Single Pickup Quandry: Quality over Quantity

[Mononoaware]

Hey all, looking for some insight here.

I recently bought a couple of Fender 51's as project guitars. Both are going to be heavily modded. For those not familiar, that's a 25.5", maple-necked, basswood body with a top loading bridge. It's a strat-tele mutant of sorts, with a humbucker and a single coil in the neck. Bright and fairly twangy overall.

As much as I love to shift potential pickup combinations around in my mind, it's time I actually tried some stuff out, since my ear has to be the final judge on what works. I've been considering GFS and Stew Mac pickups, since I've determined that I can't comfortably spend more than the price of the guitar ($99) on the pickups. However, it occured to me that I'm going to be happier if I get a fantastic bridge pickup instead of an okay bridge and okay neck.

To that end, I need some recommendations. Given the following criteria, if you could have only one bridge humbucker, what would it be and why?:

-To be used for instrumental rock and my own mediocre take on the blues
-Crisp, with some body and "air" in the sound; depth of tone
-Takes to parallel and splitting reasonably well ("usable" in either mode)
-Good under low to high gain, acceptable cleans
-Attitude/character

Of the pickups I've tried in thei guitar so far (Norton, stock and Paf PRO), the Paf PRO has sounded best -- good cut under gain, decent growl. It was a tad too nasal, though, and pretty flat sounding, not very organic. Great to listen to, but not as much fun to play.

My bachellorettes so far are PATB (1 or 3), VHot PAF, and maybe the Custom. Suggestions? Admonishments?

Thanks in advance for either.

-mononoaware

[Push to Shuv]

My Custom/PG hybrid (Alnico5)!! or a custom/59 hybrid too

Very versatile, has excellent cleans and can get nasty when you want it to. I have never split it but someone else might chime in on that. It has plenty of attitude, character, and a complex sound due to the mismatched coils. My favorite pickup by far.

Another great one is the Pearly Gates.

[Mononoaware]

Interesting. Hadn't even considered hybrids. Trick there is that I'd need two victims, er. . .pickups to do the transplant, which would shove me up into the $100+ range.

Still, I dig the complexity of mismatched coils. Should add the PG that to my list of potentials. From the clips, it's certainly got "character"; I'm not sure if it'd be too bright in this guitar, though.

[EdMan57]

I like the idea of using the inexpensive Fender '51 as a platform for modification.I would like to get one in blonde and put a nickel covered '59 or Custom 5 Trembucker at the bridge with a Duncan lipstick at the neck...maybe add a black pearl pickguard.

Btw,I had an older basswood bodied Ibanez that I added a '59 to at the bridge,and it sounded killer.The basswood body seemed to bring out the airy side of the '59's sweet midrange,all without sounding shrill or harsh on the highs.



Ed

[Push to Shuv]

Interesting. Hadn't even considered hybrids. Trick there is that I'd need two victims, er. . .pickups to do the transplant, which would shove me up into the $100+ range.

I traded my Jazz neck pickup to STRATDELUXER97 for my hybrid!

Search the Trading Post to see if there are any for sale, they pop up every now and then.

Otherwise i'd try the PG, if you dont like it you can use the exchange policy!

[Mononoaware]

Push to Shuv -- Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep my eyes open then. I have to admit being intrigued by the idea of a custom/59. What's the Pearly/Custom like?

EdMan -- Love my 51's for what they are. As long as you pick out a solid one, you're getting a decent body and neck for waaay under what they would cost you separately. I got lucky and got two decent players blind via one of the big online retailers. I've played some in stores that were pretty rough feeling (frets, neck alignment, etc.).

Plus, the HS combo is dang pretty cool. Never had a guitar like that before.

[Push to Shuv]

I havent played a Custom/59 hybrid but its probably VERY similar to my Custom/PG hybrid.

My favorite production models are the PG and Screamin Demon. Both are great in their own ways and would probably achieve what you are looking for.

[Robert Delahunt]

-To be used for instrumental rock and my own mediocre take on the blues
-Crisp, with some body and "air" in the sound; depth of tone
-Takes to parallel and splitting reasonably well ("usable" in either mode)
-Good under low to high gain, acceptable cleans
-Attitude/character

By the way, NICE Pillsy avatar

Hmm. I'll comment on the two pickups I know: JB and CC. JB can do blues, and possibly instrumental (never tried it, but some melodic arena-rock stuff sounds great with the JB. Anyone with more experience on the instrumental side?) Don't know about crisp, but it isn't muddy, and has tight bass. It's very organic in my opinion. As for split, it sounds excellent, since it ends up being 7k Ohms (or in that ballpark). The JB can handle gain very well, and is decent clean. It definitely has character and attitude. I'm very addicted to the JB in my ESP, and as part of the hot rodded combo, it's cheap, comes 4 wire, and is a kick of tone in the face

As for the CC, I doubt it can do instrumental, but it's got blues covered. In my experience it's crisp, but I don't like the cleans it gets, and the bass is muddy (but that was in my Ibanez with a soft maple body, which doesn't have good bass). It's very organic in its own way. Never tried it split. It can handle gain very nicely (think Seven Dust). It doesn't sound like it has rebellious attitude to me, but it does have warmth and character.

Hope this helps

[Mononoaware]

Appreciate the hands-on reports on those. I've heard a lot of CC clips, and know that it's probably not for me in this guitar.

As for the JB, though, I go back and forth on that one. This is the humbucker that always seems to come up when people talk about SD, but it really seems to divide people into camps, too. Maybe it's very amp-and-wood specific?

(Thanks on the avatar. If I were ever attempt to commune with my shamanic spirit animal, it would probably turn out to be Pillz-E.)

[Robert Delahunt]

Appreciate the hands-on reports on those. I've heard a lot of CC clips, and know that it's probably not for me in this guitar.

As for the JB, though, I go back and forth on that one. This is the humbucker that always seems to come up when people talk about SD, but it really seems to divide people into camps, too. Maybe it's very amp-and-wood specific?

(Thanks on the avatar. If I were ever attempt to commune with my shamanic spirit animal, it would probably turn out to be Pillz-E.)

The JB is good, in my opinion, and does split well. However, if your amp and/or body wood (soft maple for example) adds to the high mids, it's going to make the guitar sound like an ice pick. So don't use it on soft maple (unless you like ear-bleeding levels of high mids), and try to use it on an amp that isn't going to amplify the high mids (or use EQ to bring it down). I mean, with EQ, you can make even a soft maple body guitar with the JB tone down the high mids, but me, I switch guitars frequently and prefer to use pickup choice to "EQ" the guitar, so it just wasn't for me. The CC is a better choice for soft maple (which is what I switched to), but I don't prefer the CC, and I highly doubt the CC can do instrumental (but that's my opinion).

EDIT: as for basswood, the SD tone wizard recommends the JB several times for basswood body guitars. Basswood isn't very bright, and most the "high mids" that the JB gets accused of, in my opinion, are almost into the highs, and on some amps the treble EQ will adjust them well enough to make even an icepick JB guitar useable. But still, supposedly basswood isn't tight bass, but is warm, and isn't bright for a body wood, so the JB should work well in it (in my opinion). In fact, I'm working on possibly building a basswood-body guitar with a combo, and the Jazz/JB combo will be my first choice (which I can swap out later if I need, based on 21 day exchange / return).

[Push to Shuv]

About the JB. It has an upper midrange spike that is pretty dominant. That is one of the main reasons people are torn over it, its one that you really like or you really dont. If im not mistaken its Seymour's best selling pickup (if its not anymore, it was for quite some time). Basswood has a good amount of midrange to it so i dont know how it would work with the mid-heavy JB. If you want to stay in the JB output range i would recommend the C-5. The C-5 has a great hard edged vintage type voice and cleans up pretty well. It doesnt have the character/complexity/attitude of a pickup with mismatched coils such as the PG.