Hybrid pickup selection

Pixelherder

I'm in the middle of an Epiphone restoration project and wanted some pickup advice. It's a solid mahogany body and bolt on mahogany neck (not super important) and while my luthier skills will take me most of the way, I'm not sure what to do about pickups and mixing them for tonal range. My original plan was to just use a humbucker set (something like Bare Knuckles True Grit), but then I thought I'm rarely playing using both neck and bridge together, so does it make sense to choose two pickups that make the most of their position on the guitar (and the relative tension differences), but also allow me to get the most of the styles that I play? My playing tends to be either Classic Blues/Blues Rock or quite a bit heavier, more towards grunge/modern metal. I've bounced between the idea of kitting it out to cater for vintage blues or something with a lot of kick, but having the potential for both has me intrigued about the best way to achieve this. My plan was to use the ObsidianWire kits with split-coil ability to further increase tone potential. Like I said, really comfortable with the physical build of this thing, but trying to figure out what pickups would suit my style, position and give a good range of tone potential is making my head hurt (like is it better to use the brighter pickup at the bridge to exaggerate, or neck to balance etc. ). Any ideas?

Funkfingers

First of all, welcome to this forum.

Second, what shape is the Epiphone electric guitar on which you are working? Pickups that suit an SG-shaped guitar might not suit a Les Paul (and vice versa). Firebird shaped guitars usually come with a different size of pickup to the majority of the range. 

I am reluctant to comment on Obsidian Wire kits without first researching them. A hyperlink might help. 

Alegree

Funkfingers said:

First of all, welcome to this forum.

Second, what shape is the Epiphone electric guitar on which you are working? Pickups that suit an SG-shaped guitar might not suit a Les Paul (and vice versa). Firebird shaped guitars usually come with a different size of pickup to the majority of the range. 

I am reluctant to comment on Obsidian Wire kits without first researching them. A hyperlink might help. 

They're all over ebay. Look like an aftermarket Gibson style screw terminal PCB to me.  They seem to be pretty well made.

The real question on pickup selection to someone who plays metal is - what is the lowest tuning you play in?

ICBM

The most common combination is a hotter midrange-heavy modern humbucker in the bridge, and a brighter lower-output vintage-type one in the neck. That gives the best of both worlds and usually sounds ok in the middle position too - more like the neck pickup than the bridge, the lower-output pickup always dominates (counterintuitively).

While DC resistance is far from a complete guide to output and tone, typically you’ll have something around 7-8K for the neck and 14-16K for the bridge.

Pixelherder

It’s an LP body shape and while one probably a confident beginner/intermediate I haven’t started playing in drop tunings (yet). Obsidian operate out of New Zealand I think and have been super helpful in feedback so far. I’m also thinking something hotter in the bridge with a vintage voice in the neck. Been looking at House of Tone pickups and Bare Knuckles, it’s just really difficult to know where to start with a product you can’t really test until it’s in!

Roland

Pixelherder said:

... it’s just really difficult to know where to start with a product you can’t really test until it’s in!

Welcome to the eternal search. Sound is difficult to describe in words. Many of us end up buying and trying a number of pickups. You’ll see them come up for sale in the Parts£ section.

My advice would be to buy a pair secondhand. Try them, which will give you a sound reference. You can then decide whether you want something brighter/darker and more or less compressed. If you’ve bought second hand then you can resell at little loss.

 @Alegree Is there anything in your stock clearance which might suit?

DannyP

If I had a bolt-on LP Jr type, and I wanted contrasting pickups, I'd look at creating something like this

https://imgur.com/T0dUr4E

[img]https://i.imgur.com/T0dUr4E.jpg[/img]

They make these with other pick up configurations too - just google Fano Alt De Facto JP6

Alegree

Pixelherder said:

It’s an LP body shape and while one probably a confident beginner/intermediate I haven’t started playing in drop tunings (yet). Obsidian operate out of New Zealand I think and have been super helpful in feedback so far. I’m also thinking something hotter in the bridge with a vintage voice in the neck. Been looking at House of Tone pickups and Bare Knuckles, it’s just really difficult to know where to start with a product you can’t really test until it’s in!

I play more or less identical genres to you, primarily in the heavy rock area.

If you're playing in standard, something in the 16k+ range with either ceramic or alnico 5 magnet can bring a huge sound. If you're drop tuning at some point in the future you almost certainly want something brighter in the 12-14k range with ceramic. I can't get anything with alnico to tighten up nearly as much as soon as you drop tune. My opinion is that ceramic is vital for drop tuning.
Roland said:

Pixelherder said:

... it’s just really difficult to know where to start with a product you can’t really test until it’s in!

Welcome to the eternal search. Sound is difficult to describe in words. Many of us end up buying and trying a number of pickups. You’ll see them come up for sale in the Parts£ section.

My advice would be to buy a pair secondhand. Try them, which will give you a sound reference. You can then decide whether you want something brighter/darker and more or less compressed. If you’ve bought second hand then you can resell at little loss.

 @Alegree Is there anything in your stock clearance which might suit?

I've got a JB, a hot P90 sized humbucker neck (very popular in these genres, see Lee Malia for instance), and a hot bridge humbucker. Certainly a whole lot cheaper than the options being looked at thus far.

olafgarten

I would recommend a hot humbucker in the bridge and a P90 in the neck.

You could go for an Oil City Black Arrow and Mighty 90

Pixelherder

Any thoughts on House of Tone pickups?

HenryRayUK

Pixelherder said:

I'm in the middle of an Epiphone restoration project and wanted some pickup advice. It's a solid mahogany body and bolt on mahogany neck (not super important) and while my luthier skills will take me most of the way, I'm not sure what to do about pickups and mixing them for tonal range. My original plan was to just use a humbucker set (something like Bare Knuckles True Grit), but then I thought I'm rarely playing using both neck and bridge together, so does it make sense to choose two pickups that make the most of their position on the guitar (and the relative tension differences), but also allow me to get the most of the styles that I play? My playing tends to be either Classic Blues/Blues Rock or quite a bit heavier, more towards grunge/modern metal. I've bounced between the idea of kitting it out to cater for vintage blues or something with a lot of kick, but having the potential for both has me intrigued about the best way to achieve this. My plan was to use the ObsidianWire kits with split-coil ability to further increase tone potential. Like I said, really comfortable with the physical build of this thing, but trying to figure out what pickups would suit my style, position and give a good range of tone potential is making my head hurt (like is it better to use the brighter pickup at the bridge to exaggerate, or neck to balance etc. ). Any ideas?

If you need Obsidianwire solderless wiring kits you can now get them in the UK - www.eltoromusic.co.uk