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Posted by: Bucket86 Aug 31 2008, 02:51 PM

(man its been forever since ive been on here, anyways)

I have an Epiphone les paul standard and a Pod X3 Live, I have found when i play through it in Hi-Gain/Hi-volume situation when i mute my string to stop playing i get a VERY annoying squeel. While i was getting lessons from a guy a guy whos been playing guitar for like 20 years he atrributed it to the closed pickup that i have, and demonstrated by playing an old open humbucker explorer looking thing that wasnt a gibson (a mach one something) trough the same pod and amp on the same settings he didnt get the squeel, now my questions are:

Im shopping for pickups, i need something under 200 dollars, and i dont really want to push close to it, whats good for metal/heavy rock in this price range?

If i have to only buy one pickup, (very likely, i would like a good one) that would mean i would need to buy a passive humbucker right? i dont even understand the passive/active thing right now and ive read you shouldnt mix them.

And with that comes, what exactly IS the difference between passive and active humbuckers?

Ok, sorry if this is very confusing, im very confused right now myself, so......yeah.

Edit: Oh and, whats the usual price for getting a pickup switched out? I dont know if its a roject someone who has very little experiece in guitar construction should undertake.

Posted by: Toroso Aug 31 2008, 03:00 PM

QUOTE (Bucket86 @ Aug 31 2008, 09:51 AM)

Posted by: bladzerok Aug 31 2008, 03:12 PM

hi bucket86
okay first of all, an active pickup is a pickup that work with a 9v battery (correct me if im wrong but i think that its because the pickup is working with a preamp inside the guitar). and passive pickups are ordinary pickups, wich doesn't need any battery. so you shouldn't install active pickups in your guitar, except if you already have a battery socket in your guitar.

next question: wich pickup?
i personnaly really love dimarzio pickups,wich i use now. maybe you should look at their site http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/ to see what pickups fit your needs. but there are other brand, like seymour duncan, who make good pickups(never tried any, but ive heard good words about them )
those are to be considered,too.

and finally, if you have experience with a soldering tool, i think you could do it yourself, but if you feel unsure you could always ask a luthier to install them(not sure of the price though)

good luck on your search for your perfect pickup

Posted by: Skalde Aug 31 2008, 05:49 PM

DiMarzio Evolution is the best passive pickup for Heavy Metal I have seen so far

Posted by: PanicProne Aug 31 2008, 05:49 PM

I use a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom in bridge position on my Ibanez Ar250 and it works great. I play punk and progressive metal. Never had any squeeling or weird feedback problems. I use an Seymour Duncan Sh-2 Jazz pickup in the neck position which I LOVE! But even so it's not really ideal for metal since it isn't a high-output humbucker.

Otherwise I've heard the Dimarzio Super Distortion should be allright.

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 31 2008, 07:46 PM

First of all you are right, you should not mix active and passive pickups. About your question, what pickups to get, this is of course a question of your personal taste. What sound do you want? In my opinion the very best highgain pickup is the EMG 81, but as mentioned before you would have to replace both pickups, therefore buy two new pickups of course. I know many people who love the Jeff Beck model from Seymour Duncan, this one would be passive so you could only replace one pickup. But well, here comes the question of personal taste again, I once tried the Jeff Beck in one of my Les Pauls, and after about 2 days I replaced it again, I didn't like it at all, since then it is somewhere in my basement Passive pickups that I like are any Gibson Pickups (my faves are the Burstbuckers and the 498 T) or the Dimarzio D-Activator for example, just to give you an idea.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 31 2008, 07:49 PM

You have a couple of options. 2 biggest mainstream manufacturers are DImarzio and Seymor Duncan. They are both good companies and produce good quality products of course and have a wide range or pickups suitable for just about anything. Good thing to know is that Seymor DUncan does tend to produce better vintage output pickups, and their pups are maybe and I say maybe based on my experience and experience of other people better suitable for classic rock, rock and other stuff than their DImarzio equivalents. On the other hand if you consider yourself a modern player that needs a modern sound, then I suggest you look your your dear pups with Dimarzio as they have some highly aggresive pups there, that are, again, somewhat better than SD similar ones.
Another very good option is to choose EMG active pickups, they are well defined on lots of drive, and have high output.

In the end it is best to check out their site in detail and buy whatever you find closest that you like. You wont make a mistake if you buy any of these brands, they make good pickups, and if you are not happy, pickups are cheap and can always be replaced fast.