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Looper's Delight
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Pickups is as personal and subjective as string gauge, action and how you set up intonation, trim the twang bar etc. Especially with singlecoils they really come to life vs die within a few millimeter's adjustment range. So it's kind hard to share specific recommendations because of that. I used the same set of low output vintage sounding single coils on my main strat for almost two decades. I like the rough and aggressive sound you can get form low output singlecoils better then what the so called hot PU's deliver. You just have to boost the amp a bit more. HOwever, a big issue is the nosie and from day one I learned to play with the volume knob on the strat to keep noise and hum from pestering the music. I recently got a humbucker guitar as well and found that it was really fun to loop without having to manipulate the volume knob between notes (less noise in the buckers) so I changed Strat single coils pickups for less noisy modern ones that would matc my sound ideas. The closest I found on today's market are the Lace Holy Graal, so I now have a three PU set of them and like it a lot! They are just a bit fatter and less "glassy" but that's ok. The raw roughness of low output vintage style is still there. And they really are rather silent. There is a mixed set of them available too, but I prefer the vintage style and then balance the levels by adjusting the three pickup's distance to the strings (this also gives sound dynamics I like when playing a dual pickups modes) BTW, I want to agree with Anders that the Lace Alumitones are great for a wide sound! I'm awaiting two of them for my "hollowbdy" Les Paul by Epiphone. This LP uses very fat strings in drop-C tuning and that's the reason I want Alumitones for it. My traditional drop tuning humbucker guitar is a Casio MG2 with a DiMarzio Dual Sound (another fav PU model of mine), the Casio is the guitar I used for the metal riffs on the album with Erdem. But since I got into Stick playing I really fell in love with a High Fidelity Full Range pickup model and thus ordered Alumitones buckers. There is also a model called Death Bucker (name says it all) but after many days of listening to YouTube tests as well as playing them on a guitar fair I found the plain Alumitone bucker to fit my taste better. Also, since I prefer a laptop now before my tube amp top I have all options at hand to filter and EQ the signal at the input - just another argument for the fullrange Alumotone bucker - it delivers a full palette for eventual further refinement. I'v used one of those Bill Lawerence (that you have) too and that was a great sound in the bridge position! It really rocked for Sex Pistol style trash dist power chord playing. I regret selling that old start with the Bill Lawrence because I miss that sound now. Quite similar sounding to a -62 Telecaster I have been using (talking bridge pickup aggro dist here) Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se www.perboysen.com www.looproom.com internet music hub On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 7:23 AM, Phil Clevenger <phil.clevenger@gmail.com> wrote: > Say LD-people, > > What kinds of pickups are you using in your electric guitars? > > For near 20 years I've had this config: > https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/182627_10150148865785864_709430863_8110226_3950389_n.jpg > > That's a forgotten brand humbucker at bridge and a Bill Lawrence Blade at > the neck. > > Recently I thought it would be fun to change it up, and with romantic > sounds > of my favorite single-coil players in my head, I sourced the best single > coils I could, and had them installed along with a fully traditional > 5-position switch... > > Excited to get my instrument back from the shop today, and just so > disappointed in the result! Great pups if I were Buddy Holly maybe, but I > need pickups that sing. And worst of all, the noise from these single > coils > is absolutely untenable in a looping situation... noise (loop) noisenoise > (loop) noisenoisenoise (loop) etc... sounded like I was in a teenage > garage > band again :( > > SO either I'm going back to the old setup, or changing again, to > something > hot and noise-free. I am curious about blade-style humbuckers in > particular... anyone have experience with those? > > > Phil :)
