Change pickups or guitar?

  • Hello everyone


    I bought a new guitar Jackson PRO Misha Mansoor Juggernaut HT6QM, Chlorine Burst, but I can still send it back for a few shipping cash and get my money back. But I like the guitar except of its weight, but I don't like the pickups. And I thought hey I could change them. but I actually don't know witch pickup will satisfy me really... what I know they should be passive high output humbuckers (the original one are humbuckers too) for rock and metal from the producer Seymour Ducan or DiMarzio. But there are alot of diffrent types with that specs.

    And I need new potentio meters aswell? is that correct?


    So what should I do? try the first time in my life to change the pickups? or send the guitar back that I searched for a long time to find a good guitar that I like...


    thanks for your opinion!


    Cheers, Marc

  • I have some cheapo guitars and I´ve changed everything (from tuners to pickups) except the wooden parts, and it`s not "rocket science".

    But I would not advice to "learn" the soldering part on a more pricey guitar. You should know what you do, to not be hopping mad at least.

    You should keep in mind, there are often very tight (narrow?) spaces to do so.

    If you do not know what pickups, you should maybe send it back, for not to be pressed for time and spend some time in a guitar shop for testing Guitars/pickups you like (and also spend some time with soldering, if never done before),

    You can buy it again, when you have the right ones in mind!?

    This is just MY thoughts depending on my experiences, I would do it this way.

  • what I know they should be passive high output humbuckers (the original one are humbuckers too) for rock and metal from the producer Seymour Ducan or DiMarzio

    For rock and metal you can start your search from Seymour Duncan sets JB/Jazz, JB/59, and Distortion. The first two are the most popular and versatile sets (blues, jazz, rock, metal). I love cleans and crunch on both Jazz and 59 (neck) and distorted on JB (bridge). Haven't tried Distortion models, but they must suit better for metal and less for lighter genres.

    Those pickups could be your starting point. Google for DiMarzio alternatives to those Seymour Duncan sets. Then you can try guitars with those pickups in a music store. You can aim for X and Pro model Jacksons with passive humbuckers for JB/59 and Distortion, and Ibanezes for DiMarzio pickups.


    And I need new potentio meters aswell? is that correct?

    I don't think that would be a problem for you, as for passive humbuckers same kind of potentiometers are generally used – 500K. So check if your guitar have those.


    So what should I do? try the first time in my life to change the pickups? or send the guitar back that I searched for a long time to find a good guitar that I like...

    I would try new pickups, because it is easier to change sound of the guitar than ergonomics (in terms of neck and body) or looks.

  • What don’t you like about the pick ups? One thing to keep in mind – the pick ups may just need to be adjusted. If you have too much low end, lower the bass side of the pick ups. The same with too much high end. If you don’t have enough high end, raise the pick ups closer to the strings on the treble side. If the pick ups have too much gain, Lower the pick ups farther away from the strings, and then adjust the bass and treble side height to get the tone you want. If they don’t have enough gain, raise the pick ups, and then fine-tune the treble and bass.

  • What don’t you like about the pick ups? One thing to keep in mind – the pick ups may just need to be adjusted. If you have too much low end, lower the bass side of the pick ups. The same with too much high end. If you don’t have enough high end, raise the pick ups closer to the strings on the treble side. If the pick ups have too much gain, Lower the pick ups farther away from the strings, and then adjust the bass and treble side height to get the tone you want. If they don’t have enough gain, raise the pick ups, and then fine-tune the treble and bass.

    I totally agree. Do you like the sound of the guitar unplugged? That's the first thing to check with a guitar. If you don't like it it won't matter what pickups you choose. You will never be satisfied. Send it back. If you however like it and you have done everything you can with the pickups like paults here said, swap them out to something else. High gain pickups to look up are those already mentioned like jb or sh-6(distortion). The sh-6 is the same as the jb. The only difference is that the jb is alnico and the distortion is ceramic. Dimarzio D Activator, D Activator X, Titan, Crunchlab, Lundgren M6, Bareknuckle Aftermath and a few other Bareknucle pickups. Well there are a few other good high gain pickups. The thing is no one can tell you if you will like this or that one specific pickup. One pickup may sound killer in one guitar and in another meh! I went thru like 5 or 6 pickups in one of my guitars until I found the right one. I'm not saying that will be the case for you but don't be surprised if that happen to you too. But look out for used pickups to save money and if you don't like them, sell them for the same price and try other pickups. Soldering is not that difficult but if you won't want to you probably know someone else who is competent enough to do that. Anyway good look with the eternal hunt for the perfect tone. It's a neverever ending quest.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Messing with pickups is definitely not guaranteed success and more often than not, will only bring marginal differences. This market has become ridiculous with all these crazy names out of Greek mythology with statistics and buzzwords used as marketing hype to something which is really just a pair of magnets and some wire of different lenght around it.


    See if you can tweak it closer/further from the strings according to your liking and if not, the problem is likely not the pickups. If so, I'd suggest to exchange the guitar for something else.

  • Can you tell us, what is wrong with the pickups? I don't know the specific pu in this guitar (ceramic high output I guess?), but in my experience the cheaper Jackson humbuckers are quite good. I can't belief they made muddy pickups or totally screwed it up for this guitar.


    What exactly are you missing?


    Cause I don't know if you get so much better/different tone with other high output pu, compared to a proper setup or only changing pots to different (measured!) values.


    Of course there are options out there, if you have an exact idea what you want to improve / achieve. But if you have no experience yet and are not willing testing out and comparing a bunch of pickups in your guitar - you are hoping for a lucky hit.

  • As many said, you should start with adjusting pickups height to hear if it changes something for you.


    I’ve changed PU of three guitars. I’ve done it on a Fender Strat and a gibson first. In fact, even if i'm pretty sure it has improved things when i did it, i can’t tell if it was a revolution as they weren’t guitars i used to play frequently.

    The last one was a michael Kelly patriot (my avatar) with the cheapest factory PU (Rockfield SWC, Zebra Colored), there are other better versions with seymour P-Rail or bare knuckles but i haven’t the choice ‘cause a used one (and this guitar is really hard to find here).

    I really didn’t like these PU. I’ve decided to buy as before a set to a man who made them himself with american parts. I’ve decided to keep the pull function for the split HB. I took a pair of humbuckers Alnico 4. In short, it was night and day !!!! The guitar was transformed. I really love it now.


    Beyond that, even if it improves the sound, it’s hard to give advices. It depends on what you like, the music you play, etc..... There are so many kinds of PU (even in passive form) and taste in nature, that we can not oriented you to a specific PU model


    My last acquisition is a Charvel DK24 and i feel that the PU are gonna changed too :);)

  • Are they the Jackson pickups or his signature bare knuckle pickups? Do you want to sound like Misha or just like the look of the guitar?


    In my opinion the biggest impact on sound in priority order are:

    Fingers and technique

    Amp

    Pickups

    Guitar ( wood, Floyd etc)


    Pickups have a reasonable impact on sound but most good quality pickups sound pretty good. As mentioned, setting them is a big factor..therefore so many factors here that just changing the pickups might solve your problem or might not...

  • What don’t you like about the pick ups? One thing to keep in mind – the pick ups may just need to be adjusted. If you have too much low end, lower the bass side of the pick ups. The same with too much high end. If you don’t have enough high end, raise the pick ups closer to the strings on the treble side. If the pick ups have too much gain, Lower the pick ups farther away from the strings, and then adjust the bass and treble side height to get the tone you want. If they don’t have enough gain, raise the pick ups, and then fine-tune the treble and bass.

    Is it really that simple? I get more gain when I rise the pickups?

  • I didn't changed the height of the pickups yet, but they have to less output or gain. If I choose amps on my kemper where it sounds good its always 9 or 10 GAIN amp's and even then it sounds not very distorted

  • I didn't changed the height of the pickups yet, but they have to less output or gain. If I choose amps on my kemper where it sounds good its always 9 or 10 GAIN amp's and even then it sounds not very distorted


    Use distortion sens for that if it's not enough gain on profiles. For me it's the opposite. To much gain on most high gain profiles so I have to lower the distortion sens.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • one question if I lift the pick up i get more attack or gain but I lose sustain? But I'm a fan of both, high gain and sustain

    You will loose a tad sustain. How often does sustain acually matter? Guitarists love to talk about sustain but how often does it really matter?

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • The closer the pickups, the more gain generated. If you raise them too high though and the magnets in the pickups will interfere with the string vibration. Look it up on internet for the optimum height...

    There's no such thing as optimum height. Only different taste. It's like guitar brands recommended action height. Doesn't work for everyone and not everyone use 09-42 string gauge and play in E standard.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • I don't agree. True its not a singular value but beyond a certain height ( which varies slightly with pickup magnet strength and string gauge) will interfere with the strings ( which you could say some people might like but its pushing it to say that's a viable choice) and too low you do not get the "expected" pickup output.


    Given the OP wasn't aware of this I was trying to keep it simple by advising there are limits.