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The Pickup Place / DiMarzio or Fluence
« on: October 02, 2019, 02:02:47 PM »
I have a difficult decision to make regarding my Chapman ML-1 (HSS). I want to trick it out into a metal shred machine. I am caught between loving the sound of the Fishman Fluence Modern in the bridge, but also loving the sound of the Chopper and Tone Zone S in the middle and neck positions respectively.
I love the clean tones I got from the Fluence Modern Bridge when I played my bandmate's guitar. Obviously it also sounded incredible under high gain. But Fishman only offers "strat-voiced" single spaced pickups at this moment. I wanted to go beefy, so I'm very limited there if I go with the Fluence line.
I don't want to route my guitar for HSH, probably. I also can't mix Fluence with DiMarzio in this case: Fluence pickups all use a preamp and won't accept passive pickups into the circuit, and wiring around it would be a pain. So it seems like I must go with all passive or all active.
I originally planned on going with DiMarzios all the way but I couldn't decide what bridge pickup I wanted to use. I may wind up going that route in the end, so I'm soliciting some suggestions/reality checks from you.
The guitar currently has a Steve's Special, and I'm just not digging it. It's mid-scooped, which is cool, but not where I want to go with this anymore.
I'm looking to keep some of that aggressive mid-range (a bit of "Aw") and massive gain from the Fluence Modern, along with that top-end clarity and harmonics. Like an EMG 81 but more "open" on top.
I started by looking at the X2N, but found it was a bit too "twangy" and flat across the frequency spectrum, so I might want something with more midrange.
Been looking at Dominion Bridge, Super 2, and D-Activator X as well.
If you have any other pickups you think I should explore, even from other brands, please drop me a line.
TL;DR: Anyone have an opinion about which high-output bridge pickup (not the X2N) might blend well with the Chopper and Tone Zone S, and ape some of the tone of a Fishman Fluence Modern bridge?
Thanks for reading!
I love the clean tones I got from the Fluence Modern Bridge when I played my bandmate's guitar. Obviously it also sounded incredible under high gain. But Fishman only offers "strat-voiced" single spaced pickups at this moment. I wanted to go beefy, so I'm very limited there if I go with the Fluence line.
I don't want to route my guitar for HSH, probably. I also can't mix Fluence with DiMarzio in this case: Fluence pickups all use a preamp and won't accept passive pickups into the circuit, and wiring around it would be a pain. So it seems like I must go with all passive or all active.
I originally planned on going with DiMarzios all the way but I couldn't decide what bridge pickup I wanted to use. I may wind up going that route in the end, so I'm soliciting some suggestions/reality checks from you.
The guitar currently has a Steve's Special, and I'm just not digging it. It's mid-scooped, which is cool, but not where I want to go with this anymore.
I'm looking to keep some of that aggressive mid-range (a bit of "Aw") and massive gain from the Fluence Modern, along with that top-end clarity and harmonics. Like an EMG 81 but more "open" on top.
I started by looking at the X2N, but found it was a bit too "twangy" and flat across the frequency spectrum, so I might want something with more midrange.
Been looking at Dominion Bridge, Super 2, and D-Activator X as well.
If you have any other pickups you think I should explore, even from other brands, please drop me a line.
TL;DR: Anyone have an opinion about which high-output bridge pickup (not the X2N) might blend well with the Chopper and Tone Zone S, and ape some of the tone of a Fishman Fluence Modern bridge?
Thanks for reading!