Looking for mellow humbucking pickups

[nerdor257]

Hey everyone.

I have an 81 Ibanez AS-50 that currently has Lollar Imperial pickups in it and they are just too bright. I find that it almost always has a harsh attack to it no matter what I do. I am considering changing them for something mellower and was looking for suggestions. Also if you have any other recommendations like about pots or capavitors or something (I am not familiar with that area of the guitar yet) please enlighten me so I can solve my particular dilemma. Thanks everyone!

[Greco]

You might want to consider a set of Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" pickups or Gibson (or other brand) "Classic '57" (style) pickups.

You could also put in a 0.047 uF capacitor ...but the change will not likely be that huge. Your guitar might already have that spec of cap as stock.

I'm sure you will get lots of other suggestions.

Cheers

Dave

[jzucker]

i have a pair of pickups from my japanese ibanez PM120 (pat metheny) that I'd be willing to sell. They are gold plated. I replaced them with GIbson classic 57 because they were too mellow.

[heavyblues]

Originally Posted by Greco

You might want to consider a set of Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" pickups or Gibson (or other brand) "Classic '57" (style) pickups.

You could also put in a 0.047 uF capacitor ...but the change will not likely be that huge. Your guitar might already have that spec of cap as stock.

I'm sure you will get lots of other suggestions.

Cheers

Dave

ya, i THINK either of those would be more of what you want(but I have never tried Imperials). The SD seth lover on my tele is very well balanced in the sense of having mellow tone, without being overbearing in any way that I can notice. I used the classic 57 on an archtop, and that seemed really balanced or "neutral" to me at the time as well; almost seemed like it lacked warmth if anything even though it is mellow, and of course this is my perception for the overall setup. Both are jazzy sounding to me on my setup, not 'phat', but the classic 57 seems more on the neutral side if anything from what I noticed at least.

I know what you mean(to the poster). The Kent Armstrong in my Eastman had a somewhat similar problem. It wasn't bright, but rather too thick, too much attack and growl, just "too much". I replaced it with a Lollar CC and got a smoother, more 'evened out' sound which is closer to the sound of a Classic 57 than the original Kent Armstrong.

It sounds like this is more of what you are shooting for? Sorry if I didn't address the problem. So ignore this if you know what I mean.

I hope what I wrote here is helpful, or generally true for the pickups I had mentioned...so other people, PLEASE chime in and correct me, as I know every setup is different.

The CC is a single coil of course, so maybe check out how the Seth Lover sounds. Good luck!

[SamBooka]

Lollar imperial is an amazing pickup. If you find that it is too bright try dropping the value of your volume pot (i.e if you have 1meg pots try 500K. If you have 500K try 250. If you have 250 ..err.. nevermind)

Also dont forget to play with the pickup height. I had the opposite problem with a guitar with a tele neck pickup. Too muddy so I backed it off 1/16 and that did it. Hard to believe.

If you have tried this already please disregard

[heavyblues]

Originally Posted by SamBooka

Also dont forget to play with the pickup height. I had the opposite problem with a guitar with a tele neck pickup. Too muddy so I backed it off 1/16 and that did it. Hard to believe.
D

Ah ya, in considering my post, keep in mind that I do not recall having tried this with this the Kent Armstrong. I might have tried changing the height, but I do not remember.

Perhaps a combination of changing the height and the pot ( err cap too maybe?) as mentioned would do just the trick...

PS. I had a 250k pot from an old single coil in my strat when I was using a single coil sized humbucker, and a simple switch to a 500k pot made it sound just right. So ya, maybe the opposite scenario for you would make the Imperial sound just right.

[heavyblues]

btw, Sam Booka. I love your sig. I know the second part is soooo true. Guitar Center around here is extremely guilty in this regard. Forget the tuning and intonation even, they have guitars with action so high you can't even test the guitar. Preferring higher action myself, it is sad how messed up the setups are there. Maybe they don't want to reveal bad frets on some of the guitars though, who knows.

EDIT: better yet, maybe they do nice setups on the guitars they are desperate to sell, and leave the others untouched. Haha.

[jzucker]

the 57 classics will be a bit brighter than the imperials i'm guessing based on my experience

[Tom Karol]

This may be an over-simplification, but have you tried setting your tone pot on 5 and your volume pot on 7?