I'm terribly fond of the DiMarzio Air Nortons, but then again I started out playing through older DiMarzios. The Super Distortions are great, but dont clean up so good. You can install a switch with an Air Norton to coil tap or split for to be cleaning the sound up, although theyre not so completely crazy high output that they wouldnt clean up a lot just by playing lighter and mebbe rolling the volume off a bit. I'd point you right to them, but DiMarzio's website is all smarty-pants useless flash, so just go to http://www.dimarzio.com/ and then "humbuckers," etc.

And I think all DiMarzio humbuckers are 4-wire now, so you can do all the fancy wiring and switches and such that you like, TMH.

Oh, and yeah, Fralins are good too.

I've got a DMZ Super Dist. in the neck of my 450G and it sounds great clean. It's one of the warmest pickups in my arsenal.

tmh:

I get a lot of low end response from my Duncan SH-5 pickups. You might want to swap in that Gibson 500T and see how it fares as well. Actually, my 70's Gibson SG with the SH-5 has so much bass response that people always ask me if I'm playing on the neck pickup. It's got that treble bite too though. I can't say for certain that it's the pickup though, since my other guitars have the same pickup and they sound quite different.

If it's only for a certain project, maybe try an EQ before the amp?

yeah, it's not so much that the bridge pickup doesn't have enough low end, it's more that the neck pickup has too much low end considering its lack of high end. i guess i'll see how it turns out, but i've asked for a duncan jazz pickup for christmas. from what i've heard and read about the fralins, those would be great. only thing is, i'm not gonna spend that kinda money just yet. i'll probably even throw in the EMG i have lying around from 10 years ago, just to see where that puts me, before spending that kinda money on a pickup. the EQ thing is a great idea, but i already will be flipping the pickup selector switch and turning off one or possibly 2 distortion pedals to get from dirty to clean, so attempting to use an EQ to resolve a relative-difference-between-pickups tone issue would be an extra level of complexity that is a little beyond my threshold. i'm already anticipating the night where i have too much to drink before playing and then topple over when i try to switch two distortion pedals at once. i find it hard enough to stand on my heels when sober.

The important consideration for me is always: What will the pickup be used for?

For example, I generally use mine for hauling construction supplies, so I tend to use such factors as bed size (will it hold a 4x8?) and gas mileage, while factors like engine and transmission options aren't that important. My brother, on the other hand, uses his primarily for towing about his many toys, so he doesn't really need a long bed, but he won't take a pickup unless its got at least a 5.7 liter V-8 and an overbuilt transmission that will accept an aftermarket cooler.

Having read what your pickup needs are, I'd suggest you go for what will work with the kind of stuff you're doing. What did all those speedmetal guys use? Well, most of 'em had Jacksons and Charvels and the like, right, and I'm pretty sure most of those guitars had DiMarzio humbuckers in 'em. If I were you, I'd just find an old pawn shop Charvel, buy it for less than you'd pay for new pickups, and commence frankensteining.

i actually have a nice '89 USA-made custom shop jackson that's the first guitar i ever got. it's got a coil-tappable EMG in it. i just got a new floyd for it, so that's gonna be the other guitar i use for this project. charvel. hrrmph!

toomanyhelicopters wrote:yeah, it's not so much that the bridge pickup doesn't have enough low end, it's more that the neck pickup has too much low end considering its lack of high end.

If it's tonal balance between the pickups, have you tried just lowering the neck pickup? Or even just lowering the top (low-E) side of it? That might make all the difference.

Not that I dont think you should get a new pickup, just if the bridge already has enough bottom end except when compared with the bassy loudness of the neck, then I'd just wanna lower the neck and see what that did to that pickup's response. I tend to replace pickups more readily when they, sound thin or muddy or whatever even after their height and the like has been messed with. In general, bridge pickups need to be a lot closer to the strings than neck pickups.

toomanyhelicopters wrote:help computer.

I don't know all that much about computers except for the one my mom's got... she put a couple of games on there.