Looking for a new bridge pup for my axis...

[AmpliFIRE]

Hey guys...

I posted this over in the SD forum as well...I have an early EBMM Axis that I'm looking to replace the bridge pup in. I'm not crazy about the loose bottom end and the somewhat shrill highs that this pup possesses through my high gain amp. Through an old Marshall or something with mid/low gain the pickup sounds amazing, but not through my amp (Engl Powerball). It's also too hot for my tastes and seems to harshen up the lead tone a bit. The guitar plays amazing and the neck feels just right! Anyway, I was thinking about the following options:

- Custom 5 (sounded too dark in my Agile, but might be just right for taming this guitar)
- Custom 5/59' hybrid (tight bottom end with smoother mids)
- EVH pup (not really sure how this compares to the stock pup)
- JB (I love how this pickup sounds in my mahogany Dean Hardtail, but not sure how it would react in a basswood guitar)
- Tone Zone
- ?

Basically I'm looking for something darker, with smooth mids for soloing and lower highs (the guitar is very bright since it's basswood/maple combo). All suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,
Paige

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Have you thought of adding a cap in the electronics to act like a tone control? This would fatten it up a bit and remove the highs?

 

[zak]

Hi there.
I have recently had a fair bit of experience changing pickups in my axis sport and another similar guitar (and also found the stock axis pups to be too high in output), so may be able to help you a bit.
First, there are one or two things to point out:
1. You may know this alrady, but if you buy a seymour duncan pickup, you have to make some modifications to the pickup to fit your guitar - the seymour duncan screws that some out of the metalk holding thing are too long, and the two screw holes on either side of the pickup are not the right shape (sorry i havent explained this well!).
2. The neck pickup on the axis is pretty high output for a neck pickup, so if you buy something with a vintage type output (eg the EVH pickup you mentioned), you may have a balance problem.

As far as choice of pickup goes, the axis is not the easiest guitar to find a suitable bridge pickup for (IMO at least). That is because the maple neck and cap on the body make it fairly bright sounding, as does having a floyd. THe stock pickup is in fact not very bright in most other guitars, but sounds fairly bright in the axis.
Looking at your list, i would forget the tone zone straight away, as it is at least as hotter as the stock axis. Personally, i would also forget the C5. It may be dark in your agile, but in the axis it will sound thin (lack of mids in that pickup) and bright (it has more highs than the stock axis). I also think the JB will be a little harsh sounding, and would leave that too.

There are 4 pickups that i can think of that would work in your guitar (there may be others - this is just from my experience, and i dont pretend for 1 minute to know it all) - the EVH, Blues Trembucker, Seymour Duncan Custom Custom, and Dimarzio Air Zone.
I have an EVH in my axis sport and love it. But the thing to remember here is that it has a much lower output - it will be quieter than the neck pickup! It doesnt sound shrill, it is pretty warm sounding and quite nicely balanced. If you like the sound of the first couple of van halen albums you will like this pup, but it may not have the power for you if you prefer their more recent stuff.
Slightly more powerful, but still only about the same output as the neck axis pup is the Seymour Duncan Blues Trembucker. This is give you a slightly thicker and less bright sound than the EVH. The problem here is it only comes in black - does that bother you?

The custom custom is more powerful, than these two, but less than the stock axis. It is actually a custom 5 with an alnico2 pickup in it. This will definitely solve the shrill brightness issue, and some people love this pickup. It would do a decent job of both 80s and 90s Van Halen. I tried it in my axis sport, but for me it had too much mids, and was lacking too much in treble. But from your description of what you are after, i would say this one may be perfect.
Finally, the dimarzio air zone. I have one of these in another bright sounding guitar. It goes a long way to getting rid of nasty highs, is quite warm sounding, and again about as powerful as the custom 5. It is probebly slightly brighter than the custom custom though, and may not me a vast improvement on the stock from that point of view.
I hope this helps.
Something you should consider very carefully first is exactly how much output you want - then decide on the pickup. DO you only want a subtle drop in output from the stock - in which case look at the CC and Air Zone.
Or do you want to go to a much lower one (in which case look at the EVH and Blues). But bear in mind these two will be weaker than the neck pickup, so you would probebly have to change that as well.
This is definitely the longest post i have ever written on a forum!

 

[Estin]

hey nice choice on the ENGL powerball. its nice to see some other lovers of their amps. i have myself a nice little ENGL 112 combo. i can't reccomend a new pup for axis cause i'm happy with mine but again nice to see another ENGL fan.

 

[Jimi D]

Two other Dimarzio pickups I would recommend based on my experience with them in Jems (which are also a Basswood & Floyd guitar) are the PAF Pro and the Breed... Both are middle-high output pickups; the Breed's higher output than the PAF Pro... I especially liked the Breed myself; good punchy mids, controlled highs and tight bass response...

Before swapping pickups though, you might want to try shimming your neck slightly and raising the trem - this will have the same effect as "lowering" the pickups (which we can't do with the Axis, of course) and you may find it helps with your bridge tone... Worth a try if for no other reason than it's a lot easier to pull the neck, shim it, and set the guitar up again than to add a new pup, imho

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Hi there.
I have recently had a fair bit of experience changing pickups in my axis sport and another similar guitar (and also found the stock axis pups to be too high in output), so may be able to help you a bit.
First, there are one or two things to point out:
1. You may know this alrady, but if you buy a seymour duncan pickup, you have to make some modifications to the pickup to fit your guitar - the seymour duncan screws that some out of the metalk holding thing are too long, and the two screw holes on either side of the pickup are not the right shape (sorry i havent explained this well!).
2. The neck pickup on the axis is pretty high output for a neck pickup, so if you buy something with a vintage type output (eg the EVH pickup you mentioned), you may have a balance problem.

As far as choice of pickup goes, the axis is not the easiest guitar to find a suitable bridge pickup for (IMO at least). That is because the maple neck and cap on the body make it fairly bright sounding, as does having a floyd. THe stock pickup is in fact not very bright in most other guitars, but sounds fairly bright in the axis.
Looking at your list, i would forget the tone zone straight away, as it is at least as hotter as the stock axis. Personally, i would also forget the C5. It may be dark in your agile, but in the axis it will sound thin (lack of mids in that pickup) and bright (it has more highs than the stock axis). I also think the JB will be a little harsh sounding, and would leave that too.

There are 4 pickups that i can think of that would work in your guitar (there may be others - this is just from my experience, and i dont pretend for 1 minute to know it all) - the EVH, Blues Trembucker, Seymour Duncan Custom Custom, and Dimarzio Air Zone.
I have an EVH in my axis sport and love it. But the thing to remember here is that it has a much lower output - it will be quieter than the neck pickup! It doesnt sound shrill, it is pretty warm sounding and quite nicely balanced. If you like the sound of the first couple of van halen albums you will like this pup, but it may not have the power for you if you prefer their more recent stuff.
Slightly more powerful, but still only about the same output as the neck axis pup is the Seymour Duncan Blues Trembucker. This is give you a slightly thicker and less bright sound than the EVH. The problem here is it only comes in black - does that bother you?

The custom custom is more powerful, than these two, but less than the stock axis. It is actually a custom 5 with an alnico2 pickup in it. This will definitely solve the shrill brightness issue, and some people love this pickup. It would do a decent job of both 80s and 90s Van Halen. I tried it in my axis sport, but for me it had too much mids, and was lacking too much in treble. But from your description of what you are after, i would say this one may be perfect.
Finally, the dimarzio air zone. I have one of these in another bright sounding guitar. It goes a long way to getting rid of nasty highs, is quite warm sounding, and again about as powerful as the custom 5. It is probebly slightly brighter than the custom custom though, and may not me a vast improvement on the stock from that point of view.
I hope this helps.
Something you should consider very carefully first is exactly how much output you want - then decide on the pickup. DO you only want a subtle drop in output from the stock - in which case look at the CC and Air Zone.
Or do you want to go to a much lower one (in which case look at the EVH and Blues). But bear in mind these two will be weaker than the neck pickup, so you would probebly have to change that as well.
This is definitely the longest post i have ever written on a forum!

Hey Zak...thanks for the great info! I guess I'd prefer a mid-output pickup since my amp is high gain. Something transparent that will let the amps true colors show through and not color the sound *that much*. Have you tried any of the SD hybrid combo's? The C5/59' combo seems to be the best of both worlds. Nice, dark tone from the A5 magnet and the 59' lowers the ocerall output a bit and sweetens up the mids as well. These hybrids are very popular on the SD forum. I've heard from other people that the CC is too middy...is that possible? I'm VERY interested in the EVH. It's great to hear that it warms up the guitar alot. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of Dimarzio's....I guess I've never found the right one for me.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Two other Dimarzio pickups I would recommend based on my experience with them in Jems (which are also a Basswood & Floyd guitar) are the PAF Pro and the Breed... Both are middle-high output pickups; the Breed's higher output than the PAF Pro... I especially liked the Breed myself; good punchy mids, controlled highs and tight bass response...

Before swapping pickups though, you might want to try shimming your neck slightly and raising the trem - this will have the same effect as "lowering" the pickups (which we can't do with the Axis, of course) and you may find it helps with your bridge tone... Worth a try if for no other reason than it's a lot easier to pull the neck, shim it, and set the guitar up again than to add a new pup, imho

great...thanks for the suggestion! I'm going to swap out the 9's for 10's soon and I might give that a shot.

 

[zak]

HI Amplifire
I also go on the SD forum a bit, and have seen the hybrid mentioned a lot, sounds interesting, i havent tried one yet though.
As far as outpout goes, there is a big difference between the lower ones (8-9k) like the 59, EVH, Alnico 2 Pro compared with the CC, C5 (14k) etc. If you want something really transparent that really lets your sounds 'breathe', the 8-9k ones are definitely better. But as i said before, this would probably lead you to change the neck picup as well.

note also that low output pickups actually tend to be brighter, as the more windings a magnet has, then the more powerful it is, the more bass and mids as added, and the more treble is lost. That is why Alnico 2 magnets would be more suitable in a low output pickup.

I have thought of one other pickup worth considering - a lindy fralin humbucker. They are low-medium output, and you can choose the exact resistance you want, from 7.5k (very low output and too bright) all the way to 10k (medium output, darker). I would recommend somewhere beteen 9 and 10 depending on your taste. The other good thing about them is that they will make you a zebra one to go with your axis, and will also make it so that it fits into your guitar with no modifications. The tone of their pickups is outstanding, though they do cost a bit more than some pickups.

 

[Estin]

i've seen a axis with emg pickups before. i don't know what kind of mods would need to be done to get those in there but if you used like a 85 in the bridge it would tone down the highes a bit and give less output. emg's in my opinion breathe very well with good clean output so the amp itself really shines thru. also due to the fact there active they have a very low magnetic pull on the strings so they give very good sustain. and emg's have a 3,000 hour battery life. i go a year without changing my battery. its somethign to consider anyhow, i'm a big fan of emg's.

 

[largemarge]

To ampliFIRE

Hey Boss. I am not a good guitar player by any means, but I do consider myself fairly knowledgeable concerning guitars, values, modifications, etc. I own a new AXIS and I would never even think of changing anything on a guitar such as an AXIS, old Telcaster, Strat, etc., that would detract from its value. Other than Schaller Strap-Lock buttons; (from personal experience, never ever put a guitar around your neck without some sort of locking system), no modifications will be done to my AXIS. Anyway, a modified guitar is a guitar that is not entirely original anymore, and broken solder joints, additional screw holes, routing, etc., detract from value and collectibility. In my humble opinion, an AXIS works very well for what is was designed to do. That is, play loud, sweetly distorted smokin' guitar. I'm of course very biased towards EVH, 80's metal in general, etc., but the AXIS and EVH guitars were not designed to be overly versatile, but only to do a few things very well. I own other guitars as well, so when I want a different sound, I just grap a different one.
Like I said before, I'm not an accomplished player, just someone who enjoys guitars and jacking around with them.
ALSO!!!!!! HOW COULD I FORGET TO MENTION IT!!!. As soon as I got my AXIS home and plugged it in, I immediately noticed that the bridge and neck pick-up's are perfectly matched. As soon as you get a great bridge tone, which is very easy with the AXIS, you can switch to the neck pick-up and it will sound great. I have never played any other stock pick-up set-up where this will occur. The reason is because the pick-up's are matched with each other. If a person was to install a different bridge pick-up, I can guarantee that as soon as you dial in a good sound, you will of course switch to the neck pick-up and your tone will suffer. If we've learned anyrhing from EVH and rock oriented 80's metal, a good tone is a massive part of your sound, songwriting, and attitude.

largemarge

Rock On