Humbuckers for alder?

DefaultM

I've got a PRS CE24 that's got an alder body with maple neck and fretboard.
So far pickups wise I've tried a JB, Suhr SSH+ and SSV, and a set of duncan distortions. All of them seem to have a tone that makes my teeth itch? A slightly scratchy sounding top end and not very tight.

Can anyone recommend recommend pickups for this guitar? I already think bareknuckle holy divers would be good, but I'm not buying them unless they come up for sale second hand.

guitarfishbay

I'm assuming your priority here is high gain?

Have you considered actives? I know the high end thing you're talking about and hear it in a lot of high output passives, most actives I've tried have less of that high fizz. Also most actives have tighter lows too. Dynamics can be too different though for some people.

guitars4you

Just fitted a set of Oil City Nightfighter with Alnico 1V magnets for a customer on a Custom 24 and liked it - not to hot so retains warmth and clarity with good output - screams in a warm way - If You are looking at S Duncans then an SH11 is a good bet in this combination

bassbora

I have SD Distortion in a mahogany guitar and I think its great and I really like the neck pickup.  Is the amp really high gain?  Could you EQ it differently to get more out of the pickups?

On the other hand I have Oil City Black Arrows in another guitar and I really like them.  I think they sound great clean as well, they are defo worth a thought.

carlos

Wood doesn't affect electric guitar tone. 
Focus on similar or equal combination of bridge, nut, scale length, fret material, string gauge and string type. 

Sassafras

Try lowering the pickups.
Can't hurt.

dindude

carlos said:

Wood doesn't affect electric guitar tone. 

That is very fake news!

FelineGuitars

carlos said:

Wood doesn't affect electric guitar tone. 
Focus on similar or equal combination of bridge, nut, scale length, fret material, string gauge and string type. 

So wrong....
Compare an ash bodied strat to an alder or even mahogany one and the response is quite different 
Yes scale length, string gauge and the player count too but to write off construction materials is a mistake

FelineGuitars

Holy Divers , Rebel Yells or a set of Oil City Blackbirds (we have these in stock) will all work nicely

richardhomer

FelineGuitars said:

carlos said:

Wood doesn't affect electric guitar tone. 
Focus on similar or equal combination of bridge, nut, scale length, fret material, string gauge and string type. 

So wrong....
Compare an ash bodied strat to an alder or even mahogany one and the response is quite different 
Yes scale length, string gauge and the player count too but to write off construction materials is a mistake

Spot on! The difference between Ash or Alder on a Strat or Tele is really obvious - assuming the amp is relatively clean - the more gain you pile on, the less noticeable the differences become.

guitars4you

FelineGuitars said:

carlos said:

Wood doesn't affect electric guitar tone. 
Focus on similar or equal combination of bridge, nut, scale length, fret material, string gauge and string type. 

So wrong....
Compare an ash bodied strat to an alder or even mahogany one and the response is quite different 
Yes scale length, string gauge and the player count too but to write off construction materials is a mistake

endorse that - In a simple way the wood is the voice and the pick-up is the microphone - all components and ingredients have a subtle but effective impact and various changes will edit the tone accordingly

carlos

Non-scientific bollocks. And of course a builder and a guitar seller would tell you it makes a difference. Please look up how a pickup actually works and what is being captured by the transducer, then ask yourself why nobody seems to care about the type of plastic in a pickguard, or what material goes into neck inlays. 
Here's a bit of science, very simple experiment - http://stormriders.com/guitar/telecaster/guitar_wood.pdf

Through the course of this research it seems that there is proof to the statement made by

Halliday in that the body of an electric guitar does not have resonance. Of course this is both

correct and incorrect. From the stand point of the electric guitar’s purpose of being amplified the

statement is correct. However, the guitar body does in fact resonate and when it is not plugged

in, the body is noticed to color the sound. This observation explains why some would say they

can hear a difference in the wood. When playing an electric guitar unplugged the tonal qualities

of the wood are apparent as the ears perceive what the microphone “hears”. These perceptible

variations however, appear to get lost when the volume of the amplified signal takes over. 

carlos

A bunch of guitars made of NYLON tonewood (sarcasm) - 
A guitar made from concrete tonewood - 

timhulio

Well, I'm glad that's settled once and for all! 

carlos

Stone, sourced from a Brazilian stoneforest - 

DefaultM

If wood doesn't make a difference then the guitar is exactly the same as my other prs ce. The Suhr pickups sound amazing in that but completely different in this one.
Only difference between the 2 guitars is that one is alder and maple and the other is mahogany and rosewood.

I'd much prefer it if wood didn't make a difference because it would make this a lot easier, but I can't explain the above.

DefaultM

Oh and the amp is an axe fx 2 so I can do whatever to the sound really.
I can't seem to dial out the high end fizz, whereas all my other guitars are fine.

dindude

carlos said:

Non-scientific bollocks. And of course a builder and a guitar seller would tell you it makes a difference. Please look up how a pickup actually works and what is being captured by the transducer, then ask yourself why nobody seems to care about the type of plastic in a pickguard, or what material goes into neck inlays. 
Here's a bit of science, very simple experiment - http://stormriders.com/guitar/telecaster/guitar_wood.pdf

Through the course of this research it seems that there is proof to the statement made by

Halliday in that the body of an electric guitar does not have resonance. Of course this is both

correct and incorrect. From the stand point of the electric guitar’s purpose of being amplified the

statement is correct. However, the guitar body does in fact resonate and when it is not plugged

in, the body is noticed to color the sound. This observation explains why some would say they

can hear a difference in the wood. When playing an electric guitar unplugged the tonal qualities

of the wood are apparent as the ears perceive what the microphone “hears”. These perceptible

variations however, appear to get lost when the volume of the amplified signal takes over. 

Um, instead of all the above twaddle, use your ears? It's pretty obvious then.

guitars4you

Sorry @carlos but if wood makes no difference to the overall tonal character then why use wood at all ? - then save cutting down trees and utiilse carbon composites and/or plastics etc - some have tried such options and generally they are toneless, lifeless and certainly have not sold - I'm not prejudice to the point that if someone can capture the tonal character of wood in a composite format then I'm in - But certainly so far on a commercial basis no one has successfully achieved the desired results

Have your opinions Carlos by all means but sorry I don't agree - my ears tell me what is going on and not my bank balance - However I would say that the more you saturate your set-up with gain then differences are generally minimised

dindude

Anyway, back in the real world - I have a Schecter PT which is alder and yes the humbuuckers that came in it (Slightly hot PAF types) would take your head off.

Ive gotta some Seymour Whole Lotta Humbuckers in there now and whilst still bright, it's not too bright and there's a thickness to the sound now, they suit it very well.

Also consider changing the pot values.

carlos

dindude said:

Um, instead of all the above twaddle, use your ears? It's pretty obvious then.

Sorry but using a spectrometer is the truth, our ears are the twaddle. Psychoacoustics.