Help with pickups

[kellyfan161]

So I want to upgrade my pickups in my Ibanez - I have a HSH configuration - I mostly play pop and rock. No blues or anything. Can someone recommend what pickups to get.. I was thinking Seymour Duncan's but I don't know which ones to get. Can anyone help me out here with some suggestions??? Thanks so much!!

[Br1ck]

What don't you like about the stock pickups? Duncan makes a zillion pickups. You need to know what sound you're going to want.

[muscmp]

not that videos give you a real representation of their sound, but, duncan's site does have an area with sound bites that MAY help.

also, br1ck does have a valid question. there are so many that you can easily buy, pull the pickguard off, emplace the new ones and still not like them. and you can't buy them all
play music!

[wrathfuldeity]

imho and limited experience of an AS73 the HB's were a bit thin sounding

but if you want to go down the pu rabbit hole...its about magnets, winding # and type, and k's

better to buy clean and get dirty than to buy dirty and try to get clean

another option...get a parametric eq (vfe rocket) instead of a set of pick-ups

[Steel and wood]

Seymour Duncan in my experience have pickups for every occasion.

[jpjr50]

The single coil in the middle I put a custom Strat Wiggins Brand in Rosewood so my Ibanez could sound like a Strat. It was pretty trick. My guitar is still on the Wiggins Brand website as the only non-Fender customer.

http://wigginsbrand.com/soundbites.html

Damarzio pickups are very popular in Ibanez guitars.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

Seymour Duncan in my experience have pickups for every occasion.

Yep, and quality too.

kellyfan161, check out Seymour Duncan's website. They have a tool which suggests pickups based on questions that you answer. I'm a fan of the '59 and it does rock great so look into that option.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup-selector-step-1

Also, you may want to try just a single pickup in the bridge to see if you can hear a difference and then you can decide if you want to change the other pickups. If you don't use the middle single coil pickup then no need to upgrade.

[blue]

As a long time player, I can assure you won't be happy with the result. Oh sure... You'll be Happy, but the incremental sound difference won't blow your socks off. I speak from 40 years experience now.

Spend the money you would have spent buying a couple used "clean boosts" or Rangemaster clones on Ebay, and keep the one you like and sell the one you don't. The change, and likely improvement in sound will be miles ahead of what any pickup can do.

[Br1ck]

Or, you might have more chance of getting a tone you like by taking the neck and middle pickup out and replace the bridge with a Duncan 59 or Seth Lover, and I'm only being half tongue in cheek.

Then save for a telecaster.