Axis: Pickup experiments?

[headcrash]

Just out of curiosity: Did anyone try any other humbuckers than the stock ones in their Axis, AS or ASS?

I recently happened to play my SG'90 a bit more than usual. It's got a Dimarzio Paf Pro in bridge position and I really enjoyed the fresh sound especially for Clean and Crunch.
I find the stock Axis/AS or ASS humbuckers to be a bit dull for Clean and Crunch sounds; also they are fairly hich output which pushes most clean channels too hard (while they excel for mid- and higain sounds!).
Therefore I put the Paf Pro into my ASS ( ). I am really not sure which I like more, since now Clean and Crunch sounds much better to my ears. Also I think I should give him a more low DC resistance partner on the neck, because the stock one doesn't match the Paf Pro very well, plus, the sounds where both PU's are in parallel, are dominated by the Paf Pro due to its lower resistance.

SO which PU's have you already tested?
I have also tried an Air Zone bridge (very unlively and dull) and an PAF/Air Norton combination. The PAF was quite nice, but it farted with heavy picking on lower strings, and the Air Norton was just not "there". Also, did anyone try different brands, maybe some higher-end boutique stuff?

 

[TNT]

Yeah,

That's the fun part of guitars you can easily throw in different pickups for different sounds just about anytime.

This type of thread has been discussed several times in the past, just do a forum search. The Axis goes great with quite a variety of pickups.

Personally in my Axis I have about half a dozen pickups, including the factory Diomarzio's, that I play around with from time to time, depending on the gig I'm doing etc..

I don't really like the Tone Zone all that much, but my absolute favorite after market for my Axis is the Super Distortion.

 

[Astrofreq]

I've put a Humbucker From Hell in the Neck and absolutely love the results. Works best on the 3-way toggle. HFH isn't really condusive to 5-way.

 

[tonemeister]

I put a pair (neck & bridge) of DiMarzio Virtual PAFs on my Axis SS Rosewood as I found the stock pups kinda dark. I liked the improvement, but the Virtual PAFs are just a tad too bright. I wish I would have gotten a pup (maybe PAF Pro Hot) that was a little hotter with a little more bottom end.
therein lies the trouble with putting pups in the Axis: due to the fact that you have to drill out the mounting holes on the pup to mount them directly to the wood, if you don`t like them, they are hard to mount in a regular fashion (threaded screw on a pickguard). All in all it was a good change for me.

 

[headcrash]

As we can see, Dimarzio cleaned up their interpretations of the classic PAFs and introduced the PAF 36th anniversary. I was surprised, that the bridge model has a fairly "high" output. Almost in the Paf pro ballpark, according to Dimarzio's specs. Plus these pickups could be ordered in the exact look like the original pups: cream/black matte with chrome pole pieces.
But you are right: since we have to drill out the mounting holes, it's pretty expensive swapping pickups with Axis's. Maybe for the moment I'll go with a Paf proat the bridge and search for something PAF like for the neck (no, I'm not gonna sell the stock pup's )

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I have never tried changing the pickups on the Axis as I think they are amazing! The bridge pickup on my Les Paul is another story entirely....