Wich pickups on music man sub 1 for blues-rock

[talas]

Hello - I own music man sub 1 and I want to change pickups. I want HSS so that i can play clean with neck/middle pozition and bridge or neck pozition on drive. I play rock-blues and a little of pop so I need some good natural clean sound and some hard rock sound (i think that HSS is best solution). I own Rivera chubster 40. I think about Andy Timmons cruizers and SD pearly gates...don't know much about pickups. I just want clean natural definition of sound of lower tones 'cause this pickups are very "foggy" and don't have lots of harmonics. Do anybody have any suggestions ?

Thanks and rock on!

talas

[newey]

talas-

Welcome back! It's been awhile since we've heard from you.

All anyone can do, as far as recommending pickups to you, is get you down to a "short list" of things you'll want to listen to yourself. The tone you hear is your head is totally subjective and may not be what someone else thinks it is.

And of course, you can listen to sound clips of different pickups, or even play them in different guitars, but that's only going to approximate what you may hear in your own guitar with a particular pickup.

And, of course, there's also the issue of what the budget will bear. I haven't used these, but several members here speak highly of the Kinman pickups for single coils (noisefree to boot). But these are sort of pricey. There are any number of humbuckers to choose from for the drive/lead bits.

If you're going to combine a hotter HB with more vintage SCs in a HSS setup, it's a useful mod to have a separate volume control for the bridge so you can dial it back a bit, when used in combo with the mid or neck.

[talas]

I tought that nobody knows me here on this forum
Two volume pots are not ok becouse they are "signal eaters" If the volume of humb. would be stronger, I could just move humb. away of strings a little and it would be ok, doesn't it ?
I heard a lot of Kinnman but still i can't compare them with the others becouse I live in Slovenia ( In Europe) and here is not very much stuff in the stores. I think about trip in Germany in december - there is a very big store.
Is there any net page or something to compare pickups? I am really confused 'cause there is a lot of different pikups and just don't know where to start - DiMarzio, EMG, Duncan, Kinmann, Bare Knuckless...
Is there any easier way to decide wich pickups are made for my style ? Just don't have three months of study these things...

[cynical1]

I think newey put it best...one man's Pearly Gates is another man's Gates of Hell...

I guess the best place to start is price. How much are you looking to spend on these pickups? I love the Rio Grande pickups, but unless a deal walks up on eBay I'm not going to buy them.

Granted, they are a bit skewed, but have you tried a few pickup sites and listened to their sample clips?

As you're in Europe, have you ever heard of LeoSounds pickups? These are impressive for the money...but again...every pickup sounds good on the companies website.

And I've got two projects going, both of which are HSS configurations. One is actually 3 humbuckers and the other is two single coils and a HB.

Trial and error is still the best way to go. Find a tone you like and work from there...

Have fun.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[gitpiddler]

Talas-I have found that the Duncan JB (Jeff Beck) at lower volume sounds clean thru any amp I've tried. You may be limited to 2 HB on that guitar without routing a middle position hole in the body and pickguard. Without seeing under the 'hood' it is difficult to know if wiring modifications could provide a clean setting with those pickups.
The Rivera reviews I've found mention possible speaker or tube mods were required depending on year of production. Have you had the same results with another amp?
My gut tells me a pickup change is indeed a good first step with that instrument. The sound you hear unplugged is the foundation. If THAT is 'foggy without harmonics' a pickup may not be the answer you seek.
Good luck and welcome back to the forum!

[gitpiddler]

Hello again-a whammy bar can rather 'fog' the lows also. If you don't use it much, it can be easily blocked, sending more tone to the body, but more on that subject in the Whammy forum, photos included ;D

[talas]

In my Rivera I have vintage 30 and MM sound is just fine. I'm looking for a little things in my sound and that can be arranged with pikups. I use tremolo quite often so I can't remove it. The corpus is made of poplar wich gives similiar sound like alder - a litlle foggy. So I need more crystal pickups. HSS or HSH with splitted neck humb. I think HSS with noiseless or rails - pearly gates on bridge, cruizer on the neck and maybe fast track on the middle (it has more middle tones). Thanks for suggestion for other pickups, but I just seek the names wich I know - DiMarzio, SD, Fender, Kinman...I really don't have time to study all the pickups. But I will check about Leosounds pickups.
Wich combination would be just With Seymour duncan or just with Dimarzio pickups? Dimarzio clear, open humbucker...

Thanks guys for a lost of info!

Talas