Let's have a little discussion about pickups.

[ontariomaximus]

I have come to the conclusion that pickups are very important in the Trainwreck equation.

I just played one of my Express clones with a Strat that had 3 Jackson J-200 stacked single coils. Low output, but maybe the best pickups I've heard into an Express. The were 2 other strats in the room had 1 with Bill Lawrence Keystones and1 with Duncan Designed. Both meh.

I'd love to hear what pickups float your boat.

[bluesfreak]

No Trainwreck played yet (bur currently sourcing parts for a Express build) but as you asked :
3 Strats, one with 57/62 Set and the others with custom wound Staufer Blues Pickups (a german luthier), 1 Les Paul Deluxe with handwound Zhangbuckers, Joe Perry Boneyard with custom wound Zhangbuckers and a Les Paul with WCR Darkbursts... as you can see a lot of low output pickups and they are mainly played thru a JTM45 Clone and a Marshall Vintage Modern

[Gruffnutz]

I don't rate high output pickups into 'wrecks either. They don't need it.

All my fav pickups are wound by Mick Brierley, http://www.brierleyguitarpickups.com.au/ .

I particularly like my Bias Buckers, kinda like a Fralin Unbucker but wound to my specific design, but Mick can build anything you desire. His single coils rock too.

[Zippy]

Word is that Ken preferred single coil pickups.

[Cliff Schecht]

I mostly play a '52 Tele Vintage Reissue with (I think) the American Vintage series pickups through my Express. The range of tones I can get with just this guitar and amp setup is great, anything from country to blues and even metal are possible without any extra pedals. The only time I find myself wanting more is when I need notes to sustain longer but the Express takes overdrive pedals very well I find.

I also have an 80's American Standard series Strat (has the "modern" 2 point bridge) with a SD Little '59 in the bridge that also can get a nice range of tones. Being that the bridge pickup is hotter than stock, I find this guitar really makes the Express scream without the need for extra pedals. The neck pickup sounds similar to the Tele which is great for a creamier lead tone but the SD bridge pickup makes this amp a whole different beast, like switching from a Fender-->6L6 amp to a Gibson-->El34 style setup.

I still haven't tried the 'Wreck with my ES335 though. This guitar has a SD Jazz in the neck and a '59 in the bridge (I think, I didn't do this pickup change) and has, as one would expect, a much mellower tone than my maple fretboard Strat or Tele. I will try this within the next few days and report back my findings.

Hot pickups (like the Bill Lawrence X500XL in my Charvel) don't do the Express justice IMO. By the time you've backed down the volume enough on the guitar to get the amp to clean up, you've also lost all of your treble (I don't like treble bleed caps). The distortion sounds great and can cut through the mix like none other but I need versatility and hot pickups seem to kill this amps dynamic range.

Also, I'm curious what others think of Trainwrecks with active pickups. I got away from active pickups after my Bassman reissue and Ibanez super-Strat w/ EMG's got stolen but I bet the sound will reveal the shortcomings of EMG pickups (bland sounding and a LOT OF SIGNAL).

[redshark]

I think this topic is very important when playing TW or TW inspired builds.

This is the second time that I've heard that Ken preferred single coils. That is true, I was told that by a very close friend of him also.
Probably he liked them because using single coil pickups you can get the most dynamics with a TW or TW inspired amps. Also here is important to know something Glen mentioned before, single coil pickups use mostly 250k pots and Glen said that he feels that 250k pots current production have much better taper than 500k(new) asociated with humbuckers. In his opinion this 500k are not done as they used to (he uses old centralab 500k).
My experience with my own clone is this. Humbuckers less than 8k are good, low gain P-90's are fab and I think single coils are ok if the pickups are well built. I used to own a Nash strat with Lollars but I don't have it anymore and I wish I did to use with my express.
LP Jr with a single Lollar low gain p-90 is great with the express!! I get from funky clean to almost metallica high gain, great sustain.
Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers (7.2-8.1k) sound very good, I have those pickups in my Heritage H-535. I wish it had 50's wiring and better pots. Cleans really well in both pickups.
My LP sounds good, it has WCR crossroads in the neck 7.8k and a darkburst 8.7 in the bridge with 50's wiring. I have problems cleaning the sound of the darkburst, crossroads cleans good with the tone control rolled down but definitely the bridge is a rock pickup.
I'm thinking of trying Fralin pure PAF with my LP 7.5 and 8k with weaked A2 magnets. That will probably give my LP a bigger headroom.

[racerx23]

Yep + 1 for Mick Brierley's pickups I received my ''first'' set and installed them into my Edwards Les Paul....they sound fantastic.
I will be getting more as I have 6 other guitars.
some others I know have up to 15 sets of these pickups.

Regards, Craig.

[geetarpicker]

Fralin vintage hot strat pickups are what work for me, and I've been using them almost as long as my '89 Express. I also run the steel plate on the bottom of the bridge pickup. I seem to recall Ken also liking these pickups and mentioned in some article they were a good match with his amps. Still, I know he was definately a P-90 fan also. I find PAF humbuckers are low output enough to get a nice clean with a wreck without any need for treble bleed caps of any type, and yes the trick though is to find 500k pots that don't come on too quickly. Even the original centralabs will come on a bit quicker than say a single coil guitar with 250ks but at least it's workable.

[dartanion]

+1000 on Mick's pups. I had him wind me some 50s style tele pups that are awesome with Wrecks. I highly recommend his stuff.

P90s are also fantastic with Wrecks. The good old Gibby P90s are pure magic, and even overwound modern examples mate well.

[breakfastbuddy]

i dont like any singel coil and i dont like fender . to get a gibson with a humbukker soud good should be no problem if you decrease your drop resistor to something under 150 k maybe as low as 56k .
if you play differnt guitars you can use a pot or a switch . to make more like a Komet you can put in a choke in the power line .

[jaysg]

Assuming passive pickups, can we expand this to wiring approaches? I've got a Les Paul like guitar with Duncan 59 neck & JB bridge. The volume pots are wired Norlin era, but with bypass caps. Ignoring the TW issue, that's a very good setup, ime. Would I see improvement with 50's wiring and no bypass caps?

[redshark]

I think that will be an improvement, specially playing a wreck the 50's wiring has a critical impact on cleaning pickups when rolling tone down. Ignoring the TW issue still will be an improvement by no losing too much high end when rolling volume down.
Talking about P-90's I find modern production Gibson P-90's not as good as the old ones. New ones are very hot, with not much clarity. That is why I decided to change for the Lollar low wind P-90 and it was a clear improvement in the sound. Still the Gibson don't sound bad and I think it would sound great playing punk music, is punchy and bold but not very dynamic.

[geetarpicker]

The cool thing about the 50s wiring your tone knobs then act as slight mid scoop controls, before going full mud in the highs when dimed. Along with a mid scoop your tone controls will ALSO pull the volume down a tad when working them if you already have the volumes backed off. It's a nice interaction that can be used as an advantage once you get used to it, as opposed to the more linear function of the modern control wiring schemes. Anyway the 50s wiring will help to get more variety of tones from a Wreck IMHO.

I specifically demonstrate it in this video. I'm running no treble bleed caps here. I've noticed both on the old LP and reissue with the same 50s wiring and same type pots that the guitar get's a little darker when first rolled down, but if you go lower still it then brightens back up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc3Xi6aAG80

[azatplayer]

Micks pickups here too. Tried a B90 ina a humbucker guitar, awesome tones.
Hell of a nice Bloke too. http://www.brierleyguitarpickups.com.au/

[stompjunkie]

I'm still waiting on the extra cash to start my express build, but with my current setup I love Budz Pickups for single coils. I've used his strat, tele, and p-90's and they all seem to just do it for me. I've been through alot of pickups before, but for singles I really dig his.

Most of my humbucker guitars have wolfetone pickups fwiw.... but with all this talk of Brierley I'm going to have to check out his stuff.....