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hi guys, just another quickie (when will he stop!?!?!? ?)

So i've found a neck pickup i'm highly interested in. (namely the Steve Morse model Dimarzio) but my basis for distortion is completely different to that of Steve himself (he uses diode-driven gain and I much prefer pure tube-breakup. Correct me if i'm wrong on this ?)

Would a ceramic pickup like his be designed to work with his particular style of amp, or would I still get that pickup's character and voice through a different setup?

I know the extremelly basic answers like "his tone is in his fingers", "he uses far more gain so it would sound completely different" and "try make YOUR tone and not replicate his" (which, personally, I want to smack anyone thinking this already ? go back to your silly strat neck-pickups and sound like SRV, 90% of you ? only joking sheesh!!)

But basically, would a trained ear still say "oh that must be the Morse pickup"

the guitar is poplar like his with a maple neck.
    Hmm... a very unusual pickup and made to work best with the other three pickups in his guitar. I think only Morse would like it. Very fat and smooth, where most people prefer brighter humbuckers in the neck.

    He's used valve amps since Peavey started making them and, IIRC, used Marshalls before he got the Peavey endorsement.
      But basically, would a trained ear still say "oh that must be the Morse pickup"
      No - in my opinion. (Is that good or bad for you? Not sure which way your question is slanted.) Pickup is such a small fraction of the tone equation. I think people get way too hung up on pickup taxonomy instead of just playing. (Myself included.) Just get a good pickup, roughly in the ballpark you want, and you'll find a way to make it sound good. Anyway, lots of pickups are ceramic and they're certainly not specifically designed for solid state distortion.
        Alan Ratcliffe wrote: He's used valve amps since Peavey started making them and, IIRC, used Marshalls before he got the Peavey endorsement.
        Just an observation Alan, I saw Steve Morse a few weeks ago, and he did not use Peavey, he used ENGL which he endorses. Are Peavey and ENGL the same? I don't know........just asking.......see link below......:

        http://www.stevemorse.com/gear.html
          Yeah, I know he endorses Engl now, but my point was he only used solid state early on in his endorsement with Peavey, as they didn't have valve amps then.
            Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Yeah, I know he endorses Engl now, but my point was he only used solid state early on in his endorsement with Peavey, as they didn't have valve amps then.
            Ok.......I did not know that, now I do....... ?
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