Just picked up a used '94 EBMM Steve Morse (standard blueburst with the stoptail) and the pickups seem a little.... blah/boring. The singles need a little more oomph and output, and the humbuckers need less output and more brightness. So I'm thinking of just swapping them all out for choices that are a little more lively. Here's what I'm looking at so far:
Package 1:- bridge: FRED
single coil (next to bridge): SDS-1
single coil (slanted): FS-1
neck: PAF Pro or PAF Master Neck
Package 2:- bridge: PAF Master Bridge
single coil (next to bridge): Fast Track 1
single coil (slanted): Chopper
neck: Humbucker from Hell
My goal is to have a neck pickup that doesn't sound dull/muffled, but something that's got some snap. For the bridge pickup, something that can sound good clean, which is sometimes tough for a bridge humbucker, hence some options that aren't super high output.
For the middle single coils, they need more output! For the one near the bridge humbucker, I want more output and balls, but still sounding like a single coil. For the slanted single coil, same thing, but a different character from the other single coil.
I'm playing with a lot less gain than I used to, and doing a lot more clean stuff, so each pickup needs to have a very different character from the others, but also play well together.
What do you think of the options above? I may end up mixing and matching some of the choices to come up with a "package 3" like this:
bridge: FRED
single coil (near bridge): FS-1
single coil (slanted): Chopper
neck: HFH
I'm also thinking that a 500K volume pot (stock Morse pot values are 250K) would also be a good idea for any of these choices.
let me know your thoughts, thanks!
J.