8,720
edits
Changes
m
→Phase
Also, if you just want one pickup, make sure you are getting the neck/bridge version you want - they may have the same name. For instance, John Petrucci uses a Dimarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge position and Liquifire in the neck position. These pickups have no neck/bridge variants, so you know exactly what you're getting. But if you wanted to get a Dimarzio Gravity Storm pickup, there's a Gravity Storm bridge and a Gravity Storm neck, which are very different pickups.
==Tone==
===Modern vs. Vintage===
===Magnet===
==Phase==
4-wire humbuckers or pairs of pickups can be wired in-phase or out-of-phase. Typically, they are wired in-phase, meaning pickups reinforce each other, providing a solid frequency response across the entire frequency spectrum through the resonant peaks. However, sometimes they are wired for an out-of-phase tone, which can sound a bit thin and scooped (low midrange). This is nice for certain effects, or a "spankin" funky type sound.
==Wiring==
When it comes to wiring pickups, I'm a big fan of doing it yourself. Professional installation can often cost a lot. A simple 2 humbucker wiring with serial operation only, 3-way pickup switch, and volume/tone knobs is not too difficult. That said, the more options you want, the more compicated everything is going to get. To get a "kitchen sink" setup, with the ability to toggle between parallel and serial operation; in-phase or out-of-phase; and humbucker vs. single-coil, you will need a bunch of switches and to wire lots of connections. This will likely involve drilling new holes into the face of the body for the extra switches, and possibly even routing out more space in the electronics cavity if necessary to fit all the wiring.
I don't recommend trying to get every possible pickup sound out of a single guitar. Here's the wirings I've used for my guitars:
===Classic Stratocaster===
My Yamaha Pacifica originally came with a bridge humbucker and two single coil pickups. This is a nice setup - the bridge humbucker is good for heavier distortion tones, but you still have the middle, middle + neck (hum canceling), and neck positions for a decent variety of single coil tones. Unfortunately the stock pickups were not great, so I switched them for a pair of humbuckers. I've since gotten other guitars that do the hard rock sound much better, so this is transformed back to the classic Stratocaster setup with 3 single-coils.
Typically, a Strat uses true single coils, and positions 1, 3, and 5 can exhibit hum and noise, while positions 2 and 4 use bridge/middle or neck/middle. The middle pickup is reverse wound, so that when combined with one of the other two, they achieve hum/noise canceling.
That's nice, but what's even better is hum/noise canceling in all positions. So I got some Dimarzio Area 51 pickups, which are designed to get a great classic Strat sound, but without any noise.
This uses a volume/tone knob setup that applies to all pickups.
===Ibanez Jem===
The Jem uses neck and bridge humbuckers (in serial) for a strong high-gain tone, capable of heavy distorted rhythms and leads. But it also has a middle position single coil pickup for sweeter tones. And to get even more versatility, position 2 uses the inner coil of the neck humbucker in combination with the middle pickup. Position 4 does the same but with the inner coil of the bridge humbucker. These pairs of pickups are wound in different directions, creating a parallel humbucker exactly like the original Stratocaster wiring. Again, it uses the volume/tone knob on all pickups.
===EBMM JP6===
The EBMM JP6 comes with bridge and neck humbuckers and a 3-way toggle switch. The bridge and neck positions on the switch select bridge and neck humbuckers (operating in serial), respectively. The middle position is a bit unique, though. Typically, the middle position is simply both humbuckers mixed together (they both operate in serial, but are combined in parallel). This gets you a tone that is a combination of their individual sounds. This was not terribly versatile, so EBMM put a twist on this and made the middle position use only the inner coils from both humbuckers. These inner coils combine to make a parallel humbucker that gets a nice single-coil-esque tone, but with no hum/noise. Great for cleans, especially strumming.
Some JP6's have an additional Piezo-pickup-equipped bridge. This creates additional complexity. The guitar has an extra 3-way toggle switch on the top horn. This selects between piezo, magnetic, or both. Additionally, the guitar has 2 output jacks. When in use, one sends the piezo output and the other the magnetics, allowing you to use both simultaneously while routing them to completely different pieces of gear and processing.
I swapped out the Dimarzio Steve's Special/Air Norton originally installed with JP's more current pickups: the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire.
===Ibanez RGA8 - Versatile Setup===
The stock pickups in this guitar were the worst I've ever heard on any guitar. They were replaced by a pair of Dimarzio D'Activators - very aggressive humbuckers. I wanted a versatile setup with these, so I used push/pull volume/tone pots with DPDT switches. So not only do my volume and tone knobs work by twisting them, they can actually be toggled by pulling them out or pushing them in. Each switch is wired to one pickup, so it controls whether the pickup is using parallel or serial operation. This gives all of the following options:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! 3-Way Position !! Volume Knob Push/Pulled !! Tone Knob Push/Pulled !! Tone
|-
| Neck || Pushed || n/a || Fat but aggressive and somewhat nasal humbucker tone - work well for cleans, best for singing lead
|-
| Neck || Pulled || n/a || Fat and bright single-coil-esque tone - works great for cleans or clean lead, good for vintage lead
|-
| Bridge || n/a || Pushed || Tight, aggressive bridge humbucker tone - works great for aggressive distorted rhythms and leads
|-
| Bridge || n/a || Pulled || Bright, vintage sounding single-coil-esque bridge tone - works good for vintage rhythm
|-
| Middle || Pushed || Pushed || Both humbuckers - good thick tone good for distorted rock chords
|-
| Middle || Pushed || Pulled || Neck humbucker and bridge single-coil-esque tone - kind of vintage but thick
|-
| Middle || Pulled || Pushed || Neck single-coil-esque and bridge humbucker tone - very powerful tone, but thick and shimmery - bridge humbucker reinforcing mids of neck pickup
|-
| Middle || Pulled || Pulled || Neck and Bridge operating like single coils - a "bigger" tone than just the neck in parallel, but a bit harsh
|}
===Treble Bleed===
==Actives vs. Passives==
==Major Brands/Models==