Need Pup Suggestions

[Jzbass25]

Hey guys, I hope to have a little money in pocket near october and I have been thinking about putting a middle pup in my jem (possibly changing the neck even though I just put a liquifire in it last christmas hah). I realize most of you guys are metalheads but I figured maybe someone will have an idea.

What I am looking for is liquifire like tone in full humbucking mode but I want to try and get some nice mid+neck, or mid only strat sounds, sort of gilmour-esqu but I'd also like to get a nice SRV type grind too (him and zappa got me into guitar, never looked back).

I've heard gilmour sometimes uses mid only and I know srv liked bridge+mid and neck+mid for his tones half the time. (his 13's helped, I use to play them on my strat but I only have ibanezes with light gauges atm and I'm craving for some strat tone lately)

Are there any pups you can suggest? I was looking at some bare knuckles or suhr but any pup will do, possibly even making the jem H-S-S but I do like that liquifire tone. Also I realize my 1 500k on my jem will affect the tone as well so I'm willing to wire in crazy things to get a diverse set of sounds.

I may try and pickup a cheap mexistrat and just fix it up but that all depends on how much spare money I have later in the year. Also I sorta hate dealing with vintage trems and nuts. Also I doubt a mexistrat neck will like me going back to 13's so I'll prolly have to do like 11's hah.

 

[Racerdeth]

DiMarzio Area 58. I have it in the middle of my strat and it does that clangy in pos 3, quacky in pos 4 thing a treat, added bonus of being hum-cancelling. If you want it to deal with being on 500k controls, stick a 500k metal film resistor between your switch contact (the bit you'd solder the hot wire to) and ground, it makes the single see 250k while your humbies still see 500k at the pot.

 

[Jzbass25]

I'm not concerned with vol drop btw. Also I'm running an evo bridge, its so smooth with the 1 500k and basswood body. (Might just be the one I have too haha)

Also thanks for the suggestion, I was looking at some area 58's also. Alnico 2 is usually a nice smooth tone but can be hot if need be. Do you think for pos 4 will sound ok with an evo? Atm I have no middle and just a 3 way in my jem (came that way from previous owner) so I don't remember how good the split sound is for the evo.

Also the liquifire sound itself actually has some nice straty qualities so if anyone else has one can you comment on its split or reverse phase tone? Also does anyone think having a reverse phase switch would add to the overall tone expandability or should I just stick to 5 way with coil splitting? I was thinking also of trying guthrie's style of splitting instead of standard splitting he has wired.

1 - Neck humbucker
2 - Outside coil of neck humbucker and middle
3 - Outside coils of both humbuckers
4 - Inside coil of bridge humbucker and middle
5 - Bridge humbucker

Coil-Tap Switch (on/off) - split neck

and a blower switch. (Probably going to put one on my 7 but not my 6)

 

[Racerdeth]

With a "single coil" on a 500k the vol doesn't drop. It makes it louder and brighter, a 250k suits the sound better (hence strats and teles have 250ks)

Whenever I have coils out of phase to me it sounds terrible, some like it though. Wouldn't bother with it as a wiring option.

To do that position 3 you've mentioned you'll need a superswitch. I have one of my guitars wired up like that, except I have 4 as neck inner coil and SC.

The superswitch is a joy to use. I've got my (H-H) 7 wired as

Neck Series
Neck Parallel
Outer coils
Inner coils
Bridge Series

And my HSH Kramer as

Neck Series
Neck inner and single
Outer coils HH
Bridge inner and single
Bridge Series

My memories of playing on a jem remind me pos 4 sounds godly. I'm searching for an evo neck as it happens.

 

[Jzbass25]

Maybe I should get an Evo neck, this jem was stock with breeds and it came with an air norton, replaced it with liquifire and I love it but still sorta want to experiment. (some say evos sound like shit in basswood, I disagree but then again I have maple fb/brass block and both woods resonate together).

Also yeah I agree about the 500vs250k I was thinking about doing the resistor for the single like you suggested. Also I need a switch anyway so a super switch will work fine. I do like my 7 string neck in parallel but atm I'm not wired that way.

Do you have a diagram for you 7? I basically want to do that but with a blower switch for either cutting out just the tone or straight up bridge with no switch,tone (maybe vol lol) Also what would I swap to get the outer coils? (Electrical engineering student and haven't taken the time to remember which ones are hot/split conductors on my pups >_> oops =P)

 

[Racerdeth]

Maybe I should get an Evo neck, this jem was stock with breeds and it came with an air norton, replaced it with liquifire and I love it but still sorta want to experiment. (some say evos sound like shit in basswood, I disagree but then again I have maple fb/brass block and both woods resonate together).

Also yeah I agree about the 500vs250k I was thinking about doing the resistor for the single like you suggested. Also I need a switch anyway so a super switch will work fine. I do like my 7 string neck in parallel but atm I'm not wired that way.

Do you have a diagram for you 7? I basically want to do that but with a blower switch for either cutting out just the tone or straight up bridge with no switch,tone (maybe vol lol) Also what would I swap to get the outer coils? (Electrical engineering student and haven't taken the time to remember which ones are hot/split conductors on my pups >_> oops =P)

I hand drew mine and it's very messy! I'll have a look-see. The way to work it is with a lot of "jump" cables between contacts on a superswitch, so each point of each pickup can be earthed or go to hot. With Dimarzios in "standard polarity" from earth to hot in series operation it goes Ground>green>white>black>red>out. So generally green is grounded, red is hot, and B&W are for your coil splitting.