VaticanShotglass wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 8:51 am
The other one, the three pickup model, I play more often, but the original pickups just seem to be holding it back. While it has three pickups I usually have the middle one bypassed. It's got unpotted ~8k "vintage style" humbuckers. The bridge position actually sounds pretty good, but the neck pickup is woofy and dull. Plus it over powers the bridge when I try to combine them. So I'm thinking of either the Big Birds or maybe a more open/ballanced PAF. I was leaning towards the former, but worry they might be a bit thinner than I'm used to or maybe too bright or harsh.

What do you think? It's hard to find good demos of pickups where people play big chords or less classic rock stuff. And what sort of problems did the unpotted versions give you? I'm used to unpotted pickups in my old guitars, this Les Paul in particular, but I don't play at high volume very much. They stay really quiet but you can hear if you tap them or whatever.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I have good enough perspective to give a full report. I'll just list a bunch of stuff and hopefully there will be some useful information in there for you.

I was never a "humbucker guy" until a few years ago. It always seemed like there was a compressor that I couldn't turn off on the guitar. I got my first Revstar because it played great and I needed a two humbucker guitar for work testing. Over the years I found myself gravitating to that guitar.

The stock pickups in both of my Revstars (full size HB and P90) always seemed a bit on the dark side. I don't know if it was pickup voicing, or guitar influence. I heard from a lot of Revstar users that they though the guitars leaned towards being on the dark side. I went on a pickup journey with the HB model. I ended up with a Gibson 498t/490r set. They seem a bit brighter than the average HB pickup, and are on the louder side. This seems to balance out the guitar.

My second Revstar is the P90 one in the photo above. It has a separate bridge and tailpiece, plus it has chambering in the body. Acoustically, i's a much brighter and resonant instrument. Still, the stock sound was a bit muffled. I got the Mr. Fab Neil Young pickup set from kinda forum, ex-Chicago dude Matt Diehl. The guitar came to life. The neck p90 was more like I'd expect; more articulation, like a full single coil. The bridge FB pickup just ripped. It was brighter and louder than the P90, but the brightness was in the upper mids rather than distinct treble.

The unpotted pickup, mixed with higher gain rock (cranked JCM800 style) would pick up too much string noise and would often do that squealy, higher frequency feedback that microphonic pickups are known for. If I was playing at more of a mid gain rock or lower setting, I can see how microphonic pickups could add interesting tonal color. It's like having a little bit of a microphone signal picking up the snappiness of the strings. Non-microphonic pickups trade this and give a more fundamental-oriented tone, and get rid of all the squeals and acoustical handling noise. FM Steve had microphonic pickups in his main guitar, which is why he could yell into them when the fuzz was on and be heard through the amp. Perhaps it's another factor towards his specific and articulated sound.

TLDR: FB pickups are, in general, more shifted to the treble than full size, traditional humbuckers. However, they're not at trebly and have much more of a solid bottom than traditional single coils. If anything, they feel like the pissed off older brother of filtertrons. Also, here's a cool video where Joe Gore compairs mini hums to FB pickups.

benadrian wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 11:42 am TLDR: FB pickups are, in general, more shifted to the treble than full size, traditional humbuckers. However, they're not at trebly and have much more of a solid bottom than traditional single coils. If anything, they feel like the pissed off older brother of filtertrons. Also, here's a cool video where Joe Gore compairs mini hums to FB pickups.

Thanks. That was all very helpful! The tricky thing is that a lot of modern Gibson, Seymour Duncan, or whatever humbuckers (and probably P-90s) do seem a little dull to me, where as some builders have models that sound livelier and brighter which actually make all the fuss I've read about old units make more sense. For example, I've never picked up a modern Gibson that sounded anything like the Mr. Fab demos for his Peter Green inspired set.

This conversation actually bumps up against a few pickup micro-reviews I need to share.

I've got this little Squier Bullet Mustang HH that I got for $150 a few years ago with the intent of dicking around with it. I had previously fixed up my first electric guitar, a Squier Strat, in an HH configuration with two GFS Surf 90s, which i really liked. Then, I got the Mustang and wanted it to have the fun new pickups. A few years later, I finally got around to returning the Surf 90s to the Strat and trying out some new options in the Mustang.

Bootstrap Pickups Skookum 90s
These guys

I don't know what a skookum is, but these are bright, clean, and loud as fuck. I really love the unique look. Apparently, the skookum labeled ones are their premium models, which I had no interest in, but the normal version of these tend to stay out of stock. Still the prices remain affordable across the range from this guy.

While the Surf 90s sounded sorta like a big strat pickup (with the treble tamed in the bridge position), these sound much more like a jazzmaster pickup, which I like. They also sound livelier and much brighter. They aren't hot pickups, but they are damned loud and clean. They don't quite have as much clang as the Surf 90s, but notes remained more distinct regardless of gain. They are definitely that sort of sound where your playing can't hide behind anything.

The worst thing I could say about them is that they can sound a little cold, but that is coming from someone who is used to dark humbuckers. Oh, and they use vintage fender style cloth wires. That kinda irks me. I mean, they were quiet, but I'm using them in a cheap unshielded guitar where I heard some hum. So I'm knit picking because I think they would be just about silent with shielded wires (like the Surf 90s).

I've had in my head this sound of a big cleanish overdriven chord like you hear on a Maple Stave album, and these come pretty close. If anyone is interested in doing the jazzmaster in a humbucker slot thing, I'd recommend these.

GFS Surf 180s
These guys

So I got in my head that I actually wanted something that sounded more like a humbucker. I liked the Bootstraps, but that's just not my zone. I wanted to explore some hybrid sounds, but also stick to budget brand options. I fucking love these in this guitar. It's a really great pairing. Really, with these pickups I have about $250 bucks in this guitar, and it sounds fucking awesome.

They have more low end than the Bootstraps with plenty of brightness, and are not dark at all. They still have all of the single coil percussive attack qualities and bell-ish ring to the trebble, but with some humbucker beef under it all. I'd say, for the sake of exploring hybrid sounds, these sound 60% single coil sounding, 40% humbucker sounding, if that isn't complete nonsense. I'm keeping these in the mustang. They just get what I want out of this guitar. Will probably sell the Bootstraps, nice as they are.

I'd recommend them if anyone is looking for a budget set of humbuckers that have a lot of single coil qualities without necessarily sounding like any particular traditional design.

Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck

Seymour Duncan Custom Hybrid 59

Purchased to replace the pickups in my Yamaha, a Gibson Dirty Fingers and a Seymour Duncan JB in the neck (17 year old me was outta pocket for that one)

I have been rocking single coils in most of my guitars for the past decade, and this guitar was sitting around gathering dust. I got it setup and spent a lot of time with it. The pickups were too high gain and inarticulate to generate any interest, so I put the above combination in there.

Very stringy and open. The hybrid 59 is clear as a bell in the bridge, and the Jazz in the neck is a pleasant and useable, to the point where I dialed in the amp for the neck pickup and adjusted the bridge one afterwards.

Lower output might be the way to go.

RCO Pedals Cobbler Preamp. Turns out the J. Rockett Flex wasn’t for me. It does the MIAB well but there’s a ton of low end even with the fat switch off, and it sounded better at higher gain levels, which is also where the Clip switch had the most impact. I was hoping for Malcolm and got Angus instead I guess? Nevertheless my coworker was looking for something that could hit the Brown Sound well and it ended up being up his alley.

Ended up pulling the trigger on RCO Pedals’ Cobbler Preamp, a PedalPCB clone of the Victory Copper V1 pedal, in itself a Vox in a Box. There’s definitely way more flexibility than the Nux 63 Diamond I was using as my main overdrive. I’ve only had the chance to play it with my practice amp (Boss Katana Mini, actually pretty great) but this thing has zing. It’s pretty bright as is so the Tone knob (acts as a treble cut) is handy for getting the highs just right, as much as I would like to blast people with blistering walls of questionable tone.

RCO sells primarily off Reverb and I’ve bought pedals from them in the past. They’re pretty well-made builds for decent prices and am glad to put this in my arsenal for what could be my main OD. Of course it arrived *after* band practice.

I got to play the Tonex Cab with the band last night. It's just one 12" speaker with a tweeter in a closed back wooden cabinet. The Live knob is very much needed, otherwise the amp sorta gets lost in the background. FRFR speakers sound "fake" and the Live knob adds an EQ curve to create similar punch that a normal guitar speaker would have. It's not 100%, but it's close.

I love that it can be set on an angle. I found I was getting a lot more articulation pointed at me and I could turn down and still feel the amp, that was one thing my 2x12 was really missing. At times, though, it felt like my guitar sounded a little too thin or small. I think I need to adjust some internal EQ in the modeler, or add an EQ in a slot that can be toggled on or off. I need a little bit of time to get a good EQ out of it with the band playing, and I feel like the potential is there to do it.

My main reason for trying to replace by 2x12 is to have a much lighter cab. It's 25lbs vs 45lbs and is half the size. I can carry it in one hand, the guitar in the other, and everything else in a backpack.

cakes wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 2:09 pm
My main reason for trying to replace by 2x12 is to have a much lighter cab. It's 25lbs vs 45lbs and is half the size. I can carry it in one hand, the guitar in the other, and everything else in a backpack.

If your main focus is weight, have you looked into those DVMark 2x12 cabinets? John from Stomatopod has used one for years live and it has always sounded great to me - and it's less than 25lbs!

cakes wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 2:09 pm I love that it can be set on an angle. I found I was getting a lot more articulation pointed at me and I could turn down and still feel the amp, that was one thing my 2x12 was really missing.

Here to get on my soap box/preach from the mountain. It's always shocking to me how few guitar players dial in "their tone" when their ears aren't anywhere near the cone of dispersion of the amp. I had a REALLY good but younger guitar player come through last week and when I asked him if we could try using the tilt back legs on his Fender it was like I just revealed The Matrix to him. He thought they were decorative and was STOKED to actually hear himself better.

Do yourselves and your audiences a favor, get a cabinet that allows you to actually HEAR your amp. The aforementioned DVMark cabs do that as they're like a vertically sawn half-stack. There are portable stands for combos, a piece of "sound wood" as mentioned in the underrated gear thread. Let your sound tech do their job, mic it up and use the PA for its intended purpose. Obviously this is complicated playing shows where there isn't a great PA or even sound tech & stage volume is what the audience hears, but urge y'all to try'n find a balance if you're not doing so already.

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Wed Oct 22, 2025 9:26 am

cakes wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 2:09 pm
My main reason for trying to replace by 2x12 is to have a much lighter cab. It's 25lbs vs 45lbs and is half the size. I can carry it in one hand, the guitar in the other, and everything else in a backpack.

If your main focus is weight, have you looked into those DVMark 2x12 cabinets? John from Stomatopod has used one for years live and it has always sounded great to me - and it's less than 25lbs!

Guitarist in High Priors got one of these Mojotone Lite 2x12 cabs that's 22 lbs, and then put a couple Celestion Neo V-Type speakers in, weighs just over 30 lbs! You can pick it up easily with one damn arm! Easily half the weight of the Verellen 2x12 he was hauling around previously.

tallchris wrote: Wed Oct 22, 2025 11:07 am

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Wed Oct 22, 2025 9:26 am

cakes wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 2:09 pm
My main reason for trying to replace by 2x12 is to have a much lighter cab. It's 25lbs vs 45lbs and is half the size. I can carry it in one hand, the guitar in the other, and everything else in a backpack.

If your main focus is weight, have you looked into those DVMark 2x12 cabinets? John from Stomatopod has used one for years live and it has always sounded great to me - and it's less than 25lbs!

Guitarist in High Priors got one of these Mojotone Lite 2x12 cabs that's 22 lbs, and then put a couple Celestion Neo V-Type speakers in, weighs just over 30 lbs! You can pick it up easily with one damn arm! Easily half the weight of the Verellen 2x12 he was hauling around previously.

I was looking at those Mojotone lightweight cabs. I'm glad to hear this, because it seemed questionable in their documentation of it. Def a possibility if this doesn't pan out. I am not convinced on using a 1x12 just yet.

The difference between 1x12 and 2x12 is pretty stark at rock band levels.

I had an oversized Weber 1x12 with their version of a 65-watt alnico Celestion Blue and it was the best I could manage short of a 2x12 or 4x12, sounded great whether the amp I was using was 15 watts or 60.

The weight and size was never a factor for me - I felt spoiled if it fit on a handcart with the amp, but I’m not a road dog and never really played more than one show a month.