I NEED HELP!!! i know nothing about guitar pickups but my girlfreind said for my bday

[dassy]

help me pick pickups out please for my guitar (no budget)

...................(amp im gonna pair them up with)
MESA BOOGIE DUAL RECTIFIER HEAD (3 channels) w/ celestions V30s

....................STYLE
I want my DISTORTION to be WARM, CLARITY,
CLEAN to be WARM, SHIMMERY

.................TONES I LIKE
PINK FLOYD
TOOL

 

[foo]

. . . and what type of guitar are they going into?

foo

 

[dassy]

there going into an ibanez AX120,

 

[mixmkr]

I'd try either some single coils still attached to the Strat...or either some humbuckers, still touching the mahogany body of your Les Paul. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry so much about replacing you pickups... or...maybe some Dimazio Super Distortions??? ...... I'd look before you leap......Are not the Ibanez pickups working? Maybe you need a JEM!!

your girlfriend is to be commended, btw...

 

[64Firebird]

Just ask for the most expencive ones you can find and see how much she loves you.

 

[dassy]

pickups

my pickups are fine but im slowly trying to customize my guitar for the best tone i can get outta it, i wanna add a whammy bar and locking tuners also, but right now im at the pickups part,

so does anyone have any suggestions they could through out, im gonna look up reviews on sum once i get sum more suggestions?

any more help would be great!

 

[Lopp]

Single coils work good for Floyd.

Tool's a little different. Humbuckers may be better.

That being said, my personal fave for Ibanez/Boogie is an EMG-81. It's high output pushes the initial gain stages of a tube amp for extra harmonics. This allows you to back off of the overall gain and still get sweet tone and sustain. However, changing the battery is a bit annoying (small price for great tone).

Rent/borrow an axe with an '81 to test the combination.

 

[dassy]

i read MANY reviews on the EMG81s, so i think im gonna buy them,

but what would be another nice pickup to pair with the EMG-81,
or does it come with 2 pickups (neck-bridge)

 

[Lopp]

It is "almost" necessary to match active EMG's with other active EMG's. Mainly because it uses a different volume pot from that used with passive pickups. Therefore, a passive pickup does not match well with an active EMG pickup. Mainly because of the resulting volume disparity.

From what I recall, one classic combination is an EMG-81 in the bridge and an EMG-89 in the neck (Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield). You may be able to get a combination package.

FWIW, I use an EMG-81 in the bridge of an ESP MIII. However, I only use the EMG and have disabled the passive single coils in the mid and neck positions.