Pickup suggestions

Sixstring

Sixstring

Legend!
Hey all,

So now that i have taken possession of my new to me guitar, a Carvin C66. It was fighting me at first so had to put in some time to get it to play right, action, intonation, D-Tuna etc... she plays pretty good now that I have had some time to get used to the neck shape, radius and fret spacing (22 frets).

So now I'm faced with the aspect of the tone of the guitar. Until now I have been playing on a PRS, Mahogany/Maple caped guitar with the #6 pups and a coil tap. All of my presets are based on this starting fundamental tone. The Carvin is a Maple neck/Ebony Fret board bolted to Alder body, That coupled with the C22 pups is driving me nuts with this massive upper mid harshness that is present in every sim I try. All of the presets I have already dialed in with the PRS to cop tones that were really close are now so far away from what I had it is painfully obvious and sounds really bad.

I have tried every tuning trick I know of in the Axe and can't get away from it so I know it's not the Axe. Needless to say the Carvin with the current electronics isn't very versatile when it comes to nailing down different tones. I obviously can't change the wood choice so I need some informed suggestions based on the choice of wood to get me close to what I had with the PRS guitar. I know it won't be identical because of wood choice but I was wondering if pickup output and voicing would be able to get me in the ball park. I'm not sure what the output on the #6 pups are but I know they were chosen to offset the tone of the trem.

Anyone...?
 
try Dimarzio's site.they have a pickup selection app.basically you select what wood the guitar is made from and what type of sound your shooting for.at least it will point you in the right direction.i think Duncan has that on their site also,not 100% though.
 
I have yet to find better sounding pickups than Suhr pickups. I have had many PRS guitars over the years and the Aldrich set are pretty close to theirs but with more clarity. Good luck man, I know how frustrating pickup selection can be.
 
i can second the suhr option. if they are too pricey for you, there is actually a really good neck pickup by carvin named after some jazz guitarist. forget what it was called but i absolutely loved it
 
I been thinking about going the Suhr direction but I wanted to get an idea from a few of you guys before I just up and bought a set. For those pickups I'm am looking at the SSH+/SSV, I have heard many demos of these pups and like what I'm hearing but haven't heard any with the wood combinations that I'm using but are still at the top of my list.

The Dimarzio pickup picker based on the Wood, Hardware and amp type is pointing me toward the PAF type pickup which kind of makes sense based on the type of tones I'm after which lean more toward the Rock/Hard Rock style of music that I like to play.

Does anyone happen to know what the output on the PRS #6 pups land?
 
Sixstring said:
Hey all,

So now that i have taken possession of my new to me guitar, a Carvin C66. It was fighting me at first so had to put in some time to get it to play right, action, intonation, D-Tuna etc... she plays pretty good now that I have had some time to get used to the neck shape, radius and fret spacing (22 frets).

So now I'm faced with the aspect of the tone of the guitar. Until now I have been playing on a PRS, Mahogany/Maple caped guitar with the #6 pups and a coil tap. All of my presets are based on this starting fundamental tone. The Carvin is a Maple neck/Ebony Fret board bolted to Alder body, That coupled with the C22 pups is driving me nuts with this massive upper mid harshness that is present in every sim I try. All of the presets I have already dialed in with the PRS to cop tones that were really close are now so far away from what I had it is painfully obvious and sounds really bad.

I have tried every tuning trick I know of in the Axe and can't get away from it so I know it's not the Axe. Needless to say the Carvin with the current electronics isn't very versatile when it comes to nailing down different tones. I obviously can't change the wood choice so I need some informed suggestions based on the choice of wood to get me close to what I had with the PRS guitar. I know it won't be identical because of wood choice but I was wondering if pickup output and voicing would be able to get me in the ball park. I'm not sure what the output on the #6 pups are but I know they were chosen to offset the tone of the trem.

Anyone...?
Click to expand...

You can hear the Faber PU's here. Hope you like them.

Faber Concerto PU's!!! by MIDIFine on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
 
I use PRSs, as well as other guitars.

I swopped my Dragon 2s over for Bare Knuckle Mules and there great, though lower OP than the Dragons. The Abraxis are similat ronality but hotter than the Dragons, so you could temper your OP either way. Both sets are more open, with a touch more bass and more top than the Dragons - and donty have that mid range your talking about.

Other options - The Suhrs I tried I found a little clinical, with the Exception of the DSV/DSV+ which work REALLY well on an alder body guitar.
 
paulmapp8306 said:
I use PRSs, as well as other guitars.

I swopped my Dragon 2s over for Bare Knuckle Mules and there great, though lower OP than the Dragons. The Abraxis are similat ronality but hotter than the Dragons, so you could temper your OP either way. Both sets are more open, with a touch more bass and more top than the Dragons - and donty have that mid range your talking about.

Other options - The Suhrs I tried I found a little clinical, with the Exception of the DSV/DSV+ which work REALLY well on an alder body guitar.
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The Suhr I had was built with Maple neck and Basswood body and was a H S S configuration. It had the DSH pup in the bridge and JST V 60's neck and mid, it did sound good but didn't the clarity of the PRS with the #6 pups.
 
alder would offer better clarity than Basswood - but it does depend what type of tones and how much gain your going to use. DSH will loose a little clarity with a lot of gain.
 
paulmapp8306 said:
alder would offer better clarity than Basswood - but it does depend what type of tones and how much gain your going to use. DSH will loose a little clarity with a lot of gain.
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The over all sound of that pup that I can remember is that very description. I'm wondering what the #6 pup would sound like loaded in the Carvin?
 
A bolt on maple neck onto a alder body is the Stratocaster norm. The ebony will respond much like a maple fingerboard.

Essentially what you have is a hot rodded Strat given the Floyd.

The Floyd will reduce the bass and increase the treble, all other things being equal.

Since a hot rodded Strat is one of the most popular guitars made over the past twenty years, it shouldn't be hard to get your hands on a few and listen to them.

To mellow the guitar out to sound more like the PRS, I'd begin with the tone knob and potentially change our the resistor.
 
Sixstring said:
So would you start at this point, Or do this in conjunction with a pup swop?
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I always try to start with the cheapest solution and spend money as required. You are chasing a dragon. Some guys change pickups monthly, losing money each step of the way.

Do you have a tech you trust? Go there and have him change the resistor for you, maybe that is enough.

If you are going to swap pups endlessly, go used so you can get in/out with little cost.

In the end, you want more bass and less treble to match the PRS. Of course, the obvious question is, why not just get a second PRS?

I determined a long time ago what I prefer for a guitar and pups, and eventually wound up sticking with it:

c36eda02.jpg
 
luke said:
I always try to start with the cheapest solution and spend money as required. You are chasing a dragon. Some guys change pickups monthly, losing money each step of the way.

Do you have a tech you trust? Go there and have him change the resistor for you, maybe that is enough.

If you are going to swap pups endlessly, go used so you can get in/out with little cost.

In the end, you want more bass and less treble to match the PRS. Of course, the obvious question is, why not just get a second PRS?

I determined a long time ago what I prefer for a guitar and pups, and eventually wound up sticking with it:

c36eda02.jpg
Click to expand...

Ha, I guess so... I really don't have a tech and I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron. I would just need to know where to start with resistor values. Agreed with going with the least expensive rought first. I would go for another PRS but there is a money issue so I really can't afford to grab another guitar right now. As to changing out pups endlessly that's not going to happen which is why I'm trying to get some sort of answer here as to which pup will get me in the ballpark. I realize I'm not going to get it to sound exactly like the PRS I had and I'm ok with that I just need to tame the upper mid that is so harsh and a constant with this guitar and I believe it to be the pickups.

I checked Carvin's specs on this pup and the resistance is pretty high 13k+. Now I don't know what the #6 PRS pup is but I would be willing to bet it's close to half of that.
 
What if you lower the pup a rotation or two, maybe another half on the treble side.
 
luke said:
I always try to start with the cheapest solution and spend money as required. You are chasing a dragon. Some guys change pickups monthly, losing money each step of the way.

Do you have a tech you trust? Go there and have him change the resistor for you, maybe that is enough.

If you are going to swap pups endlessly, go used so you can get in/out with little cost.

In the end, you want more bass and less treble to match the PRS. Of course, the obvious question is, why not just get a second PRS?

I determined a long time ago what I prefer for a guitar and pups, and eventually wound up sticking with it:

c36eda02.jpg
Click to expand...

Haha!!
I have a black Steve Stevens I (should be first run, 22 frets) for sale if you're interested. ;-)
Last week I bought a Standard Korina (#95/100) of the limited edition from 1996. Great guitar!
 
fatoni said:
i can second the suhr option. if they are too pricey for you, there is actually a really good neck pickup by carvin named after some jazz guitarist. forget what it was called but i absolutely loved it
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Probably the Allan Holdsworth pickups. They've also done a lot of work with Frank Gambale, but I don't recall if they ever made signature pickups for him.

I'd suggest you try the PRS pickups you're used to first, with the same pot and caps. I don't know that there would be that much tonal difference with the woods, which sound like they would offset each other if it mattered. It would certainly eliminate any differences but the construction materials. If you still have that PRS, it would just be an evening project to swap them out and test it.
 
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