What pickups for an all-koa guitar?

Jbird

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Keeping in mind that I play '70s & '80s hard rock, and '80s style heavy metal.

Koa seems to be a bit darker tone than a mahogany or alder-bodied guitar, at least unplugged. And I now own 3 all-koa electrics, so I should know :embarrassed:

Thinking about replacing the pickups in this:


As they seem a bit on the weak side for my tastes.

If I wanted to keep the Carvin look, I could put a Carvin M22SD in there (Carvin's version of the DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup) and maybe keep the neck pickup stock. My all-koa V220 has an M22SD in the bridge, and it sounds killer. No weak tone there at all.

I've also been thinking of the Seymour Duncan '59 and JB combo for it. I put that set in the A*g*i*l*e LP copy I used to own, and they sounded great in that guitar (still do, my buddy Paul owns that guitar now).


What say you guys? @dougk ? What do you think?

As long as they have the connectors to hook up the coil tap and in/out phase mini switches. I like to use those on occasion :embarrassed:
 
Duncan JB in the bridge and then 59 or Jazz in the neck depending on how warm or crisp you like your cleans.


Nicole covers.

Seriously, any other choice will either be more expensive or not sound as good.
 
I think that is a beautiful piece of wood...

I also think that any "PAF" equivalent would likely sound good in that. The best-sounding I've ever played are Gibson 57 classic plus.
 
59/JB would be my stock response. At least if you like the JB. It has a big midrange hump that not everybody gets along with.
 
baimun said:
Duncan JB in the bridge and then 59 or Jazz in the neck depending on how warm or crisp you like your cleans.


Nicole covers.

Seriously, any other choice will either be more expensive or not sound as good.
Click to expand...
You'd put covers on them?

I *think* to put a replacement pickup with a cover on it in these old Carvins you usually have to take just a little bit of wood out of the cavity to get the pickup cover to fit on there.

I kinda like seeing the bobbins, for this style of guitar. But I probably can't get a cream JB & '59 due to the DiMarzio trademark, aye?
 
jp_nyc said:
59/JB would be my stock response. At least if you like the JB. It has a big midrange hump that not everybody gets along with.
Click to expand...
I liked it in that A*g*i*l*e I had. And the Carvin M22SD pickup is a similar, heavy on the midrange pickup, and I think it sounds fantastic in my V220.
 
baimun said:
Duncan JB in the bridge and then 59 or Jazz in the neck depending on how warm or crisp you like your cleans.


Nicole covers.

Seriously, any other choice will either be more expensive or not sound as good.
Click to expand...
Nicole covers sound a little slutty to me :embarrassed:
 
Jbird said:
Keeping in mind that I play '70s & '80s hard rock, and '80s style heavy metal.

Koa seems to be a bit darker tone than a mahogany or alder-bodied guitar, at least unplugged. And I now own 3 all-koa electrics, so I should know :embarrassed:

Thinking about replacing the pickups in this:


As they seem a bit on the weak side for my tastes.

If I wanted to keep the Carvin look, I could put a Carvin M22SD in there (Carvin's version of the DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup) and maybe keep the neck pickup stock. My all-koa V220 has an M22SD in the bridge, and it sounds killer. No weak tone there at all.

As long as they have the connectors to hook up the coil tap and in/out phase mini switches. I like to use those on occasion :embarrassed:
Click to expand...

My suggestion would be the M22SD (the standard "T" model M22 is, I agree, a bit weak). I think it's a properly raucous, killer bridge pickup that's one of the best, coil tapped, that I've heard. I'm not sure about the comparison to the Super Distortion, however. I have a DiMarzio Super Distortion in an Agile AL2000 Floyd (that particular Agile is my latest), and the jury is still out on it. I've got other things to do with the guitar (a previous owner installed a Sustainer), and at some point I'll make a decision on that pickup. Perhaps it will sound different after I swap out the existing Floydalike and add the big sustain block on the replacement.

But I have two DC-150s like yours (mine are neck-through versions done *just* before they discontinued them), one in solid maple with an M22SD in the bridge and the Carvin active preamp, one in solid koa with a quilted maple cap (and an H-S-H pickup configuration). I've also got an old version V220 (maple) with an M22SD bridge pickup (and a Kahler) and a solid-koa reissue (C22 series pickups in that one), and a one-off neck-through DC145 from 1991 with the LS-175 neck (25.5", 22 fret) that's solid koa. I don't know what came stock in that one, but it's got C22 series pickups at this point. I really don't find koa to be darker than mahogany, but I have no alder guitars to compare to.

I'm not a huge fan of the JB and Jazz pickups, but I don't find them offensive, either. They're a decent middle-of-the-road no-harm-done recommendation.

One bridge pickup I think you'd really enjoy, however, is the Suhr Aldrich. It's not as hot as its coil resistance figures would suggest (and I think that Suhr makes that clear). I'm not a fan of the neck version, so I wouldn't suggest a "set," but the bridge version is absolutely killer for the kind of music you want to do. http://www.suhr.com/suhr-guitar-pickups/aldrich-pickups/
 
Regarding the music you play @Jbird, chose from the following:

Bridge
1) Duncan JB
2) DiMarzio Super Distortion

Neck
1) Duncan Jazz or Duncan 59
2) DiMarzio PAF
 
Jbird said:
You'd put covers on them?

I *think* to put a replacement pickup with a cover on it in these old Carvins you usually have to take just a little bit of wood out of the cavity to get the pickup cover to fit on there.

I kinda like seeing the bobbins, for this style of guitar. But I probably can't get a cream JB & '59 due to the DiMarzio trademark, aye?
Click to expand...

You can get cream/cream through the custom shop, but that defeats the purpose of putting an affordable, period accurate, pickup in a vintage guitar.

I don't recall the vintage Carvin pickup holes as being "that" tight.... if they are, we're talking a little sandpaper in the upper and lower parts of the pickup route... not getting out power tools.
 
230327-body-large.jpg
 
Jbird said:
You'd put covers on them?

I *think* to put a replacement pickup with a cover on it in these old Carvins you usually have to take just a little bit of wood out of the cavity to get the pickup cover to fit on there.

I kinda like seeing the bobbins, for this style of guitar. But I probably can't get a cream JB & '59 due to the DiMarzio trademark, aye?
Click to expand...

No to covers!!! Read my reply to baimun on creme SD's

baimun said:
You can get cream/cream through the custom shop, but that defeats the purpose of putting an affordable, period accurate, pickup in a vintage guitar.

I don't recall the vintage Carvin pickup holes as being "that" tight.... if they are, we're talking a little sandpaper in the upper and lower parts of the pickup route... not getting out power tools.
Click to expand...

On my last 2 Namm visits to the Duncan booth, the don't do the creme as a custom shop anymore. Those custom shops used come with covers to hide the creme color when sold and as the booth said, all due to the DiMarzio trademark. Now if a shop can somehow finagle that, cool. I have one creme colored pickup from the era when they were offering the custom shop product. The booths advice was to buy two opposite zebra pickups and swap the coils. Unfortunately you will need to sell the black one if you don't use it.
 
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Modern Saint said:
No to covers!!! Read my reply to baimun on creme SD's



On my last 2 Namm visits to the Duncan booth, the don't do the creme as a custom shop anymore. Those custom shops used come with covers to hide the creme color when sold and as the booth said, all due to the DiMarzio patent. Now if a shop can somehow finagle that, cool. I have one creme colored pickup from the era when they were offering the custom shop product. The booths advice was to buy two opposite zebra pickups and swap the coils. Unfortunately you will need to sell the black one if you don't use it.
Click to expand...
Dimarzio trademark, not patent. :embarrassed:
 
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