SE Pickups

[BMcGeeney]

Hey everyone!

I have a SE Custom 22 and I desperately need some help! The stock pickups are not all that great for high gain stuff. They are extremely brittle. I want to get some new Seymour Duncans in there but I just don't have the money right now. Is there anyway I can get these pickups to sound good when I am recording? (I only use amp sims and impulses for guitar tone because I don't have the money to buy a legit amp .) Anyways, if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great!

 

[drdoom8793]

Hey everyone!

I have a SE Custom 22 and I desperately need some help! The stock pickups are not all that great for high gain stuff. They are extremely brittle. I want to get some new Seymour Duncans in there but I just don't have the money right now. Is there anyway I can get these pickups to sound good when I am recording? (I only use amp sims and impulses for guitar tone because I don't have the money to buy a legit amp .) Anyways, if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great!

I would start by adjusting the pickup heights. You might be able to pull a little more bite out of those pickups if you raise them a little bit.

 

[andy474x]

I would start by adjusting the pickup heights. You might be able to pull a little more bite out of those pickups if you raise them a little bit.

+1. I would add raising the middle polepieces to get more output from the middle strings. Play around with the overall pickup height and the polepieces, you'll find there's a lot of tonal variation in there. Another recommendation, if it's a stoptail model, get a fully adjustable Tonepros bridge with locking studs, the stock one piece on the SE's sounds a bit thin to my ears.

The more I play guitar, and mod my guitars, the more I'm convinced that changing pickups won't change the overall tone. They are a piece of the puzzle for sure, but the sound of that guitar is going to come through no matter what pickups you put in it.

 

[dogrocketp]

I agree with Andy, except I`ve put Schroeder bridges and locking studs on 3 stoptails. I tried the Tonepros, but found there was better definition between the notes with the Schroeder. Adjusting the pickus should be step #1.

 

[Ol'Lefty]

Schroeder's bridges are works of art and they have solid bottoms- on a couple I have with a TP combination I put a piece of "helicopter repair" clear tape across the bottom so I did not go nuts re-stringing. I was considering putting it (the boat-tail) on my hardtail S2 but the intonation has stayed right with 3 different string gauges- I still might for the beautiful looks.