Pup upgrade

Hammeron · 2011-01-25T13:41:41+00:00

I favour fast and heavy rythm playing. {Hetfield, Mustaine, King} I am happy with the Zebra Humbuckers on my Epiphone Explorer, however, if I wanted to put in new Pups, what would you recommend? :-\

BMU

Get any decent pair and make them work. Sounds like you should just stay with what you have.

I love the EMG707s in my Loomis, and I love the DiMarzio PAFs I'm playing lately in one of my other Ibby seven strings.

The point is no-one would 'recommend' the low-output PAFs for metal, yet Morbid Angel have worked with them, and they worked pretty nicely for me too on that latest 'Thraeol track #4' I posted in the Recording section.

Bottom line, get something decent and make it work.

ZarK

BMU wrote Get any decent pair and make them work. Sounds like you should just stay with what you have.

I love the EMG707s in my Loomis, and I love the DiMarzio PAFs I'm playing lately in one of my other Ibby seven strings.

The point is no-one would 'recommend' the low-output PAFs for metal, yet Morbid Angel have worked with them, and they worked pretty nicely for me too on that latest 'Thraeol track #4' I posted in the Recording section.

Bottom line, get something decent and make it work.

I've got Paf's in my Jem. Love their tone! As mentioned before, a decent valve amp really brings out the voices of different pups. On most transistor amps and hybrids, l wouldn't even bother upgrading pups. First the amp and all the cabling, then the pups, imo...

Gearhead

ZarK wrote First the amp and all the cabling, then the pups, imo...

+1
Most people tend to forget that when the electric guitar was invented, they essentially split the amplification part off from the guitar. An electric guitar without an amp therefore is an incomplete instrument. A good guitar will sound crappy through a crappy amp and most beginners do not realise just how crappy their amp is.

flatfourfan

ZarK wrote First the amp and all the cabling, then the pups, imo...

Hammeron has a (Marshall VS 65 R amp), so I don't think that she's exactly running a budget amp here.

ZarK

flatfourfan wrote
ZarK wrote First the amp and all the cabling, then the pups, imo...
Hammeron has a (Marshall VS 65 R amp), so I don't think that she's exactly running a budget amp here.

The VS65R is maybe not exactly budget, but it's still a looong way off from a decent hybrid or true valve amp. If she's looking to improve her tone, taking her current gear in consideration, I honestly would recommend that she save the cash of a pup upgrade and rather save up for a small, quality, valve amp before anything else, or even a real hybrid such as the Line6 Spider Valve. She'd be wasting cash on pups if running through a VS65 imo. I'm certainly not dissing any of the gear; just don't want anyone to spend cash on the wrong links in the chain if I can help it...

Gearhead

+1 those Valvestates are practice amps and she will love the upgrade from there. If into Marshall, might I suggest a Class 5, a Haze or even a Bluesbreaker?

Kalcium

Hmm this is an issue im wondering about...cause i have a Marshall MG50DFX which is a solid state amp but it has the connector from the amp to the speakers, which allows you to connect a head to it and just use the speaker as a cab, so if I were to buy a small 5 watt valve amp and run it through the 'cab' would i be able to get good sound at the same volume as my 50 watt amp? If so, what is the point of having 50 and 100 watt heads if you can just have a 5 watt head connected to a big cab?

ActionArnie

Kalcium wrote Hmm this is an issue im wondering about...cause i have a Marshall MG50DFX which is a solid state amp but it has the connector from the amp to the speakers, which allows you to connect a head to it and just use the speaker as a cab, so if I were to buy a small 5 watt valve amp and run it through the 'cab' would i be able to get good sound at the same volume as my 50 watt amp? If so, what is the point of having 50 and 100 watt heads if you can just have a 5 watt head connected to a big cab?

The problem is if you want any sort of clean headroom at volume you'll need the power of a 50W or 100W.

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