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New guitar or new pickups?



Posts: 14   Visited by: 25 users
22.04.2007 - 02:07
Stalker
Lone wanderer
Hi there people. Here's the deal.

I've been thinking of buying a new guitar, probably some RG Ibanez, but since I dont have much money, some idea came upon my mind.

I already have Ibanez GRG 170, nothing special, its my first electric guitar, but it suits me very well. The thin neck, frets, its shape and all is perfect for me. Tremolo arm is useless of course, but I dont use it any way.
So I thought, why to spend money on whole new guitar if I can just buy some good pickup(s) for that money.
And I mostly use bridge hambucker, rarely midle and neck pickup (almost never), so id maybe replace only that one.

I dont know much about guitar hardware, so any help, any opinions about this are welcome. Especially if you know some good pickups and their prices. Thanks
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22.04.2007 - 04:59
Arian Totalis
The Philosopher
If I were you, if your current guitar is in good shape, I would get a nice set of Pick ups. I have heard good things about EMG's and DiMargios. I am not really a tech expert of course, so you will probably need to look into that personally.
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"For the Coward there is no Life
For the hero there is No Death"
-Kakita Toshimoko

"The Philosopher, you know so much about nothing at all." _Chuck Schuldiner.
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22.04.2007 - 14:10
Stalker
Lone wanderer
Written by Arian Totalis on 22.04.2007 at 04:59

If I were you, if your current guitar is in good shape, I would get a nice set of Pick ups. I have heard good things about EMG's and DiMargios. I am not really a tech expert of course, so you will probably need to look into that personally.
Well its 2 years old, and its pretty much in same condition like it was then, so....
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22.04.2007 - 18:15
Kaamos
Account deleted
How good axe were you thinking of? Instead of buying only slightly better guitar than you have now, I'd go for pickups instead.

Active pickups tend to have less humming/feedback and more output due to small preamp inside your guitar, though some people don't like their tone that much compared to passive ones.
Keep in mind that those actives require a separate battery, which can be a problem if your guitar doesn't have enough space for it. Also, the guitar body affects the sound; select pickups suitable for your body wood.

I currently have set of Seymour Duncans in my guitar (passive, JB/'59 ), I will probably replace the bridge JB with DiMarzio Evolution or X2N in the future... quite punchy pickups.

Oh yeah, as changing the pickups is merely shaping the sound, the impact isn't all that big. Excluding if you're switching from single coils to humbuckers or from passives to actives.
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23.04.2007 - 05:50
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
I say it depends on whether your getting the set up proffessionally done. Guitar shops sometimes charge quite a bit for that stuff.
I say just buy a new guitar, it never hurts having more than 1!
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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23.04.2007 - 16:42
APOHAKC
The Bard
Man, why don't you bring your guitar at my place once, so I can see what we can make out of it. I can recommend you some good pickups but I would like to see your guitar first. As someone mentioned EMGs are quite good, but also very exspensive, and if you want to play other musics but metal it is maybe not very good idea...
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The heathen faith will rise again we won't fail now
I know we cannot die forever is our time
Give my people back to me free from Christianity!!!!
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23.04.2007 - 19:43
Hatebreeder_509
Account deleted
id get some emgs.... like the 85..... or some good duncans
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12.06.2007 - 07:56
WarlockDLX69
Account deleted
i have active pickups in my hellraiser... and trust me... they have just as much if not more feedback and hum than my passive ones in my warlock lol not too bad, but enough to make you turn the vol down on the guitar a bit.. maybe even a gain reduction (all of this only at higher volumes of course) as for the tone of my actives? great tone... especially when palm muting... it has that real machine gun sound to it... my passive pickups dont really have the same sensitivity level... but they are good for certain things, i think passive pickups sound better when placed on the neck pickup.

my suggestion? if you can, get a new guitar... if you want active pickups, take a look at the hellraisers... they come with them, and the battery compartment is already installed, and easy to gain access to... they are relatively cheap, and if you consider the price of the EMGs themselves, plus the cost of installation (which is always best left to a professional, not to mention switching from passive to active is a whole other beast from even swaps) you will only be spending a few bucks more to buy a new guitar... just a suggestion... if you want to replace the pickups? go with duncans... dimbucker bridge, and something nice uptop... cant think of a good duncan model for up top, but im sure someone at the guitar shop can suggest something complimentary. just know this, guitars are only as good as the GUITAR itself... good pickups in a bad guitar will not perform the same way as a guitar built for good quality stuff... which is another reason buying a guitar already fitted with EMGs is a good idea... they build the guitar to compliment the pickups (in many cases... not all)
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11.12.2007 - 13:24
RockeRoy

if your guitar is good to play on i would go for the picups! either emg 81 or seymor duncan
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You found god? If nobody claims him in thirty days, he's yours

Walk with me in hell
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06.07.2008 - 03:55
MortalTheory
Account deleted
EMG 81/85, best pickups ever. if not, go for dimebuckers
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30.07.2008 - 18:14
K✞ulu
Seeker of Truth
I was going to buy a new guitar soon (I currently play Epiphone G-400 SG), but then I guy told me, "No way, get new pickups and you can do miracles on this guitar." He told me to buy Seymour Dunkan '59 model SH-1 neck pickup and Seymour Dunkan George Lynch Screamin' Demon? SH-12 bridge pickup. So this is what I'm gonna do.
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Savor what you feel and what you see
Things that may not seem important now
But may be tomorrow

R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner

Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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15.09.2008 - 15:46
Rozz

im thinking of buying a new guitar does anyone have any ideas for me?
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28.12.2008 - 16:29
Yooden

Hi, I need help deciding on a new guitar and since I can´t create a thread yet this seems to be the place.

I am about to buy a new guitar of the cheaper kind (so I have one more for drop-tunings, i already got an ibanez RG)
I´m thinking about either Ibanez art 120 or LTD EC-50, has anybody tried any of them? I haven´t had the opportunity yet.
Are they complete rubbish perhaps?
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www.theycalluslegion.com
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29.12.2008 - 22:12
Branzig

Written by Stalker on 22.04.2007 at 02:07

Hi there people. Here's the deal.

I've been thinking of buying a new guitar, probably some RG Ibanez, but since I dont have much money, some idea came upon my mind.

I already have Ibanez GRG 170, nothing special, its my first electric guitar, but it suits me very well. The thin neck, frets, its shape and all is perfect for me. Tremolo arm is useless of course, but I dont use it any way.
So I thought, why to spend money on whole new guitar if I can just buy some good pickup(s) for that money.

And I mostly use bridge hambucker, rarely midle and neck pickup (almost never), so id maybe replace only that one.

I dont know much about guitar hardware, so any help, any opinions about this are welcome. Especially if you know some good pickups and their prices. Thanks


Ok, well there are a lot of things to cover here. I have been a guitarists for over 9 years now and have a decent amount of gigging experience, so I hope what I have to say will be able to help you.

First and foremost, it sounds like you are looking for a better tone, hence why you would be willing to keep your guitar and switch out the pick-ups. The first question you should always ask yourself in a tone situation is, "what am I working with for an amp?" You're amp is the number one tone making machine you have, and even if you have a $10,000 guitar thats pumped up with some EMG's, it isn't going to mean diddly squat coming through a tiny, sub-par amp. It is even more crucial that you have a good amp if you are looking to play metal (which you better be! haha) because a small practice amp doesn't always hold up to high gain so well.

Now, if your amp is satisfactory, then the next question is, "How does my guitar play?" Is the inotation dead on? Hows the action? Need a truss adjustment? All the connections 100%? Pots clean and working? If 2 to 3 of those things are out of whack, fixing them could cost more than buying a new guitar that already has some sick 'pups in it. So that is another thing to consider.

And if the guitar is perfect to you and you like your amp, then the las question, "what kind of pick-ups should I get?" Before jumping right into that, you may want to consider stomp-boxes as well. Gain altering effects can graitly increase your tone as well. Now, EMG or not to EMG. You stated that you mainly use the bridge pick-up, well be forewarned that if you drop an active pick-up into the bridge and leave the mid and neck passive, the active will over-power the other two pick-ups, rendering them completely useless. You'll just feedback like a bitch. Plus actives can be pretty pricey. And another thing, EMG's only sound like EMG;s no matter what. In other words, if you ever want to play something clean or you are wanting to have a more versital sound, stay away from the EMG. I have EMG's on my Jackson and it kicks ass for metal, but that's it. If i try to play clean, I get break up because the boost is so powerful. So if you want to play a lot of styles or ever go clean in tone, I would stick with passives. Seymour Duncan has some killer passives that sound amazing both in high gain and clean situations, so if you are dead set on pick-ups, that's where I would begin my search. If you only play extreme forms of metal (death black war etc) and you never plan on going clean, then you could go with a single or two EMG set up (like an 85 and 81) and be ok.

Sorry for the short story, but I hope that helps. If you ever have any questions feel free to ask
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In Grind We Crust
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