What Pickup For Swamp Ash Strat w Roasted Maple Neck ?

[PDC]

Swamp ash can be finicky. Basically the opposite of dense, heavy Northern Hard Ash, I find Swamp ash to be light and open with lots of resonance. Where a low output, A2 mag pickup will sound great in a more dense, heavy body like a decent piece of alder or certainly Northern ash - low output A2 pickups can sound a little undefined in lightweight Swamp ash. (No chugga chugga…). I’ve got 2 Warmoth builds in my stable right now: Roasted Swamp Ash and Alder. I found the Alder sounds best with low to medium output A2 mag pickups. By contrast, my Roasted Swamp Ash build sounds best with a ceramic mag, warmer wind pickup - helps to tighten up the low end and give the guitar a bit more authority.

 

[Ben Waylin]

Swamp ash can be finicky. Basically the opposite of dense, heavy Northern Hard Ash, I find Swamp ash to be light and open with lots of resonance. Where a low output, A2 mag pickup will sound great in a more dense, heavy body like a decent piece of alder or certainly Northern ash - low output A@ pickups can sound a little undefined in lightweight Swamp ash. (No chugga chugga…). I’ve got 2 Warmoth builds in my stable right now: Roasted Swamp Ash and Alder. I found the Alder sounds best with low to medium output A2 mag pickups. By contrast, my Roasted Swamp Ash build sounds best with a ceramic mag, warmer wind pickup - helps to tighten up the low end and give the guitar a bit more authority.

Going to try the two 59/Hybrids 11.2kΩ, then the HighOrder 8.8kΩ asymmetric wind.

You never know for sure what pickup is right for that guitar, until you bolt the neck on and string it up.

 

[mentoneman]

Luxtone Choppa S is typically a swamp ash body
https://www.infinityguitars.com/store/p1413/Luxxtone_Choppa_S.html

and uses their in house pickups that sound pre-tty darn great in a certain someone’s hands:



he ran the gamut of great strat tones on that one! i swear his demos are songs i would love compiled to a album-CD (or whatever it’s called these days!) that i’d buy and listen to all day every day!!!

 

[PDC]

Going to try the two 59/Hybrids 11.2kΩ, then the HighOrder 8.8kΩ asymmetric wind.

You never know for sure what pickup is right for that guitar, until you bolt the neck on and string it up.

1,000%. There are combos that you know sound good 9+ out of ten times but for whatever reason it just doesn’t work with your specific guitar. Then you’ll hear a clip of someone getting great sounds with a combo that on paper really shouldn’t work that well (!) I am convinced that is at least half the fun of this hobby!

 

[Ben Waylin]

Luxtone Choppa S is typically a swamp ash body
https://www.infinityguitars.com/store/p1413/Luxxtone_Choppa_S.html

and uses their in house pickups that sound pre-tty darn great in a certain someone’s hands:



he ran the gamut of great strat tones on that one! i swear his demos are songs i would love compiled to a album-CD (or whatever it’s called these days!) that i’d buy and listen to all day every day!!!

I love that guy's playing/style.

I have his demo of the Landry G3 amp in my YouTube favorites !

 

[PDC]

Yeah - I think if I could pick anybody on earth who I could play like for just one day, it would be Doug Rappoport.
I’d record every second and play till I couldn’t play another note.

 

[mentoneman]

I love that guy's playing/style.

I have his demo of the Landry G3 amp in my YouTube favorites !

he is truly incredible.

not only is he just the best guy for blues rock fusion guitar product demos because he perform perfect tracks knowing how to showcase the strengths (chords and solo note sustain and response, clean to dirty dynamics, string to string articulation, chug) letting that speak for itself without having to yammer one peep,

but his recording skills are also the best i’ve heard for keeping the general tone fat and raw sounding.

his demos are the reason i’m aware of tone specific pickups



he and Eric Gales are top dogs in my book.

 

[Dan Gleesak]

That quality comes from asymmetric coils in a humbucker.

Been a fan of offset coil winds for a long time !

Try the Zhangbucker with the splatter wind if you dig asymmetrical

 

[Ben Waylin]

Try the Zhangbucker with the splatter wind if you dig asymmetrical

The whole "splat" thing he does only applies to wiring the coils split, and switching to a single coil.

Tried that before.

Not a fan of that sound.

 

[Dan Gleesak]

The whole "splat" thing he does only applies to wiring the coils split, and switching to a single coil.

Tried that before.

Not a fan of that sound.

But in humbucker mode it makes them asymmetrical

 

[Techdeth]

Am I weird that I never liked fuvking with pick ups

 

[Ben Waylin]

Am I weird that I never liked fuvking with pick ups

Glenn Fricker says they don't even matter.

 

[Techdeth]

Glenn Fricker says they don't even matter.

They matter but I’m mostly ok with a few I like . I must admit my student has $99 epipjone and running it through hermansins and wizards you can’t tell it’s a $5 pickup . It was impressive fr

 

[Ben Waylin]

They matter but I’m mostly ok with a few I like . I must admit my student has $99 epipjone and running it through hermansins and wizards you can’t tell it’s a $5 pickup . It was impressive fr

I went through 4 humbuckers (including magnet swaps) in my Dean ML before I settled on the Jalen "Fair Warning".

There's a perfect pickup for every guitar.. you just gotta find it.

 

[Techdeth]

I went through 4 humbuckers (including magnet swaps) in my Dean ML before I settled on the Jalen "Fair Warning".

There's a perfect pickup for every guitar.. you just gotta find it.

That’s what works !

 

[harddriver]

It will depend on that you want out of that guitar really. Rock, Metal, Dime , Nuno, VH.

You got low output PAF 7-8K higher output PAF 8.5-9.5K, 10K-14K higher output ala Duncan Custom then the super high outputs 15K-20K, like the Suhr Aldrich, Duncan Black Winters and the JB's.

I always wanted to try the MCP Detroiter. Something in the higher output PAF the Arcane Triple clone catches my ears as he trained under Tom Holmes the PAF guy.

As far as I know Swamp Ash is not as bright as Northern Ash more in line with Alder I think. You're going to have to start with pickups you think you will like and then start swapping them in and out until you get one you like that jives with you and the guitar. It really is hard to say which pickup works until you actually play it.

If you want something cheap that kind of straddles the line between PAF and high output look into the Seymour Duncan SH-6N, its now a 12-13K neck pickup used in the Distortion pickup sets. It used to be Seymour's hot pickup called the Seymourizer II before he came out with the Custom at 14K ohms. I find the Custom to have a bit too much mids push/compression for my liking. For me anything 10k-13K range is a litte more PAF balanced but still has more output and that 10-13K range seems to do alot of things well. Of course Ohm resistance values is just a starting point to find a pickup you like, that is another journey in itself.

 

[harddriver]

Luxtone Choppa S is typically a swamp ash body
https://www.infinityguitars.com/store/p1413/Luxxtone_Choppa_S.html

and uses their in house pickups that sound pre-tty darn great in a certain someone’s hands:



he ran the gamut of great strat tones on that one! i swear his demos are songs i would love compiled to a album-CD (or whatever it’s called these days!) that i’d buy and listen to all day every day!!!

Doesn't Arcane build all of Luxxtone's pickups?

 

[harddriver]

Glenn Fricker says they don't even matter.

We all know that's not true.....................................unless you are deaf of course then it is true.

 

[mentoneman]

Doesn't Arcane build all of Luxxtone's pickups?

that would make perfect sense and i think i remember hearing that too, although the gtr specs don’t call out arcane by name.

 

[Ben Waylin]

If I don't like the HighOrder or either of my two 59/Custom Hybrids, I'll order a BK Nailbomb.

That's been the most recommended to me so far.