Well since I found out that it would take a lot of routing to put in dimarzios in my carvin, and I noticed that the pickups are actually pretty good :lol:, I recently came into possession of my old Gibson Flying V from my cousin who was borrowing it.
Its a pretty simple guitar, mahogany body and neck. But the stock pickups are pretty bland. They are both stock gibson ceramic pickups, 500t in the bridge, and 496r in the neck. The bridge pickup is fine output wise, and has a bit of clarity, no where near dimarzios though, but still can get muddy. The neck pickup is mud city, and coupled with the relatively low output, there is even more mud.
What i do notice is that the midrange is much more "static" than my carvin and ibanez. I mean that if you looked on an eq graph, on my ibanez/carvin, the frequencies would be connected, and the gibson's midrange is seperated from the bass and treble, so its more prominent.
What i have in mind for pickup configurations is either:
Super Distortion in the bridge, and PAF Pro in the neck. Ive heard nothing but good things from the super distortion and i think it would work well for that singing, mid heavy, smooth al di meola/allan holdsworth lead tone. As far as the neck, ive used the paf pro in my old ibanez, and its stock in my jem, and i love it. Although both those guitars are basswood, i HATE dark neck pickups, so would the paf pro sound much less bright in the neck of my V?
OR...
Eric Johnson custom in the bridge, Humbucker from Hell in the neck. I havent really read any reviews about these, but im very interested in the fact that they both sound very single coilish. Not so much interested in the twang part of a strat, but more the piercing quality of them. If i got these, all i would really ask from them is a very clean, round jazz tone. And a violin-like overdriven lead tone that is extremely smooth and bright without being harsh.
Its a pretty simple guitar, mahogany body and neck. But the stock pickups are pretty bland. They are both stock gibson ceramic pickups, 500t in the bridge, and 496r in the neck. The bridge pickup is fine output wise, and has a bit of clarity, no where near dimarzios though, but still can get muddy. The neck pickup is mud city, and coupled with the relatively low output, there is even more mud.
What i do notice is that the midrange is much more "static" than my carvin and ibanez. I mean that if you looked on an eq graph, on my ibanez/carvin, the frequencies would be connected, and the gibson's midrange is seperated from the bass and treble, so its more prominent.
What i have in mind for pickup configurations is either:
Super Distortion in the bridge, and PAF Pro in the neck. Ive heard nothing but good things from the super distortion and i think it would work well for that singing, mid heavy, smooth al di meola/allan holdsworth lead tone. As far as the neck, ive used the paf pro in my old ibanez, and its stock in my jem, and i love it. Although both those guitars are basswood, i HATE dark neck pickups, so would the paf pro sound much less bright in the neck of my V?
OR...
Eric Johnson custom in the bridge, Humbucker from Hell in the neck. I havent really read any reviews about these, but im very interested in the fact that they both sound very single coilish. Not so much interested in the twang part of a strat, but more the piercing quality of them. If i got these, all i would really ask from them is a very clean, round jazz tone. And a violin-like overdriven lead tone that is extremely smooth and bright without being harsh.