Pickup upgrades.

The Gods of Gear, show me mercy and direct thee benefactor to glory of light. I have an Ibanez RG370DX(2005 model) with INF PAF pickups. Much as i love it, i cannot get the metal sound i want out of those. Here's what i want to do, i want to replace all the pickups on the instrument, but the catch being, that i want to retain the tonal versatility. And what i beg of you to tell me is a set of three pickups to replace the current set and in whatever position that you might advise them to be. I hope i was clear, if not, flame me and i'll do whatever it takes to answer your questions, thank you very much.

 

If you wanna try something different you can maybe go for the Dimarzio Humbucker from hell(Neck) and a Fred(Bridge) . Humbucker from hell is supposed to give this crystal clear tone which when distorted is only a good thing (ala Petrucci) . Fred is just a Paf Pro with enhancements which enables it to pickup harmonics like crazy. Then maybe a HS-2 in the middle.
Or change the positions if you like.

If you want high output go for Evos. Maybe EMGs will suit you better.

 

^So, let's say if i used a EMG 81/60 or EMG 81/85, what pickup would i place in the middle?

 

there are lots of pickups you can go for
i think EMG's give the highest output...try a Emg 81 or 85

i case of seymour duncan ..go a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker .
Dimebag used to use that in his Dean , although he still used to use his old Bill Lawrence while recording .

 

Er..yes, i know all of that. You missed my question i think, in case i use an EMG set, i need to replace the single coil in the middle, with that was my humble question....

 

middle = single coil ???

 

^Uh, either you didnt understand what i was saying or you're just like, "Duh, get a single coil you moron" lol, in the first case, i think you saw my gear thread, my 370DX has three pups, H-S-H, i'd replace the HH with an EMG 81/60 or EMG 81/85 set, but i need to replace the S too, and i was wondering if there were any good upgrades.

 

ok i think we're posting at the same time ..
so i missed your humble question ..

in case of single coil ..
a high output would be an EMG SA-1 ( gilmour endorsed it ) or S .

 

^Just checked mate, and yeah, i believe that would be a good option. Three active pups, hehe, that'll get the batteries running. Anyone have an idea about how long the battery life is for an active pup?

 

I dont know if you can put a traditional single coil along with the active EMGs so you can just go for the EMG singles. If you can go with taditional i'd stick a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues pickup ( its got a strong sound unlike usual strat pickups)

 

well ..it depends on every pickup
the SA has 3000 hrs of battery life

 

@sridhar, yeah, going along with all EMG's makes a bit of sense to me, atleast i can be assured of the same tone.
@Alfons, wow, that should be fine then, thanks!

 

Just adding to the pluses of going active on the third pickup...you'll get significant volume difference between active and passives when you switch, so it might not be the best thing to do even if ti is possible wiring-wise.

 

^I think that pretty much seals the decision, EMG 81/85 and SA set for me :grin:

 

Go for the Kirk Hammet calibrated set. Since the pickups are already chose and calibrated in terms of volume, output, DC resistance, you can save yourself from a lot of trial and error and go with it.

 

I think there are two KH sets..one is hum/hum and the other is single/single/hum. Neither will fit his hum/single/hum requirement.

 

I thought the RG370 comes with H-S-H config and if that's the case, then KH set would be good.

 

Oye Ronnie. The KH set doesnt come with HSH..its an SSH and HH set.

 

Oh yeah... I remember it. Maybe he can take the H-H set and get that middle single from the other set.

Somebody was talking about mixing active and passive pickups. It's a bad idea. Very high output humbuckers come in 400mV ouput ranging upto 550mV. But actives are easily at 1V ouput. This will create a real bad balance in terms of output volume from the guitar. It will be horrible when you play clean. Once you put it through heavy distortion it wont matter much 'cos most of the volume is going to be controlled by your distortion pedal and the amp. The active output will just sound more compressed than the other and nothing more. If you are strictly a no clean and only distortion player, you can chose to go ahead with this option.

 

Can any One tell me which pick ups are best for RG 370-Dx i want to replace them....so plese gime the fair suggestions.....coz it reall difficult for me to keep on spending money on same stuff....so plzzz tell me....i m in lahore so lahori users do tell me the place plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz