. If the OP's guitar is as beautiful as mine, it would be a crime to re-rout it for anything else.



Indeed. This is the least "stratty" superstrat I own - it was my gateway from superstrats back to humbucker LP copies. It's an unusual design.

Oh no way will I rout the guitar, I'm definately looking for a single coil sized humbucker. Thinking along the lines of a air norton s atm, trying to get that smooth clean fluid lead tone.

I love this guitar it is pretty unusual. I find it sounds so much bigger than its actual size. The thing is so thin and light