High gain with PAF?

tonaholic

tonaholic

Experienced
Hey guys! Super excited, just ordered my Axe yesterday.

Have any of you used a Les Paul with PAF pickups in a higher gain setting on this? Curious because I'm currently re inventing my entire rig and am hoping to go with more vintage type pickups in my instruments and use high gain amps and maybe a TS808 or something similar with a PAF when I want to rock hard but am wondering how a PAF style PU performs in those situations and if anyone has experience with pulling off some harder rock or Metallica style metal with those kinds of rigs?
 
I've got a PRS with Dimarzio 36th Anniversay PAFs in it and it does just fine for high gain stuff. In fact I like them much better than higher output pickups. They seem clearer-sounding to me and give me a lot more dynamic range. I can be more expressive with them. A lot of high output pickups just make everything so saturated that things like clarity become compromised.

The Axe has so much gain on tap that you won't need to worry about using the TS808 unless you just want to. Not a necessity with most amps.
 
Perfect! I was actually thinking about that exact pickup set in a Heritage or PRS. Thanks so much for the great reply.
 
I have a couple of Les Pauls with Burstbucker Pro pickups, they work great with high Gain on the Axe. They obviously don't sound as heavy as my Les Pauls with EMGs, but they definitely don't sound any worse.
 
I'm not knocking the high gain PU guys, whatever works for you is best. But I've been a PAF guy for years and when I've strayed to see if the grass was greener, I always came back to old faithfuls.

I agree with JD, lower out put pickups allow for greater dynamics (IMO-YMMV). I have a couple of Seymore Duncan 59's from the 80's and 90's that are in two of my strats. I think those measure some where around 8.3k. I also have a Bareknuckle Nailbomb that measures around 15k that I love for certain heavier things but it doesn't sound as sweet as the 59's for the lower gain stuff (IMO).

Granted I don't sit and try to clone the nuances of today's heavier players like I used to many years ago so the PAF's allow me to cop whatever sound I need that's suitable for me.
 
I have a set of lower-output, long-magnet PAFs in a '54 Les Paul conversion, and they sound terrific through V10. As others here have said, they provide much needed clarity within the realm of high-gain.
 
In my experience lower output show more of the guitars character, vs hot = more of the pickup tone. Like cliff said EVH had low output, and some people even said one of the coils tested dead.. i think it might have been Tom Anderson or someone.
 
FractalAudio said:
EVH used relatively low output pickups. I personally think low output pickups sound better. To me they sound clearer.
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This is one of the reasons I will be changing out my EMG-Xs that I originally had installed in my Suhr Modern. Not enough dynamic range to my ears, and I bought it specifically to be a Frankenstrat type guitar.
 
I've always liked low output pickups for specific kinds of high gain tones. They're pretty much essential for going into any kind of brown sound territory, or medium gain rock tones where pick attack is key. It's hard to describe, but there's a cool slickness to those tones that just sounds worlds apart from hot humbucker territory. There's a lot more high end and a lot less body to the mids but not in a bad way, so you get a certain kind of, well, slick clarity and clean snappiness in the mid range, but you can still retain the hairy yet detailed top end and a distorted yet not muddy bottom end all at the same time.

Hot pickups can have lots of balls and/or focus for palm mutes and staccato type runs, but there's a special kind of refined touch sensitivity and jangle you get with low output pickups that's great too. I primarily use an EMG 81 in the bridge, but if I put an EQ + Expander combo before the amp, I can replicate all kinds of pickups that way. Scooping the mids out before the guitar hits the amp, then using the expander to slightly increase the dynamic range of the guitar is a great place to start when you're going for that sound.

Of course, it's not the same, but for you guys with super hot pickups, it's a pretty believable substitute in a band, and it's a great way to audition that type of sound before you go out and buy your next guitar loaded up with PAFs.
 
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Thanks for all the great replies everyone. Makes me feel a lot better about selling my Anderson that had super hot pickups that felt very one trick pony and limiting. Not bashing Anderson but was looking for more flexibility. Got two G&L now with Alnico/vintage style pups(not mfd) and am looking forward to a few Heritage to go with my new Axe. Feel like ill be able to do just about anything with this new rig.
 
Several players uses PUs with lower output because they feel they can push the amp harder and therefor get more of the sweet spot some amps are giving. And that will actually be even more the case now that the AFX are very similar to how actual amps behave. :)
 
Der JD said:
I've got a PRS with Dimarzio 36th Anniversay PAFs in it and it does just fine for high gain stuff. In fact I like them much better than higher output pickups. They seem clearer-sounding to me and give me a lot more dynamic range. I can be more expressive with them. A lot of high output pickups just make everything so saturated that things like clarity become compromised.

The Axe has so much gain on tap that you won't need to worry about using the TS808 unless you just want to. Not a necessity with most amps.
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I also have a PRS with 36th Anni pickups and it sounds great! As do 57/08's which are PAF voiced.
 
Using Lindy Fralin PAFs and love the dynamics - The Axe plays very well with PAFs and I feel that the dynamics are more available with this type pick up - you should be very happy with PAFs with your Axe FX - you don't have to sell you Anderson because it has High Output PuPs If you like the guitar see you tech and swap Em out
 
kerrlehr said:
Using Lindy Fralin PAFs and love the dynamics - The Axe plays very well with PAFs and I feel that the dynamics are more available with this type pick up - you should be very happy with PAFs with your Axe FX - you don't have to sell you Anderson because it has High Output PuPs If you like the guitar see you tech and swap Em out
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I considered this but I've just grown in a different direction than the Anderson and would rather have guitars that fit my current taste from the ground up. I feel like if I get another really modern guitar it will be a PRS or Musicman. Very happy with my G&L for my bolt on fix.
 
I use drive pedals depending on what sound I'm after. Many of my friends that use the Axe Fx 2 for metal seem to like the shred drive combined with a 5150. Usually you crank the level all the way up and the drive all the way down or 9 o'clock. You have to lower the Drive one the amp block to keep your distortion as low as possible without loosing the heaviness for rhythms. The Shred Drive has a lot of midrange so the sound is really thick.
I like to use the parametric eq, boosting 350 to 450 Hz with a mild narrow q , also boosting from 650 to 800 Hz with also a mid narrow q and 6 kHz to 8 kHz to get some bite.
The amount boost depends on the amp so your use to use your ears.
Dime Bag Darrell use to do this to boost his Randall's and that was that main part if his sound.
Another popular pedal is the 808 using the same settings described above and you can also combine the parametric and the drive pedal.
It works well on the high gain amps and also the Marshall amps.
 
I have BK Mules in one of my PRSs - and get fantastic high gain tone from the AFX, even without using a drive pedal. Theres plenty of tools to get there.
 
Yeah !
Most lower output pickups have a wider frequenzy-response wich can be impossible to get from something else. I think it´s easier to get desent clean and chrunch sound with them as well . If you need more gain and narrower sound you can allways use a fliter with gain boost.
(Or maybe a wah wah pedal cause that what many high level pickups sound like )
:)
 
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