I AM TORN. Help me get pups for my JP70

[acauseforpatric]

So I am looking to upgrade from the stock pickups in my Sterling By Music Man JP70. The stock ones are fairly decent so I am not in a huge rush. I have a budget of ~$200.

So far I have been looking an the new Seymour Duncan Pegasus (bridge) and Sentient (Neck) because they are getting some impressive accolades from Ola Englund and Aaron Marshall of Intervals.

I have also been considering some dimarzios. Either the Crunchlab/Liquifire set or a D-Activator in the bridge and the Liquifire in the neck.

The guitar is Basswood with a maple neck/rosewood board. I researched quite a bit and basswood seems to always have a pronounced midrange but because of the wood's lack of density the lows and high's are muted/rolled off.

Also to be noted, I play progressive metal in the vein of BTBAM/Periphery/The Contortionist. So lots of high gain, shredding, djenty-stuff, but there is also clean/jazzy sections as well.

Looking for whichever pickups will give me good clarity, as well as brighten up the guitar a bit.

tl;dr: Need clear/articulate pickups for basswood guitar.

 

[Jonathan20022]

I think the D-Activators might be your best bet, I'm sure most people will agree that a set in a Basswood bodied guitar does wonders for it. It's got a tight low end, and a very nice high end to it so it seems like what would fit best, so it'll fill in the lows and highs that the Basswood is lacking in. I haven't tried the new SD's, but I get the impression that they're made a bit more for downtuning and ERG instruments, can't go wrong with either one though.



They sound massive, but Keith and Ola usually have that massive tone from their songs and videos. So I would try them yourself in case you don't like them.

Also a good thing to be noted, if you don't end up liking whatever Dimarzio pickups you buy first. Dimarzio gives you the option of sending them in and receiving a different set of choice to use. Has to be bought new though, and lets say you get the CL/LF combo, if it's not your cup of tea, you can send it in and get a D-Activator Set to use from them. Great policy if you ask me.

The Crunchlab is an amazing bridge pickup, but has a FAT low end, not in a bad way. But trust me when I say massive is an understatement.

 

[dkannen]

I have a JP7, and the crunchlab is really not my thing. I've also gone through D-Activators, and didn't like them for the same reason- the low end was not tight or refined enough. Since you can't really afford a set of BKPs, I'd recommend the Duncan Distortion bridge. Great pickup- similarly voiced to the DActivator, but solves all the problems with the low end.

 

[acauseforpatric]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feeback. I ended up ordering the Duncan Pegasus and Sentient. Sean Ashe (fellow SBMM endorser) and Aaron Marshall (Intervals) said they are on par with BKP's... so I had to pull the trigger on em.