Recommendations for new pick ups and a bit of advice. . .

Cmc29

I have an guitar that i want to mess about with. It's a decent guitar to play but the pick ups don't sound great for what i play and how i would like it to sound. Rather than splash out on another guitar, and spend more than i can afford, i've decided to start trying out pick ups and using it as a guinea pig. I have other nice guitars so i'm willing to mess about with this one. Never done this before so just trying to get a little help and some advice.

What i'm looking for would be humbucker pick ups that are good for heavy distortion. I know active pick ups would be an option for high gain but seeing as i've never done this before i'd like to learn how to hook up passive pick ups first. I don't tune down a huge amount, usually just drop D. If i was to go down further it would not be any lower than dropping it to C#. I'm a big fan of bands that tune down low but i don't like going that low myself. I like the Melvins, Tool, Kyuss, etc. I'm not trying to replicate any of those bands sounds and i will be researching pick ups. Just if there are any that you think may be good for me to look into, i would appreciate it.

Finally, i have never changed pick ups before. I can solder, and i don't mean a blob it on and it'll do job. I do know how to do it properly. If i check out my guitars schematics, do i need to know much more than that? I don't want to do a half assed job of it. I want to make sure i know what i'm doing before i attempt it. Also, what kind of pots would be best to use for the type of distortion sound i am looking for? Any help, advice, links etc would be great. Cheers

boycey

The worlds your oyster really, Seymour Duncan, Di Marzio or if you want to spend more Bare Knuckles etc have loads of great pickups to suit most price points. I'd poke around on their respective forums and listen to both the 'pro' soundclips and those recorded by their customers.
Regardless of the price of the guitar, good quality pickups will add a new lease of life. I recently got some Lollars put into a not very expensive Yamaha MS311 (their cheap Mike Stern sig Telecaster) - it's turned an already great guitar into a tone monster!!
There'll be plenty of good advice regarding pots etc on those forums too, though 500k pots tend to be the 'norm' for humbuckers. I replaced everything on that Telecaster; pickups, switch, pots - everything really. It turned a €280 purchase into a €500 purchase, parts and labour. Worth every penny though.

geetar

bareknuckle humbuckers are the best you can get.

also check out:

jason lollar
chris klein
d allen

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geetar wrote: »

bareknuckle humbuckers are the best you can get.

also check out:

jason lollar
chris klein
d allen

bareknuckle are great allright, im thinking of putting the irish tour set in my strat.

I have EMG humbuckers in 2 guitars, and active 81 in a strat, pickup is red hot, loads of gain, great metal pickup. also gave a zakk wylde LP with EMH HZ, the HZs are a nice rock pick up.

MattKid

Look at the Suhr Aldrich pickups too.

I'm in a quandary about the Suhrs, and BK Rebel Yells or Nailbombs for my Burny

theshaft

i got a seymour duncan Dimebucker and Duncan Distortion put in my les paul. Awesome pickups for going wild with!!! Jimis Music Store do a great job on pickup installations, ive had about 5 jobs done there now coz i ask for weird and crazy mods done. I got the treble bleed mod coz i was offered the option when i asked to get the pickups put in. I was lucky enough to see the coolest thing ever while I was there too. I seen they put pictures of it on their facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.260262477331555.69593.157124127645391&type=1

It was this ugly Ovation bass with a bandy preamp and the dude actually made a new preamp for the guitar and wired it all up. How do you even do that like? I wish i understood more technical stuff but it was quite cool all the same. Needless to I WANT ONE