Input Impedance or Pickup Change?

Shenks

Experienced
One of my guitars which is actually my preferred guitar, is a Charvel DK24 HH with Alder body, Maple neck, and a Seymour Duncan Full Shred pickup in the bridge.

I now tend to play more classic rock and so I am finding that the pickup is a bit too spiky or cutting for what I am playing and it occasionally veers into ice-pick territory. The current dilemma is whether to change the pickup or play with the Input Impedance to try and tame it a little. My question (whilst remembering about the 'use your ears' phrase) is whether this will accomplish what I want and has anybody else been in the same situation?

Any other hints or tips about other ways of taming this would be appreciated.
 
I worked around the full shred in my SD1 pro-mod by replacing it with a Duncan Custom/59 hybrid. (SH-16) It's still higher than PAF output but has a lot more balanced frequency response. And the unbalanced coils do something different that I personally like.

Before I replaced the pickup I would just pair the guitar with darker amps or cab IRs than I would use with other guitars. But since the Full Shred was the outlier in my tone, in the end I just changed the pickup out.

The FS is a great pickup for what it does and I like it, especially for leads. But playing in a cover band with a wide range of source material from the 1930s on, and using different guitars for tuning changes I didn't have time for the extra tapdancing required to set up presets specifically for guitar changes. We play songs up to 5-6 at a time back to back so the guitar switches themselves are pretty rapid fire. So it was easier for me and more time effective to just replace the pickup.

A workaround that I didn't try but would probably be somewhat effective, is add a notch filter with a small, tight cut and just sweep it until you aurally find the icepick frequencies, then widen/soften the filter as necessary to tame it down.
 
Even most direct mounted pickups have travel for height adjustment. “Springs and/or foam under them”
For some reason, some of the DK-24 models are not...

My HSS MIM and USA models both have foam underneath but I've seen several people here say that their models don't. Seems to be the HH models don't.
 
I'd swap out the pickup. (But then that's often my go to solution for changing up a guitar) Height adjustment and resistance loading with potentiometers will optimize tonal balance, but aren't going to accomplish the transformation you seek. The Shred is promoted as a bright, scooped mid, tight bottom pickup. IMO, scooped midrange in the bridge is a one trick pony, and not one I like to ride. Since the bridge position is unlikely to be compromised by too much bass or too little treble anyway, I'd look for a pickup that's known for its midrange.
 
Sounds to me you are just not happy with the current pickups.
My advice is take it to a trusted luthier and get their opinion for options.
One man’s perfection is another person’s headache.
Do you have other guitars with pickups you prefer?
I enjoy the SD Alpha and omega set myself. Plenty of smooth glass and gain on tap for a lot of tones.
I'm not the OP... I was commenting on the direct mount.
 
You will hear a slight difference depending on which input impedance you select. It's easy to try all the choices out and see if it helps. If not, adding a parametric eq that notches out the ice picky frequency should be an easy fix. I wouldn't think you'd have to change your pickups, although that would always be an option.
 
Some really good advice from people so thanks for that. I suspect an eq or impedance change in the interim but ultimately apickup swap will be what I really need...
 
Just doing some reading on the following internet page BuildYourGuitar and it mentions changing the resistor value (from 10M down) reduces the height of the resonant peak and increasing the capacitor value lowers the resonant frequency. At least, that's what I think it is telling me and if this is right then this evening I will be playing with the various options in the AXE FX Input Block.

What could potentially be useful for tonal tweaking is to have separate capacitor values and resistor values available in the Input Block assuming I have interpreted all of the info correctly, and if so then this might be a wish list item.
 
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