pickup troubles - help me find the right combination

Fragle

Member
Jul 27, 2005
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Germany
hey guys,

i've been wanting to swap around pickups between my guitars for quite a while now. i feel that most of them could sound better with different PU combinations. the thing is, swapping around pus is just sooooo much hassle (taking off all the strings, soldering crap, restringing, it's even more fun with a floyd rose guitar)....i'd hate to swap stuff around just to notice that things sounded better beforehand :D


anyways, these are the guitars:

jackson dkmgt: alder body, bolt on, string through body, emg 81 bridge emg 85 neck
-> this guitar actually sounds pretty good as it is, but i'm thinking about swapping pickup positions, 85 bridge 81 neck basically, just to beef it up a bit

dean vendetta 4: mahogany body, maple top, neck through, STB, dimarzio tonezone bridge, air norton neck
-> the air norton sounds great, but i don't quite like the tone zone. at B standard the bottom end is a bit flubby, it lacks mids, and the highs are really aggressive. at D standard the bottom is tight but the highs are even more abrasive. leads sound almost brittle too. i'm considering a sh-4 for this guitar, or maybe the steves special

peavey vandenberg: basswood body, bolt on, floyd rose, stock pickups.
-> i think the neck pickup is broken, it has very little output and sounds really thin. i never use it anyways so it's not a big deal. the bridge sounds fine, just a bit weak/low output. great sounding rock guitar, not so much for metal.

charvel model 3: basswood body, bolt on, floyd rose, stock singlecoils, dimarzio steves special bridge
-> just waaaay to bright.


so, what i was thinking:
- swap PU positions in the jackson
- buy a sh4 for the dean, put the tonezone in the charvel
- another idea would be to grab an emg 85 and use it in the charvel, put the steves special in the dean, and use the tonezone in the vandenberg

i guess the tone zone just doesn't go well with the mahogany body in the dean, and the steves special, being rather bright and clear, is just TOO bright in the basswood charvel.

tbh, i'm not really experienced as far as pickups go, so any ideas will be appreciated.