Ibanez needs new bridge pickup, which is best?

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nukeitout

nukeitout

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I have an Ibanez late 80's japanese RG: H S H, two pots, 5 posn switch, 24 frets, floyd rose trem. It looks like garbage but is mechanically perfect. I like the guitar but the sound is a little washy on the bridge pickup, and for this reason I don't use it...

Any suggestions for a high quality hot humbucker? I was looking at some online and realized that I don't know much about the wide selection available. I'm sure I can find one for a decent price that will work as well as the $100+ ones, but I'm not that knowledgable on off brand pickups. Any suggestions?

I want to get this guitar sounding good because I need a decent backup for gigging, and I don't want to buy a new guitar.

I'm also open to suggestions on modifying the electronics instead of replacing the pickup to get a fuller sound from the bridge pickup.


Thanks in advance :)
 
I guess I should have said that I will be using the guitar for southern rock/classic rock/pop rock in a cover band mostly. As far as my personal taste goes, I like a more aggressive tone that's not too shrill.
 
I good humbucker for not alot of cash is the Bill Lawrence L500XL. I had one in a strat long ago and it did a fine job for everything from blues to metal. Definitely not a harsh sounding pickup and not muddy. As far as humbuckers go, I liked it quite a bit.

The only thing is, there's some controversy about two guys making the same damn pickups and calling them Bill Lawrence pickups, from what I read here. Mine did not have the Bill Lawrence name printed on the pickup and it wasn't the dimebag model. The shop that sold it to me said it had been around for a while and that was probably 7 years ago. That should help you weed out the good one.
 
Actually, it could have been the pickups that dimebag originally used but it did not have the bill lawrence name on the pickup. Damn I'm no help. :p
 
I never did get that 'cowboys' sound out of it but that pickup is definitely on the tighter sounding side, not too bright, and not too dark. With the right amp, it probably gets there. To me ears, it had more of a classic sound.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I never did get that 'cowboys' sound out of it but that pickup is definitely on the tighter sounding side, not too bright, and not too dark. With the right amp, it probably gets there. To me ears, it had more of a classic sound.
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The sound they had probably came from heave solid state distortion and compression, and I'm sure the pickup used in their recordings wasn't a run of the mill $50 pickup... It does look like a good deal on a nice pickup, though. I might give it a shot. I'll let you know how it turns out if I do. Thanks!
 
The Dimebucker is REAL hot. I like an SH6 in the bridge. Dude, check out the Dimarzio Evo pickup. I LOVE that pup. I have one in the neck of one of my Ibanez. Havn't tried a bridge Evo, but yeah, check out the EVO!
 
The Seymour Duncan JB is extremely popular for very good reason; it's an excellent pickup. If you are looking for a hot pickup, you can't go wrong with a JB. Other Duncan's which are worth considering are the Duncan Custom, the Custom Custom, and the Distortion. If you go with a Duncan, get a Trembucker (it will work better with the strings spacing of your guitar).

I'm afraid I don't know the Dimarzio line very well, but they do make a fine pickup (I just like the Duncan's more for guitar, though Dimarzio makes killer bass pickups). If you go with a Dimarzio, though, get an F-Spaced pickup (same thing as a Trembucker - it's spaced for your tremolo).

The other pickup I'd strongly recommend is Lindy Fralin's new high output humbucker. I haven't actually heard one, but I trust Lindy to make a pickup which will surpass almost anything on the market. He is a spectacular pickup maker. If you try it, come back and let me know what you think, but I'm quite certain that you would love it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Thanks for the replies! Whatever I get will take a few weeks to ship, since I'm in Germany and APO shipping is horribly slow. I'm going to go over all the electronics in it, since I just plugged it in (it's been awhile) and it has horrible static and noise on all settings. I know something has to be wrong, since it gets a lot of noise even when only one humbucker is selected... My peavey tracer (1989 custom, S-S-H, FR, 24 fret) has a little noise on the singles, but absolutely none on the humbucker. In light of this, I'm going to see if some electrical tlc will help the sound before I go ordering parts. I figure I'll still want a decent pickup in it, as it is just an old japanese rg... I'll let you know what I decide and how it works when I get it. There are a lot of good suggestions, now to pick...
 
Dimarzio Evolutions are pretty hot without being shrill, nice bottom end without getting muddy - very tight.
 
Holy crap! I just opened up the guitar, and it's a complete mess! It looks like a 5 year old wired up this thing... It has various types of tape everywhere (yes the type that conducts electricity via it's sticky goo), and in places wires are twisted with other wires in a chain. One pickup is grounded via a chain of 4 wires for no apparent reason!

No wonder my guitar didn't have a good sound...

I'm going to unsolder everything and start from scratch... Maybe I won't need a new pickup after all. I can't even verify that the wiring is correct on here, I'm just going to get out the multimeter and get to work. I don't trust whoever messed this thing up this bad to have the wires in the right place... I'll post my results when I'm done. Who knows, maybe I'll like the sound when it's acutaly wired correctly...
 
Light said:
The Seymour Duncan JB is extremely popular for very good reason; it's an excellent pickup. If you are looking for a hot pickup, you can't go wrong with a JB. Other Duncan's which are worth considering are the Duncan Custom, the Custom Custom, and the Distortion. If you go with a Duncan, get a Trembucker (it will work better with the strings spacing of your guitar).
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I agree with these. They are great all around pickups. I would think with the style of music you are playing, that you wouldn't really want a super hot pickup, like the Evolution. It seem like it would be a little much.

The DiMarzio PAF Pro is also a great choice, as is the DiMarzio Super Distortion.
 
Duncan Custom or JB - Great all around pickups good for many different styles...
 
I've had a DiMarzio PAF style in my Strat copy for at least 10 years now and it works great for any style of music I play. It's a nice and chunky sounding tone and not a lot of gritty distortion-but for classic rock & blues its a winner! ;)
 
Thanks again for all the replies! Upon further research, I realize that I don't even know what my guitar is... I have a good reason to believe that it's a 1987 RG 550 something or other, but I haven't been able to find anything just like it... It could be a prestige (the entire guitar was stripped bare and stained black - very ugly, I didn't do it...) but all markings are gone from the guitar and headstock... The electronics are so bad in it I'm surprised it made any sound at all... Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to rewire it and see what the pickups in it actually sound like........ But I'll probably still buy a hotter bridge pickup for some killer solos :).

Thanks again guys
 
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