PlayOn wrote
Problem is that neither me, especially my son will even have a foggiest clue on what sound he must get on his guitar. This is greek to me for starters, and for him it is firstly a cool looking guitar, and secondly that it must have a nice sound. NICE is not a answer for a great sound
Actually it is. No two of us think the same about this, what I think is nice or great may sound sucky to someone else, unfortunately (heretics!)
PlayOn wrote
Now, we have the EMG-HZ pick ups on the guitar with a plastic covering over. If I want to upgrade to other pick ups, is it as easy as plug and play (take old ones out and new ones in), or is there compatibility issues on sizes etc between the different brands. Won't do it myself, as i imagine there is work on the elctronics that must be done properly.
Now keeping in mind that the son does a lot of solo work, loves Guns & Roses type music, which upgrade would you suggest that will improve the sound of the guitar enough. or shal I say, which brand of pickups is most popular to use. I have no idea of how much such upgrades cost, but I am sure this will be less than a new guitar. I would rather prefer quality over cheap.
Those are passives. I've never played a guitar with those which I liked. Others on the forum have those and like them. Each to their own. You can get Slash signature Seymour Duncans (They're the Alnico II Pro Slash models). But to get the Slash sound you also need a Marshall JCM800*
I believe those are standard Humbucker sized pickups. You must take note of the spacing of the poles. You get different spaced pole pieces for guitars with and without Floyd Rose trem systems (whammy bars). His is without? If his is without a Floyd Rose then you are looking for bog-standard humbuckers. They're easy enough to replace. Look for any of the 100s of Youtube vids that will show you exactly how to do it. You'll need a soldering iron and some solder and maybe a needle-nose pliers (leatherman, I'm ghetto like that). The Seymour Duncans will cost you about R800 each in the shop. Maybe more. Order them online OR get Toneriders Alnico IVs or Rocksongs (like Singemonkey suggested), they're cheap and most people regard Toneriders as plenty decent. Maybe not the be-all end-all of pickups but more than good enough for gigging at least. They're about R900 per set, R700 on special. I nearly bought the Alnico IVs but they couldn't get the Nickel covered ones in time so I got a second hand set of Rebel 90s. They're great pickups in my Epiphone Les Paul.
One problem I have with the guitar is to get a good sounding crunch / distortion.... as if it is lazy, and you have to play it quite hard to get it through to the amp. Maybe this is how youre supposed to get the sound, but hell, what do I know!
What Singemonkey said. The amp should have more than plenty of gain on tap. Work the volume knob on the guitar, maybe its dirty. If the pickups are indeed active, look for the battery cover on the back and replace the battery. If it is neither of those two things and the amp is indeed set for lots of distortion (The knob labelled GAIN, usually), then something is amiss, maybe the cable or the jack is faulty (or the amp for that matter).
Good luck
* So loud it will make you believe in all kinds of things. Steer clear.
