Pickup Opinions

MMFB

MMFB

Member
Hey all!
I got a few questions regarding pickups. I have an ESP Horizon FR 27. When I bought it the previous owner took out the stock pickups which were Seymour Duncan Custom 5 (bridge) and Hot Rails (neck) and put in Blackouts. I want to put a new set of passive pickups in her. Not a fan of active pickups. It has an alder body, maple neck with an ebony fretboard, and OFR. I play in drop B/standard B. I like the heavy sounds of Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, God Smack and the leads of Fransisco Artusato, Vai, Petrucci, etc. My other guitar is an Ibanez RG2550 (basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard) with DiMarzio Crunch lab (bridge) and Liquifire (neck). I really like the sound of it.

So, does ESP match the tone of the wood to the pickups they select?

What would you recommend for replacement pickups?

I've been eyeing the Dimarzio D Activator X, Evo, and maybe a Crunch Lab in the bridge. Possibly SD Invader or Full Shred.

The Air Norton S, Pro Track or SD hot rails in the neck.

I've also been eyeing the Lace Deathbucker for bridge and single alumitone for the neck.
Anyone have any experience with Lace pickups and the Fractal units?

Thoughts?

Right now I play through a Line 6 Vetta 2 head and a 4x12 with V30’s. Eventually I plan to get a Fractal FX 2 unit with FRFR speaker cabs, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

M
 
Is there a major difference between the FAX 2 and the FX 2 XL+? I've seen some used FX 2's floating around but I'm always a bit leary of buying used electronics.
M
 
The wood will only effect the tone through the pickup housing. While the magnets produce the majority of the vibration the wood will vibrate the coils through the housing just a tiny bit. It's debatable if it's even possible to detect a difference and in reality you can easily get the exact same tone with the different woods.

I don't know the pickups you mention but I can warmly recommend Nazgul from Seymour Duncan for your aim.
 
Winther said:
The wood will only effect the tone through the pickup housing. While the magnets produce the majority of the vibration the wood will vibrate the coils through the housing just a tiny bit.
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The majority of the vibration comes from the strings, not the magnets. The strings are connected to the wood. When the wood vibrates, it affects how the strings vibrate, and that affects the sound.
 
well when you consider how many different guitars are made of Alder, and how many different pickup combinations that are in them all, I would say no, they do not match the pickups to the tone of the wood. I think they make a bunch of guitars with alder bodies, and then put different pickups in different lines/models to cater to different crowds. Some guitars with more vintage output for the classic rock/hard rock/NWOBHM guys, some with higher output for the hardcore metal guys, some with more mids and highs and less lows for the djent guys, etc.... you can put any pickup in any guitar, each ear will hear it differently dependent on taste.
Pickup swapping is addictive, be careful!

FWIW I have Suhr Doug Aldrich pickups in all of my guitars, and they pretty much do everything well. it's an A5 17.5k bridge and 9k Neck pickup set, and suhr describes it's tonality pretty damn accurately.
"It’s big sounding yet focused and punchy in the mids and tight in the lows. You will never hear this pickup get flubby and undefined in the highest gain settings. The high-mids will cut through like the sharpest knife but the treble will be sweet and never grating on the ears. From chunky low-string metal riffing to screaming string bends in the high register, the Aldrich bridge humbucker covers them all while retaining the dynamics of your picking attack."
 
Pwrmac7600 said:
well when you consider how many different guitars are made of Alder, and how many different pickup combinations that are in them all, I would say no, they do not match the pickups to the tone of the wood.
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I think you're right. Regardless of manufacturers' claims that everything was chosen to work in perfect balance (or that their pickups are perfect for every situation), I think they mainly choose their pickups to go with a certain style of music. Wood makes a difference, but pickups make a bigger difference.
 
Rex said:
The majority of the vibration comes from the strings, not the magnets. The strings are connected to the wood. When the wood vibrates, it affects how the strings vibrate, and that affects the sound.
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Lol, obviously the string has already instigated what I am talking about. But considering how little difference you get from a guitar made of i.e. aluminum, the difference in composition in woods has such a tiny fraction of a difference that pickup matching is all in the mind. I have total strat shrill by putting a real single coil in an all mahogany neck-through LP style axe and you honestly can't tell.
 
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