# Alder body pickup suggestions?



## WhoThenNow7 (Jun 18, 2013)

It's almost NGD for me, I purchased an Ibanez RT 650. From what I'm hearing, it is a little too bright for most people's taste in hard rock, and I may be on the hunt for at least a bridge pickup to beef up the sound.

Obviously I'm going to play it stock first, but knowing me I'm probably going to want to change at least the bridge pickup. 

Anyone have any experience with getting pickups for alder body guitars?


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## wakjob (Jun 18, 2013)

Depends on what you want to do with it.

Thicker sounding pickups, with a smoothed out or diminished top end usually come hot.

The ToneZone worked for my strat after initially trying low output 9-10k range vintage pickups in the bridge.

The Alumitone Deathbucker did the trick in an even brighter sounding partscaster I built.

Next ones on my short list to try are the RailHammer pickups by Joe Naylor.


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Jun 18, 2013)

My friend has a Super Distortion in the bridge position of his ESP Tele copy with an alder body/maple neck and it's made the guitar sound a lot thicker without losing too much high end/clarity


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## Hollowway (Jun 19, 2013)

Hard rock + Alder = SD JB

/thread

_This message brought to you by Jackson Guitars, and everything ever recorded in the '80s._



* Hollowway normally would not respond to a wood-influences-tone question like this, but...well, Jackson!!


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## WhoThenNow7 (Jun 21, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll definitely look into it!



Hollowway said:


> Hard rock + Alder = SD JB
> 
> /thread
> 
> ...



I take it that SD stands for super distortion. But what does JB stand for?


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## clintsal (Jun 21, 2013)

I've had a bkp ceramic warpig and an abraxas in alder 7 stringers. The warpig was massive with a really thick, aggressive tone that still sounded great on cleans with a really warm tone that you could easily drive to a growl with harder picking. On high gain it was outright brutal, punishing my preamp with every palm mute and big chord. It stayed tight and articulate, but the big bass response made dialing in the tones I like a bit tricky. 

The abraxas was a much different animal, but still quite a roar to it. The cleans were more expressive with more dynamics while still sounding huge, while the higher gain settings had a bit more definition but left we wanting a bit for a harder hitting punchy attack. Mind you, I play techy trem picking stuff, and I feel like neither alnico 4 nor alder are the best choices for that (though I'm certain some people make it work).


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Jun 21, 2013)

+1 on the C-pig  It is the most "pissed off" sound I've heard, but doesn't get harsh in the high end and stays tight and clear. It's got a lot of mid/lo-mid/bass that make it sound really thick, but it has a nice balance of highs that keep it from becoming hot mud.


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## Leuchty (Jun 21, 2013)

Warpig or holy diver.

Also, SD stands for Seymour Duncan.


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## Pav (Jun 21, 2013)

WhoThenNow7 said:


> I take it that SD stands for super distortion. But what does JB stand for?



SD stands for Seymour Duncan. The JB is one of their more popular bridge pickups as it retains a lot of the classic fatness associated with humbuckers while being hotter. It's also pretty popular in Alder.


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## oneblackened (Jun 21, 2013)

Gonna agree with the JB if bright isn't what you want. I'm not really sure how to describe the JB other than "hot A5 without too much top end".

FWIW I'm not a fan of it - but then I like really bright pickups


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## saxman42 (Jun 22, 2013)

I'm a fan of the SD SH6 Distortion in the bridge. I'm sure many people here will disagree with me, but I don't think the wood type has as much of an affect as people say it does. If you think of the physics behind it, your pickups will only pick up conductive objects and your strings are the only conductive objects that are moving enough to cause a change in the magnetic field.

I'm not going to deny that body density, size, shape, etc. will affect how much acoustic feedback is applied back onto your strings, and in hand affect your sound a bit, but I think it's blown way out of proportion. You can change your sound far more through signal processing with the electronics in your guitar, pedals, and amp than you can with the wood in your guitar.

I say choose some pickups based on sound clips you hear online or in person, regardless of what guitar they're installed in (the amp they're going through is a different story). You can make much larger changes in tone with minimal electronics changes than you can with the type of wood. Even a tiny change in pickup height can make a more significant difference than the type of wood.


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## WhoThenNow7 (Jun 22, 2013)

Right now I have dimarzios in all my guitars, which are all 7's except for this 6 I just got. I'm going to check that JB out, as long as it doesn't make it sound muddy, at least.


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## Andromalia (Jun 22, 2013)

Alder+ DiMarzio super distorsion->Maiden.



> your pickups will only pick up conductive objects and your strings are the only conductive objects that are moving enough to cause a change in the magnetic field.


Except that when you strum, the guitar vibrates->your pickups move in relation to the string. It's not just the strings moving above the pickup, the pickup moves too. As each wood vibrates in a different manner, due to density and texture, they do have an influence in the pickup movement and therefore with the sound. It's not dramatic, but it IS noticeable. some people go a bit overboard with it though, not sure you can hear the difference between alder and alder from Mars cut under a red moon.


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## Curt (Jun 22, 2013)

Duncan JB.

3 reasons:

1.) It is my favorite duncan for fat tone.
2.) I haven't put it in a guitar that it didn't sound good in.
3.) It has been the most popular SD bridge pickup for 30+ years, and rightfully so. 

Need a set? JB/Jazz


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## oneblackened (Jun 22, 2013)

Curt said:


> Duncan JB.
> 
> 3 reasons:
> 
> ...



I've had guitars it didn't sound good in. Too much for mahogany.


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## WhoThenNow7 (Jun 24, 2013)

I'm going to give the jb a shot, at least play a friends first and see how I like it.


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## Curt (Jun 24, 2013)

oneblackened said:


> I've had guitars it didn't sound good in. Too much for mahogany.



I have had it in a few thick mahogany guitars that it sounded great in. But then again, those weren't used for high gain stuff.


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## MStack (Jul 7, 2013)

I took a JB out of my alder body/maple neck Charvel San Dimas because it was way too bright. I have a BKP ceramic warpig in my Alder ESP Horizon and it sounds amazing! I also have the Alnico warpig in another alder guitar, and I prefer the ceramic version. it seems to have a bit more clarity, and attack. For high gain, I dont think you will beat the ceramic warpig.


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## Abbath78 (Jul 7, 2013)

MStack said:


> I took a JB out of my alder body/maple neck Charvel San Dimas because it was way too bright. I have a BKP ceramic warpig in my Alder ESP Horizon and it sounds amazing! I also have the Alnico warpig in another alder guitar, and I prefer the ceramic version. it seems to have a bit more clarity, and attack. For high gain, I dont think you will beat the ceramic warpig.



What pickup did you end up putting in your San Dimas? I have a ceramic warpig I'm thinking about installing in mine. And did you have to go with long legs to get the correct pickup height?


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## rikomaru (Jul 10, 2013)

i like the pearly gates plus that came standard in my strat. i don't really remember the difference from the standard model, but i presume it will be rather small.


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## myampslouder (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm a big fan of the Dimarzio Tone Zone in alder. Very tight but with good chunky lows and lots of fat mids. I'm also a HUGE fan of the bareknuckle aftermath in alder. the aftermaths rolled back highs and fat low mids complement alder perfectly


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## KultureDekay (Jul 10, 2013)

SD SH-5


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## MoJoToJo (Jul 10, 2013)

It's funny I have tried plenty of pickups in my old mule an Alder Strat, expensive ones DiMarzio's ,Seymours, Kinmans etc. Then the other week I picked up a Dragonfire preloaded pickguard H/S/S with a screamer humbucker just for kicks, cheap as chips.
When I first fitted it up my first impression was "piece of crap" but after mucking round with pedal/amp/ settings, pickup heights etc I have decided to leave it in for a while. Great for Fusion........
The two single coils fitted in the pickguard will have to go though, but for $39.00 I have no complaints.... Just saying you don't have to spend a fortune to get decent tones just a matter of using your guitars/amps/pedals tone controls.


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## cwhitey2 (Jul 10, 2013)

SD JB


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## wakjob (Jul 10, 2013)

WhoThenNow7 said:


> I'm going to give the jb a shot, at least play a friends first and see how I like it.



Nice choice. 

But, If you first don't care for it, try it with a *250k volume pot* before you totally give up on it.


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