Needing a suggestion from pro's

[xSweep]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum in specific..

Alright. I'm an audio engineer. And I've come to realize more and more with recording that the guitar pickup itself (in the right guitar through the right rig) is critical to the the in far more ways than I realized in my younger days of just guitar playing. I know that I have two pickups I really love for recording.

I'm big into prog metal and the such.

One obvious choice is the SD SH-4. The other might sound strange for my music interests but I really love the PRS Dragon 2.

I've come to the conclusion that neither pickup nails it for my own persnal tastes. And I've heard so much good about boutique hand wound pickups that I'm gonna skip over the big manufacturers and try something new.

The lower gain on the Dragon 2 through a higher gain amp (VHT Pittbull 50)

Is just tight and punchy as hell. The harmonics are good. It beats out the SH-4 in just about every way. The only problem is that I do appreciate the gain and oomph the SH-4 gives me.

What I want is something hand wound that takes the best of both worlds, and if magically possible, improves on them.

Anybody make such a pickup? Anyone here? Should I be looking into Bareknuckles or the likes on those superior hand wounds?



Thanks guys, this forum is brilliant, so I've got no doubts I'll be pointed in the right direction.

[LtKojak]

Alright. I'm an audio engineer.

I'm big into prog metal and the such.

I've got no doubts I'll be pointed in the right direction.

The description you gave is not very clear, as you don't give any point of comparison.

What guitar are you using and whose tone are you after? Are those tones for the recording instrument or live setting? That'll be a good starting point, then we can elaborate.

[Spence]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum in specific..

Alright. I'm an audio engineer. And I've come to realize more and more with recording that the guitar pickup itself (in the right guitar through the right rig) is critical to the the in far more ways than I realized in my younger days of just guitar playing. I know that I have two pickups I really love for recording.

I'm big into prog metal and the such.

One obvious choice is the SD SH-4. The other might sound strange for my music interests but I really love the PRS Dragon 2.

I've come to the conclusion that neither pickup nails it for my own persnal tastes. And I've heard so much good about boutique hand wound pickups that I'm gonna skip over the big manufacturers and try something new.

The lower gain on the Dragon 2 through a higher gain amp (VHT Pittbull 50)

Is just tight and punchy as hell. The harmonics are good. It beats out the SH-4 in just about every way. The only problem is that I do appreciate the gain and oomph the SH-4 gives me.

What I want is something hand wound that takes the best of both worlds, and if magically possible, improves on them.

Anybody make such a pickup? Anyone here? Should I be looking into Bareknuckles or the likes on those superior hand wounds?



Thanks guys, this forum is brilliant, so I've got no doubts I'll be pointed in the right direction.

You could have a high powered hand wound humbucker with an alnico magnet which would do the trick.

[Possum]

....

Hand winding isn't good for everything and might be the wrong way to go for what you want. A couple of years ago a guy sent me a DiMarzio pickup to rewind by hand guiding to "improve" it. Well, turned out hand winding made it worse sounding for what he wanted. Hand winds generally soften the resonant peaks and make for a mellower tone, something thats not good for every humbucker design.....

[David Schwab]

Take one coil from each pickup, and make one new pickup. Seriously. I did that very same thing with two of my own pickups. I liked both of them, so now I have sort of a composite of the two.

The very tight and punchy DiMarzio pickups (like the Tone Zone and Evo) and made that way. They often wind each coil with a different gauge wire and number of turns.

[kevinT]

boutique hand wound pickups

Just curious....Why are you infactuated with "hand wound" pickups?

[xSweep]

As far as the vagueness of my post.. I'm not too worried about the guitar. It'll probably spend time in a few different guitars. I know how my guitars react in that sense pretty intimately. Although for the sake of argument, It will probably drop into my Les Paul first. So being bass heavy is a no no.


And for the tone I'm specifically chasing.. My own. I've discovered what I like over the past few years or so. Medium to high gain, ultra tight and somewhat dry low end and semi saturated harmonics. Being -dynamic- and organic sounding as possible.

The studio setting is where I have my biggest concern.

I own or have used a lot of big brand pickups. Active or passive. I'm sick of active pickups, and I'm always finding the big named passive pickups go too far or not far enough with something I'm trying to achieve.

I've heard that handwound pickups (scatter wound) just sound good and organic. Besides, I'm always willing to try something new. 150+ bucks for a well crafted pickup that gives me exactly (or close..ish) to what I want won't be a waste.

And as far as splitting a Dragon 2 and JB in half and winding them together.. I'd love to try that and after reading it, I probably will someday. But I've never wound a pickup before haha. I hear that the Dragon 2 is ceramic if I'm not mistaken, and the JB is AlNiCo 5? Would that be weird?


I'm open to any kind of suggestions though.

[xSweep]

Handwound pickups soften the resonant peak? I suppose that might not be what I want. But who knows? I know that high gain pickups are generally "metal" pickups, and I play higher gain music so you think I'd use them. But I find they're too harsh or muddy and not well balanced enough.

My dream list includes:

Tight punchy low end and mids.

Harmonically rich but not the point that everything comes out semi-pinched or squaky.

Dynamic. I try to be a super dynamic player and I like it when my pickup respondes to that.

Organic. Clynical to a point, but not something that kills to natural feel of the sound. Something that lets me hear and feel the wood in my guitar... if that makes any sense. If it doesn't, don't worry about it haha.

----

I've read up on the different types of alnico and ceramics, but I find myself unclear on the varrying opinions of the native tone characteristics they have. Any elaboration would be appreciated but no one needs to get into it if it's too much. I'll end up finding time to figure it out on my own.

[David Schwab]

Sounds like you want an Evo or Tone Zone to me.