Guitar pickups...almost there!?

Question:I know im putting the duncan sh-1 '59 in the neck and iv'e narrowed it down to two bridge pickups: the sh-4 JB or the Dimebucker. which would you chose?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I know im putting the duncan sh-1 '59 in the neck and iv'e narrowed it down to two bridge pickups: the sh-4 JB or the Dimebucker. which would you chose?

If you check the website below you'll see that the JB has a little bit higher resonant frequency, and pushes a little more mids and a little less bass than the Dimebucker. I have a JB in my bridge position, and that's mostly why I've gone for it over other pickups - I'm playing into a Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb, and with EL34's in it I'm hearing all kinds of beautiful top end treble detail as well as a moderate amount of "crunch". I can always dial in more bass if I want it, but my taste runs more towards a cleaner mid-range and higher-ranged sound, and I'm getting plenty of focus, even on full-blown distortion riffing.

The feedback I've been given about the Dimebucker is that it isn't obscenely bassy, but it isn't well-balanced between its bass and mids and treble - ie, too much of the bass and high treble vs muddy mids and upper mids if that makes any sense.

A large, large, large part of it will depend on your guitar and your playing style. If your guitar is naturally not a very bassy guitar, then throwing a Dimebucker on it would be a good move, in my opinion. If your guitar is a little darker as is, I would suggest the JB, to help keep its tone balanced and even. One pickup is never "automatically" better than another - you need to take into account the whole picture.

If you throw more bass at an amp than it can handle your tone will suffer - becoming less focused, or diffuse, or unfocused. I try to avoid this by playing it safe. Luckily my Mesa will spit out as much bass as I will ever want and more, so that's no big deal.

Saul

I have a '59 in the neck too, and a Dimebucker in the bridge. I absolutely love that bridge pickup. Rythm is really clear, even under the heaviest distortion. Harmonics sound amazing too. It's not just for metal, if you have a good well-rounded amp you can play rock on it pretty easily too, you can get some decent tones from Angus to ZZ Top on it even, with the right amp. These were achieved straight into a 75 watt Randall RG75G3 amp, without any effects on a guitar with lousy wood even. I can't get over how clear that pickup is.