...is starting to change the way I think about pickups for my guitars.
I've been playing my Les Paul for the past week and through the Axe-FX, I love how it sounds. I put a set of Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs (bridge and regular) in it about 6 months ago and I finally have the classic Les Paul sound I've been after for years. What makes these pickups work for me is they sound great clean and dirty.
My other guitars (excluding my Strat and Brian May) all have Dimarzio Tone Zones in the bridge which I've been using since '91. For a rock/metal sound, they are amazing with distortion - fat and rich - but not so good clean (assuming they're not split and combined with a single coil).
Anyway, because the Axe-FX gives me so much control over my sound (various combinations of different drives, amps, cabs, filters and EQs) I can use a guitar with PAFs and get a wide variety of sounds, much greater than those with the Tone Zones. The incredible dynamic range of the Axe-FX really lets the sensitivity of the PAFs come through especially when compared to the Tone Zones. Being able to add pre-distortion EQ and gain (filter, parametric EQ, graphic EQ and drive block) lets me boost the perceived output from PAFs to compete with the Tone Zones.
My rig before the Axe-FX was based upon ADA MP-1s and even though I could have done some of the same things with that rig (that I can do now with the Axe-FX), it would have been much more complicated and time consuming to do. Now I can just turn the wheel, hit a few buttons and be done with it.
Anyway, the Axe-FX has me thinking that lower output, smoother sounding and more dynamic pickups might be the way I want to go. At this point, I'm going to order another set of PAFs for one of my "rock/metal" guitars and see what happens.
I've been playing my Les Paul for the past week and through the Axe-FX, I love how it sounds. I put a set of Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs (bridge and regular) in it about 6 months ago and I finally have the classic Les Paul sound I've been after for years. What makes these pickups work for me is they sound great clean and dirty.
My other guitars (excluding my Strat and Brian May) all have Dimarzio Tone Zones in the bridge which I've been using since '91. For a rock/metal sound, they are amazing with distortion - fat and rich - but not so good clean (assuming they're not split and combined with a single coil).
Anyway, because the Axe-FX gives me so much control over my sound (various combinations of different drives, amps, cabs, filters and EQs) I can use a guitar with PAFs and get a wide variety of sounds, much greater than those with the Tone Zones. The incredible dynamic range of the Axe-FX really lets the sensitivity of the PAFs come through especially when compared to the Tone Zones. Being able to add pre-distortion EQ and gain (filter, parametric EQ, graphic EQ and drive block) lets me boost the perceived output from PAFs to compete with the Tone Zones.
My rig before the Axe-FX was based upon ADA MP-1s and even though I could have done some of the same things with that rig (that I can do now with the Axe-FX), it would have been much more complicated and time consuming to do. Now I can just turn the wheel, hit a few buttons and be done with it.
Anyway, the Axe-FX has me thinking that lower output, smoother sounding and more dynamic pickups might be the way I want to go. At this point, I'm going to order another set of PAFs for one of my "rock/metal" guitars and see what happens.