tried other pickups?

[zak]

Just wondering if anyone with a silhouette/ silhouette special had ever tried other pickups in their guitar (seymour, other dimarzios, fralins etc) and how well they worked.
I have a silhouette special and am thinking of changing the bridge humbucker. I am after something slightly hotter (maybe 10k), and PAF like, but not a Dimarzio PAF Pro, which I find too bright.
I was thinking about a Seymour Duncan Blues Saraceno pickup. This leads me to another question. The Blues Saraceno is only available in trembucker version (which is a couple of mms wider). Am i going to have a problem fitting it into a silhouette special?

thanks all
zak

 

[tommyindelaware]

it will fit fine........but you should try the steve morse bridge pickup.......it's very hot......but still sounds natural at lower gain settings. most hot pickups sound honky at lower gain settings.
also a not very well known secret is that the morse bridge pickup sounds great when you split the coil. make sure the the coil that goes to ground as you switch to one coil is the coil close to the bridge .
the dimarzio evolution sounds effectively the same.

tommy in delaware (alderson)

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Have you thought about putting a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge to get that Axis/EVH vibe? Very nice pickup indeed, very responsive and cleans up very well.

 

[the_g_man]

Hey Zak,

Think outside the box...Tom Anderson pickups rock! I have one of their H3's in my old Kramer and it sounds way cool. In fact, I'm thinking about ditching the EMG's in my Luke for a set of TA's. I have another guitar with a TA-SD1 neck and a TA reversed wound middle pickup in it...again...stellar sound, especially the SD1 in the neck. YMMV. Here's the link for Tom Anderson:

http://www.andersonguitars.com/toneLibInfo.html

I have noticed that my bridge H3 sounds pretty good clean, and my SD1 neck has distorted sounds that are as good as any neck pickup I've owned. Coming from me, that should mean absolutely nothing. Those just aren't sounds I use

I'm serious about replacing the EMG's in my Luke by the way. EMG's are good, but Tom Anderson's are GREAT!!!

That's just my opinion.

Gary

 

[tommyindelaware]

emg's /luke

i got a luke too....dont like the emg's either.... but could't rationalize routing out the single coil pickup cavities in order to put a regular fender stlyle single coil in there. (a little too far outside the box for me) . i got in touch w/ lindy fralin .......and he said he could modify his single coils to fit in the exsisting cavity of the luke. so i'll be puting 2 fralin single coils in mine ...along w/ a morse bridge pickup. i suspect it will kick some ass !!!!!

tommy in delaware

 

[the_g_man]

Hey Tommy,

So passive single coils won't fit into the Luke's single coil routes? I guess I learned something today! I think I'll swap the 85 for an 81 and see how that goes. That's my biggest gripe with the EMG's in the Luke, the 85 doesn't have any "crunch". (With my amp and pedals it sure doesn't anyway. OTOH, my TA equipped guitar crunches like crazy with my rig.)

Thanks for the info. I might look into the Fralin single coils combined with an Anderson H3+ in the bridge. FWIW, I bought the Luke because of the neck, and it was worth every penny!!!

Cheers,

Gary

Still listening to Def Leppard's "Euphoria"...I have the song "Paper Sun" on repeat. Way to go Vivian...awesome!

 

[ebb soul]

The first thing I noticed on Silhouette special was that the pickups were dull and uninteresting .
I talked to my buddy Bill Lawrence. His pups are noiseless and need no sileint circuit. We settled on two 280s for neck and middle, and his 465 for bridge. These sound sorta filtertronish, a perfect combination for this type guitar. After all, it's not gonna sound like a Les Paul no matter what you do to it.
465 has wiring so it can be split, and Dennis helped my figure out how to borrow silent curcuit to calcel hum in split/notch two position of switch. This is one sweet versitile way to go.
Use his 500s if your more into metal.