Starting a new build. Will be a 3 string 25,5'' scale. Now the question is which wil be the best for playing slow blues?
I have to choose between:
1. doubble rail cheapo asian pickup
2.humbucker
3. single coil asian pick-up
4. imitation p90
Any advise given wil be appreciated.
Replies
You have to learn to play that BLUES SHUFFLE. Think about the beginning of ZZTop's LaGrange and practically every other ZZTop song. LOL
And the riff line of My Heads In Mississippi.
Hi, I played with a guy for a while whole wanted to play blues. He bought a Gibson Lucille 335 guitar, and The amp that BB King prefers, but could not create a blues sound or feel.
But I have found that after repairing thousands of guitars, that when I play them the sound of the pickup often leans me to playing a certain sryle of music.
Taff
Spot on Paul, Blues is a style. The way you play the guitar is what makes it bluesey, not the pickups?
Literally every type of pickup ever made has been used to play blues. Blues is a style.
Use whatever you want or got. Fat tone would be choice of P90 or any type of Humbucker.
Thinner treble tone would be Lipstick Tube, Strat style and some Tele pickups.
Actually Tele pickups can be in that treble territory or fat toned.
Pickups that are in between the treble and fat would be minibuckers, Filtertrons and Gold Foils.
Sorry about the hiccups. I be a regular if this site worked properly....
But that besides the point, I say go P90s. I tried all their variations from original, humbucker-sized, strat-sized, knockoffs, etc. They all good but different sounding so beware. My advice would be Alnico 2 equipped P90s, for those always sound best for smooth blues than the Alnico 5 ones.
I bought a three pickup set with the center pickup counter wound and a 5 position selector switch. Basically a Strat set up. With the switch in positions 1,3 & 5 you have the clear, brash sound of one single coil pickup. in positions 2 & 4 you combine the center pickup with either the bridge or neck pickup and because the center is counter wound you get the sound of a Humbucker.
I love having all those options!
Too cool. Thanks!
Build you own? I have a very humble "Blog" on building low-z pickups from wall-wart wire, machine screws and thin bits of hardwood. (https://cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blogs/pickup-winding-troglodyte...) If you get stuck, ask. I'll help all I can. I build pickups now, (low-powered but decent sounding) for the price of a bit of wood glue, the screws and a buck for the wall-wart from a thrift store. I use a skull drill from a job I used to have, making brain implants, to wind it. The pickups are low-powered, so not real loud, buffers help. You could use normal 42-43 gauge in it's place if you're not as cheap poor as I. You can get more volume that way.
I would tend to lean towards the P90.
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