Looking for a Neck Pups with Clear, Deep Cleans and good lead

[kamello]

Hi Guys, Recently, I switched my bridge pickup to a Duncan Distortion, so far Im pretty happy with it, but a guy offered me to buy my stock Dean pickups so I would have enough money to buy a new neck pickup



Like I Said, Im looking for something with a good clean tone, think of something like the intro tone of All New Materials, and Scale The Summit



Tonally, I love the P-90 style pickups character, but I also need a good Lead Tone, I do lots of tapping, so I need to find the balance between Low-Output for cleans, and High-Output for easier Leads and Harmonics

a few Examples of Lead Tones I really like are Petrucci in Systematic Chaos (Ministry of Lost Souls or IntPoE are good examples) and Images & Words




right now I can only think of an Air-Norton, but I want to take more options in consideration

the guitar is a Dean Vendetta 4.0 with Mahoganny Body, Maple Top and Neck, and Rosewood Fretboard


thanks for taking the time to read all this

[wakjob]

The guy at Dean that makes the pu's is a genius. Some of the best stock pu's I've ever heard, not all, but most.

You don't like the neck pu? What is it about it that you don't like?

When playing leads, do you patch or channel switch? Kick it up a notch with a boost or delay pedal?

[kamello]

Actually, I Really Like my Neck Pup (the stock Bridge was a bit weak but it was really good for more straight-forward Metal, Like Metallica or Pantera)


but I think this could be a good oportunity to upgrade to something better, I don't have any experience with quality neck pickups, just bridge, so I don't know what Im losing here , but the difference between stock bridge and the Duncan was Pretty Big, here is a little demo

Pickups Demo (Dean DMT /// Duncan Distortion) by Kamello-chm on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free



when I play Leads, I Boost Mids, Bass and Gain (something like, Bass at 7, Mids at 10, and Treble at 5 or 6) and Gain around 6 or 7

thanks man

[Richard Irons]

Hi. I'm a "Seymour Duncan Tone Expert". This just means I can give you some decent advice from the point of view of SD pickups.

This might seem a little out of leftfield, but what came to mind when reading your post was actually the P-Rails. The fact that you like a P90 tone is obviously taken care of by the fact that, well, there's a P-90 in there. But when you wire the two coils in series you'd get a decent amount of output for tapping too. In fact there's a hotter version designed for bridge position, but there's nothing stopping you trying it in the neck position if you realy feel that the added output would be worth it.

If you only want to switch between the P-90 and humbucker modes, you can do that with a push/pull pot. If you want more options than that you could add another push/pull, drill your guitar for a mini-toggle switch, or perhaps change the three-way switch to a 5-way superswitch and give yourself a couple more tones on there.

If, however, you don't really like the idea of having extra switching options, and want to stick with your three-way setup, then I'd recommend the 59 or the Pearly Gates. Both are PAF-style pickups (with the PG being slightly hotter) which might put you off a bit, but you'll get that airy sound you're after and a decent amount of output for the leads.

Hope that helps.

[ejendres]

Personally I like the SD '59 for cleans and leads. One of the best neck pickups out there.

[stuglue]

I'm a Duncan fan (the SH5 is still my favourite bridge pickup), however I have a dimarzio liquifire in the neck and I've yet to find another pickup that impresses me for those smooth neck tones.

[WaywardHaze]

If you're talking really fluid, liquid-like lead I'd recommend the Bare Knuckle Miracle Man.

Depends on a lot of factors, of course. Sounds killer in an all mahogany guitar. Really high output, though, so you have to be mindful of that. I can also vouch for the SD '59, great neck pickup.

[kamello]

@Richard: the P-Rail seems very interesting , Might try it on another guitar in the future though, I want to just stick to a traditional neck Humbucker

@Waywardhaze: no money for BKP's (and if I had any, I would buy one for the bridge, not the neck )


@Ejendres and Sluglue: I spoke to a friend wich is a biiiiiiiiiig Gear-Whore, and Told me that both pickups (59 and Liquifire) are a few of his favourite's so I might give a try to one of them, both can be easy reselled in my country if I don't like one of them


thanks to everyone

[Strobe]

I have the P-rails in my Les Paul, and I can vouch for them. Mine are with the triple shot mounting ring - which lets you select any combination of the coils (and in series / parallel). I especially like the neck one. I realize you just said you want a traditional humbucker, but I will mention this anyways:

Here is one reason the P-Rail / Triple shot mounting ring might be good for you:

1) You can get relatively high output on the neck using the P-90 / single coil in series / parallel. Series will sound more like a typical neck humbucker, the parallel will be significantly brighter.
2) You can get some lovely cleans using just the P-90 / single coil in the neck (lower output)

Also, I will say the liquid fire is awesome but I have never heard it in mahogany.

[grunge782]

59 is a good suggestion.

Also if you want boutique without the super high price tag check out these guys-

BG Pups Hand Wound Custom Guitar Pickups by Bryan Gunsher

http://www.rosepickups.com/