Humbucker Recommendations

trueresource

trueresource

Inspired
I was hoping that I could use stock presets with my new Axe3 but discovered my stock humbuckers on my Epiphone BBKing Lucille are just not hot enough. I've never replaced pickups but I think the time has come. I play contemporary Gospel so need sometime sustain,distortion, metal sometimes clean, acoustical. I've been listening to Fishman Fluence but would like advice from the forum to aid in the decision. I have a set of HeadRush 2000 watt frfr. Thanks
 
A lot probably depends on the guitar and your tone preferences. Personally, I have yet to find something I prefer to Jim Wagner’s American Steele set. Girth, clarity...really nice balance.

I have not tried the Fishman pickups.
 
trueresource said:
I was hoping that I could use stock presets with my new Axe3 but discovered my stock humbuckers on my Epiphone BBKing Lucille are just not hot enough.
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Is it a matter of the pickups being "hot enough" in volume, or in tonal character? If it's a "hot" volume thing, you can just adjust the various input gain/trim on the Axe-Fx. It's the beauty of a device like an Axe-Fx III, no need for new pickups to get the effect of a "hot" pickup.
 
yeky83 said:
Is it a matter of the pickups being "hot enough" in volume, or in tonal character? If it's a "hot" volume thing, you can just adjust the various input gain/trim on the Axe-Fx. It's the beauty of a device like an Axe-Fx III, no need for new pickups to get the effect of a "hot" pickup.
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This !!
Your pickups are probably OK.
The guitars I play have pickups that range from 7.5-8.5 , and I cover a LOT of ground.
 
I think you'd be better off turning some knobs or using Axe-Edit 3 and dialing in the sounds you want. Nothing really wrong with the factory presets, but i see them as someone else's idea of a tone, and i want what i hear in my head. They can work for starters for some, but you gotta dial them in for your rig and guitar.

I hardly even touched the factory presets and generally only even check out the ones that are set for a specific artists tone. The normal basic demo tones aren't really to my liking, so I learned a long time ago that I had to dial things in to match up with my taste and my guitars.
 
If you have been happy with your pickups up until now, your pickups are fine. The AxeFX is a very capable unit and works well with a variety of pickups. As others have suggested, increasing the input gain is a good place to start.

You will get a million different suggestions for pickups. Everyone has their personal preference.
 
I was a Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan fan until I tried Bare Knuckle Pickups. Their a little more coin but very much worth it to me. I play contemp. christian with my worship team as well as prog metal and my set of juggernauts do all very well. Shoot them an email and ask for a recommendation. You’ll usually get a reply from Tim, the owner. He’s always making great recommendations.

Good luck!
 
Agreed. Unless your pickups won't clean up nicely or lack definition in the clean sounds, then no need to swap pickups, just fire up Axe Edit and start tweaking. All the sounds are there, you just need to tweak them for your taste and playing style. crank up the input gain, use a "clean boost" drive block, or crank the input gain on the amp block - all of these will effectively make your pickups "hotter" to the amp block, though in slightly different ways.

I'd also second Genghis's comment on factory presets. They are nice, but you really need to create your own and tweak for your taste. There are lots of great videos with folks showing how they dial in sound on various Fractal devices (concept is the same on all of them, the III just has more options).
 
I just installed Joe Barden (JBE) Two Tone Humbuckers in my Kiesel. So much better sounding than the stock pickups. I'm working on a review for my blog and will post Aug 1st.
 
Pickup height, and input trim (like mentioned above) are good ideas to start before changing. IMHO hot pickups wreck the magic of some of the lower gain amps, and homogenize the higher gain amps.
 
What I learned experimenting with pickups is that its a blind lottery every time. There is no way to know how they are gonna sound until you install them. I loved the Kinman pickups in one guitar, but they sounded really bad in another guitar. I guess you just choose the ones based on the output you prefer and hope for the best.
 
Hot pickups in a hollow body Lucille (I assume it is hollow body? But even if it's semi hollow ...) might be asking for more trouble than it's worth.

I'd have thought a solid body would be more suitable for covering the wide range of styles/gain structures you seem to need to cover .... possibly a HSS or HSH pickup configuration to give you more instant control from the guitar side of things.
 
It really depends on what you are looking for. I love Duncan Antiquity pickups. Really great organic sound.
 
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