Help on Replacment Bridge Pick Up (For 2002 Basswood Ibanez JEM DBK/Lava)

[TexasAxeSlinger]

I got a 2002 Ibanez JEM DBK, the black guitar with the textured Lava on it and the chome pickguard. It has a basswood body and it came with a BREED pick up in the Bridge. It sounds bad to me (or not as good) as some other guitars. I have a Bogner XTC 1/2 stack and also had a Ibanez JEM VBK (similar guyitar) and it sounded aweful on my Bogner! Really mid Rangey sounding. I even added a Crunch Lab to it and it was better, but not thick and chunky enough.

I have a newer Charvel So Cal (Snow White 2 HB) with a Seymour Duncan TB-6 or SH6 DistortionI think it is called a Duncan Distortion.


Anyway, I wan to replace the Breed in my guitar for something that will sound GOOD for distortion on the Axe-FX-II.
I will be playign out of studio monitors and eventually an Atomic Powered Wedge in my home.

I was looking at a Duncan Distortion? Anybody have a good suggestion? The guitar has a Basswood body.

Thanks

Tex

 

[TexasAxeSlinger]

Looks like a great topic I created. Lot's of interest:lol

OK I am just going with the Seymour Duncan TB-6 (I got the Trem-Bucker that fits the JEM, basically this is the Duncan Distortion that is stock on my Charvel So Cal)
.

Seymour Duncan SH-6 Distortion at a Glance:

Sound
The SH-6 Distortion is a high-output humbucker built for aggressive playing styles. It's recommended for old school metal, nu-metal, gothic, garage, punk, thrash, and other heavy rock styles, and is great for drop tunings. The SH-6 yields high output while retaining clarity. The massive ceramic magnet and hot coil windings deliver tremendous power and raw distorted rock sounds, and create more aggressive tones than the SH-5 Duncan Custom. The SH-6 comes with four-conductor hookup cable to facilitate complex pickup switching setups.

 

[Jeries]

I'd suggest an Evolution and if you hate it/ don't sound good with it- maybe a D-Activator

 

[Rex]

Check out the IBZ USA F2. It's a stock Ibanez pickup, so not much street cred, but it sounds great in my Roadstar II 530 (basswood body, maple neck). Moderately high output, very versatile, works great for super-clean to high gain.

They can usually be found at a fairly low price on eBay.

 

[Jeries]

Check out the IBZ USA F2. It's a stock Ibanez pickup, so not much street cred, but it sounds great in my Roadstar II 530 (basswood body, maple neck). Moderately high output, very versatile, works great for super-clean to high gain.

They can usually be found at a fairly low price on eBay.

While I think many Ibanez stock pickups are underrated- sometimes those old MIJ/Prestige/USA Made DiMarzio IBZ pickups go for stupid money online- and you can get new sets of dimarzios for the same price or even cheaper...

 

[Der JD]

The problem with pickups is that you can read reviews and descriptions for hours on end but you'll never know if you like a particular pickup until you put it in YOUR guitar. I've put the same pickup in different guitars and loved it in one, hated it in the other.

Personally, I really like the Duncan Distortion. I've tried it in several different guitars and liked the results. It's just one of those pickups that sounds good covering a wide variety of genres of metal/hard rock. I've never tried one in a basswood body but if you like it in your Charvel there's probably a good chance you'll like it in the Ibanez.

However, if you thought the Crunch Lab wasn't "thick and chunky" enough, you may not like the DD either. They're very different sounding pickups but I wouldn't say the DD is thicker or chunkier. Maybe your definition of thick and chunky just differs from mine. For what it's worth, I don't like the CL either. I've tried it in a couple of guitars and it just sounded dry, cold, and lifeless to me. Decent for rhythm, hated it for leads. The DD, in my experience, does well for lead and rhythm, cuts through the mix, and doesn't have any annoying spikes/dips in the frequency spectrum like some pickups do.

 

[BBN]

I believe the Trem-bucker is the same as a Duncan JB, but with F-spacing.
I personally love the Duncan JB. I have put them in many Strats, and found them chunky.
As 'Der JD' stated, pickups are very personal, and sound different in different guitars....but the Duncan JB seems to get good reviews when put into many different gutiars. So I think that's a safe one to try.

I will also say that I am a huge fan of Tom Anderson pickups. I have the H2+ in the bridge of a few of my guitars and they sound killer.
The Duncan JB is a little cheaper though, so being that it's a gamble.....you may want to try the Duncan just to keep the potential $ loss to a minimum.

 

[BBN]

Also, if you go to the TGP forum, there are always lots of used pickups for sale....(in case you want to save $ by getting a used one)

 

[TexasAxeSlinger]

Thanks guys for the flurry of posts. I appreciate it. I will see how I like the SD Duncan Distortion. I returned the nickel pickup, which I wanted! BUT, but in the old school nickel square cover, but similar to a chrome Dimarzio since it is going in the chrome and black lava guitar.

I have a 2013 Ernie Ball Music Man Luke coming from EBAY. I had a love hate relationship with them, amazing guitars! But they are so small and I don't LOVE small guitars, but they play really good and the EMG's sound great. Poor guy got in a wreck (He's 58 years old) and damaged his trailer with his landscaping gear on it. He bought 4 LUKE's and was saving them as he thought they would go up in value. My LUKE is 12 years old and is the purple color (It's called something RED), and it has a Floyd Rose, this new one coming Monday October 28th is a standard bridge.

Here is a picture of it, paid $1,250 shipped and it is all but new!

The Ibanez I am talking about here, the 2002 JEM DBK that I am swapping pick ups on, I ordered a custom pick guard from a guy from Germany, takes 8-10 weeks for him to do. It's NOT CNC, but by hand and it looks bad ass. Here is a picture of it on my exact same guitar, but it's not MY guitar, just same model. I think it looks amazing and unique. what do you guys think?