Pickups Axis Floyd vs Axis Super Sport

[451stroker]

I tried a used rosewood top Axis Super Sport guitar in Guitar Center. The tone was fantastic, especially the neck pickup. I've always liked Floyd guitars though and the Super Sport is a fixed bridge. Does anyone know if the Floyd Axis has the exact same pickups as the fixed bridge Super Sport? If so, are there any tone differences?

Thanks!

 

[LawDaddy]

Hello and welcome to the forum! The pickups on all Axis guitars are indeed the same. The neck pup is sweet, for sure. I'm one of the bigger fans of the rosewood hardtails around these parts, check my profile and you can see I've posted a pic or two of me and my Rosy ASS in action

I don't play guitars with the dangly bars on them, so I'll let others compare the trem vs non-trem versions.

The rosewood models have been discontinued, so pick up that rosewood axe if you can!

Welcome again!

 

[straycat113]

A Floyd does suck some tone from your guitar compared to a stoptail, but it is very subtle. So all the hundreds of recordings you have heard of a player using a Floyd I doubt you ever noticed a tone issue, unless the player just had a tone that sucked in general.lol

 

[Colin]

my observation is the Floyd equipped model just doesn't ring out as much. Probably due to the locking nut.

 

[cjl5150]

Yeah, any tonal differences would probably be due the trems and woods used-rosewood vs. maple, etc. I absolutely love the neck pickup on my Axis SS. It kills. I'd be interested in hearing a side by side comparison of a stock maple neck/maple top and an all rosewood...hmmmm

 

[beej]

Also, the Super Sport has a tone control, so there's a different load on the pickups (250k total vs 500k in the Axis). So that's going to make it a little less bright.

And I believe I've heard people mention that the p'ups are a little closer to the strings on the Axis, just due to how the trem sits. Never measured that myself.

 

[451stroker]

Thanks everyone. I may just have to buy the rosewood one. It might sound trivial, but I actually would prefer a maple fingerboard because I can't see the rosewood fingerboard as well as I can see the maple on a dark stage. Do you guys think there would be a huge tone difference between the rosewood and maple hardtails?

Thanks!

 

[threeminutesboy]

not huge but you can hear it Mapple is really a bit brigher

 

[Colin]

I may just have to buy the rosewood

great choice

 

[nobozos]

Hey man, if you played it and you fell in love with it, don't try and talk yourself out of true love.

 

[Roubster]

I played whole bunch of Axis and ASS guitars last weekend, and there is definitely a difference I think mainly due to what beej said. The Axis has a bit more of a punch to the tone, but the ASS overall has so much versatility. I did play an all rosewood Axis as well, and that one had a completely different character. Sounded warm and very woody but in a good way...clear and the all rosewood neck is just amazing to play.

 

[guitfiddle]

What about the pickups in the Sport model?

 

[straycat113]

I can notice the difference in tone on a guitar with a rosewood neck and maple neck more distinctly if the guitar has single coils.

 

[Jimmyb]

What about the pickups in the Sport model?

Yeah, the Sport had the same pickups again. There would be a greater tonal difference as it din't have the basswood body and maple cap.

 

[guitfiddle]

Thanks Jimmy. I thought that was the case but noticed that they aren't Zebras (black/white) so I was just checking to be sure. There is one for sale not too far from me that I may look at picking up.

 

[Astrofreq]

A Floyd does suck some tone from your guitar compared to a stoptail, but it is very subtle.

True, BUT the extra wiring in the super sports does affect the bite of the pickups. I think the Floyd models are more rockin', although less versatile. That isn't a bad thing necessarily, just depends what style of music you are going to play on the guitar.

 

[guitfiddle]

Solution

That's why these were created RadRock...

For those tunes when you don't need a trem or tone pot, just maximum tone! It's like a straight pipe on a dragster. A tone pipe in this case!

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

I love the Music Man vintage trem with the axis super sport.
IMO though, it's hard to compare tone wise an axis ss and
axis with a floyd rose. 2 different monsters. the floyd has a
tone range that the hardtail and vintage trem dont go to.
The floyd sustains forever as well.