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DimarzioForum.Com => The Pickup Place => Topic started by: khoirus on September 23, 2019, 05:23:30 PM

Title: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: khoirus on September 23, 2019, 05:23:30 PM
Hello everybody, this is my first post 😊🙏👐 i need some suggestions...

Im looking for a neck pickup for a 24 fret suhr modern. It has this "24 fret neck pickup" problem, actually this is the first time i experiencing this. The stock pickup is too thin and ice picky especially up top (compared to a 22 frets guitar, not a faulty wiring kinda sound), overall it sounds like single coil. No body to the note. Harsh...

I chose dimarzio because they seem to be really good at solving this 24 fret problem. Lot of big players use 24 frets axe and they have a nice fat sounding neck tone (usually ibanez and musicman etc). i myself have a skervesen with a PAF7 and it sounds great, amazing in fact! i would love to get the same result here.

Looking for a nice round, fat, tubular but very clear PAF sound, and dynamic! Really i just want to get 22 fret sound as close as possible. I like les paul kinda sound too. My #1 has suhr SSV which i friggin love. Nice round paf tone but with amazing clarity and some of single coil bite, but i suspect it sounds just right because its a 22 fretter, it has the same pickup as this suhr, even the same wood.

 Also if possible, no petrucci tone pls (not too modern). Im using virtual paf in this vid, i dont think its bad pickup, but it doesnt solve the problem...

Great coil split is a big plus too. Thats why i love suhr SSV in another guitar, splits like a champ!

Im looking at paf pro, breed, air norton, or bluesbucker. Open to suggestion 😊🙏

here's a demo of my guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hDBN6lTjaM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3-AbfRf1r6EVlomteThvmAM9mAhywnvY_f662StJQcny9VO88leSImVjw
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: HarlowTheFish on September 23, 2019, 07:08:12 PM
The PAF Pro you will probably find too bright, and if you want something that doesn't sound like a single-coil, the Bluesbucker will definitely not be for you - the entire pitch for that pickup is that it sounds like a p90. The PAF Joe will be similar to a PAF Pro but a little warmer, a bit more midrange, and less bright overall. The Air Norton is actually great for stuff beyond Dream Theater. It's got a nice fat tone that works for jazz or rock well, without being too thick in the lows. I personally find the AN a little too warm for my tastes, but if that's what you're looking for it'll work well.

The Breed set was made to get a good rock LP-ish tone out of Steve Vai's JEM, so if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, it'll be a pretty good fit - it does seem to be kinda picky about what guitar you put it in, so YMMV.

Honorable mentions to the Transition set, which is a killer thick-but-clear tone, the Air Classic which does the vintage-modern thing incredibly IMO, and the Steve Morse neck - if you want a fat tone, the SM will give you that in spades, but it's very, very fat.
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: khoirus on September 23, 2019, 09:35:07 PM
The PAF Pro you will probably find too bright, and if you want something that doesn't sound like a single-coil, the Bluesbucker will definitely not be for you - the entire pitch for that pickup is that it sounds like a p90. The PAF Joe will be similar to a PAF Pro but a little warmer, a bit more midrange, and less bright overall. The Air Norton is actually great for stuff beyond Dream Theater. It's got a nice fat tone that works for jazz or rock well, without being too thick in the lows. I personally find the AN a little too warm for my tastes, but if that's what you're looking for it'll work well.

The Breed set was made to get a good rock LP-ish tone out of Steve Vai's JEM, so if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, it'll be a pretty good fit - it does seem to be kinda picky about what guitar you put it in, so YMMV.

Honorable mentions to the Transition set, which is a killer thick-but-clear tone, the Air Classic which does the vintage-modern thing incredibly IMO, and the Steve Morse neck - if you want a fat tone, the SM will give you that in spades, but it's very, very fat.

thank you for your reply

Currently the guitar is sent to my tech and i planned to have air norton that i have lying around fitted. My only gripe is, the color, its red and black, no doubt it'll look terrible  :madness: ;D

yeah, when i listened to paf pro demos again, i think it will still be too bright for this guitar, although it might add some thickness to it. I heard Paf joe is quite bright as well, some say its one of the brightest although the attack is dull/warmer. the bluesbucker is a good concept but in the end like you said, its sounds like a single coil, i need a humbucker sound.

I dont actually like Vai type of sound, and dont really care for vai's pickup prior to reading its specs. But ater reading that its actually PAF based, im somewhat intrigued. My worry is it'll be too dark/mushy, but then i never tried the pickup nor arethere a decent demo out there (of other people except vai)

Transition and air classic are interesting (though air classic might be too low of an output for me/thin, it does sound single coil "ish"). I've tried steve morse PU b4. Its ok, not impressed, very round, not for me.

other than mentioned above what about the other modern offerings? like titan, imperium, rainmaker, gravity storm etc?
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: marcwormjim on September 23, 2019, 11:01:17 PM
Bluesbucker has given me mixed results in 24-fretters, but fulfilled the OP’s need in some.
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: HarlowTheFish on September 24, 2019, 02:20:09 AM
thank you for your reply

Currently the guitar is sent to my tech and i planned to have air norton that i have lying around fitted. My only gripe is, the color, its red and black, no doubt it'll look terrible  :madness: ;D

yeah, when i listened to paf pro demos again, i think it will still be too bright for this guitar, although it might add some thickness to it. I heard Paf joe is quite bright as well, some say its one of the brightest although the attack is dull/warmer. the bluesbucker is a good concept but in the end like you said, its sounds like a single coil, i need a humbucker sound.

I dont actually like Vai type of sound, and dont really care for vai's pickup prior to reading its specs. But ater reading that its actually PAF based, im somewhat intrigued. My worry is it'll be too dark/mushy, but then i never tried the pickup nor arethere a decent demo out there (of other people except vai)

Transition and air classic are interesting (though air classic might be too low of an output for me/thin, it does sound single coil "ish"). I've tried steve morse PU b4. Its ok, not impressed, very round, not for me.

other than mentioned above what about the other modern offerings? like titan, imperium, rainmaker, gravity storm etc?

If you think the Breed will be too mushy, the Dominion set (Mark Morton's sig) is based on the Breed but with a ceramic magnet, a little tighter, and a little more push and output.

The PAF Joe is bright in the sense that it's not a super low-end heavy pickup, but when you mentioned tubular that's the first one I thought of. It'll be bright enough to be articulate, but it's made for a smooth lead tone.

If you don't want bright, you probably don't want the Titan or Imperium. The Titan is really bright and clear, with a super focused upper midrange, and is really good at that modern prog djenty vibe. I like them, but I like brightness. The Imperium is made for Drop C and lower and is a very particular pickup in that it just plays kinda weird, really elasticky and bouncy. The folks over at sevenstring.org weren't super impressed with it, and I haven't heard much about it outside of there.

The Gravity Storm set is actually one of my favorite Dimarzio combos, but again, it's a very particular pickup. If you can get your hands on one of the blue floral JEMs to try, they come with a GS set. The bridge is super fat and muscular, and the neck is a lot brighter but in a way that just compensates for the neck position, so switching between the two works really well in that whatever tone sounds good with one will also sound good with the other. They're definitely not 22-fret sounding, though, really modern, articulate, and snappy.

The Rainmaker is kinda meh to me to be honest. All of the JP pickups have been different spices on the same basic dish - they sound killer in his EBMMs through a Mesa or a similar amp, but I've been incredibly unfazed and underwhelmed when I've tried them in any other setup. In an EBMM through a Marshall they're boxy and nasal (Illuminators or the Sonic Ecstasy set), through an H&K like mine they're flat and lack punch (Illuminators and Crunch Lab/Liquifire), and the set of Illuminators a buddy had in a mahogany/walnut tele was too tubby through basically everything. JP's got a very dialed-in rig so it all works really nicely (and a Majesty through a Mark V is crazy good) but when you start messing with the variables it gets weird and unpleasant pretty fast IMO.
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: DarthPhineas on September 24, 2019, 10:54:22 AM
Are you playing that 24 fret Suhr on the same amp and amp settings as your playing that guitar with the PAF7?
Title: Re: "22 fret sounding" neck humbucker for 24 fret guitar
Post by: khoirus on September 24, 2019, 03:21:04 PM
Are you playing that 24 fret Suhr on the same amp and amp settings as your playing that guitar with the PAF7?

Not really, kinda. It has the same cab (i use the same cab for ALL my sounds), but i use different amp for the suhr, but the basic characteristics of the sound is very close (i tend to gravitate towards the same sound). The skervesen (paf) video i used an amp that is a bit similar to friedman, it has crunchy mid and top end and really tight bass. also, depends on which video you are talking about.  ;D  the guitar is overall much beefier and it has a mid and upper mid spike especially the bridge.

The suhr video, i use an ENGL powerball sim of amplitube 3, compared to the skervesen video, its a bit boomier in the bass, more punchy, beefier, and a bit smoother on the highs. The bigger sound compliments the suhr SSV+ i had in there i thought