Neck pickup recommendation

[DamnYankee]

I like the pickups in my SE 245. I really like the bridge alone and middle tone quite a bit but I wouldn't mind a brighter neck pickup. Any suggestions?

 

[AP515]

Bright? Go single coils. Mississippi Queen humbucker sized P90, like Chris Robertson.

Or, if you jus want it a little brighter, just raise the one you have closer to the strings...

 

[alex1fly]

A hum-sized P90 would work great to give you a little more top end, while retaining some of the tone you have now. I love the sound of a P90 in the neck of a mahogany guitar - never mind the inevitable debate about what constitutes a "real p90".

An easier solution would be to solder a capacitor between the neck pickup lead and wherever it hooks on - the pot, the switch, etc.

An easier yet solution would be to lower the neck pickup and raise the polepieces. This gives you more top end, reduces bass, and can be calibrated to still have the same volume as before.

Another solution would be to go to a higher-value pot for your neck pickup's tone control. If it's 500k, swap it out for 1 meg and see how that works for you.

Another solution would be to do nothing, and simply rely on your neck pickup for darker tones and your bridge/middle position for brighter tones. Nothing wrong with this approach either.

 

[Chuck_P]

IMO, going single-coils or swapping in different pots is going to throw all kind of things out of balance. No need to introduce volume level drops, hum, or strange behavior in the middle position. Throw a Pearly Gates in the neck and let 'er rip.

 

[andy474x]

Starla pickup!

 

[GuitarJammin]

Depending on the style of music you are mostly playing in, this pickup selection could go all kinds of directions. I recommend staying with a humbucker to keep the guitar's true nature not to mention avoiding issues. Which humbucker depends on your goals...BUT there are soooo many good ones out there. While you are at it maybe plan replace both...you probably are gunna do it anyway once you hear the improvement it brings along overall.

I feel like most aftermarket pickups offered will bring you improvements over the stock pickups.
I slapped simple Seymour JB and Jazz in a SE singlecut and it was a great improvement it was a great all around guitar with that setup. I later also installed Nazgul and Sentient in a different SE singlecut...a bit different still really great toasty tone I was happy with that as well.

I also had a bareknuckle warpig put in the bridge of a SE EG that also sounded a lot better than the stock humbucker.

Good thing is you have a bulletproof SE245....basically it's time to search out what your flavor is! It's gunna be fun. I've done lots of pickup swaps...and it's usually a problem of having so many choices rather than finding a choice. Good problem if you ask me.

I'm just ordered some Suhr Thornbuckers to try out in a Fender...I've always heard they were awesome...time to find out the truth! Fun times.

 

[shimmilou]

I would first try raising the treble side, and/or lowering the bass side, of the pup that you want to be brighter. This can make a significant difference, and I usually end up tweaking the pup heights on almost all of mine, and rarely change pups.

 

[The Dragonator]

You can make any Humbucker brighter and better note definition by lowering the entire pickup at least a eighth inch from where you have it now, and then raising the threaded poles by the same amount. This was the standard trick to improve the treble/reduce bass on crappy neck humbuckers like a lot of the cheap Asian winds.

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

Starla pickup!

I kick myself daily for selling the extra set that I had