Prodigy Pups, Anyone with experience? (Zakk, read this! :D) Options

[mhskeide]

http://cgi.ebay.com/QUAD-RAIL-BLACK-HB-BLU...p3286.m20.l1116

"Brand: PRODIGY Color: BLACK /BLACK
Type: HUMBUCKER- 2/4-LEAD Series: PRODIGY COLLECTION / PRDH-113
Product Type: QUAD RAIL/ BLADEBUCKERS Guitar String Type: Electric
QUAD RAILS HUMBUCKERS: A TONE MACHINE FOR MOST GENRES"

Anyone who has tried out these babies? When I found ut my strat could fit a bucker, the idea of a quadrail struck me, just looks cool

Any other suggestions are welcome (Zakk, still your area!)
Since I already have a very nice strat and a very alround ibanez, I planned on modifying the guitar to a baritone guitar, playing some stonerrock, maybe som metal?, and some surf/rockabilly where I`ll use the clean channel as crunch.

Atm I`m only prioritating to buy a bridge pup, I have no use for any particular sound in neck or middle yet.

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[ZakkWylde]

I have NEVER EVER heard or read about the company or this pickup concept...

If I understand this concept correctly, this is a dual-humbucker; Two coil sized humbuckers fitted right next to each other. It would be the same as playing neck and bridge humbucker at the same time but in the bridge position!

Interesting concept because you have a lot of wiring and switching options:
You could use both humbuckers at once for a very full sound or use just one of two humbuckers for diffrent sounds (If they are not identical) and you could even coilsplit those individual humbuckers... combined with the other pickups you would have in a strat, there are A whole lot of diffrent sounds at hand!

But the concept has some flaws!
- Those are balde humbuckers (one giant magnet per coil instead of several small ones) The concept of blade humbuckers are only used in extremely high output pickups (dimebucker sh-13, bill lawrence 500xl, SD El Diablo, DiMarzio X2n...). They give the pickup a lot of output and a sharp-cutting tone but with the loss of dynamics and tone yet this pickups claims to be a rock allrounder...
- A single coil sized humbucker sounds inferior to a normal sized humbucker (tone is sacrificed to make the pickup smaller) Putting two of them together won't make up for that
-The more wiring is needed the more tone will be sucked before the tone leaves the guitar!
-They are EXTREMELY CHEAP! A handmade custom pickup is arround 150$, a factory made brand pickup still around 100$ and a second class liscensed pickup still cost around 50$ so I doubt that this pickup will be as good as the ad claims...

But again for 24,99$ you can't really go wrong. Buy one and if it's crap, you can still get a better one. Try it out for us, it might be a secret weapon!

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This post has been edited by ZakkWylde: Sep 8 2009, 12:04 AM

[Ivan Milenkovic]

I'm guessing these have extra high output, not sure if they would clean up with the volume, but who knows.. They're cheap, as as Zakk said - try it, nothing (that is - very little) to loose.

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[ZakkWylde]

It says 13k and it's propably a ceramic pickup because I have never heard of an Alnico Blade pickup, that's high output (comparable to a Steve Vai Evolution) but but not extremely high output

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This post has been edited by ZakkWylde: Sep 8 2009, 12:35 AM

[mhskeide]

I have NEVER EVER heard or read about the company or this pickup concept...

I feared something like that

Actually, I just kinda thought quadrails looks a bit cool
But who knows, maybe I`m ordering a cheap one to test.

Anywise, if you could help me further in my search Zakk, this is what I want (a bit more detailed than the opening post):

With a baritone guitar and B-tuning (and lower ) there will of course be some metal and stonerrock which requires a pickup (most likely a humbucker) which can handle solid amounts of gain.

I always want to dedicate this guitar to my newest interest, surf guitar / spaghetti western music. Here I believe a single coil (in the style of dick dale; very high clean and tons of reverb) would to the trick. Also with some 100% clean stuff, I believe a single coil would sound nice. So my temporarily idea, is to get the metal sound with the bucker, and maybe buy a good middle pup as well to split with the bridge-bucker for those surf and clean tones?

Please tell me If there were some parts of mu question which gave no sense (kinda tired while writing )

And of course, all help/assistance/ideas are welcome, I`m just addressing this topic to Zakk because I know, that HE knows, what he`s talking about

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[ZakkWylde]

You want to make a baritone out of your guitar, meaning it will be tuned to b standard or lower! OK
There are not many pickups who can stay defined with such a low tuning; those who can have a fairly high output and are aimed for metal music. High output humbuckers on the other hand aren't the best pickups for coilsplitting as the splitted coil will sound extremely thin and trebly (a side effect of the humbuckers high output).

You are basicly demanding the impossilbe from you pickups since Stoner Rock/Metal and Surf Music are the exact tonal opposites of each other... One pickup won't deliver both sounds perfectly, you can only try to find a pickup that handles both styles *decently*. If you are going for the *Metal in the bridge, Clean in the middle and neck* variation there is still the problem of matching outputs...

We will work out a way for you but first of all I need to know what kind of guitar we are modifing (shape, bodywood, neckwood, fretboardwood, bridge-style, etc...) and some more detailed tones you wanna nail with it. Dick Dale? Noted. Stoner Rock? Like Down or more like Kyuss? Or some other band? Metal? Which bands/what kind of metal?

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[Sensible Jones]

I have NEVER EVER heard or read about the company or this pickup concept...

Hey Zakk, Kramer used to produce a Quadrail in the 80's!!

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[ZakkWylde]

Hey Zakk, Kramer used to produce a Quadrail in the 80's!!

Being born in 1988 makes it kinda hard to remember those

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[Toni Suominen]

They seem quite interesting.

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[Sensible Jones]

Being born in 1988 makes it kinda hard to remember those

I keep forgetting that you are wise beyond your years!!!

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[jafomatic]

Being born in 1988 makes it kinda hard to remember those

You had me fooled.

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[ZakkWylde]

You had me fooled.

Am I giving the impression of being older than 20 years?

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[mhskeide]

You want to make a baritone out of your guitar, meaning it will be tuned to b standard or lower! OK
There are not many pickups who can stay defined with such a low tuning; those who can have a fairly high output and are aimed for metal music. High output humbuckers on the other hand aren't the best pickups for coilsplitting as the splitted coil will sound extremely thin and trebly (a side effect of the humbuckers high output).

You are basicly demanding the impossilbe from you pickups since Stoner Rock/Metal and Surf Music are the exact tonal opposites of each other... One pickup won't deliver both sounds perfectly, you can only try to find a pickup that handles both styles *decently*. If you are going for the *Metal in the bridge, Clean in the middle and neck* variation there is still the problem of matching outputs...

We will work out a way for you but first of all I need to know what kind of guitar we are modifing (shape, bodywood, neckwood, fretboardwood, bridge-style, etc...) and some more detailed tones you wanna nail with it. Dick Dale? Noted. Stoner Rock? Like Down or more like Kyuss? Or some other band? Metal? Which bands/what kind of metal?

Sorry for late response.
the shape is a more or less std. strat type, but I don`t know the bodywood (neither did 10 minutes on google help me).
Both neck and fretwood are currently of maple, and that will maybe my next neck be too. I`m not quite sure what you mean with bridge style, but currently it is a cheap copy of a tremolobridge with a SC as pup.

Comparing Down and Kyuss, I think my tone will be aimed more towards Down (though kyuss are some of the founders of stoner rock). Some other tones that hit me while writing is the tone in Dream Theater - Panic Attack, DT - A Nightmare to remember, Down - The Man that follows hell.... can`t come up with more right not even though there are several more to pick.

What you said about opposite tones haven`t even struck my mind
But I have a theory which I wonder if you support: Isn`t is easier to get decent surf tones out from a metalpup, that decent metaltones out from a good surfpup? I don`t have the worlds greatest ear`s for tone at my current level, and surf is IMO supposed to sound a bit vintage anyways

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[ZakkWylde]

So right now you have a Strat body with three single coils in it, and you want to make a baritone guitar out of it...
You want a humbucker in the bridge that can do Metal, Stoner and Surf music...

The best pickup for Baritone Metal guitar would be a humbucker that can handle the downtuning (high output), the best pickup for a Single Coil that handles clean tones well (low output). You need two diffrent pickups in one. Such a thing does not exist...

WRONG

I think I have a great solution for you:
Active EMG pickups! You get yourself two EMG SA singlecoils for the middle and neck position and in the Bridge we will place an EMG 89 Humbucker.

EMG89? That's a new concept from EMG pickups; it in fact is TWO PICKUPS IN ONE! The 89 is an EMG 85 Humbucker AND an EMG SA Single coil in ONE PICKUP. No coilsplitting, you switch between the actual pickups by pulling on your volume knob. This way you can do some serious Metal playing with the humbucker and by the pull of a switch you have the same single coil like in the middle or neck position ready at your bridge!

I have an 89 in the neck of my Flying V, I use the built in 85 for soloing and the SA single coil when I play clean.

There is also the famous EMG 81 (called 81/tw) with a built in Coil available. It is up to you if you want the sharper and tighter sounding EMG 81 (Metallica like tone) or an EMG 85 which has the same output but a Warmer and darker tone compared to the 81, which IMHO will work better for Stoner rock and less extreme Metal.

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[mhskeide]

So right now you have a Strat body with three single coils in it, and you want to make a baritone guitar out of it...
You want a humbucker in the bridge that can do Metal, Stoner and Surf music...

The best pickup for Baritone Metal guitar would be a humbucker that can handle the downtuning (high output), the best pickup for a Single Coil that handles clean tones well (low output). You need two diffrent pickups in one. Such a thing does not exist...

WRONG

I think I have a great solution for you:
Active EMG pickups! You get yourself two EMG SA singlecoils for the middle and neck position and in the Bridge we will place an EMG 89 Humbucker.

EMG89? That's a new concept from EMG pickups; it in fact is TWO PICKUPS IN ONE! The 89 is an EMG 85 Humbucker AND an EMG SA Single coil in ONE PICKUP. No coilsplitting, you switch between the actual pickups by pulling on your volume knob. This way you can do some serious Metal playing with the humbucker and by the pull of a switch you have the same single coil like in the middle or neck position ready at your bridge!

I have an 89 in the neck of my Flying V, I use the built in 85 for soloing and the SA single coil when I play clean.

There is also the famous EMG 81 (called 81/tw) with a built in Coil available. It is up to you if you want the sharper and tighter sounding EMG 81 (Metallica like tone) or an EMG 85 which has the same output but a Warmer and darker tone compared to the 81, which IMHO will work better for Stoner rock and less extreme Metal.

Zakk. you`re a true EMG - missionary

My luthier almost depites active electronic, so I`ve almost never had the oportunity to test them out....without playing the Zakk-epiphone true a Cube 15 (says it self I can`t judge sound out of that).

But I gotta admit, that EMG89 sounded kinda interesting, and I have to confess that I think EMG`s looks sexy in the right guitars (like Lukather`s guitar).

the only problem....my Aria (the strat copy) has another shape on the pickguard than Fenders!! I will borrow some pickguards tomorrow to see if I can make them fit without too large modifications....if not, then the future for a humbucker looks dark
Will update on this

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[ZakkWylde]

The EMG idea was just the one that will fir your sound the best, I am sure we will find something as good as my active solution with passive pickups. You can even buy a single coil sized humbucker if you can't find the right pickguard!!!

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[mhskeide]

The EMG idea was just the one that will fir your sound the best, I am sure we will find something as good as my active solution with passive pickups. You can even buy a single coil sized humbucker if you can't find the right pickguard!!!

Heyhey, HE despites them not me
I have never had the chance to really try out EMG`s, so can`t judge.
I will tell you tomorrow how the pickguard-search went. Likely, I have to cut the fender-PG a bit

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