New pickup

rippinforjesus · 01-27-2005, 07:54 PM

Hey, i was recently looking at a new humbucker for my Lyon strat. (Knock-off of washburn). Currently i've got the stock humbucker on the bridge, and two single coils.

Question 1.) Is it possible to have my local music shop drill my guitar so i could put my stock humbucker in the neck position, and move put an aftermarket humbucker in the bridge position?

Question 2.) I was referred to the Seymour Duncan "SH-8 Invader" humbucker. I've heard it's used by Tom Delonge of Blink. If i want to achieve the sound of Blink, Green Day, and Simple Plan, etc, is this a good choice of pickup???

tht00 · 01-27-2005, 09:34 PM

ok, i'll be really quick-

you could probably have a hole cut (or you could probably get a new pickguard) for a humbucker... i'm not too familiar with that guitar, and i don't have time to look it up, but that is a posibility.

the next thing i want to hit is that you probably don't want to put the old bridge pickup in the neck position. it might sound OK, but not all pickups are created equally. usually there are bridge p'ups and neck p'ups... you can interchange them, but it usually isn't recommended. especially if you had to do all that work to get 'maybe' a decent neck pickup.

as for the sh-8, i don't know much about that one at all. i've got a set of duncan p'ups in my ibanez and i love them (sh-1 at the neck and sh-5 for the bridge), but the pickups alone won't necisarilly get the tone your looking for. the most important part of the 'chain' of equipment is generally the amp. so, what amp do you have? a good amp and an OK couple of p'ups is better than an OK amp and good p'ups, IMHO.

so, i've had good experiance with duncans.

can't help you much in the aspect of p'ups other than the ones i have... amps, i can help with though

anyways, i'm off to bed... way past my 'bed time' (so if this post is completly incoherant, sorry)

my $.02,
Tom

Rocket · 01-28-2005, 05:34 AM

i agree with 'tht00' in all respects. i have a Lotus LP (knock aroung axe) with a Lyon soft case and i had to change out one of the pots to get it working right. i would not go thru with what your talking about. i would leave the Lyon Strat just like it is for resale value if you want to sell it later-i don't think your going to get what your wanting to put into it--back. i would go and do my homework (like we all have had to do at many times in our guitar life) and purchase the equipment you really want- you don't have to go broke doing it either.

keep your strat stock and keep it out on a stand and use it as your beat around learning axe. upgrade in the areas you need to go. we are all upgrading our equipment montly-atleast.

unless this axe is a learning to work on axe then i would say buy some more strats (tear them all apart ) and expierence the luthier business- but if it's your only axe then i would say keep it and yourself playing/working at all times.

PacerX · 01-28-2005, 06:29 AM

I've owned and used an Invader before, and you'll probably want to call Duncan and ask them to match a neck pickup to is for you since it's on of, if not the, highest output bridge pickups there is.

The Invader is really, really hot. It's round and warm, and ideally suited for high-gain lead and rhythm playing. In the end, I started using guitars with Seymour Duncan JB's instead and sacrificing some of the output the Invader provides as the Invader wasn't bright enough for me. This change coincided with my shift to using modeling amplifiers (Line 6) where the output of the pickups really becomes irrelevant since you can set the input sensitivity to anything you want.

That being said, I would consider the value of your guitar at this point. Buying two pickups for it and having a neck pickup cavity routed is probably going to cost more than the guitar is worth, which isn't an issue if that's really the way you want to go, but just consider stepping up to a more expensive guitar as an alternative.

rippinforjesus · 01-28-2005, 10:30 PM

Okay let me reword that. I wouldn't BUY two pickups, i was thinking about getting the invader then putting my stock humbucker in the neck position. But now i realize that the invader puts out some heavy sound, so to keep my axe versatile, i'd prolly want to keep the singles on it....sound like a good idea?

PacerX · 01-29-2005, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rippinforjesus

Okay let me reword that. I wouldn't BUY two pickups, i was thinking about getting the invader then putting my stock humbucker in the neck position. But now i realize that the invader puts out some heavy sound, so to keep my axe versatile, i'd prolly want to keep the singles on it....sound like a good idea?

Sounds like a plan to me.

tht00 · 01-29-2005, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rippinforjesus

Okay let me reword that. I wouldn't BUY two pickups, i was thinking about getting the invader then putting my stock humbucker in the neck position. But now i realize that the invader puts out some heavy sound, so to keep my axe versatile, i'd prolly want to keep the singles on it....sound like a good idea?

that sounds like a better idea... remember that tone doesn't come from the p'up alone... or the guitar alone... or the amp alone. they are all integral part of the sound you get and don't expect to get a certain 'sound' by getting a different pickup. and many times, there are better ways of picking pickups, rather than - 'so and so' uses this pickup. don't get me wrong- pickup upgrades can help out a guitar's tone tremendously, but usually, its better to pick a pickup to match your guitar and amp...

where's Rainer.?

**thesteve** · 01-29-2005, 11:31 AM

haha...hmm.

the invader is very hot, and sounds decent alone...but if you want to nail the sound you want you can do it without that invader pickup...in fact i can get pretty close to nailing that tone with a JB (which is much more versatile).

i do agree with pacerX that for the price of a re-rout (which may or may not be necessary) and a new pickup you might be re-paying for your guitar...so the question is, does your guitar play well enough that you want to make those kinds of upgrades to it?

Vvildcard · 01-29-2005, 12:53 PM

I installed an Invader last night and even though it's only running on one coil (dang eBay), it's hot and crunchy... although not as hot as I expected (but again, this might be because it's only running on one coil).

As far as putting your bridge pup in the neck, it would work... but I think you'd do better to just invest in a single-sized humbucker (JB Jr, Little '59, Cool Rails, etc).