Advice on pickups for a Yamaha SA2200

[Moot]

I know where you're coming from, bojan. That's why I don't shy away from ordering quality instruments sight-unseen; part of the joy of guitar is learning to make whatever axe is in your mitts play well and say what you're wanting it to.

But at the same time I like trying out different combinations of things - just for the learning experience of it. Yamaha likely didn't get a chance to try every pickup on the market - perhaps they would have chosen these?

Heck, I'm sure I'll end up changing out the bridge and tailpiece, too, just out of curiosity. Everything can always be put back to stock with no mods.

[helios]

Out of curiosity I replaced the stock Yamaha Alnico V's with the Lollar Imperials, and I'm loving it. The Lollars have a lower output and more sweetness to their tone than the stock pickups have, but they don't drive the amp as hard.

Really, the tonal differences aren't very pronounced - more of a volume difference - and of course the lower output means a tiny bit less bass, but more complex highs. I really like the tones the Lollars put out normally, but the 2200 has brought even these great pickups to life! Wow. I now have the feeling that any pickup would sound good in this guitar, regardless of design.

I really wish I could have both sets in there simultaneously, they both cover so much ground so well. The stock Alnico V's are awesome and, if I had to sum it up, better for harder driven rock and blues music than the Lollars (although the stocks easily cover all the sweet, nasty, or dainty musics really, really well) but the Lollars have a more complex, harmonically sweet tone that I, personally, just love.

I'm going to stick with the Lollars, I think, but I can see me switching back if I get back into the harder-driven blues/rock thing.

So to sum up: I'm happy with the Lollars, but they're not necessarily better than the stock Alnico V's. Which I think speaks very well of Yamaha's Alnico V's.

Hello,
Did you wire the Lollars so you could split them? They are an unbalanced design (ex: Screw coil=4.5 ohms, slug=4.0 ohms) so they should split better than the stock Yamaha balanced humbuckers. I've heard that Fralin Unbuckers split better (more unbalanced) than Lollars, but Lollar Imperials sound better in humbucker mode. At any rate, I'd like to put some Lollar Imperials in my chambered Warmoth L5S.

[Moot]

Yes, I wired them so they split. I have them so the screw coils are the singles.
I just plugged in to see what the single coil mode sounds like and I can't really say I can tell much of a difference; I never really used the split coils by themselves. I kicked in my boost pedal and they sound pretty single-coil to me like that, but without the boost I don't find one split coil beefy enough, given the volume difference between single and 'bucking modes. I don't tend to use them by themselves - I only use them in the middle pos, and then usually just the neck 'bucker and bridge single. I get a lot of use out of that position.

Out of curiosity, everybody, my SA2200 came stock with PUSH/PULL knobs, not the PUSH/PUSH pots like the AES1500. Is anyone else's guitar like that? The specs all say push/push. I like it as much as the push/push pots, I'm just wondering if that's new, or normal, or if they just ran out that day and grabbed what was at hand.

How are those Warmoth L5S's? I've often wondered about those.

[rexi]

I´ve placed SD antiquity pickups in my gibson chet atkins tennessean and my Eastman 805 i´m really pleased with those. Might be something to consider..

[Moot]

Again, out of curiosity, I switched back to the stock Alnico V's and gave them another workout. After a couple of hours I just couldn't take it so I switched back to the Lollars.

I guess it's like computers; when you upgrade they never seem all that much faster, but when you switch back you realize how much of a difference there was. Same with the Lollars. Switching back to the stocks was like someone had replaced my speakers with 8" speakers. All the girth that the Lollars had been providing disappeared.

So I checked my wiring over and over hoping I'd made a mistake but, nope, it was all correct. So I popped in the Lollars again and, poof, there it all was again: harmonics, girth, dimensionality... all there.

I also love most of Seymour Duncan's pickups, as well. If I had to pick a set for the SA2200 I'd go with ZEPHYRS! Or, for a lot less money, I'd get the Jazz/JB set. I think Fralin, Lollar and SD make a Charlie Christian in a humbucker - they'd be cool to try, too.

[va3ux]

How is the stock SA2200 at achieving the traditional woody jazz tone (ie. ES175/L5 type sound) ?

You guys have caught my interest with all the banter about the SA2200.

Thanks....Phil

[Moot]

How is the stock SA2200 at achieving the traditional woody jazz tone (ie. ES175/L5 type sound) ?
You guys have caught my interest with all the banter about the SA2200.
Thanks....Phil

Hello, fellow Canadian!

I'd have to say the SA2200 would do an ok ES-175 sound, but no better or worse than any ES-335.

For that tone (in spades) you'd want the AES1500. It has that slim-line hollow body sound, but because of it's small centre-block it's a lot more stable and snappy. The Q100's on those can cop the '57 sounds easily.

But the SA2200, like the ES-335, has a pretty big solid block down the centre that keeps the top from resonating too much, so it has a less hollow-body sound.

Have you seen any of thomasguitars' videos? He really shows what the 2200 can do.

[jzucker]

dimarzio 36 anniversary humbuckers. Cheap and as good as almost anything out there. Tom Short if you're going the boutique route.

[Jazz_175]

A comparison between Gibson 335 and Yamaha SA2200.
Guess which guitar is playing

[joman50]

I have one. I haven't played it in a while. When I plugged it in recent.
The neck PUP is dead. I think something came lose but if the pickup
is truly dead, this post gives me incentive and some good ideas of
what pickups I can replace it with.

[Gitterbug]

This thread was started back in 2009, but the Yamaha SA-2200 has remained largely unchanged over the years. I had one long ago and share the OP's comments about chords getting muddy - or as I felt, getting some sawtooth effect around them. The original SAH-SAIG AlNiCo V PU's were quite hot, but to go through all their variants is beyond my scope. Depending the model year, your guitar's PU's may be different from what I had. Anyway, I had mine replaced by Seymour Duncans - Jazz for neck, JB for bridge. The result: cleaner, jazzier cleans and chords, but the single-coil mode became useless. I had an Ibanez AS-103 at the same time and found its Super 58s more pleasant. Even those have seen many changes over the years. Be prepared for a flurry of recommendations. Let's face it: you'll be good with any well-reputed humbucker wired for single-coil mode.

[joman50]

This thread was started back in 2009, but the Yamaha SA-2200 has remained largely unchanged over the years. I had one long ago and share the OP's comments about chords getting muddy - or as I felt, getting some sawtooth effect around them. The original SAH-SAIG AlNiCo V PU's were quite hot, but to go through all their variants is beyond my scope. Depending the model year, your guitar's PU's may be different from what I had. Anyway, I had mine replaced by Seymour Duncans - Jazz for neck, JB for bridge. The result: cleaner, jazzier cleans and chords, but the single-coil mode became useless. I had an Ibanez AS-103 at the same time and found its Super 58s more pleasant. Even those have seen many changes over the years. Be prepared for a flurry of recommendations. Let's face it: you'll be good with any well-reputed humbucker wired for single-coil mode.

The pickup works after all. lol. It was a lose connector. Perhaps the originals were swapped out. At any rate, the pickups sound great. I definitely intend to play this guitar more often, such an underrated guitar IMO.

[Gitterbug]

I don't think the SA-2200 is underrated but squeezed into an uncomfortable niche. In the guitar world, it's a pro's pro. It doesn't command the aura of a 335 but is every bit as good. The price has gone up tremendously; a Satin-finished ES-335 actually costs slightly less at Thomann. Ibanez has a whole range of thinlines to offer against Yamaha's only survivor. The quality of Epiphones and other non-US, non-Japanese thinlines has improved, making them perfectly giggable at a fraction of the price.

Yamaha as a brand suffers from ubiquity, starting from Kindergarten recorders, which makes it boring rather than exciting. In the musical instruments business (a global dwarf with some $25 bn USD annually, vs. e.g. $100 bn for whisky, $130 bn for chocolate and almost $3 trillion for automotive products) Yamaha is the world leader, with sales approaching $2 bn. Both Fender and Gibson are privately held, with estimated sales well under $1 bn. Martin is smaller still, yet these three retain a near-cult status despite financial and quality ups and downs. Something to do with the fact that USA accounts for almost half of the world market.