Best EMG H-S-H setup for mahogany guitar? (looking for most versatility)

[Josh Burgess]

I'm getting a custom guitar made and still deciding on pickups to have them use and how to have things wired up... looking for most versatile setup here.

Anyways I was thinking 81TW bridge, SA middle, 89 neck.... 81TW and 89 having push-pull pots for the single coil settings. Should I try to get a 5 way switch along with or what? I play clean a lot, so I like having the single coil options... Not sure the best way to set it up so I have the most versatility though...

Also, for the bridge..... you think I should stick with the 81TW or maybe put an 89 there too? The guitar is all mahogany neckthrough... so it should be pretty warm sounding... might be too dark with 89 in the bridge, not sure...

What do you guys think?

I also considered black out humbucker bridge and neck and one of their new single coils in the middle, but it'd give a lot less sounds since the humbuckers can't be split...

 

[Josh Burgess]

By the way, the main reason I was asking is because the 89 is supposed to sound like an 85 when in humbucking mode, and it seems a lot you guys prefer the 85 in the bridge. So, I wasn't sure.

Anyways, I just had a new idea... this is for a custom Gutierrez, by the way...

The idea is to have 3 of those coil splitable EMG humbuckers in an H-H-H setup... with 89 in the neck, 89 in the middle, and 81TW in bridge like 81TWb/89m/89n... or possibly switch the bridge and middle so it's 89b/81TWm/89n. The only thing is I'd need 3 push-pull pots, but I suppose I could just give each pickup its own volume knob and not have any tone knobs or have 4 knobs total with one being a master tone knob... and have a 5-way switch like on a Strat or Ibanez to be able to have pickups mixed together in the 2nd and 4th positions....

Basically, it would have 3 humbuckers, one bridge, one middle, one neck... and they can all be switched to single coil mode to have an S-S-S setup like a Strat.This sounds like an awesome idea to me...

What do you guys think? I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have, because I really want the pickup setup for this guitar to be special.

 

[006]

No real value coming from this statement but, I've always hated the way three humbuckers in a single guitar looked. Other than that I would say the 81-SA-89 setup would work out well, 81 in bridge position. I actually have been curious to try out the SAs in my Strat to replace these noisy Fender TexMex singles. Only thing I haven't figured out is if the middle SA is RW/RP like the Fender singles, so that in position 2 and 4 I can get that signature sound of the RW/RPMiddle+Bridge*or*Neck together.

~006

 

[gorath23]

Yes I'd just say, stick with the 81 in the bridge, an 89/85 would be too dark in a Mahoghany body.