Guitar pickup output

[TUBEDUDE]

Before I gave up on mudbuckers, I tried several of them with A2 magnets. They did seem to compound the felony of tone smearing already present with the mudbucker topology. Using A2 in singlecoils however gave the tone a sweetness that made up for the lower output.

[Littlewyan]

What pickups did you try out of interest? And what guitar did you try them in? Every guitar is different, even guitars that are the same model can sound different due to many variables such as the age of the wood or where its from etc.

[TUBEDUDE]

The AlNiCo 2's I can recommend were the Seymour Duncan strat singles, I think it's the SSL1? And the Duncan 5-2's. The Duncan stacked hum 2's sounded sweet in the strat also, STK-1 or STK-2, I forget which. I've been using Harmonic Design pickups in the strat and tele for the last 10 years or so.
The strat is a '66 ash body w/maple n rosewood neck, the tele is ash w/ maple n Kingwood neck.
The worst was a Duncan Pro 2 mudbucker. It sounded like ass in my 76 Les Paul and a strat with a 5 piece maple/walnut body w maple neck.

[Littlewyan]

I quite liked the sound of the Duncan Pro Alnico 2s but I'm only going by youtube clips and listening to Slash! Problem with pickups is you never really know what they're gonna sound like until they're in your guitar and put through your rig.

[matt h]

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[Littlewyan]

Mine is an Epiphone Les Paul Standard 2008 with 50s wiring

[matt h]

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[Littlewyan]

The magnets in the pickups I tried were Alnico 4s so god knows what Alnico 5s would have been like! The guitar did come with Epi Classic Humbuckers which have Alnico 5 magnets but I haven't got a clue what they sounded like as its been 2/3 years since I used them. The bridge was overwound to 13K I believe so the high end was probably rolled off a bit anyway.

Yes I've fallen trap to listening to the tone of an amp too much when its being played at a low volume. I once modified a Marshall 1987 because it was too bassy by lowering coupling caps etc. Well when I took away the attenuator and cranked it for recording I tell ya the high end certainly came out then!

[Structo]

My favorite humbucker now is the Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary HB.

I have them in two guitars and they sound great.

[Littlewyan]

When I get a second guitar I might give them a go. Have heard a lot about them.