[WillingWell]

Hey there duders, I'm thinking of replacing the Duncans in my Soloist. I have two Hotrails and a JB in there currently and while I like the sound, I want to try some Dimarzios in it because I've been a little dissatisfied with the sound lately. If you don't know, the Soloist is an alder body with a maple neck, neck thru.

The Dimarzios I've been considering are the Air Norton S or Pro Track for the neck and either a D-sonic or something else in the bridge. I'm really clueless on Dimarzios, so if you guys could let me know about the ones I mentioned or recommend others, that'd help a lot.

[Jongpil Yun]

Ahhh the Jackson Soloist. My absolute favorite 6-string probably.

Neck: YJM. This is the best neck singlecoil IMO. I absolutely love it.

Middle: Virtual Vintage Solo Pro

Bridge: Evolution.

Both the mid and neck pickups there were MADE for an alder+maple guitar, so they'll sound right in the Soloist. As for the bridge, the Evolution is definitely my favorite non Lundgren/Bareknuckle bridge pickup. Not only does it have a great lead tone, you can get amazingly brutal rhythm tones out of it that have great clarity.

[frank falbo]

Fast Track 1 is a great middle pickup. If it were mine I'd stay with the lower powered Rails pickups like the Cruiser or the Fast Track 1. But if you're already used to the Hot Rails, then the AN-S or Pro Track could be great too. With either one of those I'd still say put the Fast Track in the middle. (or perhaps your intention was to just leave the middle alone)

To me your biggest battle is the neck through construction. The normal pickups associated with Maple/Alder will not sound the same in a neck through. That's not to say they're bad, but you have to consider that a large portion of your body wood sound is governed by that huge Maple plank running down the center. The neck-through construction is a very tight sound witha compressed midrange and some midrange frequencies combed away while the plinky upper treble cuts through. A bolt-joint Alder body has a broader more open midrange.

I think you need some pickups that are very dynamic and excited sounding. The D-Sonic should be one of those. The Evo has a screaming midrange that would be a nice compliment to a neck through too. The Breed and Norton would be good choices as well.

[noodles]

I'm still looking for a bridge pickup for my Soloist, but after the success of the Custom 5 in my KxK, I think I'm going to try one. I've got a JB Jr. in the neck, which I've found I like a whole lot more than the full size JB in the bridge. I'm using an Alnico II Pro RWRP in the middle, which gives me some great Strat-like quack in the 2 and 4 positions.

I'd just try some different Duncans first. I think the pickups that Jackson puts into these aren't the best suited for them.

[jacksonplayer]

The Duncan TB-5 Custom rocks the house in my Soloist.