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Post subject: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:22 pm
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I am looking to up grade my 1987 mij contemporary Strat. I'm looking for suggestions for a pair of humbuckers that are good together for hard rock and still sound good clean.


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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:07 pm
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Not joking here but the EMG Hetfield set has the best sounding neck pickup I've heard. Usable for any style.
The bridge isn't great clean but that neck pickup is jaw dropping

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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:49 pm
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I really like the Gibson Burstbuckers. They sound great clean and can handle hard rock sounds too.

T2

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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:05 pm
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pazmanjr wrote:
I am looking to up grade my 1987 mij contemporary Strat. I'm looking for suggestions for a pair of humbuckers that are good together for hard rock and still sound good clean.

How hard? How clean?
If you want clinical clean, as well as playing high distortion and still be able to tell notes apart, the best you can get is probably a death metal pickup like a Seymour Duncan "Black Winter" or "Nazgul". Believe it or not, they really excel at clean.
An active EMG is another option, but then you might want to have a pad input to prevent unintended drive for the clean.

If you want clean with a little color, as well as a less hard rock style, more like 70s than 90s, I'd say DiMarzio.


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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:56 am
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I have a couple of HH Strats (AmStds) through 3-way switches. 1 x volume, no tone pots, on Kent Armstrong (WD) custom scratchplates. Just 3 sounds - nice and simple! To give a clue about my sound, I run through a Rectoverb 25 and I favour Tube Driver overdrive and Rat distortion. I've tried numerous HB's over the years.

One Strat has the classic Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz combo. I suppose the JB is OK clean if you knock the volume down a bit, but then you lose the clarity. The guitar is great dirty, I think, but I wouldn't recommend for clean.

The other has a Pearly Gates (Bridge model) in the bridge, and Jazz Bridge model (has a little more poke than the Neck model) in the neck. I find this PG/Jazz combo much better both clean and dirty. It still sounds Stratty - although obviously nothing like 3xSC - but has loads of punch when you want it.

But I've found that a p/up combo in one Strat may sound very different in another apparently identical Strat. Which makes it very difficult to advise anyone! If you have the facility to test a few out, though, and your desired sound is anything like mine, the PG/Jazz is worth a try.

Cheers - Peter.


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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:01 pm
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For a hard rocking combination that still sounds good on the clean side it's pretty hard to beat a
Dimarzio Super Distortion at the bridge and a
Humbucker From Hell at the neck.

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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 3:39 am
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I suggest that you check the body routing beneath the pickguard to ascertain what pickups will actually fit and if modifications are necessary, you'll need to be prepared for that contingency as well.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:01 pm
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Personally I am a big fan of both Gibson and Dimarzio pickups. I have a HH Strat with a PAF Pro-bridge and PAF Joe (Satriani)-neck. Very well balanced between the two with nice warmth and dynamics, from clean to heavy distortion ... and they come F-spaced, so great for Strats, especially (IMO). The PAF Joe is basically a modified PAF Pro intended for the neck position, so they go together well.

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Post subject: Re: Humbucker upgrade suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:51 pm
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A set of Blacktop Humbuckers may be what you're looking for... great with gain and they clean up nice... They're hotwound PAF's with Alnico mags... you can prob nail a set pretty cheap on FeeBay...

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