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ratter

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Sep 5, 2002
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112
I've got a set of zebra Virtual PAF's on the way that I'm going to drop into an EVH.

Anybody else??
 

Jimi D

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Feb 27, 2003
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1,962
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Ottawa ON
I picked up a pickguard on eBay for my Silhouette, and when it arrives I'm going to wire up some of the pickups I've got lying around here and try them in the guitar... I've got Trembucker and a Dimarzio Dual Tone I can try in the bridge, and I have a handful of singles for the middle position as well... I'll probably keep the PAF Pro in the neck - I always liked them as a neck pickup, even in my Jems... I hope I can get some of the Molex connectors from Ernie Ball so I can wire the guard up like the original, and just snap them in and out of the guitar without having to do any additional soldering...

BTW ratter, how do you mount 3rd party pups in an EVH? Do you grind the "ears" on the pickups' base plates into the triangle shapes that the EVH pickups use? or switch base plates? or re-route the pickup cavities?
 

ratter

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Sep 5, 2002
Messages
112
Jimi D said:
I picked up a pickguard on eBay for my Silhouette, and when it arrives I'm going to wire up some of the pickups I've got lying around here and try them in the guitar... I've got Trembucker and a Dimarzio Dual Tone I can try in the bridge, and I have a handful of singles for the middle position as well... I'll probably keep the PAF Pro in the neck - I always liked them as a neck pickup, even in my Jems... I hope I can get some of the Molex connectors from Ernie Ball so I can wire the guard up like the original, and just snap them in and out of the guitar without having to do any additional soldering...

BTW ratter, how do you mount 3rd party pups in an EVH? Do you grind the "ears" on the pickups' base plates into the triangle shapes that the EVH pickups use? or switch base plates? or re-route the pickup cavities?

Hey bud,

The dimarzios have the right ear shape to them, so that part is ok. You still need to enlarge the screw holes to accept the screws that mount the pickup to the body, which is kind of a bummer, because then the pickups won't be mountable in ordinary guitar from that point on! But yeah, if they weren't dimarzios, I'd have to do one of the various "fixes" that you mentioned. The ear shape isn't the only problem, either - the "legs" are also too tall on a lot of pickups.

Legs...ears.... :D
 

tvanveen

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Aug 25, 2003
Messages
666
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DC
I have a few Rio Grande Blues Bars sitting on a UPS truck somewhere that will get dropped into my Albert Lee.

I'll probably drop something into Al #2 when it gets here, but I'm not sure what. It's the regular single coil model...I'm thinking I might try some Fender CS '69's or Fralins.

tv
 

zak

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Jul 3, 2003
Messages
14
I have experimented with different pickups in both my silhouette special and axis sport.
With the axis sport, i have always found the stock pickups too high in output for my tastes. If i want distortion, i like to let the amp do the work. So i now use a seymour duncan alnico 2 pro in the neck, and a seymour duncan EVH 78 in the bridge. The 78 is basically an attempt at copying van halens sound from the first album. It sounds fantastic if you prefer his earlier sound to his modern one. The only problem is it is very expensive ($160). Overall i am much happier with these than with the stock pickups.
In my slihouette special i tried a seymour duncan custom custom in the bridge, but the output difference between the single coils and the custom custom was too great so i put the stock back in.
 

dochep

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Mar 23, 2003
Messages
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Location
Missoula, MT
I just finished putting a Duncan Alnico Pro humbucker in my Axis Sport to go along with the 2 AP singles that I've had in for a while. Very sweet and balanced, now.

I had to shape the ears to fit in the triangular openings AND I ended up pulling the adjustable poles out of my DiMarzio Pro to put in the APH because the original ones were too long and the pickup wouldn't mount.
 

ratter

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Sep 5, 2002
Messages
112
BTW, the Virtual PAF's freaking rock. Very, very similar to the stock pickups, but since they're much lower output, they are cleaner, clearer, and more "stringy" if you know what I mean. A little more twang and snap, which I dig.
 

tvanveen

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Aug 25, 2003
Messages
666
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DC
Ok, Rio Grande Blues Bars came in. They don't fit.

Oh well, 3 more P-90's for Ebay.

tv
 

tvanveen

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Aug 25, 2003
Messages
666
Location
DC
No, I don't have the cajones to do any routing...it looks so pretty in there anyway, even the finish under the pickguard looks nice.

What I might do is have Jason Lollar make me a custom set. I don't think the Blues Bars would have done well anyway. I didn't realize it, but the MM-90's are attached directly to the wood. They don't "float" like on a LP Special, so you couldn't really do much to adjust the height. I suspect the neck pickup would have been way louder than the bridge...

tv
 

Estin

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Sep 12, 2002
Messages
380
hmm, thats a good point. i really like direct mount pickups (every guitar i own is direct mount ) but that can be a PAIN to swap pickups. i'm staying with dimarzio when i swap out my ibanez 7 pickups just because the duncans "Ears" aren't shaped right and i don't want to futz around. so i decided to go with a evolution 7 for my bridge and air norton 7 in the neck.
 
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