Pickup suggestions for jangly, grity baritone guitar?

[spudmunkey]

Thinking about building a baritone guitar, and looking for pickup suggestions:

I lack the vocabulary to accurately describe the type of tone I'm hoping to achieve, beyond "jangly" or "gritty".

The guitar will have 2 pickups. I'm hoping to get a great low-to-mid gain gritty tone for the neck pickup. Like...i want a non-slide guitar version of Morphine's bass players's tone. A humbucker would be preferred simply because of noise, but I could make something else work.

And bonus points for if they look unique, like TV jones/filtertrons, lipstick pickups, or a unique P90-sort of cover.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

1. what's your budget
2. give us some other band examples

 

[Bearitone]

Your options depend a lot on the pickup routes in the guitar.

What guitar do you plan to swap the pickups in?

If you have humbucker routes (pretty common) i would go with a Railhammer Humcutter of some sort in the neck and a Railhammer Chisel in the bridge. When i hear Railhammer demos I hear that jangly grit (no first hand experience though)

 

[spudmunkey]

1. what's your budget
2. give us some other band examples

No budget.

I'll need to think about that, I think.

Your options depend a lot on the pickup routes in the guitar.

What guitar do you plan to swap the pickups in?

If you have humbucker routes (pretty common) i would go with a Railhammer Humcutter of some sort in the neck and a Railhammer Chisel in the bridge. When i hear Railhammer demos I hear that jangly grit (no first hand experience though)

It would be for a self-made guitar body, so no limitations. If it's something weird, I can build around them.

 

[efiltsohg]

sounds like you are describing a Danelectro

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I would look at some sort of PAF humbucker for the neck position like a Duncan '59 or Dimarzio PAF Pro, then a more modern noiseless Telecaster bridge pickup like the Dimarzio Area T.

I've got a Thinline Tele tuned to C that has a Dimarzio Area T set and it does all the nice clean and spanky sounds you'd expect from a Tele, but it also handles higher gain riffing like a champ. "Jangly" is probably a good word to describe the Area T bridge through a distorted amp I've had the PAF Pro in the neck position of a few guitars and I'm always impressed. Plenty of attack and clarity, but it's very vocal in its midrange and isn't thin sounding. Great for leads, cleans, finger picking, etc.

 

[budda]

Amp is gonna be pretty damn determining if this works well or not.

Im guessing vintage accurate pickups would do it. But yeah, evaluate the amp its running into.

 

[spudmunkey]

Amp is gonna be pretty damn determining if this works well or not.

Im guessing vintage accurate pickups would do it. But yeah, evaluate the amp its running into.

It's going to be a Helix, for at least the foreseeable future.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Anderson stacked singles
manlius makes some interesting humbuckers
Rio grande also has some unique stuff.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Go for the Danelectro look similar to this:

Or if you're feeling adventurous, grab 4 single coils and go the Aoi from Gazette approach:

As for pickup choices, definitely go for the 60s voiced ones, like Dimarzio Area 61, BKP Mothers Milk, any Dano Lipstick (SD makes some too). P90s. Or dual Lollartrons would be sweet.

 

[Demiurge]

Mini humbuckers often have that characteristic, no?

 

[spudmunkey]

Rio grande also has some unique stuff.

They do indeed. I was hoping they were wired standard to be able to use all 3 coils, but it's just 1 or 2 coils at a time, from what i can tell. It's not the tone I was looking for, but they look awesome. Ha!

Mini humbuckers often have that characteristic, no?

Some seem to, yes. Mini Humbuckers and P90-ish pickups sort of occupy a similar space in my mind's ear.

 

[Bearitone]

You could get two of these lipstick humbuckers and use a push-pull pot for splitcoil
https://reverb.com/item/13678598-ar...h02Vw-uEAQYByABEgKc0vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&pla=1

 

[spudmunkey]

That style pickup was something I considered....but can you split a pick up that only has 2 leads?

 

[budda]

Tellin ya, vintage style pickups.

 

[Bearitone]

That style pickup was something I considered....but can you split a pick up that only has 2 leads?

Whoops, missed that part.
I know there are 4 conductor ones out there though

 

[spudmunkey]

Tellin ya, vintage style pickups.

I'm sure you're right. I'm just not sure what that actually means, as that's a pretty damn wide net to cast.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

Suhr Thornbuckers would probably work really well. Lower output vintage vibe. But they'll scream in the right situation. I'd go with the + in the bridge as it was designed for the bridge in longer scale length guitars. It has single coil like bite to it while set as a humbucker and it splits really well. In general Suhr pickups are criminally not spoken about for heavy down tuned music.

 

[budda]

I'm sure you're right. I'm just not sure what that actually means, as that's a pretty damn wide net to cast.

Pick your pickup type, go to the sd site and find their vintage spec of that.

Then find out which sims in the helix are vintage amps, and work with that - once the guitar is built.

Also go try some guitars in store to see which have a jangly base tone (calling the jazzmaster right now but we'll see).

 

[efiltsohg]

Also go try some guitars in store to see which have a jangly base tone (calling the jazzmaster right now but we'll see).

literally

sounds like you are describing a Danelectro

edit: also Rickenbackers