http://www.jessmukkah.com/bridge-pickup/
Whats the best bridge pickup for an Epiphone SG4 / G400?
Hi. My bridge pickup is very harsh and sounds very nasty. I’d like a new one without going broke. Any suggestions? Only things under £40 pounds or so please.
Also, it’s nothing to do with the height of the pickup – the bridge one is raised and thus closer to the strings. I checked this with a pro guitar repairer when I had trouble with my jack socket who said the height is just aesthetical and shouldn’t affect the sound.
The repairer said that, not my jack socket, just in case you were wondering. But yeah, new pickups about £40 or less. But you pay for what you get, ive looked around and want something £30-£40ish.
Thanks
Bunkum. Pickup height has a lot to do with the tone of your pickup. Lower it, and the sound gets a little smoother but lower output, raise it and it gets a little hotter but has a harsher sound. I’ve spent hours tweaking my guitars to try and balance out pickup sound, and I 100% promise you that pickup height makes a very large difference.
Tell you what – take a screwdriver and lower the bass side (the side under the thick E string), so that the pickup slopes down from the treble to the bass side. Now play your guitar. If you don’t have a 15w practice amp you should notice a huge difference in your tone – a lot less bass response. Dig? This is actually a pretty good idea for most styles of music, especially live… too much bass really muddies up the overall sound and can obscure the sound of the drums and bass guitar. Less bass also increases clarity.
I want you to try this before you buy new pickups. Lower your bridge pickup by 1/4″, or maybe a smidge more. Now play. Does it sound better? Try dropping it as low as it will go. Now how does it sound? This is important to you, because this is one of the easiest ways to customize your tone, one of the little tweaks. For most people it’s not a huge difference – but if you can hear the difference, it might be enough to tweak a pickup from weak to acceptable, or even okay to great!
Neck pickups, due to position, will almost always be hotter than the bridge, thus why bridge pickups are normally raise higher. It’s a physics thing. It’s also why you can’t have really hot pickups in the neck position. But perhaps I digress….
Your guitar has a mahogany body, which will lead you towards different pickups than my LTD guitars with basswood bodies. I love the Seymour Duncan JB, I think it is incredibly versatile for me, for every style except the most aggressive rock/metal.
You’ll want a pickup that doesn’t necessarily have lots of bass, since your guitar should have a great bass response already.
My personal suggestions would probably be the Duncan Distortion, the Custom Custom, or the Dimebucker from Seymour Duncan. From DiMarzio, perhaps the Evolution, D Sonic, or even the X2N.
Some of those are within your price range, some aren’t. I apologize, I’m just offering suggestions. There is a great resource for you at the third link below – one of the biggest user review sites for equipment… check it out. Make sure you check it out before you buy anything!
Good luck!
Saul
Strat with Tele Bridge Pickup (Clean)
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