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zak said:
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<b>Hi there.<br />
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.<br />
First, there are one or two things to point out:<br />
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!).<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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.<br />
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?<br />
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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.<br />
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.<br />
I hope this helps.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
This is definitely the longest post i have ever written on a forum! </b>
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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.</div>
