New pickups

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jasgav

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I have recently acquired a 90’s charvel with a bridge humbucker only. It still has the stock Jackson pick up in it. I want to replace it! I’m thinking a PAF but not 100% sure yet. I’m looking for mild rock to a clean jazz type sound. Something that with the volume up all the way has a bit of a bite and when dialed back cleans up nicely. And has to be available in a crème color. Suggestions…
 
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Cream only leaves two options. D'Marzio or Carvin. Well, OK, one option! D'Marzio. They make a good PAF copy. BTW Carvin makes horrible pups IMO.
 
Micter said:
Cream only leaves two options. D'Marzio or Carvin. Well, OK, one option! D'Marzio. They make a good PAF copy. BTW Carvin makes horrible pups IMO.
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I've never heard any one slam Carvin pickups, maybe the company but never their guitars or picksup.

What model pickups if you recall? I bought a set of their AP11 single coils and a C22B humbucker mount on the pickguard completely wired. They sound better than the stock pickups on my LP, Strat and Tele. I put them on a 2000 squire strat that sadly peforms better now than the previously mentioned guitars :confused:

I have some Bill Lawrence pickups on order for the tele and strat in hope of evening things out.
 
Carvin's C22B is probably perfect for the bridge. I'm pretty sure they'd give you a money back if not happy guarantee.
 
RandyW said:
I've never heard any one slam Carvin pickups, maybe the company but never their guitars or picksup.

What model pickups if you recall? I bought a set of their AP11 single coils and a C22B humbucker mount on the pickguard completely wired. They sound better than the stock pickups on my LP, Strat and Tele. I put them on a 2000 squire strat that sadly peforms better now than the previously mentioned guitars :confused:

I have some Bill Lawrence pickups on order for the tele and strat in hope of evening things out.
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I have 6 Carvin guitars. They are all great but their pups just don't cut it. I have tried the AP11, C22N, C22B, C22J, M22SD, and a few others. I prefer a more rounded tone. It's all subjective though.
 
Micter said:
I have 6 Carvin guitars. They are all great but their pups just don't cut it. I have tried the AP11, C22N, C22B, C22J, M22SD, and a few others. I prefer a more rounded tone. It's all subjective though.
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How'd you get a J already?
 
FYI you can get Seymour Duncan pickups in creme just order them as a shop floor custom (not custom shop) under a nickel or gold cover and then just take the cover off yourself. The upside is they can keep the price low instead of paying money to Dimarzio who's idea of colour as a trademark is laughable, and you pay the same amount as for a nickel covered Seymour Duncan pickup.

My recommendation is for the Seymour Duncan because they really do make the best PAF type pickups without going in to the boutique type prices. Though Dimarzio makes some PAF style pickups as well but you should be able to tell that from their website, they all have PAF in the name.

If you want a more classic sound I wouldn't recommend a Carvin pickup, or any pickup with hex polepieces for that matter. It should have one row of slugs and one of screws, under 9k resistance and either an A2 or A5 magnet.
 
Micter said:
Cream only leaves two options. D'Marzio or Carvin. Well, OK, one option! D'Marzio. They make a good PAF copy. BTW Carvin makes horrible pups IMO.
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I have 2 Carvin single coils in a guitar I built and they both outshine the 2 stock pickups in my Fender Strat by a long shot!

The Bill Lawrence bridge pickup in the Strat is maybe a bit hotter than the Carvins maybe.
 
I had a bill lawrence 900xl in my ibanez destroyer for about 10 years. I liked the way it sounded but I didn't want this pickup to be that hot. I'm I to take it nobody is really hot on Dimarzio pickups?
 
jasgav said:
I had a bill lawrence 900xl in my ibanez destroyer for about 10 years. I liked the way it sounded but I didn't want this pickup to be that hot. I'm I to take it nobody is really hot on Dimarzio pickups?
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I have no problem with DiMarzios, I just don't like the extra hot pickups like the Super Distortions. PAF style humbuckers are great for the variety of stuff I like to play, actually I just put Chopper T pickups in a couple of my Teles recently and I like them a lot.
 
Go with the Dimarzio Air Classic or PAF if you want a creme pickup thats easily available.

If you really want a really true PAF type sound go with a Seymour Duncan 59, order a shop floor custom (no more expensive than a regular nickel covered 59', you will have to wait though). If the guitar is naturally bright then go with an Alnico 2 Pro.

IMO Carvin's are amazing guitars, never heard of anyone actually buying their pickups to put in other guitars though, and in general comparing any pickup to Fender stock pickups is like shooting fish in a barrel. Whether they're good enough is not really the question, they definitely don't fit the description that jasgav gave us and I don't see how shamely plugging Carvin products in to every single thread on this forum helps their reputation, it just cheapens it. If you have something meaningful to say about what I admit is a very very fine product then by all means please do, but referring to them when thats clearly not what someone wants doesn't help anyone.
 
ibanezrocks said:
...they definitely don't fit the description that jasgav gave us...
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He didn't give us that much to go, creme and mild rock and jazzy. I have a C22B and I think it would work great. And people do put Carvins into other guitars. Doesn't happen as often the other big names, but for that matter, I've never seen anyone else playing a Carvin in person. So by my experience only Joe Walsh and I actually own Carvin guitars.

apl said:
...and I don't see how shamely plugging Carvin products in to every single thread on this forum helps their reputation, it just cheapens it. If you have something meaningful to say about what I admit is a very very fine product then by all means please do, but referring to them when thats clearly not what someone wants doesn't help anyone.
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The only things I plug in every single thread (every post, actually) are in my sig. And usually when mentioning Carvin I say, "Consider..." This post was unusually confident.

And how many of the nine models of Carvin humbuckers have you tried?
 
Micter said:
I have 6 Carvin guitars. They are all great but their pups just don't cut it. I have tried the AP11, C22N, C22B, C22J, M22SD, and a few others. I prefer a more rounded tone. It's all subjective though.
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6 Carvins you must stock! I've had a lot of problems ordering parts from them but I've never played one of their guitars. They must be very decent if you have
6. I was thinking about ordering one of their bolt kits. What is your opinion on one of them verses something like a std am strat?

I have a few fenders but find the squire plays better, I must be addicted to cheap skinny necks.
 
RandyW said:
6 Carvins you must stock! I've had a lot of problems ordering parts from them but I've never played one of their guitars. They must be very decent if you have
6. I was thinking about ordering one of their bolt kits. What is your opinion on one of them verses something like a std am strat?

I have a few fenders but find the squire plays better, I must be addicted to cheap skinny necks.
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I have built two of their kits. A Bolt and Bolt Plus. They are really good guitars. For a first time guitar build/finishing project I would highly recommend a Bolt kit. Ditch the bridge humbucker for a Seymour Duncan 59 and you'll have a great sounding guitar. seel your C22B to apl. That's what I did. :D

As far as comparing the Bolt to my American Fat Strat or my ESP Custom Shop Strat, well, it falls a bit short. The Strat's neck is made with a different configuration thus sounds quite different. Carvin is using some graphite stabilizing rods in thier necks that do wonders for their necks stability but I think it effects the tone.

On the flip side the Bolt Plus which is a two humbucker no pick guard guitar is very good. Mine has a set of SD59's is made from Koa and to be honest sounds and plays great!
 
Micter said:
I have built two of their kits. A Bolt and Bolt Plus. They are really good guitars. For a first time guitar build/finishing project I would highly recommend a Bolt kit. Ditch the bridge humbucker for a Seymour Duncan 59 and you'll have a great sounding guitar. seel your C22B to apl. That's what I did. :D

As far as comparing the Bolt to my American Fat Strat or my ESP Custom Shop Strat, well, it falls a bit short. The Strat's neck is made with a different configuration thus sounds quite different. Carvin is using some graphite stabilizing rods in thier necks that do wonders for their necks stability but I think it effects the tone.

On the flip side the Bolt Plus which is a two humbucker no pick guard guitar is very good. Mine has a set of SD59's is made from Koa and to be honest sounds and plays great!
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That Bolt Plus sounds nice when I finish or I guess I should say start and finish my current kit a Octave mandolin I will look into one of Carvins kits.
I did one of International Violins A style kits and it sounds better than my
Eastman 614 at about a tenth of the price.

I've been playing a lot of mandolin and Fender Tele lately, I have a Gibson Les Paul with the 490 pickups and they just seem to sound flat and lifeless. I don't know if it's from playing a lot of trebly sounding instruments my ears or
poor pickups. But lately I only really like the sound of single coils. I should be getting a set of Bill Lawrences any day now. I the sound of vintage fender single coils at low volumes but they don't sound quite right turned way up.

You think those Duncans would work on an ES335 style ? I've got a Dimarzio ordered for the neck and might as well replace the bridge too.
 
I bought this POS squier with the bathtub routing that I was looking for something stupid to do with. I saw this guitar fetish site where he has pickguards assemblies with different configurations of his generic pickups.

I was thinking of getting one of those pizza-vomit pickguards with 2 chrome covered humbuckers in them. Does anyone know if they are 100% garbage or not. i wouldn't use it for doing led zepplin. I was thinking more along the lines of a 70s funk/disco humbucker sound. Not too concerned about high gain.

Has anyone tried his PUs before?
 
cephus said:
I bought this POS squier with the bathtub routing that I was looking for something stupid to do with. I saw this guitar fetish site where he has pickguards assemblies with different configurations of his generic pickups.

I was thinking of getting one of those pizza-vomit pickguards with 2 chrome covered humbuckers in them. Does anyone know if they are 100% garbage or not. i wouldn't use it for doing led zepplin. I was thinking more along the lines of a 70s funk/disco humbucker sound. Not too concerned about high gain.

Has anyone tried his PUs before?
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Whose pickups?
 
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