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• New pickups |
Here are my impressions and ideas about my new pickups: Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 Pro neck version (APH-1n) and Seymour Duncan Dimebucker (SH-13).
 
What was my purpose in buying such a set? Well, my forever beloved guitar sound is the sound of Slash's guitar (oh, what a beautiful sound!) He is great guitarist, but the most impressive thing for me is his tone. I like Guns N'Roses, and I heard it for the first time rather long ago. Contrary to that, I heard Pantera only year ago. Hey! I just permanently fell in love with that tone! It's great! Dime rulez! :)
You know, I can't say that I like Pantera more that MetallicA. MetallicA makes great music, and I like it more than Pantera (you know, sometimes it gets a bit boring..I'm talking about latter albums..yeah, that's just my opninion). When I'm listening to MetallicA, it's just like each song has its own character, all songs are totally different. So, their songs are great. But I don't like the guitar sound. And as for Pantera, Dime's guitar sound is brilliant!
So, there are two different sounds I like. And I want both of them! :) What should I do? Well, I wanted to put Alnico 2 Pro (let's call it A2P; it's the pickup Slash uses in his Les Pauls) in the neck and Dime's Dimebucker (DB) in the bridge. Certainly, it's kind of compromise, but I just hoped it would work.
So what do we get now? The DB is much "hotter". That is, when I'm switching to the most weak distortion my amp can provide ('Vintage' channel, Gain set to zero) A2P produces almost clean sound. And the signal from DB is distorted.
I looked for DB for a long time (near one year) and A2P was in the bridge position for that time (although I bought a neck version). And you know, it was amazing! I liked the sound very much. If I could ever get another guitar, I would shurely equip it with A2Ps both in the bridge and in the neck. It can be funny, but I've got an impression that the sound was really reminiscent of Slash's sound.
Anyway, when finally I managed to get a DB, I put A2P to neck, just like I planned it. I also made some corrections to the guitar's scheme, so now it works like I want it to work, not how it wants to:)
The DB produces the sound with lots of trebble. I was almost astonished with such a loud highs. You know, I was forced to lessen the 'Treble' level on my amp's clean channel. And despite that, I don't like to use the DB on a clean channel, 'cause if I adjust the 'Treble' level that is suitable for DB, the A2P's sound becomes too 'dark'.
Now to distortion. It's where DB is great! Especially with the most brutal dist, that is 'Gain 2' on my amp:) The attack is fast. My previous pickups (surely, including A2P) are much softer. When you hit the string the sound is just immediately in your ears with DB :) The feedback is much stronger - it's easier to obtain it, but it's not annoying, that is you can control it and just eliminate it if you want.
What about lows of DB? I don't know:) I can't compare it to something. There are no so much treble in my other pickups, and their lows are just enough for me. But when I hear DB, its highs are so strong in comparison to other pickups, but I can't say that lows are so impressive too. Nonetheless, there's no lack of lows. They are just enough.
All in all, it's very interesting pickup. It has its own character and it's up to you if you want it. I guess you would either love it or hate it:) Personally I just can't say if I really liked it - I'm still thinking. But it suits for my music nicely. If you are looking for a very powerful sound, just take Dimebucker.
And one more note about the sound. As I mentioned, I made some corrections to the guitar's scheme, so now I can gradually convert humbuckers to singles. So finally I was able to check out how it works with my Idol. Well, I found it almost useless with heavy distortion. I can't hear much difference in tone, but there's much more hum with singles when using distortion. But 'single' mode is great for a clean channel. I found best sounding A2P in the neck converted to single. Its clean sound becomes so live and soft(?)...that is, the sound is very natural. I really like it. And in addition to that, finally I've got that subtle (bluesy?) overdrive when Gain 1 is set to zero. Very nice, too.
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